As a teenager chasing pop music in 1980, it was always a tough ask to get our hands on new music back then. Me? I knew someone who knew someone who was cabin crew with Air India so there would be LPs filtering in every now and then. “Have you heard Michael Jackson”? she asked.
“Never” I replied, instinctively picturing a young white dude, maybe like David Cassidy. “But did you get my Billy Joel LP?” I asked.“Forget Billy Joel, this guy is much better” she said, as she gave me a copy of ‘Off The Wall’.
Oh no! It’s a black dude! “So, is it like Pink Floyd’s The Wall” I enquired.
She smirked, told me I would thank her tomorrow, and left.
I have to admit that I was attracted to disco music for an extremely short time and playing ‘Off The Wall’ was socially embarrassing for me in 1980. For someone into The Police, REO Speedwagon and Floyd, the gender-bender Jackson vibe was just too cold. Plus, where are the guitars man? With just a single spin, the LP was back in its smiling cover, replaced by the reassuring crunch of AC/DC’s Back in Black.
Cut to 1984: Doordarshan is somehow showing western music videos once a week. The whole gang is sitting in front of the TV, dying to know what exactly our rock stars look like. Billie Jean comes on. And within 30 seconds, all of us knew we were watching something special. The loud banter suddenly died. Open mouthed we watched this matchstick man dance like no person before. And was this even a dance? Then came the moonwalk step. Shucks! How the heck did he do that? All of us are on our feet now, the TV volume was turned up and we started clapping and dancing. Of course it was over all too soon, but the man had made his mark on everyone who absorbed that video. Thriller soon occupied the cassette shelves of everybody, while one of us was even the owner of that red Michael Jackson jacket. Me? I started showing my socks, since the moonwalk was just impossible to do.
Cut to 1993: MTV was part of our life before the channel discovered Bollywood. And Michael had just released ‘Dangerous’. By now, the singer had already started spending his millions on plastic surgery, and was slowly mutating into a gender all his own. And the first single ‘Black Or White’ drove its message of racial harmony in a easily missed twist of reverse irony. Here was a black man’s body trapped in a white man’s mind who was living out his fantasy. The nose sharpened, the lips thinned and the skin lightening was a God sent ailment. What is he saying in the song? That it’s OK to alter one’s looks as long as one is a good human being? Or, as long as one is a good human being, why should a change of look matter anyway?
Cut to 1996: Encouraged by visits from Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi and er, Deep Purple, Michael Jackson’s 1996 History Tour decides to perform in Bombay and Delhi. This still is a huge event as far as rock shows go in India. As seen on You-Tube now, this is the show that blew everyone away with its so far unseen combination of choreography, sound and lasers. To really understand how big Michael Jackson was, you just have to recall that in a show of incontrovertible hypocrisy, even perennial pop-culture vigilante Bal Thackeray invited him to his place. There’s really no meatier yardstick to gauge his popularity than this, is there?
Cut to 2009: Inspite of all the allegations, public humiliation, near bankruptcy and a life where he could never blow his nose again, Michael Jackson will only be remembered for the artist he was. He was on the verge of yet another comeback attempt with a staggering 50 sold out shows starting July. He was rehearsing his legs off, recording new songs and one cannot even imagine the kind of show he would put up to prove his point. But in a sudden twist of fate, we have not only lost an entertainer who reached higher than anyone else, but an inspiration to all for whom the world is a stage.
