I must admit that Michael Jackson's music was a guilty pleasure of mine back in the 80's. Considering the genera of pop music, it was just so amazingly well executed, both in terms of the arranging and the production. I'm thinking specifically of Rock With You and Beat It (Links to original videos on YouTube/No embeds available). I especially like Beat It because, 1) The opening synth hits are a Synclavier, and I was a Synclavier programmer back then, 2) The track has Eddie Van Halen on it, and 3) it's just a great song (And not a bad video for the time either).
Some of the studio engineers and programmers who worked with Michael are friends of mine, and everything I ever heard about him indicates that, yes, he was a very strange person - in that way many impossibly talented people are - but that he tried to be a sweetheart, and often failed. Also, his hangers-on didn't help matters, and I won't be surprised if it turns out that they enabled his untimely demise.
All that aside, Michael Jackson was one of the greatest musical showmen of the modern era; he made over-the-top cool.
Damn, I wish I could move like that. His physical grace was preternatural.
As for Farrah, what a pity. Damn cancer. Being fifty-one means I was a freshman in college when "the poster" became such a phenomenon, and though I didn't have one myself, over half of the other guys in the dorms did.
RIP and Godspeed, Michael and Farrah.
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