Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009.
Michael Jackson leads The Jackson 5 in a 1971 Saturday morning cartoon. This episode features the story about how they met Diana Ross; she brought them to Detroit to meet Berry Gordy of Motown... and the rest is history!
Part 1:
Part 2:
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plez sez: and you can bet a young plezWorld was plopped down in front of the RCA tv at the break of dawn on saturday mornings to see this!
The following Q&A was featured in men.style.com shortly after the death of Michael Jackson:
WISEGUY Q&A: QUINCY JONES' FONDEST AND WEIRDEST RECOLLECTIONS OF MICHAEL JACKSON By Jeff Gordinier
Q: How have you been holding up since Michael Jackson's death? A: Oh, man. It's surrealistic. I went to Shanghai for the movie festival over there—I took Halle Berry—and then went back to Luxembourg, and in three days I lost Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael. And Michael's thing is still surrealistic to me. I can't process it, man. I don't know how to process it. It's just unbelievable—him leaving before me. I can't believe it.
Q: How did you learn that he had died? A: Well, everybody in the world called me. I got 500 e-mails. I've never seen anything like it in my life. At first they said they'd taken him to the hospital, then they said he'd had a stroke or a heart attack—it just kept going back and forth and we didn't know what was really happening. And at first I thought he was just kind of freaked out by the coming concerts, because I was in London when they announced the 50 concerts and they sold out in four hours. . . We'd see each other all the time, and I just can't believe he's not here.
Q: Have you been crying? A: Oh, man, it's more than that. It's way more than that. It hurts my soul, man. It's just a lump down there.
Q: You were there to witness the strange evolution in Michael's appearance. Did you ever step in and saying anything about it? A: Oh, we talked about it all the time. But he'd come up with, "Man, I promise you I have this disease," and so forth, and "I have a blister on my lungs," and all that kind of b.s. It's hard, because Michael's a Virgo, man—he's very set in his ways. You can't talk him out of it. Chemical peels and all that stuff.
Q: Did you believe him about the disease? A: I don't believe in any of that bullshit, no. No. Never. I've been around junkies and stuff all my life. I've heard every excuse. It's like smokers—"I only smoke when I drink" and all that stuff. But it's bullshit. You're justifying something that's destructive to your existence. It's crazy. I mean, I came up with Ray Charles, man. You know, nobody gonna pull no wool over my eyes. He did heroin 20 years! Come on. And black coffee and gin for 40 years. But when he called me to come over to see him when he was in the hospital on his way out, man, he had emphysema, hepatitis C, cirrhosis of the liver, and five malignant tumors. Please, man! I've been around this all my life. So it's hard for somebody to pull the wool over my eyes. But when somebody's hell-bent on it, you can't stop 'em.
Q: But it must've been so disturbing to see Michael's face turn into what it turned into. A: It's ridiculous, man! Chemical peels and all of it. And I don't understand it. But he obviously didn't want to be black.
Q: Is that what it was? A: Well, what do you think? You see his kids?
Q: Did you ever discuss it? Did you ever ask, "Michael, don't you want to be a black man?" A: No, no, no, please. That's not the way you do it.
Q: But he was beautiful before? A: Man, he was the most gorgeous guy.
Q: But he seemed to have some deep-seated issue with how he looked? A: Well, that comes about a certain way. I'm not sure how it happens. I'm just a musician and a record producer. I'm not a psychiatrist. I don't understand all that stuff. We all got problems. But there's a great book out called Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart. Did you see that? That book says the statute of limitations has expired on all childhood traumas. Get your stuff together and get on with your life, man. Stop whinin' about what's wrong, because everybody's had a rough time, in one way or another.
Q: I've heard you say that you wanted Michael to sing "She's Out of My Life," the great pop ballad from Off the Wall, in part because you felt like he had to deal with reality. A: I just wanted to hear him deal with a romantic relationship with a human being rather than a rat. I'm saying that facetiously, but it's true. I saw him at the Oscars very emotional about "Ben." I wanted to hear him get in touch with a real human relationship. "She's Out of My Life" was written by Tommy Bahler from a very bad ending to a marriage. So it was very real. I was saving it for Sinatra. But I gave it to Michael. And Michael cried during every take, and I left the tears in.
Q: It's interesting you mention this, because I was just watching a clip on YouTube where you're sitting on a couch with Michael and he's petting a snake the whole time. A: Oh, I remember that. Yeah, that was Muscles.
Q: Muscles? A: Muscles. That's a big boa constrictor he had. Muscles used to wrap around my leg in a record session and crawl across the console. I was never comfortable with that. It was a choice between that and Bubbles—you know, the chimp.
Q: Did you ever meet Bubbles? A: Are you kidding me? He bit a hole in my daughter's hand! Rashida's hand. Rashida Jones—did you see I Love You, Man? That's my daughter. She was a little girl. And Bubbles bit her hand. Michael used to bring Muscles and Bubbles by the house all the time, you know.
Q: What did you think of that? Wasn't that a little weird? A: I don't know, man. Everybody does his own thing. I've met every freak in the business. Everybody has their idiosyncrasies. I try not to judge it, you know. I know all women are junkies for little dogs and bags and purses. Ha ha ha ha!
Q: At root, what do you think killed Michael Jackson? A: I don't know, man. I'm a musician. I'm not a psychiatrist. I would think that the pressure of the concerts and the debt and everything else . . . look, I've been in the hands of Nobel doctors for the last five years, in Stockholm, at the Karolinska hospital, which you can't even pay to get in. I've learned so much about the human mind and the body, and the doctors talk all the time about how you become your thoughts. It's true. With one thought it starts, you know, and if you sit there and just stay hung up on one negative thought, you will become that thought. I know that Lisa Marie Presley said that she always thought he was going to die like Elvis. You sit and think about that stuff, it'll happen to you. If you start thinking about darkness instead of light, or fear instead of love, you'll get in trouble. I really believe that.
Q: With so many people asking you about Michael Jackson, is it hard to find the private space in which to mourn his death? A: Yes, it is. It's surrealistic. I don't know how to process it at all. Because everybody's reacting to it, and making up their own answers.
Q: You've said that you don't attend funerals anymore because you've lost so many friends. Do you plan to attend Michael Jackson's funeral? A: No, not at all, not at all. Because it's going to be, like, 9 million people there, and it's not what I want to see.
Q: You're not going to be there? A: No. I can't be there, anyway. I'm going to Wales the day after tomorrow, I go to Montreux, I go to Marbella, I go to the south of France. My condolences and love I've already sent to the family. But being there with 10 million people is not my idea of a tribute to somebody you were so close to—who's got a part of your soul. Our souls were joined, you know. And a piece of it goes with him.
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plez sez: Q drops the bomb... but then again, is anyone surprised?!? MJ was the KING OF POP, but he was a fatally flawed individual none-the-less: the incessant whining about a childhood lost over 40 years ago, the obvious self-hatred and desire to be anything but Black, the weird social habits, the severe drug addiction, and his desire to rekindle a childhood long past with other peoples' children.
plezWorld hated to see him go, but the sad truth is that he had peaked a long time ago in a land far, far away (his record sales fell off with the allegations of child molestation soon after "Dangerous" dropped in 1992). it's been almost 20 years since he'd had a major hit album of the magnitude of "Thriller" and "Bad." he was a tortured soul... i only pray that he is finally at peace.
Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009.
Michael Jackson leads The Jackson 5 (with recent addition Randy Jackson) in a lively rendition of "Dancing Machine" in 1974 on the Merv Griffin Show (alright everybody, "1 - 2 - 3 - clap!"):
Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009.
Michael Jackson anchors the Jackson 5 at the tender age of 10 years in 1969:
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Practicing "Beat It"... he is better practicing than most performing:
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The King of Pop at the 1988 Grammy Awards (he tears up "Man in the Mirror"):
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The King of Pop does "Smooth Criminal" live:
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plez sez: on yesterday, the world lost the consummate performer. take james brown, elvis presley, jackie wilson, fred astaire, and sammy davis, jr., roll 'em all up into one person and you get MICHAEL JACKSON!
was he weird? no doubt! but i'll be honest, there are few artists who could perform and raise their craft to a level very rarely seen before or since, MICHAEL JACKSON was one such artist. he is definitely "gone too soon!" plezWorld will remember the KING OF POP through his timeless music and videos.
i saw him in concert as a teenager when he was part of "the jacksons" and then again in the early '90s during his "Dangerous Tour"... the boy was bad! it was amazing to witness so much talent in one human being.
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), died Wednesday afternoon after suffering an aneurysm Tuesday.
CNN.com reports that she suffered the aneurysm Tuesday evening while driving in her home district in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. She was rushed to East Cleveland's Huron Hospital, where a team of doctors determined Wednesday morning that she had "very limited brain function," said Dr. Gus Kious, the hospital's chief of staff. Wednesday afternoon, before Tubbs Jones died, Kious said that the aneurysm "[was in] an inaccessible part of her brain" and that she was in critical condition. She passed away on Wednesday afternoon.
Tubbs Jones was elected to Congress in 1998, becoming the first black woman to represent Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was also a Democratic superdelegate and one of Hillary Clinton's most ardent supporters. She was scheduled to attend the Democratic National Convention next week in Denver, Colorado. Ms. Tubbs Jones would have turned 59 on September 10.
Read the CNN.com article about Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones here.
Read the Washington Post article about Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones here.
plez sez: my thoughts and prayers are with her family, and her constituents who have lost a true lion in Congress.
Soul singer, composer, and arranger Isaac Hayes, who won Grammy awards and an Academy Award for the theme from the 1971 action film "Shaft," has died, sheriff's officials in Memphis, Tennessee, reported Sunday, August 10, 2008.
No foul play is suspected. It is reported that relatives found Hayes, 65, unconscious in his home next to a still-running treadmill. Paramedics attempted to revive him and took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2 p.m., the sheriff's department said.
"Theme from 'Shaft'" by Isaac Hayes
Check out this live performance from 1973, with an introduction by Jesse Jackson.
"Walk on By" by Isaac Hayes from Hot Buttered Soul LP
This song was popularized by Dionne Warwick, but Hayes's version delivers such a soulful rendering.
In memory of Black Moses (1943 - 2008).
Read the major news accounts of his death here and here.
plez sez: many don't know that he was the first Black person to win an Oscar for a non-acting role in a film ("The Theme from 'Shaft'"). his influence in R&B music helped usher in the era of what we now call urban contemporary music.
Isaac Hayes defined an era with his music. in short, he was a "bad mutha-shut-yo-mouth"!
~ husband ~ father ~ son ~ brother ~ mentor ~ subdivision dweller ~ northern by birth ~ southern by choice ~ raised a black baptist, now guided by the spiritual ~ raised a kennedy democrat, now politically dead center (moderate) ~ raised in a Cadillac Coupe Deville, now hooked on an SUV ~ college educated and still a student of life ~ wild college frat boy and now a settled alumnus ~ intellectual yet fun-loving geek ~ technical and leading edge ~ corporate cog ~ consultant ~ college football saturday devotee ~ and a ramblin' gamblin' helluva engineer (GO JACKETS!) ~
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