Michael Jackson Died A Year Ago Today
Yep. June 25, 2009. A genuinely shocking and oddly unifying moment, when a couple decades of profound decline and ugliness were washed away instantly, leaving everyone with the powerful urge to hear "Billie Jean" again as soon as possible. (Or "Beat It." For me it was "Beat It.") Around here we raided the Voice archives, put him on the cover (my favorite of my time here), and summoned the mighty Greg Tate. And then he became the most-discussed and best-selling musician of the year, by orders of magnitude. Will be interesting to see how the event is commemorated: You could, for example, join a "fan dinner" at Sylvia's followed by a candlelight walk to the Apollo. Or just find any DJ, anywhere. It's already started, actually: ?uestlove did an MJ-tribute DJ set at Brooklyn Bowl last night and, naturally, Tweeted the entire tracklist. A guideline for how to spend your day, perhaps. Just like old times.
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