My favorite memory of Michael Jackson is watching the HBO Live Concert special back in 1996 in my dormroom at college with my roomate, Buddha.  It was the first time I had seen any live footage of any of his concerts.  2 hours long from Bucharest.  Amazing.  He closed the concert with an absolutely amazing, energetic, inspiring singing of “Man in the Mirror”.  Take a look.

The concert ends with one of the coolest things I had ever seen in my life.  I didn’t learn until years later that it was actually a stunt man (pretty good illusion though).  At the time, it simply rocked my world and confirmed to me that Michael Jackson was and always will be the best musical performer on the face of the earth.  Here it is…

My 2nd favorite Michael Jackson song….one that many people are not familiar with.  Of the 15 or so times I’ve lost my voice in the car singing along with his stuff, about half of those have been because of this song.  Enjoy.

What about sunrise, What about rain
What about all the things, That you said we were to gain.. .
What about killing fields, Is there a time
What about all the things, That you said was yours and mine…
Did you ever stop to notice, All the blood we’ve shed before
Did you ever stop to notice, The crying Earth the weeping shores?

Aaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah

What have we done to the world, Look what we’ve done
What about all the peace, That you pledge your only son…
What about flowering fields, Is there a time
What about all the dreams, That you said was yours and mine…
Did you ever stop to notice, All the children dead from war
Did you ever stop to notice, The crying Earth the weeping shores

Aaaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaah

I used to dream, I used to glance beyond the stars
Now I don’t know where we are, Although I know we’ve drifted far

Aaaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaaah

Hey, what about yesterday (What about us)
What about the seas (What about us)
The heavens are falling down (What about us)
I can’t even breathe (What about us)
What about the bleeding Earth (What about us)
Can’t we feel its wounds (What about us)
What about nature’s worth (ooo,ooo)
It’s our planet’s womb (What about us)
What about animals (What about it)
We’ve turned kingdoms to dust (What about us)
What about elephants (What about us)
Have we lost their trust (What about us)
What about crying whales (What about us)
We’re ravaging the seas (What about us)
What about forest trails (ooo, ooo)
Burnt despite our pleas (What about us)
What about the holy land (What about it)
Torn apart by creed (What about us)
What about the common man (What about us)
Can’t we set him free (What about us)
What about children dying (What about us)
Can’t you hear them cry (What about us)
Where did we go wrong (ooo, ooo)
Someone tell me why (What about us)
What about babies (What about it)
What about the days (What about us)
What about all their joy (What about us)
What about the man (What about us)
What about the crying man (What about us)
What about Abraham (What was us)
What about death again (ooo, ooo)
Do we give a damn

I was pretty much hooked on MJ back around 1983 when I saw my parents Thriller album and the picture of Michael with his pet tiger.  Probably the coolest thing I’d seen.  The only other vinyl album I remember at home at that time was one of John Denver….totally not cool in comparison.

I have a cousin named Dianna.  She’s a year older than me and we’ve been great friends our whole life.  We had a lot of funny moments in the months/years after the song “Dirty Diana” came out on the Bad album.  It was always funny sing because she was one of the most kind, gentle, sweet, and not-dirty people you could ever know.

I’ve lost my voice many, many times over the last 15 years or so from singing along with Michael Jackson songs in my car.  My voice seems to forget that his is about 4 octives higher.  It doesn’t care.  It must sing along.  And it must sing with the same intensity.

In fact, my favorite thing about MJ, probably the main reason I’ve been a fan of his music, is his intensity.  Heck, I don’t even know the lyrics to many of my Top 15 songs I posted about.  I’ve always found it more fun to sing along with him when I didn’t know all the words.  Ask me about this sometime, and I’ll perform for you to show you what I mean.  But his intensity is unmatched.  I’ve always felt like most of his grunts and screams basically stem from that….he’s so into the music, so into the song, that he can’t help but to scream.  It’s one of the main reasons his concerts were always so phenomenal….the dude gave everything he had at every show, the crying, the sweating, the energy.  The crowd felt like he had given them every ounce of what he had in him to make that concert great.

I was totally stoked when Invincible came out, because I had thought for a couple of years that he was probably done.  I remember sitting in the Mitsubishi car dealership where I worked at in 2001, singing along with “You Rock My World” with my sales manager.

A few years ago, I performed “The Way You Make Me Feel” at Big Mama’s Karaoke Cafe in Seymour, TN, just south of Knoxville.  Grunts, screams, dance moves and all.

One of his more popular songs – “Black or White” – is probably one of my least favorites.

It always amazed me how a person so soft, quiet, gentle, and boyish during interviews could turn into an angry, confident, energetic dancing maniac on stage.

Shocking fact – I don’t actually own the Thriller album.  Almost every song from that album is on Disc 1 of the His-tory album, so I never bought it.  Probably the only song from Thriller that’s not on the His-tory album that I actually want is “PYT” (Pretty Young Thing).

When I was a kid, the evil guy’s voice on the song “Thriller” used to really freak me out.

I can’t possibly put all my Michael Jackson thoughts into one post.  I could, but you’d probably get tired of reading.  So I’m breaking it up into parts.

Part 1 – my favorite songs.  I couldn’t figure out how to narrow it down to 10, so I conceded to 15.  So, here are my 15 favorite Michael Jackson songs, in order from 15 to 1.  Feel free to critique.

15. Off the Wall (Off the Wall) – amazing bass line!

14. Wanna Be Startin Somethin (Thriller) – what a fun song … to this day, I still don’t  know why he says, “you’re a vegetable” about 4 times.

13. Is it Scary (Blood on the Dance Floor) – a very intense song, basically asking whether or not you get scared when you look at him.  Probably his least popular selling album, so you may not have heard this one.

12. Get on the Floor (Off the Wall) – another amazing bass line.  This might be the easiest upbeat song every written to sway back and forth to if you’re not a great dancer.  Not that I’m not a good dancer.  I am really.  Club style dancing though, not line or waltz or swing.  And there’s a great part toward the end of the song where he’s basically grunting, “shic a bope a ba, schic a bope a ba”.  It’s so cool.

11. Stranger In Moscow (History, Disc 2) – you’re going to see a few songs from this disc on my list, please tell me you’ve listened to them before!  A slow, almost creepy sounding song about his experience of being in Moscow.

10. Remember the Time (Dangerous) – known by many because it was a theme song/video to the Eddie Murphy movie, “Coming to America”.  Another song with great grunting sounds.

9. Break of Dawn (Invincible) – chorus line – “and we’ve got to make sweet love until the break of dawn”.  Come on, how can you not love that?  Great song off his final album.  Very smooth beat and great vocals on this one.

8. The Girl is Mine (Thriller) – awesome song featuring Paul McCartney.  How many times have you heard the line “I’m a lover, not a fighter” used?  This song is why.  Nuff said.

7. You Rock My World (Invincible) – his last hit single.  Really catchy chorus.

6. Keep the Faith (Dangerous) – a very gospel choir type of song.  Inspirational, as the title would suggest, with a GREAT build toward the end of the song.

5. Billie Jean (Thriller) – considered one of the greatest songs ever written, and the video is infamous.  Great story line, easy to sing, and anyone who hears the amazing bass line at the beginning immediately knows what song it is.

4. Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough (Off the Wall) – I totally love the quiet dialogue that builds into a very tense but hushed scream to start the song.  Grew to love this song more when I heard a bonus track of Michael and his brothers/sisters playing pots, pans, and random percussion instruments in a living room to lay down the original demo for this song.  It’s crazy good.

3. Scream (History, Disc 2) – incredible song, GREAT video.  If you’ll remember, this was a duet of sorts with sister Janet.  Again, the intensity is what I love about it.

2. Earth Song (History, Disc 2) – unfortunately, not many people are familiar with this song, but it’s an amazing, nearly 7 minute long song where he cries out about how we’re mistreating the earth.

1. Man in the Mirror (Bad) – I have every grunt and scream memorized on this one, along with the words.  Ask me.  I’ll perform it for you on the spot.  I’ll tell more stories about this one next week.

Have you seen this yet??

Be sure to laugh really hard at the first one.

And be sure to watch for Zeus in the second one.

Last Thursday night after small group, Scott, Chris & I went to the Carousel Theatre on the UT campus and saw 2 Puerto Rican muslims from Brooklyn, New York perform a live hip hop show.

How’s that for random?

I can hardly believe that, last night, I actually got to see Arrested Development in a live concert in downtown Knoxville – for free.

Nearly 18 months ago, I had written this post, wondering what had happened to this group.  I’ve had their original CD (pictured) since 1993, and have always loved it.  Little did I know that when I wrote that post, Speech had just reunited 4 of the original 6 members and they had just released a new album and started touring again in Europe and Asia.

Apparently, for a while after getting back together, they purposely did not tour or promote heavily in the US, mainly because of America’s hip hop affection for negative messages and gangsta style lyrics, both of which are on the opposite side of the spectrum from Arrested Development’s music.

Anyway…they were the headline show for Market Square’s first Sundown in the City concert of 2009.  Reid (friend from small group) and I headed downtown after small group.  Unfortunately, I think we missed the first 2 or 3 songs of their performance, but still got to hear them for another 90 minutes or so.  It was actually much better than I expected.  Their live music was amazing, they had great energy, the did all their old songs that everyone knows and loves.  And one of the group members is a 76 year old man named Baba Oje who dances around the stage, getting into the hip hop groove.  It was awesome.

And Market Square was PACKED.  I’m guessing maybe 10,000 people?  It was standing room only in the entire square.  We were fortunate to muscle our way fairly close to the stage, although left of center just a bit.

So, to answer my own original question, where did Arrested Development go?  Well, they split up in 1994, did some solo stuff, got back together around 2006-2007, and now they just came to the big town of Knoxville.  Makes me happy.

Over a year ago, I posted some thoughts about 12 years (now 13) of listening to worship music.  One of my issues was that not much has been out recently that really grabbed me or moved me in ways new worship music used to.  After that post, I ended up finding all of Tim Hughes solo stuff at McKay’s.  Good, not great.  Hillsong United was another suggestion, but I could never find them used, and I haven’t spent the dough for a new CD in a long time (not too mention I’m not a hip member of the IPod / ITunes revolution), so I just haven’t gotten to listen to them yet.  I know the handful of songs we do at Crossings, which I really like, but that was it. 

Then, last week, I borrowed the live 2 CD Hillsong United “I Heart Revolution” album from Greg.  Over the last 3 days, I’ve been able to listen to all 30 songs.  And I’ve been blown away.  Out of 30 songs, there are probably only 6 I didn’t really care for.  And, although the other 24 are not all necessarily that singable on a Sunday morning, they are all really great.  Great lyrics, great musical quality, great rhythm and tempo changes, powerful builds, songs of adoration, songs of action, songs of reflection.  Most of the songs just have such a powerful feel and are so easy to worship to.  I will say that the music sounds very similar on a lot of songs.  They’re really into the smooth, almost U2 like electric guitar rhythms, which has really infiltrated the sound of a lot of popular worship today.  Regardless.  It’s still amazing.

Disclaimer:  Hillsong United may may not be quite as good as Jeff Moody, circa mid-90’s, but it’s VERY VERY good.

Disclaimer II:  If you link to the 12 years of woship post, notice that Tony from Tony & Donny actually commented on the post.  I emailed him after receiving the comment, but never heard anything back.  So, Tony, if you happen to be Googling your name again and come across THIS post, feel free to comment again.  If you do, I promise to email you again.  And you better respond.  If you don’t, I’ll never sing “I Oh I” in the shower ever again.