When we first met, girl

131. Michael Jackson - "Remember the Time" (Epic, 1991)

Many writers better than I have written reactions to MJ's death. I've stuck to writing mostly about the songs because, up to this point, this is one of the many moments in my writing life at which I've wanted to make sure to write something really, really good and just ended up writing nothing at all.

But I dunno, kids, even a few weeks after MJ's death and having done a power hour of MJ songs and having written about nothing but his songs here and playing a bunch of songs of his at our party I'm still not particularly over his death in any meaningful way. I guess that's a stupid concept anyway, being "over his death."

But mostly what I want to say is that this is the end of our non-stop MJing. Which doesn't mean that there's no more MJ on the countdown at all, there might be. We're just gonna stop being so exclusive. Holler.

The Way You Make Me Salad

132. Michael Jackson - "The Way You Make Me Feel" (Epic, 1987)



A bright salad for summer.

Ingredients:
- some greens
- red wine (or whatever tasty) vinegar
- extra virgin olive oil
- prepared horseradish
- mustard
- a few radishes
- a ripe (but not overripe) peach

First, make a nice lil' vinaigrette. Combine 1 part prepared horseradish, 1 part mustard (I used a spicy brown today, but I'm the last person in the world that's gonna tell you to not use French's Yellow for anything), and 3 parts red wine vinegar (as with everything, play with other kinds of vinegar if you like. Champagne vinegar is sweet too, cuz, well, don't it just make ya feel fancy) and whisk them together in a small bowl. Then take some olive oil, about as much as you have of the vinegar mixture, and slowly pour it into the bowl while whisking rapidly until the whole thing emulsifies and gets creamy. You could also put the vinaigrette into a jar and shake rapidly, it'll prolly break sooner this way, but whatevs, just shake it again.

Once you have the vinaigrette made. Slice up a radish or two and toss it into a bowl of your favorite greens. Dress the salad lightly with the vinaigrette (it's easy to overdress, I do it all the time, definitely more with salad than with clothes), and top it with some slices of peach and some crumbled Feta cheese.

I am here with you

133. Michael Jackson - "You Are Not Alone (Franctified Club Mix)" (Epic, 1995)

The trivia-minded among us know that "You Are Not Alone" was a) written by R. Kelly and b) MJ's last #1 hit in the US. But I had no clue until after MJ's death that it had an absolute stormer of a remix by Frankie Knuckles. He starts it off like a rather typical, fun Frankie house production, and then some familiar strings come on and he fucks with the rhythm a little, and then, bam! it's "You Are Not Alone" and you can't stop singing along and smiling. In my brief experience with it, it's almost impossible to even think about mixing out of it until there's like 30 seconds to go.

(Also, with my genre preferences/biases fully in view, this is like the exact opposite of the million bootleg mixes that clutter Hype Machine these days)

Gotta leave that nine to five up on the shelf

134. Michael Jackson - "Off the Wall" (Epic, 1979)

This is a smooth little disco number and it prolly has my favorite intro of any MJ song. It's like a coven of party people beckoning you to party. And that ties into what I think is interesting about the lyrics, which is that "Off the Wall" is sung explicitly from the point of view not of a person about to get off work and go party, but rather from someone that parties "night and day". The singer is not a character to identify with, he's beckoning you, the regular working shmoe, to this land of debauchery and luxury. And I totally wanna go, obviously.

the dead start to walk in their masquerade

135. Michael Jackson - "Thriller" (Epic, 1982)

Michael Jackson had twelve number one singles in the US and this wasn't one of them. But am I wrong in thinking that if MJ has one defining single it has to be "Thriller"? No, I'm not. Not saying it's the best (tho maybe it is), but god what an indelible mark on society at large this song is. Prisoners a'dancin' and such. Maybe it benefits from being the title track, you think? Cuz we all think of the album Thriller (cuz how can you not) and, boom, there's a single with the same name? I guess the song's pretty good though, ha. Oh, and there's a video.

I Want You Back

We're still kind of in shock over this MJ thing. So we decided to mourn tonight by getting real drunk, and we're gonna start our journey with this here MJ/J5 Power Hour I just made. The best minutes from 60 of Michael's songs: you know what to do with this.

Michael Jackson Power Hour (sendspace link)

Annie, are you okay?

138. Michael Jackson - "Smooth Criminal" (Epic, 1987)

I think this was my first Favorite Michael Jackson Song. I've had plenty over the years and I'm not actually sure what it is currently, but "Smooth Criminal" is def up there. When this became my first Favorite Michael Jackson Song I prolly hadn't even learned English yet (or was just learning it) and I was like four or five, so I wouldn't have known what a crescendo was anyways. It took me years to figure out what that word in the chorus was; I could've figured it out sooner, I think, but I was completely fine with just singing it phonetically. It's a very cool sounding word, whether you know what it means or not apparently. And then, well, this is one of the coolest videos ever. This is not "effortlessly cool." This obviously takes lots and lots of effort and is that much cooler for it.

You're no damn lover friend of mine

239. Michael Jackson - "Dangerous" (from the Dangerous LP, Epic Records, 1991)

When my friends and I talk about MJ, it's usually Off the Wall/Thriller MJ, so I just want to make sure right quick that we don't forget how great of a record Dangerous is. I'm in sort of an odd position with this album, as I was almost six when it came out and old enough to ask my parents to buy it for me (going over to my aunt's house and listening to her MJ records was one of my favorite things in the world as a youngin, before I moved to Chicago from Poland at age 5), but not old enough to really appreciate all that was going on with Michael Jackson at the time. This was a little less than two years before the charges, but well into the pet chimp, banned music video, plastic surgery stuff, and Mike seems suitably paranoid on many of the tracks, not least of all because of Teddy Riley's hard, new-jack swinging grooves.

The title track here is a long, largely spoken update of "Billie Jean"; Michael's relationship is destroyed by an evil woman and "lust's strange inhumanity", and he seems a lot more pissed off here than on "Billie Jean". Most impressive to me still, though, is the way that Michael whips in and out of choruses and verses both suddenly and effectively enough to break your neck (ex. "my baby walked out the door" at 3 minutes). The man had a gift.