It's probably the right thing -- particularly if one is an occasional blogger -- to ignore the obvious subject for a post, indeed to blog about almost anything else other than the subject that is consuming at every moment thousands of new pages on the Internet. However, I didn't get where I am today by doing the right thing, so here goes!
From a journalistic point of view, of course, how the story broke is probably of most interest. This must be the first "one-off" really unexpected and major news story that was broken on the Internet and had the mainstream media, i.e. the rolling news channels, playing catch up. In my lifetime other equivalent stories -- the assassinations of President Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, the death of Elvis and Diana, "9/11", and "7/7", and the resignations of Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher as Prime Ministers (I was working at the BBC for the latter) all broke in the broadcast media and most people heard the news through radio or television, although in the July 2005 London bombings it's fair to say that it was citizen journalists, rather than the mainstream and official sources, that confirmed that they were terrorist outrages and not accidental explosions. It seems likely that all future news stories, unless the event occurs during a 'live' transmission, will probably breakfast on the Internet as unconfirmed rumour or gossip. So, truly, we are in a new era. It is dominating all the media apart, as the man who fixed my son's computer observed, the BBC's Radio 3! There is of course nothing new to say on Jackson or his life in general until, presumably, it is confirmed by the Coroner how he died but The whole circus will go on in the ghastly, grief - tourism way to which we have become accustomed and then it will be the grizzly parade of emotions – real and synthetic - of the funeral: a good day, or indeed week, to bury bad news for sure.
I first became aware of Michael Jackson through I Want You Back in 1970 -- in fact I clearly remember having an argument as to the gender of the lead singer of the Jackson Five. This dispute took place on the school bus and I was in my usual seat with my best mate at the time -- upstairs, right hand side second from the front. I was rather dubious at my friend's claim that the singer was a boy – a year or so younger than us - rather than female. It must be amazing to younger readers that there was no way of verifying this one way or the other - unless it happened to be mentioned on the radio or I suppose you saw a picture in a music magazine - until the group appeared on the next edition of Top of the Pops.
I loved this song from the start and it was one of the favourites and we played in the Tamla (Motown) club which took place at the school one lunchtime every week. There is a different type of themed music each day – naturally it was all lads for the 'Prog' Rock' session and I was the only boy in the 'Tamla' club, but did I care? Well I did care couple years later but the age of 12 I wasn't bothered and one of the girls, who tragically, died some years ago, lent me the next Motown Chartbusters album which had this on so I could tape it on my pride and joy -- a cassette recorder, which is fact I was given as reward for passing the '11 plus' and going to the Grammar School. Anyhow, I still often play the track: it is one of my favourite and best blues - busting or "get up and go" selections and if no one is about at home I'll put it at full blast on the stereo and bop on the tiled floor. I know, you will not get that image out of your mind now, will you?
I do remain remember reading on the Internet that it had the best - that is, most exciting, chord sequence in all of pop and it certainly has been sampled many times so that proves it really is a 'pop classic'. That's the thing with Michael; he was a pop star, not a rock star and certainly not a soul singer. Great to dance to, but, in my humble opinion, no real soul or emotion in his performances, either in recordings or 'live'. And he was not - contrary to the current hyperbole - a genius. A journalist who apparently had spent several years trailing him to write a book that has never been published -- presumably for legal reasons -- even ranked him alongside Mozart on the Today programme this morning, on Radio 4 of all places. The presenter/interviewer was incredulous but he insisted it was a fair comparison. This is ludicrous! Jacko was a damaged and abused child star who turned into a very strange adult; a talented dancer with great stage presence, no question about that, but his music performances are as much due to superb producers such as Quincy Jones, and excellent songwriters, not to his innate talent.
I did see him 'live' at Aintree in 1988. In fact me and my wife were VIP guests -- those were the days when I was a Z - list regional radio celebrity - and we were seated between the former Trotskyist leader of Liverpool Council, Derek Hatton, and the British child star Bonnie Langford: you have to admit I couldn't make this up! Anyway, it meant we got slightly closer to the stage than those in the "cheaper seats" but he was still quite a distant figure and we still had to rely very much on the big screens to get an idea of his performance. Yes, I could admire the stagecraft, the pyrotechnics, the showmanship but otherwise it left me cold. All the emotion was synthetic, whereas Bruce Springsteen, for example, with no more than an acoustic guitar can turn the emotions of a massive stadium audiences on a sixpence because he's real, he has written the songs and you know that he knows what he is thinking about.
For other events in what has been a good week for me, you'll have to go all audio and listen to my Podcast – and next Tuesday I bring my five most significant records to the City Talk (now with extra added ingredients!) studios – actually, we've already recorded the programme, without the records, and Jacko just missed the list, which was compiled after much agony and several changes!
