Off the Wall was one of my favourite albums. Of course Thriller and Bad were up there, and they have some of my favourite MJ songs (“Man in the Mirror” would probably win the sweeps if I had to choose), but if you wanted me to tell you which one gave me the most joy, it’d be Off the Wall. It was the last one which had Michael Jackson looking the way God intended him to look — like a damn cute black boy.
Of course, when “Billie Jean” hit the charts, and Michael moonwalked across the stage, like virtually every other woman of colour that I knew (and men too), I leaped out of my seat and squealed. When he released the “Thriller” video and the world fell for this cute black boy, we moonwalked across our floors.
The whiter Michael got the further he got from me and from my friends. The more he assimilated, for whatever reason, the closer he came to yesterday. By the time his hair caught on fire on the Pepsi shoot, we’d determined that Michael, the Michael Jackson we’d grown up with, the singer of “Ben” and “Got to Be There” and “She’s Out of My Life”, was dead. All that was left was the clone.
But here’s to Michael — to all the Michaels that he ever was — the greatest performer I’ve ever seen.
And I don’t do starstruck.
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Nico,
I was thinking the same thing – that Off The Wall is my favorite because at that time he still looked like the MJ I knew from childhood. Like millions of others he was my childhood idol, my teen idol and the one celebrity I claimed as my own.
Was pointed in the direction of this post by Calnan. While I can appreciate the old “black” Michael I still think the tabloid fodder Michael gave us gems of complete brilliance.
Just looking at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC1TTz2bMmM
Shows his ability to complete entertain was still there in 1992.
Not to mention this performance where it completely changed SuperBowl Halftime forever and quite frankly has never been topped:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HbTjFn7KjE
I love Off the Wall, but from a musical standpoint the man simply never disappointed me and from an entertainment standpoint I dont think he ever lost it until yesterday when he simply was no longer alive to even do it.
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