Ahh, Death in Threes, again! Seriously. Who cares? I mean, yeah the guy made a couple of great albums. A census where I work shows all employees on the night crew are huge fans of Thriller.
There is no denying the boy-man self proclaimed King of Pop had talent in spades. But I think that his problem is that he grew up in the public eye and could not escape it for the life or death of him. Very little time to be a boy as an actual boy = spend the rest of your life enchanted with children and sleeping with them in your pajamas and riding giant toy trains with your pet chimp and getting elective surgeries to look like Diana Ross. I always thought the Elephant Man thing was kind of noble, though. That poor cat was gawked at his whole life, even in death. A freak and curiosity. I understand the motive to get his bones out of the public eye and give them a little quiet dignity. Kinda makes you wonder what will become of the mouldering remains of Mike, eh?
I admit, I dig Thriller. I grew up watching Hammer Horror films and was tickled pink that this evil dude I knew from watching Saturday night movies with my mom made a hideously campy cameo in the end of the tune. I wore that tape out rewinding it to hear the song and Vincent Price’s (admit it – it’s awful) poetry and laugh. “Darkness falls across the land! Midnight hour close at hand!” Etc. etc.
Well, darkness does fall, for everyone, even eternally youthful and capricious and weird millionaire child prodigies. Que sera, sera. Even Fox couldn’t stop milking it.
Hell, I’m doing it now! Uh oh!
