Pop-Til-You-Drop
The Jackson 5 song ABC has always been a favourite, never failing to remind me of the times, as a younger musician, that I signed on at the Lisson Grove DHSS, where it was regularly played to remind those standing in the dole queue, that getting a job could be as "easy as 1-2-3, A-B-C...". Being a budding rock-star, I of course, didn't want a job at the time.
Beat It too holds memories, slightly fonder, of being at 6th form college, of the jukebox in the student common room there, and of the evenings I spent attempting to master Eddie Van Halen's iconic 80s guitar solo, employing my newly purchased guitar's new-fangled tremolo system. I still love that solo.
Michael Jackson, along with Prince and Madonna, is a pop icon of my generation and I can't help feeling sadness at the news of his death. I wouldn't be blogging about it if I didn't. Maybe it's that his death, and that of another icon of my youth Farrah Fawcett, who died yesterday of cancer, simply serve to remind me of the passing of youth, of life's fraility, complexity and its lottery-like odds.
So, I might just get out that vinyl copy of Thriller (acquired from my record-playerless sister, I might add!), crack open a beer, strap on my air-guitar, and give Beat It a whirl later. I did say I was a pathological nostalgist, didn't I?
Responses to This Article
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Vox/GuitarPermalink Reply by Gray Dourman on -
I'm strangely unaffected by his death...perhaps that's because I suspect that he didn't actually die...that it's all an elaborate hoax to avoid his 02 gigs...he's actually fled to North Korea.
Gray Dourman
www.magichelix.com
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BassPermalink Reply by TripDave on -
Perhaps there is a God....with a plan
I have a pretty good suspicion had I found huge fame and enormous fortune early in my career,
not that I have it now mind you, but I would be certainly dead by now from excess.
Not to mention with all that money and adulation probably fairly weird and no doubt kinky.
Perhaps all these years of eeking out a pauper's salary as musician have actually been
lifesaving and kept my proclivities in check.
Given the choice, I may have still chosen the life-shortening unbridled, rich excess and fame
but then again my dear children would never have been born.
Not to mention I lead a relatively quiet yet very content life now with plenty of music and performance
on my plate.
Say what they will about MJ, I liked his Quincy Jones produced 'Off the Wall' album.
He also single-handedly revolutionized the music video genre. Hey, and the boy could dance like nothing.
Finally, thanks to Jackson we now have exposure to Jennifer Batten. If I could play half as good as her, half of the time, I'd die happy...hopefully a long time from now and not from excess.
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Vox/GuitarPermalink Reply by Colin Gillman on -
Yes I liked hm when he was a black man. When he was just being himself he was unstopabble. Off The Wall is a masterpeice.
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