HE WAS SO TALENTED. Not just as a dancer, but as vocalist: his voice was amazing. If you compare some of the few recordings where he sings genuinely sweetly with his normal style, you hear how ANGRY he was... At what? Who knows.
One talent we don't ordinarily associate with Michael Jackson was his ability to act in a totally naturalistic manner.
Yes, perhaps he was playing versions of himself, but haven't legions of Hollywood actors, who neither dance nor sing, made long careers doing the same ..?
Apparently in his 20s, when he was still goodlooking, Michael wanted to make a career in the movies but was put off by his music management, who perhaps thought they would lose their cut to film agents.
Here's a complete Michael Jackson actor's filmography
1979: The Wiz 136 mins. All-black remake of The Wizard of Oz costarring Diana Ross. Michael plays the Scarecrow, but most of the time you can barely see him under a half-tonne of ridiculous makeup...
1983: Thriller 14 mins.
1986: Captain Eo ~ 17 mins. Originally shot in 3D and shown in Disney's theme parks in California, Florida, France and Japan to packed houses. It's now available online (you can watch it here). But don't expect much. The script is seriously dire.
1987: Bad. Scorsese-directed. Like Thriller the video falls into two parts. For the first 8 mins he plays a late-teenage student from a rundown neighbourhood in New York being taunted by Wesley Snipes about his "posh" school and for not being "bad" enough. Second part is an extended performance of the song, with acapella ending...
1988: Moonwalker 89 mins. Opens with "isn't Michael amazing!" retrospective, then Michael has to rescue three children from the evil Mr Big (who threatens to inject one with heroin ~ ironic, considering how MJ died). Includes songs Badder (parody of Bad), Speed Demon, Leave Me Alone, Smooth Criminal, Come Together. Was cinema-released in UK and Europe. Straight to video in USA.
1996/7: Ghosts 40 mins. Considering his squeaky-clean image MJ had a weird obsession with all things creepy. MJ plays a "weirdo" living alone in a creepy mansion and the town Major, who wants rid of him. He performs 3 songs: 2 Bad, Ghosts and Is It Scary
... and that's it. Such a shame he didn't do more...
Here's BAD. The part you haven't seen is probably part one. Now tell me Michael Jackson can't act!
FULL 16-MINUTE VERSION OF THE VIDEO
Directed by Martin Scorsese:
Part 1
Here's an 8-minute self-contained short film. No music (that's in part 2). Michael playing schoolkid named Darrel...
Part 2
Link: Michael Jackson List of Unreleased Material (fascinating...)
Gledwood, We do find you very interesting, I LOVE your blog too. The doggies, birds, and the little furry guys too.
ReplyDeleteYOU are absolulely correct, all junkies, addicts aren't scum, grandma stealing handbag's etc. Trying to do my own blog, still surviving thirty years on methadone, I need to detox and am scared shitless.
Keep on writing
Blessings,
Maureen
Hey Gled! Just want to let you know that i made my blog for invites only. But this is only temporary, until i know if my boyfriend will be ok and how the situations goes on. I can write much more freely like that right now.
ReplyDeleteI would need your e-mail address to add you to my blog though. Now it's good i have my useless my-space address, were i don't care about getting spammed.
Please send me an e-mail to sirius-x@myspace.com
I don't know how this works exactly. I never made my blog for invites only. But i already added a few people to my blog. Seems like you'll get an ivite when i add you to my blog with your e-mail.
Hope to hear from you soon. You also can check on my twitter anytime: https://twitter.com/_mina_
Bye for now,
Mina.
He did have a lot of talent but perhaps never really knew who he was. Sad.
ReplyDeleteI miss him. Now when I hear his music on the radio, it makes me sad.
ReplyDeleteHe was fantastically talented without a doubt, but who in their right might has that much plastic surgery? :(
ReplyDeleteHi everzbodz aargh bloodz German kezboard again!!!
ReplyDeleteHi everybody. In Germany Ys and Zs are swapped round. Anyway...
Maureen thank you v much for your message. I'm intrigued now... where are you? I was trying to work out whether you're American or not. I cannot tell. Best of luck with the detoxification if u do it. I'd be scared diarrhoealess too ;-) ;-)
Mina I had terrible trouble with email yesterday, culd not even log in so have to try today. Akh!
Syd he was so angry... about something. Always anger!
SB did you notice how after he died millions of people who'd never be seen dead buying a copy of Dangerous or History or whatever, suddenly came out as fans! I remember being mocked while he was alive, bc I refused to pretend not to like him!
Akelamalu Madonna reportedly described him as a "space alien drag queen". The head of CBS records went nuts when he saw the Bad cover saying he looks like a drag queen. But he didn't want to be a woman. He was trying to look and sound like a little boy. That's what it was all about. Even his singing voice sounded like a little boy. Not a girl. An underage boy.
I read that he was trying to make himself look like Diana Ross.
ReplyDeleteI read that too, but don't believe it. After all, wouldn't he wear a Diana Ross fright wig if that were so..
ReplyDeleteAlso he showed no other signs of being a drag queen.
I sat on the bus one day and heard a young child speaking in a high-pitched voice. It was obviously a boy not a girl, not from what he said, but the manner he said it. I turned round and confirmed my intuition correct.
Then I heard MJ singing, and realized all this high pitchedness had nothing to do with sounding feminine ~ that's one reason there's so much aggression in his singing (though I think he was angry anyway. At life.)
He was basically putting on a little boy act. Not a tranny act.
Then I felt I understood something of what made him tick. That Peter Pan of Pop monika was true...