Friday, July 03, 2009

Michael Jackson

On my bedside table I do have this small radio which I usually leave on, tuned to the BBC with volume turned very low. If there is a piece of news that would be of significance to me, I am jolted awake--I don't know how this phenomenon works, but it has happened many times. I guess ears don't quite turn off when one is asleep.
It is thus I got to be one of the first to learn of Michael Jackson - The King of Pop - had just completed HIStory, had passed. The rest is history--not HIStory.
I recall the old days when we didn't have FM radio stations, even radio cassette players were few and far apart. Audio field was ruled by vinyl disks (I still have about 100 albums, very well preserved, I'm gonna see how to get this Sony vinyl album player that can help lifting music onto hard disk of computer, then on CD). There was The Michael.
Michael's is one sad story- from being walloped by his dad while still a little boy so that he could make him money by performing, to his well-meant slumber parties with kids, misinterpreted and seized by gold-diggers. Like Pink Floyd sang in Crazy Diamond, it was Michael they had been singing about: what about being caught in the crossfire, childhood stardom, random precision and several other descriptive clauses!

The Michael was a gifted talent like no other. He was a genius. To me any of his songs is superb, I'd go crack to try to figure which I like more.
Bye Michael. You done me proud. You showed the way: you were there on the podium long before The Kobe, The Shaq, The Oprah, The Tiger, President Obama.

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond "

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!


[ www.azlyrics.com ]