a legend died

well… you gotta admit it… love him or hate him, no matter how weird he was to some people, he IS… er… WAS a legend… a legend in the music scene. hey, michael jackson (MJ) was from my era, ya’ know. so i grew up listening to his songs (from the time he was in ‘the jackson 5’ with his brother). i was not really a fan of MJ but i do love his songs and music (though not all), and of course his superb dance moves. (remember he was the one who created and made popular the moon-walk dance?).

i can still remember the very first song of his that i fell in love with was “i’ll be there”. or and also “never can say goodbye”. these songs were sung by him when he was very young (boy or teenage?) together with his brothers as ‘the jackson 5’ group, long before he went solo and became so popular. then of course, there was this beautiful haunting song ‘ben’ too which i like but then suddenly when i discovered that the ‘ben’ there meant a rat (made for a movie… lousy movie i might add), i thought “eek! what?” and suddenly didn’t like that song that much. haha.

later on when he went solo, like many others, i was fascinated by his hit song ‘thriller’ not forgetting the video, though it was kind of a bit frightening video (at that age!). the ‘thriller’ album was his best selling album and rake in a lot of $$$$ for him. the songs ‘beat it’ and ‘billie jean’ which are found in the ‘thriller’ album are two of the songs i like too. like the video for ‘beat it’ showing two rival gangs.

MJ also came up with a few what say i call it… inspirational? songs e.g. ‘man in the mirror’, ‘black and white’, ‘earth song’, ‘heal the world’. the best of all is ‘heal the world’ (video below) which i notice had been used many times by speakers organising events/forums/seminars, including our catholic church. i like the lyrics of the songs and the meaning behind it.

(note: at this site, you can see MJ’s album listed out, where you can get all the lyrics of the songs in the album.)

MJ3 i first heard of MJ’s death through my colleague yesterday morning. immediately i quickly get on the net to check the news… but i did not go to local media (like my 2 favourite – the malaysian insider and malaysiakini), instead i straight away went to CNN to look up the news. then later on, at home, i also browse through other foreign media, e.g. BBC, ABC, the guardian and so on (those links i have on my sidebar here).

i was amused to read in CNN that MJ’s news of his death almost brought the web down! see, such was this man’s fame! i bet even during these few days search engines will record (a record of?) very high hits on MJ’s name. and of course many radio stations will be playing his songs now and then. not forgetting, there will be a rush to buy his album too! hmm… maybe i ought to buy the ‘thriller’ album. uh oh but in that album i only like 3 songs (out of the 9 songs). i guess i better turn to the web for help then – download the songs that i like!

although i’m not a fan of the king of pop, MJ and i know he had a number of controversy issues behind him, nevertheless i still admire him as one of the greatest musician in the world. (the other one i admire as greatest musician in the world is the king of rock n’ roll, his father-in-law – elvis presley!)