In Memory

In 1983 my family went to Panama City Beach in Florida. Our hotel room had HBO and they were showing an endless loop of Poltergeist and the video for Michael Jackson's 'Beat It.' This is where it all began people. Prior to this vacation I did not listen to pop or rock music. In the car or at home it was either country or oldies music if it wasn't southern gospel. But this summer my whole world changed, a new world of music and hysteria. And at the center was Michael Jackson. During the following years of Thriller's reign at the top of the charts I asked multiple times for the record but my Dad was not having any of it. His response was always, "I just don't think that Michael Jackson is a good role model for you." I have never owned a copy of Thriller to this day.

One of the things that Michael Jackson did do was to make the music video VERY popular. MTV was still in its infancy and we did not have cable but a new show on NBC named Friday Night Videos was just on the horizon and every week I would stay up late to try and catch a glimpse of Billie Jean or Beat It. It was all about Michael Jackson and that obsession hit a peek with the release of the 'Thriller' video. That was the one that put everything over the top. It was also the peak of my interest in his music. Some time after that juggernaut hit the airwaves I became interested in metal and hard rock and the Michael Jackson years started fading into the distance. But what a magical ride it was.

These days I'm a bigger fan of his Off The Wall album and his stuff with the Jackson 5. 'Don't Stop ('til you Get Enough)' regularly makes the rounds of in my iPod. But one other piece of Michael Jackson history that I have on my iPod is the video for 'Thriller.' When I was making my music video play list there was no way that video wouldn't be there. It was the watermark that everything else has been compared against. His music will live on long after his passing is a distant memory. Very few people touch the world the way he did and he will be missed.