blame it on the boogie

This right here from the Observer (UK) is the definitive piece on Michael Jackson. It expands on the changeling nature of the man, which I had begun to think, since he died, would be what he was most remembered for. NOT the music. Although some of the music was great. And some -- Rock With You, Billie Jean, Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - was better than great. But I started to think straight away as the pictures of him dead on the trolley near the ambulance filtered in and tmz.com started beaming a live stream of people doing and saying nothing outside the hospital that his real meaning was not these songs but his incredible physical transformations. His willingness to warp his own humanity in very physical ways to reconcile his own neuroses. Peter Conrad in The Observer explores all that and more and I think in the end all the rest except one silver glove lying below a sad and drawn velvet curtain is distraction.

Don't Stop Til' You Get Enough feat Jay Z (mp3): From the Cookin' Soul tribute mixtape, available here.

Billie Jean, the Dsico Dancehall edit (mp3)