Our reliably contrarian friend Mick LaSalle weighs in:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/mlasalle/detail?blogid=38&entry_id=42639
Oddly, I find myself agreeing with him, up to a point (especially about MJ's "King of Pop" monicker, which I always found ridiculous). More later when I get my thoughts together.
I also agree about the KoP nickname, though didn't know MJ invented it himself. Wouldn't surprise me: he floated some weird stories about himself just to sty in the headlines, like the rumor he purchased the Elephant Man bones.
I do disagree about skipping "Human Nature" when it comes into rotation (actually, I don't listen to entire albums these days in the prescribed order). I never skip that one. In fact, I seek it out. love it.
eta: this person's comment is fantastic...
Agreed on "bittermelon"s comment -- the Mick-is-an-idiot crowd are loud and proud whenever he pontificates about music, thank gawd -- tho' the operative phrase in that paragraph is "for a short time".
I'm pretty Michael'd-out at this point. Last nite, JJ on KPOO was all-MJ. The first 2 hours concentrated on the '70s; got to hear lots of J-5 stuff including some deep LP cuts -- covers of things like Smokey's "Darling Dear", Sly's "Stand" (a NTM surprise), and even "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" (which is hilarious is you know what movie it's from). The early J-5 output includes some of the best pop singles ever made, and even their lesser 45s are superbly produced -- personal faves like "Looking Thru the Windows", "Corner of the Sky" and the forgotten "Hallelujah Day" (a celebration of the end of US involvement in Vietnam!) have a place in my heart despite their mediocre chart performance.
While I was listening to JJ, I had VH-1 on mute. They were doing nonstop Michael too, but of course they were limited to available vidclips, which meant that, aside from "ABC" on
American Bandstand, it was mostly "Billie Jean"-to-now. And here's the thing: the videos from the
Bad LP onward are godawful -- some of the worst, most wildly overconceived, ridiculous "mini-movie" monstrosities ever committed to celluloid. Truly everything wrong with the '80s MTV culture was encapsulated in these vids -- there are good songs on
Bad, but MJ would not have had
five #1 singles from it if not for the MTV machine. It was mind-numbing to see these things pass one-after-the-other, with the unspoken implication that they were all wonderful because, well, they had MJ in them. Which in a way is what LaSalle was getting at: You can make the most brilliant LP ever, and that assures you your place in history; but that doesn't mean we have to pretend that *everything* you've done since is genius.
The KPOO deejay who was on before JJ was also doing an MJ trib; he somehow had gotten hold of a couple of advance tracks from the MJ LP coming later this year. They were drippy, generic ballads, which pretty much defines most of his '90s and '00s output, sadly.
In closing: FOX just opened tonite's
Simpsons ep with the old "Do the Bartman" clip (first time it's been seen in years), which ends with Bart saying "eat your heart out, Michael!" Then they showed a slide that said "In memory of Michael Jackson".
