I went to bed at around 11.30pm last night, switched on the TV in the bedroom and began to flick through the channels. When I got to the BBC News channels I was greeted by the sight of people outside the UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles and the ticker-tape banner across the bottom saying that Michael Jackson had died. I felt a bit like I did on that Sunday morning when I first heard about Princess Diana's death - stunned and in disbelief.
To be honest I was never a huge fan of MJ before the Thriller album was released - I thought some of his music was OK but as a teenager at the time I would never go out and spend my hard earned money on it. Then Thriller was released - and WOW! Not only the most fantastic album (every track was good enough to be a single in it's own right), but the video was ground-breaking and awesome as was the choreography. And at that moment I was a convert.
Sadly he never managed to hit those heights again - but then if you achieve perfection I guess it's hard to improve on that. But as someone growing up in the 1980's you couldn't fail to be affected by the music of MJ - love it or hate it. It's also easy to get drawn into the debate about the allegations concerning his childhood, private life & the recent abuse case but none of us will probably ever know how much of this was true.
All I know sitting here this morning is that the world has lost an amazing, incredible talent - and a small part of my childhood feels like it has died. RIP Michael.
No comments:
Post a Comment