I wasn’t sure if I was going to say anything about the death of Michael Jackson on this blog. I was never much of a Jackson fan and I thought I would leave the eulogies up to the folks who knew more about him and his music. I tend to resonate a lot with John McWhorter’s description of him as the “man who wasn’t there.”
But then this morning I read the New York Times feature asking readers to identify their favorite Michael Jackson song. The survey included 20 second clips of what the Times deems to be his eight most popular #1 hits. (He had 13 in all). As I listened to all of these clips I was impressed with Jackson’s incredible body of work. I guess I had never stepped back and examined his entire career before. Perhaps I was a Michael Jackson fan after all.
By the way, I voted for the 1983 classic, “Wanna Be Starting Something, although my favorite stuff comes from the Jackson 5 era.
What song did you vote for?
Well, I have so many favorite michael jackson songs… but my most favorites are… you rock my world, bad, black or white, remember the time,and dirty diana… I was a huge fan… I'm just shocked n sad dats he dead…. I loved jackson 5…