Local residents remember King of Pop

Annette Gay, 47, of Atlanta, remembers being part of a swaying concert crowd in Munich waiting for Michael Jackson.

She remembers a showman who thrilled her as part of the Jackson 5 and later mesmerized her young daughter as as a solo performer.
“The only way I could comb her hair was to put ‘Thriller’ on,” Gay said. “She would sit for hours.”

Gay, at TigerTown with friends and her daughter, was shocked by the singer’s death Thursday afternoon.

“I’m very hurt,” she said. “It doesn’t seem real.”

Gay was one of many who reflected upon the singer whose career spanned most of his 50 years.

“His music, his videos — there’s no comparison,” Gay said.

Phyllis Dorsey, 46, of Palmetto, Ga., has been a fan of Jackson for most of her life.

“I used to hang his picture on my walls — me and my sister,” she said.

Ron Frieson, 23, of Valley, and Jenniqua Groom, a 20-year-old Auburn University student, said they were too young to remember the height of the Jackson phenomenon, but he was still part of their childhoods.

“I remember being a little kid and dancing to ‘Beat it,’ ” Frieson said.

“We sang ‘We are the World’ at my middle school graduation,” said Groom.

George Plasketes, a communications and journalism professor who teaches courses focusing on fame and celebrity at Auburn University, said it’s hard to find a comparable pop culture figure to Jackson or the reaction to his death.

The best he can do is the last king, Elvis.

“It’s remarkable the parallels between his death and Elvis’,” Plasketes said.

Jackson’s death is a chance for younger generations to experience something similar to the Elvis phenomenon, Plasketes said.

Jackson, like Elvis, had a long career with distinct periods.

Young Michael and thin Elvis gave way to Whacko Jacko and a bloated lounge singer.

“Basically, they had the young and old dichotomy at some point in their career, ” he said. “That’s what makes these mythologies, in part, so attractive and so compelling. They are so contradictory.”

Plasketes said it’s hard not to be impressed by Jackson’s body of work.

“You can’t go through the era without mentioning ‘Thriller’ and what Michael Jackson did music videowise,” he said.

Wildman Steve Bronson, who’s not the biggest Jackson fan, agreed.

“I have been astounded by him and thrilled by him over the years,” said Bronson, program director at WQNR. “And I have a healthy respect.”

But Jackson’s influence wasn’t limited to music, Bronson said. Don’t forget his outfits — or the dance moves.

Bronson said he will never forget the debut of the moonwalk.

“I remember practically falling out my chair when he did it,” he said. “Millions of people were doing that at the same time all over America. That step is part of our culture now.”

Jackson’s’ eccentricities are just as unforgettable.

As for the debate whether the weirdness or greatness will be Jackson’s legacy, Bronson thinks it will be a bit of both.

“I personally, as a music person, keep his musical and cultural legacy separate from his other legacy,” Bronson said. “All that stuff is for tabloids.”

For Taleesha Williams, Gay’s 25-year-old daughter pacified by Jackson’s iconic video so many years ago, the scandals of Jackson’s life are irrelevant.

“We love him,” she said.