TheBanyanTree: Remembering a Night in 1983

[B Drummond]

In 1983 I watched Michael Jackson's performance on television while  
he was onstage at the Motown 25th anniversary celebration.

I was so impressed by that performance that I, on a lark, commented  
the next day at work to a colleague that I thought that Michael  
Jackson would be more popular in the future than Elvis Presley ever  
was in his heyday.  My colleague, an African-American, expressed his  
doubts and quickly gave me reasons that Michael Jackson, while  
deserving of accolades for his work, was far from worthy of the level  
of praise he was getting when compared to other black artists of his  
time.

He had very good reasons for his point of view, I did admit,  but,  
fully deserving or not,  I just couldn't shake the belief that  
Michael Jackson was about to go where no other person had gone before  
in popular music. While it's impossible to measure accurately, I'm  
inclined to think my prediction was far from wrong.  Jackson  
skyrocketed to a level of fame that to this day is, to me, nearly  
incomprehensible.

I had no idea though, and couldn't,  in my wildest imaginations, have  
known what that fame would do to Michael Jackson or how bizarre, in  
my mind,  some of his behavior would become.  Heartbreakingly so, the  
fame in Jackson's life became a sadistic taskmaster.   It was  
appalling to watch what happened to him in the years after that  
astronomical level of fame started exacting its unique-to-Michael  
price.  And today, as I watch the non-stop news on the subject, I  
remain torn between two emotions:  complete awe in the level of fame  
that he achieved and utter revulsion of some of the tragic ways that  
it affected him.

Michael Jackson, in his heyday,  was amazing to watch.  To me, his  
best work was done with the blending of his and Quincy Jones' talents  
and the song he did that night on TV back in 1983 still remains my  
favorite Michael Jackson tune.  In retrospect, my opinion of Michael  
Jackson took a 180 degree turn that night in 1983 and that  
performance remains permanently stored in my mind in a compartment  
that I would label:  "Profound effects".