Michael and Farrah...

In the past hour, my childhood has passed in front of my eyes. Busy at work all day, I had no idea Farrah Fawcett had died until I got home this evening. I turned on the TV and saw that on the ticker while CNN was reporting first that Michael Jackson had been hospitalized, then that he had died. As of now (7 p.m. EST), the L.A. Times is reporting Michael has died, although that has not yet been officially confirmed.

Neither star was in the best of health recently: Michael’s overall health was questionable, although he was reportedly in training for his planned tour; and Farrah had been battling cancer since 2006. While their deaths don’t come as a surprise necessarily, it is still shocking that two such iconic people have passed.

I remember watching the Jackson Five cartoons on Saturday mornings when I was maybe eight or nine years old. Some of the early Jackson’s singles were among the first records I ever got: “ABC,” “I’ll Be There,” all that old stuff. And of course, Thriller, the biggest selling album ever. Even though by the time the album came out, I was hardly the Michael Jackson fan I had been as a kid, there was no way I could deny the impact of the record. I’ve never owned the album, but there is not a song on it I don’t know. That’s how influential and how much of a phenomenon the album was and, frankly, still is.

And Farrah, too. Wow – this is nearly overwhelming. You find me a male who was a teenager in the late 70’s and didn’t own the Farrah poster, and I’ll show you... well, whatever. That poster – in its way – was every bit the phenomenon Thriller was. Sales estimates range from five million to eight million. Farrah said at one point she earned more in royalties from poster sales than from her salary for appearing in “Charlie's Angels.”

This is truly a sad day.

Billie Jean.mp3
Theme from Charlie’s Angels.mp3
Charlie’s Angels.mp3 ~ Mary Shelley Overdrive

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update: The L.A. County coroner has just confirmed Michael is dead.

Labels: current events, funk, industrial, TV

posted by aikin @ 7:27 PM