Celebrity Deaths — Singer MICHAEL JACKSON (age 50), and Actress FARRAH FAWCETT (age 62)

sad news, r.i.p

Quote:
On a magical night in 1983, Michael Jackson struck a pose on stage, clasping the black fedora on his head with his white sequined glove. His black jacket and silver vest glittered as white socks showed under his high-water black pants. Then he erupted into a flurry of fluid dance moves in a performance of Billie Jean that would catapult the former child singing sensation into full-blown superstardom.

yes. this is without a doubt the coolest single performance that i have ever seen. it was like star wars all over again. and he wasnt even singing! however at the time i didnt notice, and dont think that anybody else did either. we just sat their in awe, and when he hit the "moonwalk"...the world flipped on its axis. this is the michael jackson that i will remember.

One the best musicians of all time has passed away.

Quote:
On a magical night in 1983, Michael Jackson struck a pose on stage, clasping the black fedora on his head with his white sequined glove. His black jacket and silver vest glittered as white socks showed under his high-water black pants. Then he erupted into a flurry of fluid dance moves in a performance of Billie Jean that would catapult the former child singing sensation into full-blown superstardom.

I remember wathing this. It was at the Motown 25th anniversary celebration if memory serves. It was the most awe-inspiring moment in the history of music. Nobody had ever seen anything like it before and there has not been a performance by any artist that has had that impact with a single performance since.

Not to compare but I hear people on the news saying he was up there with Elvis, John Lennon, etc. While I agree they were greats, Michael Jackson was on a whole other level. He is truly the greatest showman the world has ever seen.

I truly hope he finds his peace.

BTW, here's a video of that Motown performance...

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-ca&brand=sympatico&vid=6a7f958b-9c0c-41fa-adda-15acf93de3ce

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[Post edited by Falcon01 on Jun 26, 2009 - CDT 8:55 AM]

I just hope that this will help us get his 30th Anniversary Celebration, Moonwalker, Captain EO, Ghosts, into at least DVD...

The media coverage of Jackson's death is over the top. There is a related post at http://iamsoannoyed.com/?p=1957

Here's the famous Pepsi commercial...

http://www.spike.com/video/learn-to-breakdance/2884214

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[Post edited by Falcon01 on Jun 26, 2009 - CDT 10:00 AM]

Here's a piece of trivia I've always remembered from the early 1980s about the incredible success of his LP album "Thriller."

First, some brief (needed) background info... during the early 1980s, there was a "Videodisc format" war ( sound familiar) between the LaserDisc format (supported by Pioneer) and a "needlevision" system called CED format (supported by RCA).

Well, at the time RCA owned a manufacturing plant in Terre Haute Indiana that pressed the CED movie discs (later sold to Sony/Columbia). Part of the planet manufactured the CED discs, but the other part had the job of pressing LP record albums for record labels.

RCA, despite it's best effort in advertising the CED system, was losing market share and popularity to the rival LaserDisc format, and would abandon the CED format by 1985-86 entirely (with an estimated losses of around $700 million in 1980s money value!).

Back to THRILLER... guess who was contracted to manufacture the LP records for the popular album? That's right, it was the RCA plant in Terre Haute Indiana, who had employees working around the clock (24 hours) making as many copies as possible.... just as soon as a "batch" was ready, it was shipped to dealers (the Japanese-pressed CD didn't come out until 1984).

Well, at the time I was subscriber to two popular video magazines, VIDEO, and VIDEO REVIEW. I can't remember which one made the report, but I will never forget what I read in one of the issues... that RCA decided to cease producing the CED discs during "Thriller" phenomenal sales run, and retrofit that part of the plant over to producing the Thriller record (joining the rest of the plant's operations that was making it).

So, at one time, the entire RCA manufacturing plant in Terre Haute IN was pressing just one album - Michael Jackson's THRILLER!

As Paul Harvey is fond of saying... "Now you know the rest of the story." THRILLER's sales success was just amazing... no other record as ever sold as many copies in such a short amount of time (2 to 3 year period). Others, like the Eagles "Greatest Hits" and Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" have sold amazingly well too, but did so over decades, whereas THRILLER was such an amazing seller, that an entire plant was producing as many copies as humanly possible (major demand!)

-JOE- (Love Hendrix!)

Wow, that's some good information. Unless you lived through, it would be hard to comprehend.

I was just thinking that we have lived in a lifetime of some great moments/talents/icons/superstars/events in history, not just musically.

In no special order...

Martin Luther King Jr, Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Diego Maradona, Pele, Luciano Pavarotti, Star Wars phenomenon in 1977, Muhammed Ali, Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul the Second, the end of segregation in the U.S., the inauguration of a black President in the U.S....I could go on and on and I'm sure I've forgotten some big ones so feel free to add if you want.

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[Post edited by Falcon01 on Jun 26, 2009 - CDT 10:29 AM]

It's sad to hear anyone's passing and I wish his family the best. However, I am one of those that has questioned his bizarre and strange lifestyle over the years. And studying music all my life you'd think I'd call the guy a musical genius, but I would not.

To me the guy has always been overrated and very well over-hyped. He had a great run in his early days but from the late 80's on the guys career dwindled all the way to personal isolation. MJ might be a musical genius to many others but to me this is also a man that called himself "Peter Pan" in a television interview. He was in his early 40's acting in the behavior of a child.

I could go on all day opening wounds over his strange behavior - hanging the baby over the ledge, child molestation allegations, buying the royalty rights on the Beatles catalog and screwing over his friend Paul McCartney, etc . . .
Point is, the world may treasure him as the Pop King Icon, but least not forget he is just as flawed a human as the rest of us. He may go down as a Pop Legend but he is in no way a God or Saint.