Kim Jackson

I was not a fan of Michael Jackson, but I like some of his songs and own one of his albums.

That may sound kind of funny for a non-fan, but once upon a time he was easy to listen to and not so scary to look at. Currently, my brush with Michael Jackson is listening to “ABC” by the Jackson 5 on a 14-track CD of Motown hits for kids my wife bought for our grandson, Kendrick. If I never hear it again it will be too soon.

In the late 70’s with the Jackson 5  (I endured a few jokes about the name thing) and early 80’s as a solo artist, there was no mistaking his talent and genius. He hadn’t yet taken a wrecking ball to his face and we didn’t yet grasp the whole picture about his preoccupation with little boys. At the time, I thought the whole Webster thing was a publicity stunt.

For me, the “Thriller” album was his crowning achievement. That was driven home by his stunning performance of “Billie Jean” on the TV special, “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever,” in 1983. We saw the glove, the hat and the moonwalk for the first time, all melded together in a routine that launched a generation of fans and imitators.

“Thriller” is the one Jackson album I own. I pulled it out of the trash when I was working for the Barometer student newspaper at Oregon State. I’m guessing the paper had gotten it as a promotion and someone chucked it. Being the pack rat I am (”Hey, new album!”), I fished it out and took it home, thinking I could chuck it later myself if it stunk.

It didn’t stink, and while I didn’t wear out the grooves on it, I did spin it a few times just for the “Thriller” and “Billie Jean” tracks. The “Thriller” video was also fun. Being a horror fan I liked the zombie theme. But there was waaay too much dancing for me to watch it  more than a couple of times on MTV.

His participation in the “We Are The World” video project in 1985, which he co-wrote and sang in, was memorable because my wife was teaching at North Marion High School at the time and had her students lip sync to the music for a video of their own. Jackson also had a 3-D big-screen video at Disneyland that was fun to watch.

His next album, “Bad”, in 1987 was OK, but I wasn’t buying the tough-guy persona he tried to project in the video. And looking back, for me, that was the beginning of the end, although he probably had things going on a lot sooner than that. He was still a genius musically, it’s just that in his later years I couldn’t get over the sheer creepiness he exuded, from his bizarre face to his weird antics with kids (his own and others), sleepovers at Neverland and Lisa Marie. while it didn’t erase his genius, it made me almost forget about it, and certainly not care about it.

As news editor, I read a lot about Michael Jackson over the years, whether I wanted to or not. A lot of it was stuff about his bad finances, court cases for molestation, marriages and such. It’s all pretty sad stuff.

And I’m guessing that just like any other odd, troubled icon who dies, I’ll be reading sad stuff about him for years to come.

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