I sort of glossed over it in my last entry (I was feeling sad and thus not inclined to share when I wrote it), but I posted the song "Changes" by David Bowie because there are a LOT of changes happening in my life right now. Many of my closest friends are moving away, which is a complicated sadness because I am also moving away, and many of the things I have occupied my life with (like my work and my radio show and my apartment and even this, my blog) are ending.
It's like graduation all over again, which leads me to believe even more strongly in the circular nature of life and time.
AND in the circular nature of music, as I continue to be rocked and rolled by the resurgence of the disco sound.
Which is why I am so pleased to hear this song, by the ghost of Michael Jackson, on the radio.
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The song: Michael Jackson, "Love Never Felt So Good"; 2014
I've written before about my interest in Michael Jackson and what he represents about talent and the nature of childhood. I think there's much more to say about him, culturally speaking, and about the strong reactions he inspires in people. It's been fascinating (if that's the right word to use) to watch the arc of Michael Jackson's public image change so much even in my lifetime as an observer, from his trials in the 1990s to various delicate comebacks to his death and the re-imagining of his life that happened after.
It would be easy to forget in all the discussion of the man himself that he was a brilliant musician. And brilliant often in a seemingly natural way -- from the way his voice stutters and glides like a heartbeat or a breath to his dance moves, like water. But we truly know that his brilliance did not come easily. To say the very, very least.
I love "Love Never Felt So Good" because it feels like the past, the present, and the future AT THE SAME TIME. (Circular nature of time. Also, there's nothing like a great piano groove.) And my favorite thing about Michael Jackson is that, even with everything else he was, he was someone who truly understood how good it feels to just DANCE. To dance in a way that feels inevitable, like there's really nothing else to do.
And that is true in my experience, that sometimes there really is nothing else. So to that end I'd like to share a few more of my favorite Jackson tunes, just in case you happen to need them too.
"When the world is on your shoulder/gotta straighten up your act and boogie down": "Off the Wall", 1979
"Where did you come from, baby/And oooh won't you take me there": "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"; 1983
And BONUS JANET: "Come On Get Up"; 2001
Come on, get up!
Yrs,
AW
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