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Last week, everyone was talking about the American Idol dude, David Cook, and his version of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. He rocked it out and everyone was amazed at how it sounded.
Actually, it wasn't Cook who remade Billie Jean into a rocker anthem, but Chris Cornell, who was the lead of some of my favorite earlier bands, AudioSlave and Soundgarten. Chris sang a very rock bluesy version of MJ's Billie Jean and I found an excellent video on You Tube:
I've always liked Cornell's voice and he's debuting this song in his newest album coming out soon. I think I'm going to download it cos I like this version very much. It's angstier and more matured than the original, which I first heard as a young college student with a more pop-py outlook in life.
Still, it doesn't compare to the incredible original take by Michael Jackson himself. His weirdness notwithstanding, I remember going to his concert in the 80s and seeing his awesome magic during performance. The video below is his re-enactment of Billie Jean on its 30th anniversary in Madison Square Garden, another live performance I saw. The young crowd in this show, who was around my age when I first saw this, reacted the same freaked-out way as I and the crowd I was with in the 80s. Not bad for a man who's in his early 40s in 2001. Check out Liz Taylor, Liza Minellie AND McCauley Caulkin (is that how you spell his name) in the front row cheering him on. So weird. But so apt too.
What stood out for me in this video was MJ's story-telling ability, which was prevalent in almost all his songs. Here, he walks on stage, thirty years after Billie Jean's debut, and opens a suitcase. You can feel his surprise and uncertainty as he takes out the old suit and tries it on. The crowd goes crazy because they recognize it (which is funny to me because half of them weren't even borned yet). He pulls out The Hat. And then, The Glove. The built-up is just perfect. He tentatively moves, as if trying to remember, and then, he strikes up The Pose. Pause. The crowd is in a frenzy.
Even now, after all my young pop-py hormones are long gone, he pulled me in with no music and no words, just those two minutes of miming. He might have lost a step or two in speed and didn't perform the whole song and dance at the same time, but the old magic was still there.
As a writer, I hope I can achieve that with my writing. That thirty years from now (argh!), someone will pick up the book and still feel the characters coming alive. But that young crowd in that audience? They were me during a younger, even more exuberant Michael Jackson time. That kind of magic is a gift from the Muse.
Come on, admit it. You tried moonwalking too. ::grin:::
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Has It Really Been 30 Years?
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3 comments:
Uh, me? Tried moonwalking? Why er, uh, no. Of course not. Never.
I've been most saddened over the past few years as I watch a man who has so much talent let his personal life become so loused up. Although living in a fish bowel for so long and beginning so long has to have had an effect.
I was out if college when Thriller debuted, but it still is one of the best, if not the best pop album ever released.
As a writer, I hope I can achieve that with my writing. That thirty years from now (argh!), someone will pick up the book and still feel the characters coming alive.
The Muse may not make it easy for you, but you're a damn good writer. I don't think anyone who reads any of your books thirty years from now will have a problem feeling your characters come alive.
Thank you, Vince, for saying that about my writing. That's very kind of you and you made my day.
But come on, I know you tried to moonwalk. Even my very academic, no-dancing boyfriend back then tried to do it. And yes, he looked terrible.
I'm also smiling at your appropriately miswritten FISH BOWEL. Heh heh.
Fish bowl, fish bowel, you say potato, I say potahto.
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