Ah-ahh-AHH-ooo-waaa

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

[Poll #1422356]

Comments

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

I freaked out a girl at work by saying that I'd once made a mix CD of 22 remixes of Earth Song.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

jel is our our wacko j

it is good dammit but totally mental

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes there deliberately wasn't an option for "Not only is it good it is sensible".

[meserach.livejournal.com]

I kind of want another flavour of ambivalence between "kind of bad" and "good dammit".

I enjoy the screamy bit, but the stuff before just sort of sits there. I know you need a base to escalate from but enh.

I mean if you are going to do a song this preachy I guess this is the way to go.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

only the elephants bit is any funny at all surely

Don't let's be beastly to the Jacksons

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The four countries in which Earth Song is the highest charting MJ song this week: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg!! Is there something particularly teutonic about it?

(ht @solingerer on Twitter)

WHAT ABOUT SUNSHINE

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

When we had to pick a song on which to do a 5 min talk about in English, 11/25 of the class chose Earth Song.

(However I chose 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and had to look up what a mulatto was.)

[nicolars.livejournal.com]

I think this is the only MJ song I actively dislike.

What about babies?

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i see the relentless hatas of elephants and the earth are massing with their hatey votes!

Re: What about babies?

[nicolars.livejournal.com]

I don't even care about the crying whales!

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Ahh-ahh-aaaaahhhhhhhhh ahhhhh aaaaaahhhhhhhhh.....

Oooh-ooh-oooooooohhhhhh ooohh oooooohhhhhhhh.....

Nuff said.

...SRS, tho, Michael Jackson is an exposed nerve on this track. Not true of some of his other tracks, in which a nerve is exposed but less obviously, which is ultimately more interesting, but the nakedness here is as striking as the sentimentality and schmaltz.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Earth Song is my favourite Michael Jackson song. So there. Can't be hating on the power ballads.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I sort of but don't quite remember how it goes, and definitely can't remember whether I like it - keep nearly listening to it but then thinking, oh, 'Off The Wall' or 'Beat It' or 'Scream' or or or.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Just in case anyone never saw the video-


AMAZING.

'Earth Song' came out when I was about nine and becoming a strident enviromentalist; massive childhood anthem alert, etc.

can't take essex out of the boy

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

WOT ABOUT THE BLEEDING EARTH?

(Also unanswered*: "Wot about Abraham? Wot about death AGAIN?")

*ie by GOD who the song is addressed to -- god who is PUT ON THE SPOT with nothing to say for "him"self...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is basically "Total Eclipse Of The Heart", which everyone wuvs, except with even higher stakes.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Trufax, that. I may have to slip it into my Poptimism set* if everyone's drunk enough. The ah-ah-AH-aaaah bits = singalong GOLD of a similar magnitude to Bonnie's throaty warblin'. Of course would have to accompany it with A THOUSAND ELEPHANTS & Horsebar probs not so down with pachyderms all over the place.

Does it have a guitar solo? Also would it be fair to say that Jacko invented the power ballad? Most of his really famous ones seem to have elements of such. Maybe he just invented power-pop.

*NB: I am probably not going to do this, you can all go back to planning to attend.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

WOT ABOUT WHAMMY BARS?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

WOT ABOUT FLANGE?

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

I was expecting it on Friday, but ALAS it wasn't played. Not sure how one might dance to it tho.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

One can only rend ones sacking and weep to it.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

much as he does in the video; lots of throwing yer arms about and looking pained whilst bellowing out the words. some of us could pretend to be elephants if we were feeling coordinated.

My Love Is Vengeance That's Never Free

[koganbot]

The Who invented the power ballad with "Behind Blue Eyes," and then Aerosmith helped it stay invented with "Dream On" and Zeppelin with "Stairway To Heaven." But "Earth Song" is commanding and passionate, even if the words are analytically incomplete.

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

i am in the middle of writing about this, among his other 90 works. three thots, please correct:

a) is the 90s work the last pop stuff that has not been uncovered, and critically discoursed aboot?
b) is this b/c it is both epic and earnest, and people still do not believe in either.
c) it is not nearly as weird/personal/pure as for ex. childhood

(what do we make of childhood, btw)

[koganbot]

It is as weird and personal as anything.

Dangerous was plenty discoursed about (for its relation to new jack swing, among other things), even if subsequent MJ stuff* was unfairly overlooked.

is this b/c it is both epic and earnest, and people still do not believe in either

The peeps like Epic and Earnest, even if rock critics are skeptical about Michael doing it (as opposed to Springsteen doing it). But Michael was doing plenty other stuff in the '90s and '00s too, from stuff that was almost experimental in its spareness to the hard rocking to the lacerating.

*which went into the '00s, I say as one of the two people in the world to have favorably reviewed Invincible

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i'm in the middle of writing an obit tribute to a friend i argued with a LOT back in the day, and have found it turning into an argument with myself about m.jackson: thinking about this (and how much i want to go with it) makes me wonder the degree to which people avoided talking about jackson because they felt that the "show" had metastasized to encompasses every aspect of his life, and they were waiting till the show ended before discussion any specific bits of it (such as this or that LP released at some moment during the "show")