I woke up to an appropriately gray morning. While we don’t usually do sentimental-type things like this on the blog, I had to offer up a moment of respect and thanks for this gifted artist. He gave us all a lot…at great cost to himself.

Michael Jackson was the source of enormous joy for me as a kid and teenager, and for that I will always be very grateful. I could wax poetic about the pivotal moments for which he provided the soundtrack (and the sweet moves), but what makes him great is that millions of us had those moments.

Here (broken into 2 parts) is his performance at the Motown 25 show in 1983. I wanted to include this because while the Thriller album ROCKED my world, this was the first actual vhs tape I ever had of Michael Jackson. We played it well beyond the point of abuse. It never got old. It still hasn’t.

In case you weren’t aware, this was the debut of the moonwalk.

Thanks MJ. Rest in peace.

UPDATE: Just read a beautiful piece on MJ by Jeff Chang:
Michael Jackson :: Morning’s End