Michael Jackson - King of Pop 01 (Jun 09 - Dec 11)

[LenaHuat]

I have just read Winston's post in the thread "School of Hard Knocks" about investors having missed this terrific rally since March because : They did not know what they did not know.

MJ knew what he did not know. And so he wrote all that 'unknown' stuff down in the notebook and that's when the research began. To-date, I've spent almost $400 buying up all the tributes on MJ. The most impressionable is the one by Ebony, the magazine by, for and about African-Americans. Berry Gordon talked about how hard MJ worked - researching, researching, researching so as to get all of his music (the lyrics, the video content, the shoots) right. There is no success without hardwork.

[LenaHuat]

Let me continue my soliloquy on MJ Is any1 still reading this thread??

The following interview with Cory Rooney and Chris Apostle, the top Sony executives who worked with MJ at the peak of his career is the most fascinating interview I've read 2date.

Chris Apostle is also known as Tommy Mottola, whom MJ infamously called "The Devil" during some unusually emotionally heated moments in London. But in my true humble opinion, he's paid MJ some of the best compliments:

The thing that I’m so brutally offended about and it’s only a rumor, but it’s something I really believe, but I really think he got blackmailed in that whole scandal thing. I think at some point the truth will come out. This man gave people millions and millions of dollars to philanthropic stuff. Never comes out what he did. I think his reactions were natural and I’m sure he was getting pushed. If you look at the quality of his work Chris, go back to Off The Wall, which is my favorite Michael Jackson record. But every single record, I don’t care if you go to Dangerous, any single one, these records are perfect, blue book standard records, nothing but hits.


Cory and I sat in an office at Sony once and watched a concert, a live DVD. A colleague of ours Ron Grant called us in and said, ‘You guys want to watch something?’ And we’re figuring alright, middle of day, we’ll watch something for five to ten minutes. It was unedited, two and a half hours from a stadium at Brazil. He never stopped working for two and a half hours. The point that I would love to make about him is that he’s not getting enough play for what he has contributed to the world musically. He’s probably, arguably the greatest musician we’ll ever see in our lifetime. You’ll never see anything like this again. That has to be discussed and mentioned.”

They go on different tours. They start playing the casinos. They start picking up the city festivals, the package tours, etc. This guy was forced, he was forced to go lower than an artist should ever have to go. It wasn’t because of lack of skill. Something about Michael that people don’t realize is I would call him a musicologist. This guy knew every song, ever recording, every studio, the whole Sun Studios thing, Memphis, Motown, New York, LA, everywhere. He knew everything. The musicians. The instruments. The mics. No one talks about this. No one discusses this and it’s unbelievable. And by the way, unlike Elvis, this guy was doing it still for 43 years. 43 years Chris. My God man.”

Cory, on the other hand, humanized many facets abt MJ. His revelations helps us to understand the 'price' and 'pain' for MJ's success and why he was so weird.

His health issues:

CR: “I know for a fact he had health issues. That’s number one. Michael Jackson had other health issues that never were discussed like what is called dancer’s feet. Dancer’s feet is when your feet over years of dancing, a dancer wraps their feet to dance. You wrap them in tape and things like that. But of course because you don’t get enough oxygen skin dries up. Your skin starts to crack and splint, almost like paper cuts and Michael suffered bad with that.


What would happen is sometimes it be so bad he’d have to wrap his feet in a cast. That’s why sometimes you would see him with a cast on. The pains of that was excruciating. And yeah, was he on the painkillers for that? Yeah. I’m sure he was. I never physically seen him take a pill or a painkiller, but I’ve definitely spoken to him about it. Now whatever the autopsy shows, whatever the true factor on how this man has gone from here becomes it’s all still a result of what this business has done to him period. It’s all a result of what the business did to him.”

CR: “This was years ago. I’m going to go back probably eight years ago and Michael told me, ‘Cory, I can’t tour anymore. I’m not gonna tour anymore. Ok?’ I said, ‘why Mike?’ He said, ‘Because it will kill me.’ That’s what he said to me. He said, ‘It will kill me.’ Why would you say something like that? He said, ‘Well, remember when I was preparing for my concert and I passed out at the Sony Studio?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s because when I get ready for a tour I get dehydrated. I don’t eat. I don’t drink. I don’t sleep. I put so much of myself into preparing for a tour.’


He said, ‘I’m not doing it on purpose. This is just something I don’t think about anymore. You understand? I’ve just become so driven that I can’t even think about these things anymore. They made me walk around with an IV last time. He said, ‘So I just decided, my doctors decided that maybe you shouldn’t do this anymore. He said he wanted to make the Invincible album work to the point where that was it. He’s done with the tour. He’s gonna do this Invincible album. He wanted to continue to put out albums. He said, ‘I’ll do albums till I can’t do it anymore, but I just can’t tour.’

The Russian-born Japanese doctor who treated MJ during 4 of his Tokyo concerts has also given an interview abt MJ's health issues. He confirmed the point that MJ needed IV for severe dehydration after his concerts.

CR: “Let me explain to you what was said to me directly from Michael. Michael and I spoke about that. He said, ‘Cory, when I was a kid, I was denied not only a childhood but I was denied love. When I reached out to hug my father, he didn’t hug me back. When I was scared on an airplane, he didn’t put his arm around me and say Michael, don’t worry. It’s going to be ok. When I was scared to go on stage, he said, ‘Get your ass on this stage.’ Not just him, but every other adult around him.


So he said to me ‘Cory, I will never deny a child love and if it means that I have to be crucified or put in jail for it, then that’s just what they’re gonna have to do.’ When it was time for him to stand trial, the first time he went through it, his advisors told him, ‘Michael, this is not good. Pay this kid off and let’s keep moving.’ Second time he said, ‘You know what? All that did was make me look guilty like I was hiding something. So this time there won’t be any payoffs. I’m going to fight this in court. You’ll see. I’ll be innocent.’

To read the complete interview, here's the link:-
http://thesportsinterview.com/mjackson.html

Asked abt the major influences on him, MJ used to list James Brown, Fred Astaire.......but I think there were at least 3 others, Charlie Chaplain, Gregory Peck and Bruce Lee.

His favourite song, according to brother Jermaine, was Charlie's 'SMILE'.

Here are 2 verions of the song.
The first is sung by MJ with a CC video clip.
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Click to view video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmw1yYRdDOM

The second is sung by CC.
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Click to view video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b67uA_TZVVM&feature=related

[LenaHuat]

This market won't go anywhere in Aug and so I'll continue to indulge in the MJ frenzy.

And's a video of MJ visiting the military families at Camp Zama, Japan.
Wow, he flew in a Blackhawk:

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Click to view video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqYPyxsSH0Y

[Poles]

this is my 1st time reading this thread.....you must be a great MJ fan....

[LenaHuat]

Hi Poland

A million Thank Q Q for responding. I was getting tired of talking to myself.
Yes, I am a great MJ fan. I have learnt alot from this entertainer. I like his attitude of continually pushing the envelope and flying in other's faces. It's very American. And I admire this daring spirit.

[millionairemind]

Lena,

I faithfully read the thread.. cos' I am a big fan too

You just need to look at the hit rate on this thread to know that alot of ppe. reading the good stuff you've been posting

Cheers,
mm

[LenaHuat]

Here, U can watch a fresh-faced Michael @22 years of age belting his heart out, "She's out of my life".
The song was originally reserved for Frank Sinatra but Quincy Jones gave it to MJ. He said everyone from Motown sings high.

Quincy Jones, producer of "Off the Wall" and "Thriller", recalled that the production team made 8 to 11 takes of the song. Each time, Michael would sniffle at the end on the word "Life". At the end, Quincy decided to leave it as the tears were real and so meant to be.

It's a 3:35 minute clip and MJ could only gather a 1 second direct look at the camera.
Enjoy it, fellow MJ fans.

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Click to view video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF0o-W5uu8o

[mojo_]

One more item (investment?) for Mademoiselle L to add to her collection..

Jackson's glittery moonwalk glove to be auctioned
Posted: 14 August 2009 0901 hrs



NEW YORK : The shiny glove Michael Jackson wore during his first performance of the moonwalk goes on auction this November - with the current owner hoping to earn 40,000 to 60,000 dollars.

The left-handed glove was part of Jackson's outfit for the 1983 performance of "Billie Jean" during a television special marking the 25th anniversary of Motown.

It goes on the block November 21, five months after Jackson's death, at a "Music Icons" sale run by Julien's Auctions at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York's Times Square.

Julien's estimates fans will bid as high as 60,000 dollars for an item that started life as a regular leather golf glove labelled "Made in Korea."

Unlike Jackson's usual single gloves, which he wore on the right hand, this is for the left and was hurriedly decorated with rhinestones instead of the characteristic hand-sewn crystals.

What the glove lacks in artisanal quality, it makes up for in pop history.

Jackson wore it along with a fedora during his first performance of the legendary backwards dance known as the moonwalk.

The owner, Walter "Clyde" Orange, was a member of the Commodores group when Jackson gave him the glove at the Motown tribute.

"He stole the show that night during his solo performance of 'Billie Jean,' in what has now become the famous night he debuted the moonwalk and changed the face of music and dance, catapulting him to superstardom," Orange says in a letter accompanying the glove.

"When I once again asked him for his autograph, Michael gave me the glove he wore that night instead."

The glove headlines an auction featuring other Jackson memorabilia and items once belonging to Madonna, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other music big names.

- AFP/il

[LenaHuat]

Whoa...I luv this idea but my pocket isn't deep enough to enable action upon it.

Michael said that he did not give away his rhinestone gloves easily. In his later show days, these were replaced aplenty by crystal gloves.

In 2001, he spoke at Oxford Union, Oxford University. He talked about giving his rhinestone gloves to a yong cancer patient who was a fan of his. The child subsequently died and was buried with his glove.
And this is the oft-quoted line from his speech:

"If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with."

You can listen to him at :
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[LenaHuat]

Sharing 2 fantastic tributes to MJ.

The first is in Stockholm. It's a flash mob dance. It's beautiful.
I have a fondness for Scandinavians. I always try to look for them as tenants:

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Click to view video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1aA8VMRHcE

I have watched many Youtube vidoes of MJ's Bad, Dangerous and History tours.
In my true humble opinion, the 1997 History concert at Gottenburg, Sweden has MJ performing his heart out for the rapturous n warm audience. It's my fav concert video....numbers 1 to 10+++.
Sample this :

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Click to view video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnHHUi46QOM&feature=PlayList&p=2904A5DCF478735F&index=8

Secondly, I'm posting this beautiful saxophone tribute by FAMU summer camp students:
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Click to view video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuU9yeh1Kgg
I have had a greatly enjoyable experience at an American summer camp. It's a great American creation.