Remember the time... This is the Remix

by **S. Ramesh** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 3:12 pm

I remember the time... Do you? The \"Coming to America\" movie soundtrack by Michael Jackson?
 
 Michael Jackson began his career as a professional musician in the early seventies, and in those days, when we didn\'t have channel V and MTV in India, the first song that introduced his music was the ballad \"one day in your life\", which put up the promising talent in this youngster (so were we then!)
 
 During my first year of graduate studies in 1983, my interest for music and radio listening evolved into writing news articles on such themes for a new English Newspaper (not to be seen in the stands nowadays although it\'s parent Telugu Newspaper continues to go strong!). These were compiled from listening to programmes on the latest in music from radio stations such as VOA, BBC, Radio Australia, SLBC and many others.
 
 It was at this time, that songs such as “I just call to say I love you”(Stevie Wonder), “Girls just wanna have fun”(Cindi Lauper), “Dancing in the dark”(Bruce Springsteen), “Careless Whisper”(Wham), “You might think I am fooling”(Cars), “Jump”(Van Halen) emerged as super hits.
 
 But nothing quite like the record that Michael Jackson\'s album “Thriller” made that had Quincy Jones as it\'s Producer. Eight tracks from it including, “Beat It”, “Billy Jean”, “Wanna be starting something”, “Thriller”, “Human Nature”...reached the top of the charts making it the largest selling album in music history breaking the records set earlier by “Saturday Night Fever”(Bee Gees) and “Rumours”(Fleetwood Mac).
 
 In India, Michael Jackson became very popular, even with audiences who do not understand the English language and it wasn\'t surprising a couple of days back, when I met someone having difficulty in interpreting the contents of a news article translated and reproduced in a Telugu Newspaper (the strong one!) on raids at Mr. Jackson\'s sprawling Neverland Ranch in central California investigating allegations of child molestation on this Artist/Musician.
 
 After the release of “Bad” in the late eighties, Bal Thackeray, the high priest of the “Jai Maharashtra” and “Garv se kaho tum Hindu ho” cult, permitted and patronised a concert by Mr. Jackson at Mumbai (the Shiv Sena was running government then with partners). Newspapers all over India flashed photos of the two in bonhomie at Mumbai where Jackson performed to the appreciation of a large audience with his full band and hardware that were flown in for the concert.
 
 The first instalment of paedophile allegations was delivered before mid-nineties and Michael doused the fire with millions of dollars. He got married then to Elvis Presley\'s daughter.
 
 His marriage brought together this black superstar who surpassed all his predecessors (black musicians) in creating music publishing history with Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of a white man who was acclaimed by his image makers as an answer from his race, to the music world dominated then by the talent of great black musicians and singers.
 
 A prodigy musician, nothing could stop Michael Jackson from gaining worldwide reputation and he did whatever that was needed to gain it. And even those, who didn\'t quite like his ascent, for whatever prejudices, had to put up with his success that had many admirers and fans.
 
 But now, they have struck again with fresh child molestation allegations towards the end of the year 2003. They don\'t understand that his music and culture have impressed audiences the world over anxious to get dazed with latest music/culture products from the USA. He was and perhaps still is a sort of cultural ambassador for the USA.
 
 A similar parallel can be seen in Mohammed Azharuddin making it to become the captain of the Indian Cricket Team. He groomed himself as a prodigy specializing in batting, fielding and teamwork. He was among the most successful captains in Indian cricketing history and still holds records that haven\'t been surpassed.
 
 Then there was this change of governance in India that brought the BJP to power and the new political masters couldn\'t digest the idea of a member of a minority community heading the cricket team of the country for quite long and therefore fixed him in the game. They did this in collision with their sympathizers in the Cricket Board and the Team.
 
 Hansie Cronje and Manoj Prabhakar levelled their allegations on Azharuddin with which they failed to stand by later. Hansie Cronje confessed his crime and was removed from the team and punished by the law in his country. He later died in an air crash. Manoj Prabhakar is fully into politics with the BJP and so is Ajay Jadeja who got cases on him in the courts on the match fixing scam settled. Jadeja is currently campaigning for Kirti Azad\'s wife Poonam who is the BJP\'s candidate contesting against Ms. Sheila Dixit, the present Chief Minister of Delhi when they go to polls in early December 2003.
 
 Allegations were also made on the only Indian Captain to lead a team to victory in the World Cup, Kapil Dev, but he managed to get himself clear of them. Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, the role models of Indian Cricket, had their role to play from the side of the cricket team and board in reworking the politics through removal of captain pending settlement of cases related to allegation of match-fixing on Azharuddin.
 
 Azharuddin hasn\'t as yet succeeded in settling cases leveling allegations on him for match fixing. He married Sangeeta Bijlani, a well-known model, at a time, not very distant from the time of his removal from the Indian Team.
 
 Michael Jackson and Mohammed Azharuddin, through their dedication and application achieved recognition and glory in their respective fields of music and cricket. Both got trapped in scams at the prime of their careers. And both got married/re-married to a member of a community different from theirs, such as a black with a white and a Muslim with a Hindu, to stand by them to face the allegations on them.
 
 Then rolled in the year 2000 and the release of an album titled “Supernatural” by Carlos Santana. This musician, who had the admiration of many for long, equaled the record of eight Grammys that “Thriller” had established way back in 1983. Santana was 52 years at the time of release of this album that heralded the entry into this millenium of music and was aptly titled. It had a galaxy of superstars of different generations playing together with the leader (Santana) of the big band such as Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Rob Thomas, Dave Matthews...
 
 This was followed with the release of another album in 2003 titled “Shaman” that saw a galaxy of superstars playing again with Santana to produce another masterpiece of an album. Songs by Dido (Feels like fire), Michelle Branch (Game of love), POD (America), Musiq Soulchild (Nothing at all) enrich this album among others. This album begins with the track titled “Adouma” which sounds like an incantation to ward off evil in this millenium and is by itself very representative of Santana\'s style of music.
 
 Michael Jackson, who lead the “We are the world” team comprising of galaxy of superstars wasn\'t there among the galaxy of superstars who performed with Santana in his recent albums. Neither can I recollect any instance of them playing together.
 
 The Fugees comprising of Lauryn Hill, Praz and Wyclef Jean with their fusion of reggae, rap and hip-hop inherited the legacy of the music of Bob Marley, supplementing it with their innovation and Remix. Yes, they are certainly other inheritors of his legacy such as The Wailers, who came up with the brilliant “Majestic Warriors Band” , Lee Ritenour with his “A Twist of Marley”, but The Fugees relivened things up by with their innovative music and Remix.
 
 Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean came up with Remix of old songs such as “Wish you were here”(Pink Floyd), “Stayin Alive” (Bee Gees), “Turn your lights down low” (Bob Marley), “Killing me Softly” giving them a fresh look and a contemporary perspective.
 
 Wyclef Jean and Santana had teamed up for the chartbusting track from “Supernatural” called “Maria Maria”(played by Carlos Santana). Wyclef is there doing the Remix with various artistes such as “911”(Mary J. Blige) “No, No, No” (Destiny\'s Child) “Coast to Coast”(Angie Martinez), “Party to Damascus”(Missy Elliot),“Two Wrongs”(Claudette Ortiz) , “Merry Christmas Baby” (Stevie Wonder)…
 
 I read many years ago in a book titled “Listen” by Jack Kerman that the medium on which a musician works was time, like canvas for a painter.
 
 On behalf of the music community, Wyclef should perhaps do a Remix at this time for Michael Jackson that can help him recover from allegations troubling him.

by **BornBad** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 6:42 pm

heh ...!

by **Mayavi Morpheus** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 4:49 am

Yeah man, the molestation charges against Michael Jackson is a red-neck + Kooklux klan + confederate conspiracy just like fixing charges against Azharuddin are framed by fascist, fundumentalist, Neo-Nazi, Hindu-Zionist BJP government.

by **Bodax** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 10:48 am

THE flip-side OF A COIN IS ALWAYS MYSTERIOUS..
 
 good Collection and good Expression

by **Author** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 12:30 am

\"heh\" was the exclamation on seeing this post... I later noticed the discussion started by you earlier titled \"Is Michael Jackson guilty\" on this forum...

by **Author** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 12:45 am

Interestingly, it was one of the leading icons of your \"fascist, fundumentalist, Neo-Nazi, Hindu-Zionist\", Bal Thackeray, who played host to Michael Jackson, identified by you as victim of conspiracy by \"red-neck+Kookluxklan+confederate\", when he visited Mumbai....

by **Mayavi Morpheus** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 1:22 am

Now we can tie the loose ends, the Hindu-Zionists who hosted MJ during his 93- 94 (?) visit of mumbai learnt about the out-of-court settlement MJ had with the kid (I know I know, its all conspiracy, MJ is as innocent as a new born child) from MJ himself who also told them that it was a \'Klan\' conspiracy conspiracy,so them Hindu-Zionists decided to do a MJ on AZ, but they had to wait for a favourable central government. So they waited till 2000.
 See, now everything makes sense.

by **Author** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:27 pm

A rambling attempt to tie up loose ends. Maybe, you would find this as a better lead to work with. Both Michael Jackson and Azharuddin appeared in Pepsi ads and endorsed the cola with their superstar images. They made money from Pepsi by featuring in the ads, but lost on earnings from their career/profession cause of the allegations. They weren\'t innocent when they decided to make money from Pepsi, so are the rest who figure in promoting Pepsi like Tendulkar. In the two dominant party political set-up of the USA, Pepsi is Republican while Coke is Democrat, Cheers!!

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