Im glad my children will only grow up with MJ's music

[Lorax7844]

I'm a child of the 80's, old enough to gave seen the Jackson 5 cartoon and then Thriller and then the sad, long tragic decline.

My kids will only know that he was a great musician and dancer with a fucked up life. They'll be removed from the awfulness that was his later life.

I know people here are fucking sick and tired of Michael Jackson threads but for those that are gen Xers this one really hits home about our own mortality. Coping with the death of someone who used to be a hero, a legend. It's another example of someone with a pure god given talent being used up and spit out by the industry, the MSM, and life. I never thought I would be so sad about this. Until the second he was pronounced dead even I was like just let him be done. Now I feel terrible for the horrible things I said about him.

Was he a pedophile? I don't know. To be honest I don't care. This is coming from someone who was molested by a family member. Only once, thank god, but still. What's worse someone like Dick Cheney who is just pure evil or a man that was so sad and twisted and so desperate for love that he may have done unspeakable things?

All that is left is the music and the relief that he is out of his misery and he won't get any worse.

Rest in Peace Michael Jackson. I'm sorry that no one ever loved you properly. I'm sorry that you were a joke to me and everyone. I dearly wish that someone had given you the love you so desperately craved for. I wish that I could go back in time and hugged the beautiful little boy and told him how wonderful he was, and how he was a gift. How his voice raised so many of us up, made so many of us dream big.

There will never be another like him.

I'm sorry if you cynical bastards on the internet are sick of hearing about this. This should be a lesson to us all.

I've been showing my children his videos and they LOVE them. They dance around the room and go nuts. They experience nothing but the joy that his music brings. I hope that kids from here on out are able to feel that way.

Rest in Peace Michael Jackson, you deserve it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSqo17o2a1w

[Suich]

1. I'm with you.

When I heard he had died, my first thought was that he had finally found peace.

[EFerrari]

2. Have you seen this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYx3BR2aJA4

[Lorax7844]

4. we've watched all the greatest hits and I can't wait until I have a few cd's

for the car. We're gonna rock it.

[sandnsea]

5. Check out this one

I think the music is annoying as hell, but the dancing, I had forgotten some of these dances. Damn. Look at this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8eyCc6N9Hw

[Lorax7844]

6. Awesome. It really doesn't get any better than that.

[EFerrari]

7. We'll never see anything like that again.

[jaxx]

8. WoW

The man had his music throughout his whole body when he entertained.

[tblue37]

25. He was, of course, a marvelous little singer, but watching that

little child, no more than maybe nine years old in that video, singing, "Shake it shake it, baby! Come on , girl!" and "Let me teach you!" reminds me of how incongruous it seemed to me at the time. In that video, he is bopping around to the music, but not really doing any MJ dance moves, so it's easier to focus on the song and the fact that a little boy is singing it. (When he danced, it was harder to keep that in mind.)

[goclark]

26. Excellent video ~ as a former elementary

school teacher -- the song in like Jingle Bells and the performance was superb.

I've always been caught up in the beat of that song and not the words.

Lyrics are fantastic and the message is universal.

[HughMoran]

28. We were so sweet and innocent back then

He was only 3 years older than me - then as now. I was a huge Motown fan - then and now :)

[suffragette]

34. Had the 45 of that

back in the day.

Two more from then:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ec3q_the-jackson-5-i-want-you-back_music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUHWu_hkMRE

[sandnsea]

3. "I Want You Back" was in 1969

We all grew up with Michael. My mother and aunts adored him, and they lived into their 70's and 80s and are dead now. White women from Missouri.

Some people love to tear them down, and only love those who join in the tearing down. Accepting that nothing can be done to change them is one of the hardest things there is.

[Lorax7844]

10. I like the other STFU thread on MJ

I also grew up in the south and he really was the only acceptable "black singer" around here. That thread is so true.

[sandnsea]

11. I grew up in California

My parents and relatives all grew up in Missouri though. I was pretty lucky that most of then worked at putting the learned racism behind them. Michael Jackson helped immensely, no question.

[EFerrari]

12. I grew up in California, too, and although the overt racism

wasn't a feature here, every town I lived in was segregated until sometime during the early 70s. In San Francisco, black people lived in the Fillmore and in Hunter's Point. In Sunnyvale, the two black families lived literally on the other side of the tracks near where the Latinos lived. There was exactly 1 black student in my high school.

[sandnsea]

13. I grew up in Fresno, in the 60s

Now you're thinking, whoa, redneck.

My neighborhood was integrated. A gay man next door. A mixed-raced Korean/White couple kitty-corner and I was best friends with their daughter. Across the street was a Japanese-AA couple. Several Mexican families. Mormons, Catholic, Baptists, you name it. The west side of Fresno was mostly black, I don't think there was an all white or all Mexican section. I went to school with all races, Chinese, Armenian, Mexican, all kinds of people. I think I must have had a unique experience.

Makes me sad when I think of what Fresno has become.

[EFerrari]

14. Wow. I had no idea there was that kind of diversity there. n/t

[Lorax7844]

16. I feel proud to have grown up in a town were the racial break down was 50% black/50% white

i don't think too many people in the country get to experience that. Fresno sounds awesome, I hope my kids get to experience that.

I posted in the other MJ thread that people just don't understand what MJ meant, for so many here in the 80's, he was the only acceptable black person to listen to. They don't get it.

To restate what I said before, he was special and until his death even I didn't realize it. I regret it, hopefully for the rest of my life, I won't make that mistake again.

Especially for someone who always felt like an outsider, I feel so bad that until his death I never appreciated how much of an outsider MJ was.

[EFerrari]

17. My extended family all lived nearby and while we didn't socialize

with black people -- there weren't any -- our homes were full of their music. Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, Ella, Louis, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, CAB CALLOWAY!



LOL! So many great talents, I'm probably forgetting a bunch, too. But, we did have that, the music. It was always part of our family life.

[here_is_to_hope]

23. Sad? Fresno is the Raisin Capital of the World! lol, n/t

[Booster]

36. I went to high school in Texas and we, also, had one black student

who was elected "most popular". Everybody loved him and, thinking back, I can't imagine what went through his mind everyday of his life. That was in '59/'60, so it couldn't have been easy for him.

[EFerrari]

39. Well, Silicon Valley was behind the times because I was talking about 1972.

Wild.

[Chulanowa]

9. There's just one thing I can't completely forgive him for,

That thing is "Moonwalker"

On the other hand... Moonwalker did give us the coolest music video of all time for "Smooth Criminal" so even THAT has some redeeming value

[Bryn]

15. I used to babysit my nephew and nieces

whenever MJ came on ... on MTV they'd stop and they were spell-bounded by him. They were so cute. Nephew would try to dance and move his head left and right just like MJ did. I loved MJ's moonwalk. He certainly was a beautiful guy before multi plastic surgeries, unfortunately.

To this day I will always love Michael Jackson for his talent and for his awesome dancing. Can't say about his voice, tho since I am totally deaf, but I also was spellbounded by his dancing alone.

[EFerrari]

20. He was a brillant vocalist but I love his dancing best of all.

I could watch for hours. :hi:

[Kahuna]

21. People don't really appreciate what a brilliant vocalist he was.. If you

listen to him with some headphones, it is clear why he will do down as the best male vocalist to come along to date. And he made it all seem to effortless. I will take his singing over his dancing any day.

[goclark]

27. I would add his showmanship to the list

He knew just how to dance and sing at the same time.

I mean Really dance not just a soft shoe dance.

That takes so much skill and energy.

I am reminded of Sammy DAvis Jr. -- great singer and dancer and showman but he did not have anywhere near the energy of Michael Jackson.

[Kahuna]

31. I was fortunate enough to see the Jacksons Victory Tour in the 80s..

after the first nose job. That is a highlight of my life. Yes, Mike was a great entertainer all around, probably the greatest. But when I listen to his music, he is not dancing, he is just singing. And his vocals are as pure as they get.

Michael certainly did take the reign of the Greatest Entertainer, from Sammy. Even Sammy knew it.

[goclark]

33. Wow! I saw them one time in Orange County

I have never seen anything like it before or since.

[Kahuna]

35. As good as that Victory Tour was, the Dangerous Tour...

in the early ninties was the bomb. That one I only saw on the Live in Bucharest video. If I had a choice of which concert to see in person it would be the Dangerous Tour.

[Lilyeye]

18. Thank you for sharing this story.

I've read where a lot of people (on other boards) are saying that they have been playing his music for their young children. And the children are loving and enjoying it. Someone said in another thread that MJ will be forgotten and just another pop star....how wrong are they.

[Lorax7844]

19. They are so wrong, like Mozart MJ will be remembered

Even Paul McCartney agrees that we will listen to his music forever.

[DangerousRhythm]

22. You've summed up everything I feel about this...

Excellent post. :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. I'm with you, but, we don't have to wait so long. The young, they're

very forgiving.

I wrote this on another thread earlier in the week, but people hadn't yet reached your perspective:

Personally, I have to be semi-autistic, or possess the sensory nerves of a dinosaur because my twenty year old daughter was more immediately affected by the news than I was. As I went about folding clothes that had backed up for weeks, I noticed that my short-attention span offspring, who usually changes channels quicker than it takes to swat a gnat, never veered off CNN. She never listens to CNN, but there she was taking in all the news she could about Michael Jackson. When I walked in the room, this child who usually does not have a reason to begin conversation with her mother, looks up at me and says, "When you and dad kick it, I get the vinyl Thriller album."

I chuckled, told her the story of how I had a combined birthday party with a friend, renting out one of the Tree Houses down at Disney and we had a house full of co-workers and clients come to party with us, and I was the only one that brought music. Thrill had come out two or three years before (correction) and I had a copy. (The one that my daughter now covets). Not that these people needed much to get going since it was the scotch and gin and tonic era and they were a waspy group, ages ranging from 25 to 50. Once Thriller was put on the turntable, it never came off. I kid you not. We played that side of the album back to back for the rest of the night!

So, back to yesterday. As I'm walking around the house putting away laundry, I decided to turn on the channel on the t.v.s in each room and synchronized it to the same channel so I could follow the conversation. It finally hit me when I heard Cher on the Larry King show. It's something when Cher felt comfortable using the word "boy," when referring to Michael, at first it shocked but, but then I realized that it was appropriate because that's the age he was when she met him and that was the person that most of us first got to know. He was a boy full of optimism.

Then, like everyone else, I had seen him transform and because of it, the news of his death had barely touched me because what happened almost seemed inevitable. Just one more freak thing to happen to him, out of the many. But, when Cher started to remember him in his adolescence, it all came back to me, and the importance of his passing finally dawned on me.

When I saw my daughter again that night, I said his death finally sank in and I was sad because he represented the end of an era. She said, no, he affected more than one generation. I said, you don't understand. Michael came along during an era of peace which we had in this country, a time when most of us could enjoy what today would be termed "a wasted youth." Back then we had time to reflect about things like what we wanted to be in the future, and not what we had to become in order to make a living. We had more options back then, than you have today. Unfortunately, many of my generation made the wrong choices, but, at least, we had them. Your generation, I told her, doesn't have much room for error.

I think Michael represents, both, the good and the bad of our times.

[Karenina]

32. I so appreciate what you've posted.

He symbolizes the highest of the high and the lowest of the low.

[The Backlash Cometh]

41. Our era is very complicated.

Thank you for commenting.

[tomreedtoon]

29. Nothing wrong with mortality. Waste of talent IS a tragedy.

That quote from Braveheart: "Everybody dies. Not everybody truly lives."

Jackson had amazing talents which he used for many years. Then he lost whatever connection he had to reality and his audience, and cruised. His talents dribbled away and diminished because he lost contact with the world that actually enjoyed that talent. He lost focus, he lost relevance, he lost significance.

There are people much older than Jackson, who were gifted with much less spectacular talent - in music, acting, art, writing - who I respect much more. They kept their creative spirit alive. That's because they never lost sight of what their talent was supposed to do - enrich the lives of many people.

Jackson's obsession was to be The Biggest Star In The World, and if his life teaches anything, it's that this is not a goal anyone should consciously seek.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

30. K&R. Best post I've read on the whole thing so far

And one that more than adequately adequately sums up my feelings and emotions about the whole situation

I posted this on an excellent thread by Omega Minimo but I'm going to post it here again because I think it's relevant to this thread. I've altered it slightly
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was a child growing up in the 1980s. For me and my friends growing up, Michael Jackson represented the epitomy of "cool". We loved his songs, danced to them at our birthday parties, watched in awe at his music videos and I for one had a Michael Jackson poster in my room for the longest time. I read his autobiography when I was 11. I got a Michael Jackson CD for at least one of my birthdays and I remember how much profound respect and admiration I had for him growing up. I'd say he was probably the No. 1 music influence in my life and I think he influenced my life in other ways I can't adequately put into words. I know this sounds terribly cliched but it was honestly how I felt. To me he represented and (and still represents) many of the happy memories from my childhood. Particularly during a time when my life is not so good, he reminded me of the good times and the fun I used to have when I was younger

I always loved his music and retained a deep sense of affection for him, despite his flaws. And today it feels like a part of me has died. I feel a sense of loss and sadness that I don't usually feel for these type of news events/celebrity deaths. Throughout the last few days, I have goneYouTube and listened to a whole lot of my favorite Michael Jackson hits, even though to some extent I now find it emotionally draining to do so. I still can't believe he's gone.

I wasn't alive when either John Lennon or Elvis Presley died but I guess I'm experiencing some of the same feelings and emotions as some of their fans did. It has hit a little too close to home for me

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll add something further to my original post as well. As you can testify, his music DOES transcend generations. When he died, my Facebook page was flooded with posts from friends and relatives much younger than I am (quite a few of whom only came of age during an era where Jackson's influence had well and truly declined and he was fading from the scene) genuinely mourning and grieving for his loss and expressing their deep and profound love and appreciation for his music. And one of my friends posted that he'd taught his 3-year old nephew to dance to a Michael Jackson tune and that his nephew already loved his music at such a young age. And, like you, I know that I'll be sharing his music and videos with my young niece when she's old enough

RIP Michael Jackson. Thanks for the memories and thanks for the music. You deserve to find the peace that you never knew in life.

[Odin2005]

37. My 10yo niece loves MJs music. Yep, she dances around the room and goes nuts, too!

:rofl:

[Karenina]

38. Tanzen is Leben und Leben ist Tanzen.

[Laelth]

40. I've been playing his videos for my kids too.

I never thought I'd feel this way, either. It's very strange.

:shrug:

:dem:

-Laelth