Close to three months since my last entry. Sometimes you need the touch of a hot iron road on your back to end the occasional tryst with lethargy. Or so I felt this morning when an irreverent voiceover on one of the Malayalam Channels announced the demise of Michael Joseph Jackson.
I was born into an upper middle class family of Central Travancore in Kerala. My exposure was mostly with Malayalam music during my early years. My first ever association with English music, be it Pop/rock/country/jazz/whatever you call it was through those audio cassettes my father brought with him during his return from Dubai in 1984 after teaching there for a few years. A gift from his students, I believe. The collection was mostly reggae types, greatest hits, chart toppers of ’84, etc. Down Under by Men at Work, Africa by Toto, Chant a psalm a day by Steel Pulse, Going back west by Jimmy Cliff for Boney M were some of the songs that were among my favourites those days, even now for that matter. The joy I felt was in no small measures when I was able to get all those songs from the World Wide Web years later, particularly as those audio cassettes were mostly eaten up by fungus. Let me remind myself and you that I am certainly not deviating from my topic.
Though in the early ‘90s a high school mate gave me BAD during one of my visits home (I had shifted to a residential school for my high school studies), I didn’t feel anything bad or good about it. It took another half a decade and more for me to start listening to the King of Po. Heal the world was the first one. Arul Prakash Anand, one of my first year friends used to sing this number quite well. I really started liking this song, more so because Manoj Mathew, another thick friend used to sing this all the time. We, the first year students lived closed to the college in an apartment, though there was a hostel facility exclusively for the newcomers some kms ahead. We had seniors also for company, Binoy Abraham Samuel whom I choose to mention now. Like most others in the apartment, except me, Binoy had spent most of his life till then in Sharjah, UAE. He listened to almost all kinds of music in full blast, which in same way helped to realise my real interests and likings. Binoy’s SONY 3-in-1 helped in developing our music know-how of which I am still a learner. The Earth Song and We are the World were two of King of Po’s songs that Binoy used to play over and over.
When I zoom in to my first year class room, I have a very vivid memory of Jyothish from Mallappally, a real Micheal Jackson fanatic. He was all crazy about the King of Po and introduced me to two great Jackson numbers-All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us and Smooth Criminal. He was so much in awe of MJJ that he knew the lyrics to those numbers by heart. We used to sing them during some afternoon sessions, with me eagerly taking down the lyrics.
Our college was an amalgamation of several streams and sure enough I had friends from the Dental College too. Around our apartments there were also a few cottages occupied by staff and students, which I used to visit. Vinod, Manu and Anwar were friends I remember, probably practicing dentists in some part of the world now. Mr/Dr. Vinod had a fine collection of world music with him. Thriller was among one of his collections. Like most people around the world it thrilled me in no small means and I guess that was more than enough for me to reserve a very special place for Michael Jackson. It was during this time that Cable TV started to become the in-thing back home; and got my much awaited opening into the world of MTV and Channel V, though I got more interested in Star Movies and HBO, mainly because those days, the censorship laws weren’t so unworldly, the way it has been for quite some time now. One morning while flipping through the channels, I stopped at Eddy Murphy dressed up like a Pharaoh, with an all-Egypt setting. His queen, which I learned later, was Iman a Somalian model and wife of glam-rocker David Bowie. In fact it was much later that I knew it was Magic Johnson announcing the arrival of each of the performers. The whole thing fascinated me by no small means. The build-up of the music was much like the necessary foreplay before a slow orgasm. It was not like the slow beginning followed by an explosive kick-off as in songs with such a treatment; Scorpion’s Holiday, to name one. Right from the moment the Queen says “I am bored. I want to be entertained” the music is scored like a pain-balm. After doing away with all those who couldn’t win her favour, in comes a hooded man in robes. It is here that, I have always felt, the music gets sooooooo beautiful, so much so that only someone who is too bored about himself or who does not even care about breathing air into his lungs can’t be intrigued about what is going to happen next. Yes, it was the King of Pop with Remember the time.
Dear reader, I am kind of skeptical that you might think this as beating around the bush. I chose it to be this way because none of the above mentioned songs have been ever erased from my memory, from the first time I heard it, not that I have been listening to it many a time, but because the first time was enough to go forth and try to understand the history of the song, which I practice all the time regarding anything I grow a liking upon, for that matter. That could be the reason why I associate those songs to events in my life.
Back to the college, during my final year I moved out from my apartment to a rented house some kilometres away, with some close friends. Among all the cassettes there, was a Michael Jackson songs’ collection featuring most of his hits. Roommate’s pocket cassette player came in handy (it was not a walkman, which is essentially Sony’s for all those who are still unaware of the fact). Whenever I needed a kick to thwart off a bad mood, I resorted to this collection (Which means at times we need explosive, fast numbers to get the mood right).
By the early 2000s, Michael Jackson’s persona was no more the way it was the years before that. Apart from the so-called allegations, his music was not heard much, with the same intensity. There was this occasional dance or two; mostly with the Dangerous song with fellow with his hat pulled almost to his nose, trying to do what was he think was Micheal Jackson’s gyrations. It looked like my peers and the generations younger to me were keen on boy bands like BSB, Boyzone, Britney, J Lo. I am referring to the societal strata based upon what was being aired by music channels and similar stuff during that time. There were also some albums and singles that won universal appeal. Vengaboys:The Party Album and Tarkan’s songs, to name some. The King knows when to make his grand appearance and there he was, Michael Jackson with “The Blood on the Dance Floor”. After a decade, it’s fresh as it was then. That’s why you love his genius.
Invincible, was a success but did not get the attention his earlier creations received. In the new millennium the world was really changing, and as I sadly observed, not many were too keen about the invincible release. The video with Chris Tucker for “You rock my world” was instrumental in the album’s success. Though not at first, I started liking “2000 Watts” another single from Invincible.
By 2003, my life had made a paradigm shift. I came to Ernakulam and joined a a P.R. and Advertising course, something that was not linked much to my Engineering degree. The YMCA, where I got a room has since become my second home. “Number Ones”, a greatest hit collection of Michael Jackson was released in 2003.
Mahesh Kattaria, a Malayali chap with some North Indian roots drew my attention to this album when I enquired about having some of his collections to listen, on my walkman which I had acquired during that time. Man! It was like getting kissed all over again after some great lovemaking. All those songs of Michael Jackson which drew me towards him along with a new, beautiful single as bonus called “One more chance”.
Not finished.I shall come back for more……
