Jacko Links: Remembering MJ in the music world

If you’re still parsing your feelings about the death of Michael Jackson, these readings may help.

At the RFT, Annie Zaleski remembers how when she was a kid, Michael just was.

As a child growing up in the ’80s, there was no question that you liked Michael Jackson. It was just a given, a constant, something that was assumed. His hits – and that included nearly everything on Thriller, his duets with Paul McCartney and a slew of songs from Bad – were a part of your world. Jackson himself was likable, what with his unthreatening, too-short pants, white socks, red jacket and silver glove. And to a kid, palling around with E.T. and having a movie at Epcot Center was the epitome of cool.

Another RFT staffer, Aimee Levitt, remembers meeting Jackson at a Barnes & Noble in Florida.

The Village Voice‘s blog has an ongoing collection of essays, including a tough-as-nails 1987 essay by African-American cultural critic Greg Tate:

To fully appreciate the sickness of Jackson’s savaging of his African physiognomy you have to recall that back when he wore the face he was born with, black folk thought he was the prettiest thing since sliced sushi. (My own mother called Michael pretty so many time s I almost got a complex.) Jackson and I are the same age, damn near 30, and I’ve always had a love-hate thing going with the brother.