Quote:
Originally Posted by MMARSH
I think it's sad, he was such a troubled soul.
I can remember as a kid watching the Motown 25th reunion special on tv and seeing Michael and his brothers perform. The brothers left the stage and then Michael played the new stuff, Billy Jean. He did this incredible sideways moonwalk and everybody in my house couldn't believe it. The next day at school, EVERYBODY was talking about that performance. I'll never forget it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VASYhabHkM
How about watching the world premiere of his Thriller video on MTV. It might not seem like a big deal now, but at the time he was doing things that other artists had not even thought of.
You don't have to like the man, but you can't deny his talent back in the day. |
I'm with you. I try to separate the artist from the work and his contribution to pop music is impossible to measure. I watch that video you on a semi-regular basis ever since I discovered youtube. It's truly what makes the internet great, being able to pull something like that performance up with a couple mouse-clicks.
That was one of the great live performances by an artist in the history of humans, IMO. The room was packed with a lot of the most talented people alive and he absolutely burned that place to the ground. Like a great Olympian or other athlete, no one can ever take that away from him, even if he was a disappointment in other areas later in life.