On Listening to “Billie Jean” and Other Moral Quagmires
I first heard “Billie Jean” in the winter of 1983 on a jukebox at The Anchor , a popular college dive bar in New Haven. The opening beats, the hypnotic voice, and the loopy, sometimes indecipherable pronunciation held me spellbound. Michael Jackson would, of course, go on to become a freak show. The King of Pop would be accused of some of the worst crimes imaginable . The Los Angeles police began investigating him in 1993, ten years after I first heard “Billie Jean.” Despite everything I know about Michael Jackson, hearing “Billie Jean” takes me back to The Anchor and the thrill of discovery. I still like it. Now, on the heels of the long-running Broadway jukebox musical MJ , a new Jackson “biopic” whitewashes his life. Authorized by the Jackson estate and starring his nephew Jaafar, the film sidesteps Jackson's crimes by focusing on the years before they came to light. Though critically reviled, Michael is a smash hit , debuting with $97 million in ticket sales and earning a 97% ...
