Gina

http://pitchfork.com/news/37257-michael-jackson-film-coming-to-dvd/

I just linked a link, which is fairly pointless, but thousands of music geeks, including myself, look at that site every day, so consider that that link was your 30-second commercial slot during Thursday night Must See TV. Or something. Either way, congratulations on more exposure for your Excellence-striving ways, Vern.

Thanks for writing such an eloquent and truthful review of Michael’s This Is It. You hit the nail on the head for me for sure. Even now the media dogs, especially Diane Dimond, are trying to eat Michael alive, er, dead, for money, money, money. They ought to get out and get real jobs and leave the family of a wonderful artist and humanitarian alone. Of course he wasn’t perfect. He was human with flaws like all of us, but he tried to make the world a better place and put his money where his mouth was unlike the vast majority of the celebrities. He was a real person and This Is It makes that very clear. I feel every day for his children who at some point, will be confronted by the allegations that continued to haunt him even after he was acquitted by a jury of ordinary folks. Three cheers for his attorney Tom Mesereau and for Aphrodite Jones who after the acquittal studied the evidence and wrote and self-published (because no publisher would even consider publishing it) her book The Michael Jackson Conspiracy. If you haven’t gotten a copy, go to her web site http://www.aphroditejones.com and buy a copy and read it. (I do not work for or even know Ms. Jones and this endorsement was not solicited by her or paid for by anyone. It’s just my opinion.)

http://cgi.ebay.com/MICHAEL-JACKSON-in-CAPTAIN-EO-by-WALT-DISNEY_W0QQitemZ380173786802QQcmdZViewItemQQptZArt_Prints?hash=item58841f9eb2

I prefer THRILLER because the one major thing holding back BAD for me is that…”The Man in the Mirror” does absolutely NOTHING for me. “Liberian Girl” is OK.

At that point, MJ had become the “genius” and well, who’s going to argue with him at that point? The Jones-produced OFF THE WALL and THRILLER were just so fucking tight, that even the weak shit…I’m looking at you “The Girl is Mine”…has a place at the table. It has a purpose, even if technically it could have been kicked out. Sum greater whole than individually, you know the ABBEY ROAD effect.

Didn’t know about HISTORY’s…well, history. I do remember that “Scream” video, but nothing much of the song itself. What happened to that 3rd disc of music? I’m reminded of THE WALL losing a disc, and Pink Floyd putting that shit (with tweaking) into THE FINAL CUT.

And speaking of which Vern – Your thoughts on the Yankovic parodies? Kinda strange how he’ll outlive MJ and still record new stuff. Then again, he outlived Kurt Cobain so its nothing new.

RRA – Well, I never knew the story until reading Rolling Stone’s tribute to MJ, but HIStory started as only a greatest hits album. The record company wanted to put something out since he was taking forever to do a new album. But he wanted to make some new tracks to make it more worthwhile, and ended up so productive they had to cut tons of it off (I think it said they almost made a third disc).

I feel your pain though, I actually didn’t buy it when it was new for that reason, and it’s why I haven’t bought the “This Is It” album even though I want those demos.

I also partly agree with you. I like things on all of his albums, but I think Bad is my favorite and then after that the albums are all mixed bags. I don’t like the new jack swing style he got into starting with Dangerous. HIStory is interesting though because of how angry he is and how complicated the beats are. I can imagine him beatboxing those to the producers. I really like “Scream” but you remember that one I’m sure.

I actually think Invincible is underrated though. I fucking hate “2000 Watts,” and “The Lost Children” is a little much, but most of the rest I like. I would especially point to “Unbreakable,” which takes on new meaning now. The first time I listened to it after he died it was making me sad because he’s talking about people trying to put him down and how he’ll always be there, he’s unbreakable. And he sings:

“You can try to stop me, but it wont do a thing
no matter what you do, I’m still gonna be here
Through all your lies and silly games
I’m a still remain the same, I’m- un- break-a-ble!”

Just then I was thinking no, but they finally did it, they finally did break you, you’re not still gonna be there. But then it goes into a posthumous verse by Biggie Smalls. And I realized he’s right, he’s eternal now, the way Biggie is. Too late for anybody to stop that.

My favorite songs on the album are the love songs though, especially “Butterflies.” I don’t like modern R&B and I’m not generally into love ballads unless it’s Al Green or something, but he just makes that song incredible.

http://songza.fm/~2cna4f

Of course I’m of the view that after BAD, Jackson either lost his edge, got soft, went complacent on his title as “King of Pop,” whatever you want to call it.

Honestly, I can’t come immediately to mind any song in the post-BAD era that I liked.

Though I suppose HISTORY was better than INVINCIBLE. Slightly.

Vern – Any suggestions from HISTORY that I should check out and reconsider?

You mentioned the Dangerous and Bad tour but I am surprised you didn’t mention M.J. History tour he had back in the 90s. I think it was a pretty good concert minus the fact he mostly lip synch the concert citing illnesss for not singing most songs live.

Youtube has a lot of clips of these concerts on there so check it out when you can.

Not sure if I am allowed to post this here but check out his beginning set for his History Tour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mkzqdx021k