25 years later and I'm still Thrilled

A great surprise this weekend came in the form of a gift of my very own copy of the 25th Anniversary Edition of Michael Jackson's Thriller.

I love the remixes - Akon's Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' and Fergie singing along with Michael's old vocals on Beat It. But Will.i.am's PYT remix by far takes the sequined glove.

Listening to those old songs (the album got played four and a half times through just on Saturday) was wonderful. I remembered listening to the old record at the house in Skokie that my parents rented when we were so young. In our shared bedroom, Reem and I had a hott poster of Michael wearing the red zipper Beat It jacket on a neon purple background.

I had exactly the same experience this weekend that I had as a child when I felt terror creep through my body at the opening notes of Thriller and the sound of Vincent Price's voice. I shudder now thinking about it. I screamed for a while. And then when I realized that this special 25th Anniversary release included a bonus DVD featuring the Thriller video I screamed a whole lot more knowing that it must now live in my house.

Those scary cat-eye contacts that he wears at the end of the video are permanently branded in my brain and the zombie dance still makes me feel like running out of the room.

Different from the old days of listening to this album now is a new understand of some of the lyrics due to recent events. For example, I now have absolutely no doubt that Billie Jean, was in fact, not his Michael's lover. And the true story comes clear in that Michael was simply being Paul McCartney's wingman and indeed not interested in that doggone girl.

I absolutely still do get a choked up at his sweet soft vocals on Human Nature. Michael will never lose that for me. Even if he is more like one of our clients than the King of Pop these days.