The way he made us feel

I can’t seem to get Michael Jackson songs out of my head this morning …

While I was in the shower it was “I Want You Back.” Once I was at work this morning it was “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.” And at some point it changed to “The Way You Make Me Feel,” which I just heard on the radio as I was driving home. … The songs are playing over and over in my head like a skipping jukebox.

In the meantime, I’m watching my Twitter feed go crazy with tributes coming in from all the big stars …

Years from now, we’ll be sitting around a table somewhere and the subject will come up: Where were you when you heard the news that Michael Jackson had died? A few of us had barely arrived in the newsroom this morning and that conversation was beginning.

It already had been a newsy day yesterday. Third day of this crazy heat wave. Power was knocked out in the center of the city when a crow flew into a bunch of wires and blew a fuse. Farah Fawcett died …

Late in the afternoon, I was home, listening to some music and getting ready to meet some friends at a retirement party when I checked my e-mail and saw the first news alerts that Jackson had been taken to the hospital. My first thought was Really!? Suicide, maybe? … The jaded journalist in me thought, Here the big entertainment media go again, breaking a story too early when Michael probably has just a bad cough. But there was another part of me that thought, Whoah, this could be it.

By the time I’d arrived at the party, the TVs were tuned to CNN and their headlines said Jackson was in a coma. As more people arrived, there were rumblings that Jackson had died …

I couldn’t stay at the party much more than a half hour because Kates had a church thing at 6 and I was on Phoebe-sitting duty. I got in the car to drive home. The radio was playing “Billie Jean.” Then the DJ came on and confirmed Michael Jackson had been declared dead …

Back at home, I was paying more attention to the news rambling and the footage of fans gathering at the hospital than I was to feeding Phoebe … After awhile, I turned it off to play with Phoebe, read her bedtime stories and put her to bed. But after that, my attention was devoted to the special edition “NBC Dateline.”

I’ve been racking my brain to come up with a list of my top five Michael Jackson songs … I start with “I Want You Back” and “Black or White,” and “The Way You Make Me Feel.” But then I think about “Human Nature” and “Man in the Mirror” and “Wanna Be Starting Something.” And pretty soon I throw my hands in the air thinking, I can’t do it! There’s just so many of them …

Like every other child of the ’80s, Michael Jackson has been a vivid part of my consciousness for as far as I can remember. I’ve long considered myself a big fan of his music – not the kind you always see sobbing and fainting over the very sight of him getting out of a car, but big enough that I’m not afraid to blare his albums (I have most of them, along with Jackson 5: The Ultimate Collection) or attempt to dance like him in front of (close) friends …

Sure, he made us roll our eyes more than a few times in recent years with his eccentricities – stuff I never paid much attention to – but when it came to the music, no one could do it better than Michael. The jaw-dropping dance moves. The smiles he brought to our faces with his funky grooves and singable choruses.

The way he combined R&B with soul and rock to produce the perfect blend of pop music is unmistakable. All of his albums are, at the very least, better than average … and “Thriller” is a classic, period. Practically every song on that album is a hit …

More than once last night, I thought about how excited I was a couple weeks ago to get a copy of “Thriller” on vinyl, at a garage sale for a buck. Since I started collecting vinyl albums a couple years ago, I had been on a mission to find a good-conditioned copy of “Thriller.” … As soon as we got home, I set Side 2 of the album on the turntable and Kates and I spent several minutes bopping around our basement as Phoebe stood and bounced to the beats with us -- “Beat It,” “Billie Jean,” “Human Nature” “PYT” … I won’t soon forget how fun those moments were ...

Other memories drifting through my mind include watching the “Thriller” and “Smooth Criminal” videos on MTV with my uncle and cousins. How my elementary school art teacher had us watch the “Leave Me Alone” video as the basis for an art project. How my brother and I nearly wore out his “Dangerous” cassette tape during the summer of ’92. And how I bought the “HIStory” album the week of its release in Summer ’95.

Perhaps my most enduring Michael Jackon memory is watching the Jackson 5 30th Anniversary reunion special several years ago with a bunch of friends in our college newspaper office … I’ll never forget that night, how at 20 years old, seeing all those dance moves and the songs performed again, transported us back to days when we were 8 or 9 and watching him on MTV. How every little move excited us and how we couldn't turn away from watching him. ... I'm giddy now just watching the video again on YouTube.

Surfing the Internet ...

Time’s got a list of Top 10 MJ moments ...

Here’s full coverage from the NY Times ...

The Washington Post also has a look back on some of its coverage through the years:

Here’s a good read: The Culture: Long Before 'Thriller,' Jackson Shattered Racial Barriers

Here's an interesting story about how the news broke ...