Sadieandleo

February 15th, 2008

1983

Today I worked with Ricky, probably the coolest and most mature 19 year old I know. I like Ricky, he makes me laugh, feel young and he makes me think. I was a lot like he is now, looking towards the future, wondering where life will lead but still living in the here and now and still enjoying life without the pent up frustration of parental expectations. That is neither here no there in reference to today’s post, but felt that it merited mentioning. Ricky’s a good kid and there need to be more good kids in the world.

Today whilst driving to the bank together (for work purposes, obviously) he was playing the newly released 25th Anniversary edition of Thriller. The first part of the CD is Michael Jackson’s album Thriller in its entirety, in its original form and then the second part of the CD has updated versions of his songs with famous artists of today. Liking Michael Jackson or not, and I can hear the snickering from here, you can’t deny that this album has transcended time and generations. I bought that album on cassette in 1983 and I was 8. Here we are, 25 years later and Ricky, my 19 year old employee is buying the same album on CD. Why is it the biggest selling album of all time? It’s in the music and the innocence of the lyrics, the artistry and the rhythm. Strip away all of our opinions of Michael Jackson as a person, as a parody of what he represents, all of his wacky mishaps and what Ricky is hearing on this album is what I heard on that album 25 years ago. You hear the art of fun and expression.

I purchased my own copy after work today. I don’t have anything to play my original cassette on any more. I figured it was time to update.

*Note*- the word “tenderoni”, which just so happens to be one of my favorite words of all time, appears in the fourth line of “PYT”, so you can’t really go wrong there.