I Wanna Rock With You

Michael Jackson, King Of Pop, is dead. 🙁

Was I a fan? If you consider somebody who taped the full version of Ghost (as well as the making of) and played it repeatedly many times, as a fan, yeah I guess so. Yes I was a VHS tape recorder junkie. I also remember one of my mom’s greatest hits cassettes being played on repeat.

One of the more recent songs that got stuck in my head was the hard-rocking They Don’t Care About Us. I would not say I am a big fan of R&B and I thought I didn’t like New Jack Swing but Michael’s R&B and disco-funk stuff from the Off The Wall album, remind me of a time when my dad would bring us to Cheras Leisure Mall, for some reason. Maybe I liked his brand of New Jack Swing because it was far more rocky, varied and filled with progression. Even if Thriller just has a simple repeated programmed beat, it didn’t bother me at all. That’s how great his voice was, it overrode the relative repetitiveness of the beat. Though, that was one heck of a catchy beat!

I was listening to what MIX fm was playing all day – some curious mixes of Michael Jackson covers, as well as his older stuff and Jackson 5 stuff. Yeah, Ben was a classic. I remember the TV show which identified Ben as a rat.

98 Degrees and Josh Groban both covered She’s Out Of My Life, but neither could touch the intensity that Michael sang it with – apparently, he could not sing it without crying at the end. I thought it must’ve been an intensely personal song, the mark of a powerful ballad. Heck I think I’d cry trying to sing this song! *

Interestingly though, he didn’t write the song. Tom Bahler wrote this when Karen Carpenter (of The Carpenters) broke up with him (and wanted Michael to sing it). Karen died of anorexia nervosa, bringing the disorder to public knowledge.

Michael meanwhile, brought vitiligo to public knowledge! As it turns out vitiligo is relatively common, and you’ve probably seen it before on some people. Explains why Michael sometimes appears to have a brighter mouth area.

* the only other song I could get to me emotionally is probably Stevie Wonder – Lately. He sounds like he is going to cry, too!

Of his collaborations, I’d say I most love the ones he did with Paul McCartney. There was such great chemistry in their call-and-response (listen to Say Say Say, Paul gets the R&B groove, Michael’s verses bring on the funk, and in between there’s a blues harp.) Michael then bought The Beatles’ music catalogue so whoever it is willed to, is going to make a fair bit out of Rock Band: The Beatles! (Ironically, Paul introduced the idea to Michael, then Michael bought his band’s music LOL.)

An interesting music video:

Eddie Murphy & Michael Jackson – Whatzupwitu

Interestingly, I’m not sure why, but this music video makes it obvious that either Janet Jackson learnt some dance moves from Michael, or Michael learnt some dance moves from Janet Jackson.

If you were ever too scared to watch the Thriller video, you can watch an easier Lego version:

“Thriller”… with Legos

This is too awesome.

And let’s see how many artistes can you spot and name!

USA For Africa – We Are The World

However late I am in posting this, I still am earlier than most newspapers. 😀

4 thoughts on “I Wanna Rock With You

  1. Waifon Post author

    why u didn’t mention black or white! or heal the world! or earth song or man in the mirror! too mainstream for you issit 🙁 I like bad, you are not alone, history, dirty diana, PYT, smooth criminal (:D!), they don’t care about us, you rock my world!, i just can’t stop loving you and the way you make me feel. baby be mine also.

    i know these songs cos back then (when i was still in primary school) when i was bored waiting for my mum to be done with grocery shopping, i always squat (i know right wtf) in front of Speedy and watch MJ’s videos on repeat. and my sister and i LOVE black or white a lot. we don’t know the words to the song back then so we will only yell out the black or white and ooh yeah yeah yeah part HAHAHA. heal the world was my ultimate favourite cos i rock the bridge part *shy* or so i thought la. nasal voiced and all, when ising siap damn feeling dengan mata tutup2 semua *shy*

    and he is the king of all music videos also okay. they are like short movie clips with wicked storylines! u knw tht eddie murphy MV all decked up in egyption clothings? DAMN FUNNY the one where MJ turned to dust and the first performer was sent to the lions WTF HAHAAH. aih now i want to cry already huhu T_T

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  2. Waifon Post author

    OMG tht we are the world music video is so old i remember when i picked this song in redbox, the computer played this video. then i choked on my pasta cos it’s so damn nostalgic. i thought they were gonna replace this clip with some corny remake of white chicks running in the field or flashing really retro bikinis (high waisted granny panties) on a beach -_-

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  3. YK Post author

    rumour has it that it was in his will that the 50% of the Beatles music catalogue goes to Sir Paul (the other 50% was already sold to SONY to cover his debts)

    on another note, no Prince in We Are The World. they even managed to coax Bob Dylan to mumble a few lines but no Prince.

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  4. Albert Ng Post author

    Waifon: Of course I enjoyed his bigger later hits – my blog entry calls attention to his lesser-known works.

    YK: Hearing it without looking at the video at first, Bob Dylan makes himself known in the coolest way ever. Prince wanted to contribute a guitar solo!

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