Fuck Yeah Michael Jackson

(04-12-2007) Michael’s ‘Billie Jean’ performance at Motown 25 is one of the most legendary moments in music history. Watching it on video is amazing - but what was it like sitting in the audience and seeing it live? Steven Ivory was there and tells us about it: 

“On the evening of March 25, 1983, I drove to the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in an economy car and an ill-fitting tux, both rented, for the taping of NBC’s Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. What the tape of Jackson’s performance (lip-synched, which is ironic considering his prowess at singing live while dancing) fails to accurately capture is just what was going on the audience: Sheer bedlam.  

What seems routine now, was spellbinding then; we’d never seen this Michael Jackson. Even his brothers, after they’d performed a reunion medley with him, were seeing it for the first time from the wings. Michael, goes the story, put his act together the day before.

If you were a Jackson fan, you were glad he was back. If you were a Jackson fan and Black, you were awash in a wave of cultural pride that transcended mere pop music to fasten itself onto American history outright.

To be sure, the five minutes Jackson was onstage alone somehow elevated the whole race—certainly the Pasadena Civic, where, after Jackson left the stage, the show had to be halted so that entire  production and building could regain its composure; so that men in the audience could straighten their ties and women could adjust their wigs.

It was as if Jackson had dropped a bomb on the place, walked away and left us there to negotiate the soulful fallout. “Ladies and gentlemen,” pleaded a stern, amplified male voice, “please take your seats, we have more show to be taped. PLEASE….” Folk dabbed water from their eyes, hugged one another and high-fived strangers. Performance? We’d just witnessed a coronation. Soon, order prevailed. We politely watched the rest of the show, our collective consciousness stuck on Jackson.

via borednschooled