Michael Jackson – “Thriller” (1982) Part II

We were on our usual 2.5 hour drive to San Quentin in Marin County North of San Francisco to see my mom’s boyfriend in prison. I was 7 or 8 at the time so I didn’t appreciate the full impact of how screwed up our family situation was. I didn’t have a care in the world.

In fact, I loved the trip. I sat back in the plush leather of our Yellow 70’s caddy and listened to the entire Thriller album on cassette tape. We would play the whole thing at least twice there and twice back. Mom would always fast forward through the actual song Thriller because my sister, DeAmber, thought it was too scary… what a wussy… she would later join the deck swabbin’, squid lovin’ Navy… so that should tell you everything you need to know about the Navy.

The songs grew on me.. even “the girl is mine” but only because I would switch some of the words with curses such as the chorus: “because the g*d damn girl is mine”. That makes the song more fun and full of filthy flavor.

When I finally got to see the actually Thriller video, I was blown away. It was genius. I started trying to copy the dances. When I went back to school, we all talked about Thriller and attempted to Moonwalk in shitty Converse sneakers on the asphalt. I’m not sure you can really appreciate Mike unless you were an 80s kid effected by the “Thriller phenomenon”. Back then he was like a god.

Needless to say things are different now. In fact, my buddy told his daughter that Michael was black and she did not believe him. I think the old man still has it - but Thriller was a once in a generation thing that can never be repeated. I have no doubt the someone will eventually beat his record breaking sales but… it won’t be Thriller.

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