Dance The Night Away

One of the greatest, if not the greatest, pop stars of our days is dead.



This performance by Michael Jackson at the 25th anniversary of Motown Records sealed his fate as a legendary performer, and set a standard of dance and showcraft impossible to maintain into his 40s and 50s :



But this is the clip that I think showed him at his best. Great song.

Rock With You

So many great songs.

Jackson was facing 50 sold-out concerts in London, new tickets were still being sold yesterday, where this 50 year old man would be expected to perform, if not as good as he did in his 20s and 30s, then still magnificently.

Big call.

Michael Jackson died a week and a half before the first London concert. When he held his press conference in March, he expected, or hoped, to sell out ten shows in London. He woke the morning after the press conference to learn that 50 concerts had been announced and mostly sold out. Jackson had planned to take his new show around the world, to Africa, Australia, Asia, and back home. But imagine being 50 years old and heading out on a world tour, of stadiums, of huge arenas, after completing 50 shows in one city.

But few who brought tickets for the London shows will demand a refund. A ticket to those London concerts will quickly triple in value, and so the $100 million or so those 50 London dates would have brought in will not have to be refunded.

It would appear, at this time, that Michael Jackson either died from an accidental drug overdose, or a very purposeful overdose, self-administered or otherwise.

The evening news across the US were preparing to lead with the death of Farrah Fawcett. The news of Michael Jackson's death quickly shunted aside that story.