I have perpetuated with theme of childhood recently. Been reading the book The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson and last Saturday Rudi and I went to watch Slumdog Millionaire.
At the start of The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bryson said " Growing up was easy. It required no thought or effort on my part. It was going to happen anyway". I had the best childhood. I think I grew up at the time when kids were still wholesome and we played a whole lot without thinking much ambitions or succeeding. Whilst we were packing up to leave our apartment, we found Michael Jackson's History in our stack of dust filled CDs.
I love Michael. He made me fall in love with music and he made me experimented with dangerous dance moves - such as moonwalking on slippery floors, crotch grabbing actions that made my parents sick with worry. It's a fact that Thriller was and is the best selling album of all time. Why is that? I think between Rudi and I - we owned at least 6 copies between ourselves. We listened to Beat It, Billie Jean endlessly; again and again till the tape broke.
Last week, Michael made an announcement that he will be staging his last concert tour - The Final Curtain. It is hard to believe that my childhood idol is now 50 years old. I really hope that he will come to HK. I'd pay any amount of money just to be able to watch him again. No matter how ridiculous!
I know that Michael is probably most famous for songs like Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal but personally for myself, my all time favorite song from Michael is Man in the Mirror taken from the album Bad. The album came out in 1987 and it was a year after my parents separated. Looking back it was probably one of the saddest times of my life and the lyrics had such profound meaning to me...
I'm Starting With The Man InThe Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could HaveBeen Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make
The WorldA Better Place
(If You Wanna Make TheWorld A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself, AndThen Make A Change
(Take A Look At Yourself, AndThen Make A Change
I've Been A Victim Of A SelfishKind Of Love
It's Time That I Realize
That There Are Some With NoHome,
Not A Nickel To LoanCould It Be Really Me,
Pretending That They're Not Alone?
Man in the mirror is simply timeless and if only we have more classic songs like these. Michael you may have fucked up to a certain extend but thanks for being there for me. I love you.
Anyways people if you want to take a trip down memory lane and laugh about some serious shit you used to do while you were a kid, I'd recommend you to read The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.
