A little while ago, I did a blog post about the Melbourne Zombie Shuffle, an event in which I dressed up as a zombie call centre operator. But let’s face it: one of the best zombie renditions of all time was in Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ video. What a way to make zombies come to life.

I was too young to remember when Elvis Presley died (I was only three). But although Elvis Presley was the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, I grew loving Michael Jackson as that other King – the King of Pop. Those kinds of titles can be silly marketing inventions, along with ridiculous superlatives such as ‘greatest ever’, etc. But, then, Michael Jackson really was an artist of superlatives. He had the world’s biggest selling album of all time. He broke records for concert attendances. And he certainly had the credentials to be the King of Pop – at the very least, a background that included Motown and disco, and a great pop career in itself as the lead singer of The Jackson Five/The Jacksons. Add his own achievements as a solo artist and his innovations across music, music videos, dance, fashion, etc. and… well, I’m happy to see him as the King of Pop. There really was no other entertainer like him.

Later in his career, Michael Jackson became reclusive and, more than ever, he seemed to live out a persona of a wounded misfit that he also came to explore more explicitly in his music (and which drew other misfits to his work). But I will always remember the night I saw him accept a particular music award – a very big one, perhaps for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. He gave a beautiful speech – funny, touching, humble, ironic. One thing I especially remember is when he talked about how it was good to be considered a person and not a personality. I like to think of him as a person too – as much as I can, given that I never met him person-to-person but via sounds and images (some of them now iconic) which were also transmitted to millions of others. At any rate, he had a personal effect on me.

I loved the original Thriller album cover. A generation of teenagers grew up idolising John Travolta in his white suit. I do remember the Saturday Night Fever album (I saw the film much later, as an adult) but was a touch too young for it to really affect me. Michael Jackson in his white suit was who I grew up idolising. (And I always wanted a red ‘Beat It’ jacket too, but that – and my adventures in moon-walking and trying to start up my own break-dancing crew in 1984 – are another story.) But, as much as I love that original album cover, there’s something about the below image – which is the cover of the 25th anniversary re-release of Thriller – that I love too. In his life, Michael Jackson was surrounded by people who made sport of taunting him – people who were flesh-eating zombies in their own way. They saw Michael as a freak – as freaky as a zombie. But, via his work, Michael Jackson also spoke to other misfits who loved what he did, including fellow zombies such as myself.

At any rate, in the end, I like how Michael Jackson appears in this picture: it turns out that he wasn’t really a zombie but was quite the person.

Rest in Peace, Michael Jackson