Music and Grace

July 7th, 2009 by Celeste Fremon

If you listen to nothing else from the Michael Jackson memorial today, give yourself a gift and listen to this.

Posted in American artists, American voices | 9 Comments »

9 Responses

1. Woody Says:
   July 7th, 2009 at 7:30 pm

   Just when I thought that I couldn’t stand one more thing about MJ….

2. reg Says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 8:07 am

   Sorry – the context of the sorry spectacle and the almost mindlessly sappy rap makes me want to puke. I never thought this was a great Stevie Wonder song and whatever modest enjoyment it held went away watching this…

   No accounting for taste.

3. reg Says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 10:39 am

   Just for context and to rationalize my sourness, here’s a great line I just snagged from Steve Weber at HuffPo:

   “Having witnessed as much as I could take of Michael Jackson’s star-studded memorial LIVE from the Staple’s Center I am now certain there is an afterlife: it’s called marketing.”

   Also noticed the invention of a new word for the scene by another blogger at HuffPo”

   “Thanatothon”

   I’ll recount my old Princess Di story – the day after Diana was killed I went to my local coffee shop, run by a bunch of nice, progressive lesbians, and there was much weeping and moaning. I was like, “What’s the big deal ?” Their rationale was that Diana was a “great humanitarian.” I responded, “I’ll bet money if Mother Teresa died there wouldn’t be anything like this hoopla.” The next day I went back, and of course Mother Teresa had died and they looked at me like it was my fault. Then the networks hastily decided to broadcast Mothere Teresa’s funeral worldwide, just like they were broadcasting Di’s – PURELY OUT OF A SENSE OF EMBARRASSMENT IF THEY DIDN’T. If Diana hadn’t died the same week, Mother Teresa’s funeral wouldn’t have been a live TV event. (Personally, I didn’t give a shit about Mother Teresa either, but that’s not the point.) Difference between then and now ? That vestigal sense of shame among the media is entirely gone…

4. Woody Says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 10:40 am

   A Michael Jackson tribute

   …to a deserving man.

5. Ahmed Says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 10:45 am

   Stevie poured some real emotion into that beautiful rendition and came across thankfully as the least faux slick of the performers. He nailed it. Thanks Celeste

6. dacalicious Says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 11:27 am

   Blah. A rich, monstrously self-indulgent basket-case “self-medicates” his way to an early grave. What is this guy’s legacy? Celeste, I thought you were all about the kids. Not in a Michael Jackson way, of course. Which is entirely my point. & for those of us who preferred rock, jazz, country, punk etc during the nefarious reign of ’80s pop bland uberculture, with apologies to Chuck D, I gotta say: “MJ might be a hero to some, but not to me.”

7. Celeste Fremon Says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

   Okay, for the record, I have exactly zero MJ songs in my music library but I recognize his artistry, nonetheless.

   I do not, however, understand the necrophilia that was on display yesterday. The use of that little girl Paris as a prop was alone deeply frightening.

   BUT, that didn’t negate, for me, the beauty of Stevie Wonder’s performance, which I found to be one island of genuineness in an unnerving spectacle that is costing Los Angeles so much money that I find myself speechless. (More on this late tonight.)

   Reg, I happen to like “I Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer” very much. I didn’t know Stevie Wonder wrote the song. I became attached to it during a period in 1975 when Joan Baez’s Diamonds and Rust was among those albums I listened to way more than was likely healthy. (Ah, youth.) “I Never Dreamed” is on that album.

   I thought Stevie Wonder’s rendition—both the piano and the vocals—was exquisite.

   Your story about the coffee shop women possibly blaming you for Mother Theresa’s death had me laughing out loud.

   Hey, dacalicious, so I can’t love kids AND music? I’m also firmly and actively in favor of literature too, I should warn you.

8. Randy Paul Says:
   July 9th, 2009 at 7:33 pm

   Reg, I happen to like “I Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer” very much

   Don’t know if you’re familiar with Kevin Mahagony (arguably, along with Kurt Elling, the best young male jazz singer around), but he did a lovely version of this.

9. Rob Thomas Says:
   July 10th, 2009 at 2:42 am

   I like Brotha Lynch and C-Bo’s version. They from my hood Sac Town baby!