Where were you when you heard? My wife and I were relaxing in the sitting room of the Dingle Skellig Hotel when we heard that Michael Jackson had died. An elderly couple across the room had the Irish Examiner and were poring over the news.
I remember the day he played in Cork. I lived in Blackrock, only a mile and a bit from the stadium, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, where he played to a sold out audience. That day my French exchange student arrived by ferry and spent the evening in bed recovering from the trip. I hung around the house since I didn’t want to be away in case he woke up.
I could hear the glorious pop tunes from my front door and I longed to walk down and sneak into the grounds around the stadium for a better listen, but nooooo, I bloody well stayed at home. He never woke up. He slept through until the morning! Argh!
Thankfully my wife has better memories of the day. She was there, and even before today she’s said it was the best concert she’s been to. She has mentioned it several times over the years. She remembers the 15 year old teenager with tears of joy as MJ sang “Man in the Mirror”. She went on and on about how he played all his hits rather than pushing “the new stuff” nobody knew yet.
*Sigh*. Jean-Jacques, I wonder if you’ll ever read this. I don’t hold it against you, but I should have had the sense to wander off down there!
Edit: a few more posts about Michael Jackson:
- MS Paint Portrait
- A mashup of “Rock With You” and (Queen and?) David Bowie’s “Under Pressure”.
- Did you know MJ registered a patent?
I was on Twitter as the first reports spread. It was strange to realise, in that instant, that 2009 will be remembered, overwhelmingly, as the year that Twitter arrived and Michael Jackson left.
I hear this news when come to work. in First minutes i can not believe in it. How he can die? so simply? But in my opininio there are some chanse that it is the marketing trick. and maby after years be get knew that he is alive and start his concert tour.
I hate to sound like a heartless scumbag, but the only downside to this is the tons of wacko jacko garbage on the telly we have to suffer through.
Didn’t his talent die almost twenty years ago?
I did sneak into the grounds for that concert. I remember having a conversation with a drunk guy about how button flies were the worst invention ever and how he wanted to eat a swan.
MJ was a good singer and weird ass human. I tend to remember the weird ass part and not the singer part. He was the King of Pop but by definition you are only the king of pop for a very short time. His time had passed for his career and I wish newspapers and TV would stop spending so much time reporting on his death and concentrate on real issues.
Well he had a great talent he shared with everyone.
But what words to put on his tombstone, perhaps:
“He touched us all”
About an hour before the news broke, I learned that my cat just died in surgery, so I went to the vet to see him one last time and came out of the surgery room and saw on the tv that MJ died. Talk about a sad day in my life.
I remember I was in class when I overheard some other students talking about it, I didnt even believe them but found out it was true when I got home. I listened to Michael Jackson music non stop for the next week, too bad I never got to see him perform.
Can’t wait to hear his unreleased songs though!!