I had no intention of starting one of these never-ending discussion threads. I'm almost sorry now that I typed anything, because my whole point was to express my disappointment that we were about to face days and weeks of obsessing over Michael Jackson.

Also, please note that my opening (and, until, only) post including nothing negative or critical about Michael Jackson's music, most of which I've always liked, to a greater or lesser extent.

I enjoyed the Jackson Five stuff when it was new, but not especially more than I enjoyed the Tempts, the Four Tops, Martha and then Vandellas, Junior Walker & the All-Stars, or any other Motown act.

The more recent work is fine with me, too. It's unavoidable "life soundtrack," for one thing; here in New Orleans, we've heard the most popular of those songs every Mardi Gras season, as so many high school marching bands in the nightly parades always play each year's biggest pop hits. (If you haven't heard the St. Augustine Marching 100 play "Don't Stop Til You've Had Enough" under the flmbeau-lit oaks of St Charles Avenue, you haven't lived!)

I am simply disturbed by the Stalinesque cult of personality that has developed over the last 2-3 decades surrounding just about any "celebrity," and just DON'T WANNA HEAR ABOUT the (inevitably controversial) death of the biggest celebrity of all.

I will now stoop to make a couple of mildly negative observations that I had omitted till now:

~ Michael was, obviously, a talented singer and dancer. However, I have my doubts about enshrining him as a "musical genius" in the class of, say, Stevie Wonder. The real brains behind MJ's solo career, behind the sound of all his hits since he began performing under his own name rather than his family's, has been a TRUE genius, Quincy Jones.

~ Similarly, while he deserves some credit as a canny businessman who forsaw the power of an overlong music video, he was never a filmmaker. I'm sure his contribution of his own dance moves was essential to the success of the "Thriller" video, and I suppose he participated in the group choreography as well. However, most of the adulation he's getting about the video(s), it seems to me, is simply stealing the thunder from the director(s) and videographer(s).

Can we quit this ? Soon?

PS: I read only about halfway through this amazingly long thread this morning, after the long weekend; it got to a point where I simply could no longer continue. So then I just scrolled to the bottom to write this. (I got as for as where Little Hawk addressed me personally to write "yeah, sure, whatever.")