Elvis was before my time.\u00c2\u00a0 When he was swiveling his hips on TV, I was still in diapers.\u00c2\u00a0 By time he surged back to prominence in the sixties, I was pissed that he was displacing the British Invasion superstars.\u00c2\u00a0 But when he died it was weird.\u00c2\u00a0 He was so young!<\/p>\n
I heard the news as I was pulling into my parking place on a gray West L.A. afternoon.\u00c2\u00a0 I must say I was shocked.\u00c2\u00a0 But I was not shaken to the core.\u00c2\u00a0 The death of Michael Jackson was like driving down the freeway and being pushed by the hand of God right off the road.<\/p>\n
Left alone on Friday night, with the push-pull of the real world having receded, I got that strange feeling, you know the one, where you just can’t be alone, because you’re afraid of what you might do.<\/p>\n
I immediately made plans.\u00c2\u00a0 But it wasn’t until hours later, having exerted myself physically in the mountains, that I calmed down.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I started reading the paper Saturday morning, I was fine until I got to that story on MJ, when suddenly it felt like aliens had stolen most of my essential juices and my insides were caving in.<\/p>\n
I was born before Michael Jackson.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’ll die after him.\u00c2\u00a0 JFK was my parents’ hero, I knew it was a huge loss, but I enjoyed the day off from school.\u00c2\u00a0 Elvis was born in the thirties.\u00c2\u00a0 But Michael Jackson could have been that kid down the street, who you tickled when he was young, but grew up to be a world-beater.<\/p>\n
They won’t let you make a Hollywood movie with an unhappy ending.\u00c2\u00a0 But in real life, we’ve got an endless series of tragedies.\u00c2\u00a0 Our heroes expire long before their time, having drowned their loneliness in alcohol and drugs.\u00c2\u00a0 The pain is just too severe.\u00c2\u00a0 Having to carry the hopes and dreams of the world upon your shoulders.<\/p>\n
But if our heroes are gone, if they’re just as fragile as we are, where does that leave us?<\/p>\n
That’s what I realized.\u00c2\u00a0 If Michael Jackson died, I could too.<\/p>\n
I know, I’m not famous.\u00c2\u00a0 I know, I’m not a drug addict.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’m human.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite all the craziness, that’s one thing that showed through.\u00c2\u00a0 Michael Jackson was human. Displaying the flaws that used to be airbrushed out of the media stories, but are shown every day on the streets of your town.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe that’s part of his legacy.\u00c2\u00a0 Something that the Internet has taken over from the tabloids.\u00c2\u00a0 The tearing down of cultural heroes, to illustrate they’re no better than you or me.<\/p>\n
The stars of tomorrow may not feel the entitlement of the older generation.\u00c2\u00a0 Those film and TV stars with good looks, but little talent.\u00c2\u00a0 Who feel they’re entitled to their privileged status.\u00c2\u00a0 Who want to protect it at all costs.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, will we have a star of Michael Jackson’s magnitude in the future?\u00c2\u00a0 One everybody in the developed world is aware of, and many in undeveloped nations too?<\/p>\n
But Michael Jackson had talent.\u00c2\u00a0 Boatloads of it.\u00c2\u00a0 But talent doesn’t make you happy.\u00c2\u00a0 Excelling at sports or music or any pursuit is great, but it won’t ensure a fulfilling family life, it won’t eradicate your anxieties, erase your self-consciousness.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s these problems that motivate stars to excel.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to supersede their issues.\u00c2\u00a0 And usually, when they realize they can’t solve these underlying problems via their careers, their great days are behind them.<\/p>\n
But that’s the story of the creator.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the fence, you’ve got the audience.<\/p>\n
It’s hard to get people’s attention.\u00c2\u00a0 There are issues of quality, of exhibition.\u00c2\u00a0 But if something breaks through, and there is underlying talent, we won’t kick it to the curb, we’ll embrace it, hold it close and yearn for more.<\/p>\n
Last night I went to the Wiltern to see the band Phoenix.\u00c2\u00a0 It drew a throng of twentysomethings.\u00c2\u00a0 Moving their bodies to the French art rock sound.\u00c2\u00a0 But, after a ten minute encore, after performing for seventy five minutes, the band left the stage and the house lights came up.<\/p>\n
I decided to stay by the railing, I wanted to evaluate the audience, see exactly who was supporting this act.\u00c2\u00a0 And then I started noticing something.\u00c2\u00a0 The girls started shimmying their hips, the guys started throwing their hands in the air, most people stopped leaving, they were all suddenly dancing!<\/p>\n
These hipsters were not moving to the sound of an obscure alternative band.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather, the hit blasting out of the speakers was totally mainstream, albeit a hit decades before.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, it sounded as fresh as the music that had been performed live moments earlier.<\/p>\n
Girl, close your eyes<\/span> That’s right, the song everybody was grooving to was Michael Jackson’s "Rock With You", a number as sweet as honey, an elixir that implores us to shuck our self-consciousness and just groove! I didn’t want the song to end.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t want the joy in the room to evaporate.<\/p>\n If only Michael Jackson had been there to experience it.\u00c2\u00a0 He didn’t need fifty nights at the O2, he needed to know even if he were broke it made no difference.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d paid listeners with riches no hedge funder could ever accumulate.\u00c2\u00a0 People would have taken care of him…if only he’d let them.<\/p>\n As Liza Minnelli said, all hell is going to break loose when the autopsy results are released.\u00c2\u00a0 Already, the nanny is spilling her guts.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re finding out Michael Jackson’s life was nothing like ours.\u00c2\u00a0 And for that I am somewhat grateful, it allows me to separate myself a bit.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I was too close.<\/p>\n I didn’t buy "Off The Wall".\u00c2\u00a0 "Thriller" neither.\u00c2\u00a0 I never purchased a single Michael Jackson record.\u00c2\u00a0 But in the wake of his death, I found out he lived in my house.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn’t help but spin "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" endlessly, not only to remember him, but to comfort me.<\/p>\n And I’m not the only one.\u00c2\u00a0 Right now, MJ owns nine of the ten top tracks on iTunes.\u00c2\u00a0 And yesterday, he had nine of the top ten albums (as of this writing, he has seven).<\/p>\n How did this happen?\u00c2\u00a0 How is it we can’t truly appreciate someone until he’s gone?<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elvis was before my time.\u00c2\u00a0 When he was swiveling his hips on TV, I was still in diapers.\u00c2\u00a0 By time he surged back to prominence in the sixties, I was pissed that he was displacing the British Invasion superstars.\u00c2\u00a0 But when he died it was weird.\u00c2\u00a0 He was so young! I heard the news as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-live-shows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-xc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2059,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions\/2059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Let that rhythm get into you<\/span>
Don’t try to fight it<\/span>
There ain’t nothin’ that you can do<\/span><\/p>\n
I wanna rock with you (all night)<\/span>
Dance you into day (sunlight)<\/span>
I wanna rock with you (all night)<\/span>
We’re gonna rock the night away<\/span><\/p>\n