Thriller

I guess this is the obligatory Michael Jackson blog entry.

I know because of his eccentric ways (too many to list here), his physical transformation from the charming black kid who belted out "Rockin' Robbin" and "ABC" to the artificially enhanced wanna be white man who looked like a reject from the remake of The Planet of the Apes, and the child molestation charges, Jackson has become the butt of innumerable jokes.

However, when Kristie paraphrased what she heard his daughter speak at his memorial, I was reminded that this man was a father - and loved dearly by his children.



Thriller was the second cassette I ever bought (from Hardware Hank in the Peppermint Mall in good old RLF). My first purchase was Survivor's Eye of the Tiger - partly because I was a huge Rocky 3 fan. The next tape I bought trumped them all though, Def Leppard's Pyromania.

If you listen to it, even 27 years later, you'll be surprised at how many great songs are on there - "Beat it," "Billy Jean," "Human Nature," "Wanna be Startin' Somethin'," and the classic Thriller, which had my neighborhood abuzz because it was only going to be played a limited number of times because of its length. However, I never saw the entire video until Halloween 1987 when they were airing the 'scariest' videos. I only remember two videos "You Spin Me Round" by Dead or Alive (I guess that was scary because of the make up the freaky lead singer wore) and the Jackson video - mostly because it was unlike any video I had ever seen before. The song itself is played out of sequence, with all the verses coming before the chorus and the Vincent Price monologue is right in the middle of the video, when in reality it concludes the song. Plus, a majority of the video did not involve the song but the story around the song. I had never seen anything like it.

I knew it had a familiar look to it, but it wasn't until much later that I learned it was directed by John Landis who did the classic American Werewolf in London.

I recall that vividly because it was on during one of those HBO marathons where they issued everyone with cable free HBO for a week.

I was all set to watch it - even with my parents' begrudging approval - with my brother. However, I could only make it through the first few minutes where the two main characters are back packing across the moors of England and they are attacked by a werewolf. Once the monster started tearing into one of the poor unsuspecting back packers, I was up and in the kitchen with my parents, who I think were playing cards.

After a few minutes of lurking by the refrigerator and peering through the dining room and into the living room, I worked up enough courage to venture back to the living room. However, the protagonist, who has been mauled by the werewolf before it was killed, was recovering in the hospital. While there he had these terrible nightmares of running through the woods naked and killing a deer. Well, again, that was enough for me and I was up and in the kitchen for good.

Then a few days later I had fallen asleep on the couch (any guess as to why I couldn't sleep alone in my room upstairs?) when I woke up to find my brother home from a grave yard shift at the beet plant. He was seated in the recliner having a late, late supper and watching . . . you guessed it, American Werewolf in London.

I was stuck.

There was NO WAY I was going to go to bed upstairs with that show on. And there was NO WAY I was going to be able to fall asleep.

So I carefully pulled the afghan around my head and worked it out so I had a little peep hole to watch from. I also knew that if Dad woke up (their bedroom was right in back of the living room), I was in for it. He'd never let me watch it and make me go to bed.

Which is exactly what he did when he woke up just as things were getting good in the film.

Off to bed I had to go. I recall very clearly not sleeping a wink that night - at least until Kevin came upstairs to go to bed. This time I had all the covers securely tucked around me - God forbid I leave a limb dangling out and my head securely covered as well, with just a crack for fresh air.

I knew it wasn't really from the movie downstairs, but I couldn't avoid hearing the werewolf howl and the victims scream.

So a few years later when I bought Thriller, I was all too delighted to let my imagination run wild during the song, envisioning my own horror movie to it. My imaginary video for the song stacked up well against Landis's version. Though mine didn't have the corpses and monsters dancing. However, Landis and Jackson still were able to make something as jokey as that seem pretty cool.