Michael Jackson at his best. Truly mesmerising. Take No Prisoner attitude and timed perfection, a pro at his best doing what he is truly great at - entertaining the world.
I was thinking very hard about Michael Jackson ever since news of his passing hits me. I wasn't intent on writing about him on my blog as quite simply, I thought he or any other pop stars would and should not affect me anymore. He was a product of my pre-pubescent years, and I remembered in primary five (1983) when I was astounded to learn that the voice on the radio singing Beat It was that of a man, a man whom I later learn to Michael Jackson.
Part of the reason of the sense of detachment over his death, I guess was that you 'out-grew' your pop stars once you hit your mid 30s, they (pop starts, et all) no longer become the moral, style, wardrobe compass or any compass at all. All I ever did was to get his Essential CD Collection and last I heard his songs was on a road trip to Malaysia. So I tried to detach, delete and move on. I believe the loss would be more terribly felt by the 30 somethings who never outgrew Michael and those of who idolise him would be the rightful ones to mourn over his death. The last 'mourning period' that I went through for someone not from my family was over Princess Diana's death. That took me a while to shake it off, and even till now when I hear Elton John's rendition of 'Candle in the Wind' I go queasy so I knew that I need to stay away from thinking about Micheal's death. It was easy as not listening to his music for some time and the lack of news from him, made it possible for me to get his death out of my system until...
Days after his death, news on TV, footages of young, black and white Jackson came on, Fir and Dada started asking me more about Michael Jackson. They asked me why was he great? What I knew about him? and was he like Justin Timberlake?.
I was going like 'What? How can anyone compare the dance maestro to Timberlake? You mean you guys never seen Michael sing or dance before?' , I retorted. And then reality sank in, that is when I realise that Micheal's music had stopped playing for a while and a whole generation grew up not knowing who he was.
This is a story that happened in 1987.
I was in Class 3G in an all boys school and it was the time of the year when most of us knew that a mega event was about to happen. Michael Jackson’s BAD Album has just been sold off the shelves in music stores in Singapore the day before. I went to school that day not thinking that it would be a memorable day. During the second period, the boys in my class was hushing and whispering to each other. A friend of mine (forgotten his name) has just gotten hold of the tape. We were supposed to have listening comprehension exercise, and we were supposed to go to the language lab for listening comprehension when the second period ends. Our English teacher, a strict no nonsense lady would be waiting for us at the door to the lab and we better hurry and walk in an orderly fashion to avoid her wrath.
Language labs in those days were specially built rooms with cubicles and every student would be sitting in one with a headphone over his ears. The idea was to learn language through listening. It was a technique that was quite popular in those days and I believed it has something to do with phonics. But in, reality it was quite funny as at times the voices we hear in our headphones had a funny accent and you could hear some of the boys imitating the twang and pronouncing them loudly in their cubicles. It was hilarious, as at times we had to listen to English dialogue from a British, American as well as an Australian speaker and recite it afterward and strive for diction, enunciation and clarity. Oh boy, those were the days.!
Anyway we made our way to the language labs and we were running late as there was now excitement in the air and we were all wanting to get a view of BAD’s album cover. In doing so, we caused quite a bit of commotion. Not only were we late, and had our teacher waiting, but we knew our friend was in deep, deep trouble as Miss Kaur had spotted the tape as it was being passed from one boy to the other. I felt sad for the person who brought the tape to school as such items were considered ‘contraband’ in those days and would be confiscated by any teacher.
The teacher was a young, pretty, energetic Punjabi lady and we could all see the frustration and grimace on her face as she held the tape in her hands. We all figured out that she would confiscate the tape straightaway. But guess what? That did not happen!
What did happen was quite the opposite. She told the class that she would do something different. It was going to extra special. She closed the door of the language lab, told us all to proceed to our cubicles and she inserted the tape into the master console. It was from that point onwards that we had twenty minutes of audio ecstasy, for all 40 of us, boys from 3G in Gan Eng Seng School in 1987 never knew what had made our teacher play that tape and we all heard Michael Jackson that day. For some it was their first experience listening to him. For me my first was in 1984, when Beat It came on air. On that day, we listened to BAD, Man in the Mirror, The Way You make me feel and Dirty Diana among others.
However the one that I liked most that day and the one I like till today from Michael Jackson is none other than Smooth Criminal. It was the chorus, and straining the ears trying to figure out what he was singing that ‘took me off my seat’. You bet, my listening skills were on overdrive mode that day. It was also the groovy, guttural, bass rock that one hears in the opening sequence that drew me to the song. By the end of the song, I was visibly palpitating, my heart pounded heavily and I heaved a 'whoo whooo' once the song ended.
Who would guess that we would hear Michael Jackson in our school that day? And who would believe that Miss Kaur our strict English teacher would be our friend in crime? But more importantly, who would believe that on that day Michael Jackson became our idol.? From that day onwards whenever I need a perk me up song, it would be Smooth Criminal. The funny thing from all of this, is that Miss Kaur was never able to quite become the strict teacher that she once was. She became our cool, Michael loving teacher, and we all knew that he had a great, cool teacher. Often when we passed her, we could now see her smile and the twinkle in her eye, says it all. We loved her dearly.
Smooth Criminal became more than just a song to me and some of my buds. This was an anthem that rouses body and soul and if you had seen the music video , if you had seen Michael in his ‘take no prisoner dance moves’ you would not disagree with me.
This was the song of the 80s that has tremendous impact on most of us, male late 30 something Singaporeans today. For Michael was truly great the time I heard him in 87 and now. I wish that he found the peace that he has always been seeking for in his life. Thank You sincerely for all the memories. The beat is still in all of us who listened to you that day till the rest of our lives. Thank You also to Miss Kaur and to my friend who bought the tape that day!
To my teenage idol, Michael Jackson, as how your brother Jermaine had said on CNN 'May Allah be with you all the time'. Inna illa wa inna illa Ro jiuin'. You may be forgotten, but the beat lives on in all of us. Thank You.!
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