Bill 86.5 928s

Wow...today has been hard on Celebrities.....
first Farrah now Michael Jackson....

jumper5836

beat me to it.

Zookie

wate he is not dead, he had a Heart Attack

88 951S

Unable to revive him.

Zookie

thats very sad

Zeeman28a

It's still unconfirmed.

EDIT: 7:27PM EST - JUST CONFIRMED. He's gone.

RIP Michael.

Bergamasco

Hard to beat the Thriller album. I still like to listen to it once in awhile. Just like Elvis... when he was in his prime he was by far the top ticket item.

Christien

Saw him in 1984 at the Ex, I was 9. About 6 months ago I said he'd either revive his career in a spectacular way, or he'd be dead within a year. I was right, unfortunately.

ontario

Saw him in 1980 at MLG, pre-Thriller, pre-plastic surgery. I don't want to say how old I was. Back then, nobody had any idea about his weirdness. He just seemed very, very cool. He was ripping up the stage with dance moves when rock star choreography consisted of Van Halen leg kicks.

ontario

I actually think Off the Wall was a better album. I never did and still don't like "Beat it".

Sputter

Good old MJ, I guess everyone tends to forget his bought off trials..
Oh yah,,, I just went there.


I suppose one doesn't have anything to do with the other but still, it's tough to separate.
I recall his jackson 5 days and being on the Andy Williams show.

Christien

We were talking this morning about how it would be a real shame if he really was honest, not a child molester, just really liked the company of kids, just like we all do with our own kids - completely innocent. I realize it's really a stretch, and that in all likelihood it wasn't completely innocent. But on that off chance it was, it would have been a real shame to destroy his life the way it was destroyed.

FWIW, I don't believe his death was completely accidental. I have a strong suspicion he had a hand in it.

AHI

I agree.... how could he not be tired of his life by now... being constantly taken advantage of, on the verge of being broke and no true friends left...

It's really sad to think he's dead, I could never picture him old...

MikeBat

My take is that he had a great child-star career, then a super debut with Off the Wall. Truly some great tunes there.

When he followed that up with Thriller, his voice had lost the qualities I prefered, and replaced it with a very fast vibrato, and an overly percussive local style. Like James Brown sped up. Regardless of my preferences, the packaging and songs struke a chord with the audience, and it became the best selling release ever.

Hard to follow that up. You either do an about face and do something completely different, or you try to re-create that magic. He close the latter path, and never reached the same levels of success. He continued to exaggerate and morph the elements that made him so popular, until "like a circus mirror" all that the public could see was a guy in a coustume acting bizarre.

He seemed to spin out of control, spiralling out of the earth's gravity. Medication, surgery, bizarre habits, sillier and sillier clothes, court trials.

In the end, I believe the Elvis comparison is closer then we may believe.... his medications and detachment from reality, greedy entourages and possible underlying medical conditions were the end of him.

RIP

PALETTE

RIP the man who made Music Videos what they are today