Some Thoughts on Michael

This Friday, June 25th, will mark the one year anniversary of the passing of Michael Jackson. As a teenager, growing up in the 1980s, you were either Team Michael or Team Prince. Although I was a out and proud Prince fan, I was a closeted Michael Jackson fan. The loss of Michael Jackson was a devastating one for his legions of fans. I myself was sad, but for entirely different reasons. I had mourned the loss of Michael Jackson many years before his actual passing.

My favorite Michael Jackson album is Off The Wall. Off The Wall was Michael's first adult solo album. Jay-Z recently commented in the introduction of the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time that "Michael Jackson's Off The Wall album may not have been bigger than Thriller, but the songs had better melodies". Even to to this day, I could listen to that album from start to finish without skipping over any of the cuts. My personal favorites are "Girlfriend", "I Can't Help It', and "It's The Falling In Love". With the help of Quincy Jones Michael Jackson was able to get his feet firmly planted in his musical independence. Randy, Tito, Jackie, and Marlon must have have been afraid the first time when they heard the album.

Just as when any other person dies, when tend to remember the time and the place that we were when we heard the news. I remember reading about Michael Jackson's death on Twitter. When you read about some one's death on Twitter, you tend not to believe right away because shortly there after, contrary tweets denying the rumors follow. I had gotten off of work and was reading my tweets prior to boarding my train ( WMATA hasn't seen fit to provide coverage for my network of choice through their entire underground tunnel system as they have for Verizon as of yet). By the time I got home, Twitter was flooded with tweets regarding Michael's death. When I got home, I immediately turned on CNN to see if this horrible news were true. CNN would neither confirm nor deny. Much to my chagrin, the only channel that would confirm the story was FOX and TMZ (No surprise there).

I remember feeling numb at first. I also remember feeling bad for Janet and his children. I felt worse for Michael because he was so young, yet severely tormented by his own demons. I also remember feeling a sense of dread for all of the continuous video and musical tributes that would flooding the airwaves. That weekend was the same weekend that we celebrated my daughter's 22nd birthday. We had reserved a VIP section at a club, where they played a 20 minute Michael Jackson mix. It was nice to see how Michael's music had stretched across cultural as well as generational boundaries.

People will talk about Michael Jackson for the rest of their lives. His legacy will live on forever. It's true what they say, Michael, you're gone too soon. I hope that you are finally resting in peace - the peace that you deserve and craved.