Rate Your Music score: 2.73 out of 5!
Even the King of Pop has lost hits.
Michael Jackson recorded the vocals for this song back in 1973, the year he turned 15. The song was remixed for a 1984 compilation album just as his Thriller set was finally being exhausted. Remember, it wasn't until 1987 that Bad was released, so Michael mania had to be kept alive all those years.
During the height of Thriller's popularity, some girl at school admiringly said of Michael, "He's not a man. He's a phenomenon!" I miss Michael Jackson today, but I wasn't into him during his heyday. On the other hand, "Beat It" is said to have rescued top 40 radio from itself, so we can be thankful that Michael helped end the MOR doldrums of the early 1980s and got everyone listening to high-energy top 40 again.
People still talked about Michael all through the years when he had no new solo albums of new material. This brings to mind a classmate I had in 6th grade. For a while, he sat right behind me in literature class. Now, this was an advanced class. I don't know why the school placed me in an advanced literature class, as that was my weakest subject. The assistant principal's excuse was usually that "a computer did it."
Anyway, the classmate I'm talking about didn't start the year there, but he just showed up one day as a new student. He asked me what my favorite songs and musicians were. I know I liked the now-lost hit "Romancing The Stone" by Eddy Grant. I think I liked "I Can't Drive 55" by Sammy Hagar. I also actually enjoyed some metal and new wave that wasn't big on pop radio. Who didn't? But my classmate's favorite performer was - drum roll, please - Michael Jackson.
I guess there's really nothing wrong with that, but Michael was one of only two topics that he talked about constantly. What was the other? Well, one day, he asked me what my favorite TV shows were. I don't remember what my answer was, because network TV was in sort of a malaise at the time with its squeaky clean family sitcoms. But he said his favorite show was...
Are you ready for it?
Are you?
Sesame Street.
Yes, Sesame Street. In 6th grade!
He spent the rest of the school year talking about nothing but Michael Jackson and Sesame Street. It appears that he even wrote fan mail to Luis.
Sesame Street and Michael Jackson were better than some of the other things people talked about. A lot of kids at school just talked about bashing people's heads in. That's why I stockpiled thorns to defend myself.
I don't think I ever saw this particular schoolmate again after 6th grade until I was in high school. That was when he sat down next to me on a TANK bus, and I didn't recognize him. "Remember me, man?" he said. When he said who he was, I remembered then!
A weird one indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment