Please read this entry first because the following post is a continuation of that.
The first time I heard “Who is it” was when Michael sang it a cappella during the Oprah interview. I’ve mentioned in this blog before that I wasn’t allowed to buy the “Dangerous” album because my mother thought it was too sexual. However, she did allow me to record most of the songs off the radio or buy the cassingles, which is what I ended up doing with “Who is it”. The tape not only featured the original song, but also the a version with the Oprah intro added.
So, why is “Who is it” in my top 5 Michael Jackson songs? There are several reasons, actually. “Who is it” is one of those songs that is layered with musical depth. You can listen to it countless times and each time, pull something different from it that you hadn’t heard before, or perhaps even hear the song in a different way.
However, the reason I fell in love with it in the first place wasn’t because of the musical dynamics but more because of the emotional drive that I felt Michael put into it. The driving beat at the beginning could have made the song steer in any path that Michael chose. Dark sexuality was my first impression of it until the keyboards and strings kicked in giving the song more of a hollow and lonely tone.
Before “Human Nature” and “Will You Be There”, “Who is it” was my #1. I couldn’t really relate to the story line of the song, I was only thirteen after all, but it was the angst and beautiful lonliness that came through quite clearly in his voice that I was drawn to. The song’s tone and atmosphere fit my spirits during those times and it was nice to have an emotional outlet of a jam such as “Who is it” to blast in my headphones.
The actual video of the song wasn’t released on MTV in the US. Instead, the video was replaced with footage of Michael’s various music videos as well as performances of the Bad tour and Motown 25. I didn’t have MTV anyway, so I didn’t know any better. I rented “Dangerous: The Short Films” from Blockbuster Video, however, and was able to see the video then and did it ever give me a surprise after being a fan of the song for so many months!
I’m an incredibly private person, so I hate to go into too much detail about who I am, but I’m going to make an exception for this entry this time –By the way, I realize and I apologize that most of my personal stories most of the time are so pathetic and depressing. It’s just that I discovered Michael and his music during one of the darkest periods of my life and I just always go back to those times because his music and messages helped pull me through them.– ANYWAY, what I was saying.. a little bit of personal info in the next paragraph.
My first name is rather uncommon. It’s not hideously strange, but I’ve really only met one other person in my life who has shared the same name. It bothered me a bit when I was a kid that everybody would always mispronounce or misspell my name. Don’t get me wrong, I like my name, but sometimes I have to say I felt a little left out that I was never able to find anything personalized in stores. Not a huge deal, but sometimes I wished I could decorate my room with personalized stickers and such.
There was one other thing that bothered me about my name. A bit before Michael was accused of child molestation, a cruel boy in my grade discovered that my name rhymed with “Molest” and he would call me by that word instead of my actual name and get others to do the same. What made is worse is that they discovered my best friend’s first name actually rhymed with “Molester”, so we were called “Molest and Molester”. I had no idea what the word meant at the time, but what a way to find out, right?
A short time later, Michael was accused of molesting a child and although I could only relate to being called such a thing and not actually ACCUSED of it, I really felt for him for having that word attached to his name. Of course, I was tortured a bit more at school after Michael was accused of molesting the kid because I was a fan of Michael and “Oh, how funny that your name is ‘Molest’! Hohoho!”
The time frame in which I first saw “Who is it” off of “Dangerous: The Short Films” was closely after he was accused of the charges. When I watched it, my jaw dropped to the floor.
For the first time I saw my name elsewhere besides my own handwriting! I wondered if Michael personally chose all the names on those cards. The total dork in me fantasized about him researching names for the video in the weeks prior to the shoot by looking through baby-naming books Maybe he stumbled across mine and thought, “That name is really beautiful and unique!” then wrote it down on a piece of paper and stuffed it into his wallet. While making the video, perhaps he pulled out the paper and instructed, “Make sure this name is on one of the cards”.
lolol! Oh me!
Well, this is my “Who is it” entry FINALLY
No comments:
Post a Comment