You've been hit by, you've been struck by a smooth criminal

[venta]

On Fridays this year, we ask...

What's in the Box?

The Box in question is the glovebox of my car, home to my extremely motley tape collection. By the time I owned a car with a tape player tapes were on the way out and most of my music was in CD format. However, charity shops were practically giving tapes away, which meant that I bought rapaciously and eclectically. A half-remembered 80s band who once released a single I'd liked a little ? A band I'd vaguely heard of ? An unknown group with good cover art ? Bring them on.

Of course, the net result is that I've ended up with a tape collection which any music-lover would be slightly ashamed of. There was a relatively narrow window (late 70s to later 80s) when tapes were big news, and my horde represents that. However, in amongst the terrible pop I've found some gems and I reckon its time to come clean about my guilty musical secrets.

In The Box this week we have:

Michael Jackson - Bad

Somewhere in the late 80s there was a brief interlude when Michael Jackson was post-plastic-surgery but pre-freaky-batshit-weirdness. During that gap, he made Bad.

I hadn't heard this album in years, and grabbed a tape copy in a fit of nostalgia. I was suprised to find I couldn't remember, without looking at the tracklisting, many of the songs on - but as soon as the tape began playing they all popped up in my memory.

The opening notes of Man in the Mirror, more than anything else, catapulted me back to a camping holiday shortly after the album had been released. I was with several rabid teenage Jackson fans, and a few second into the intro I was back in a sodden tent in a river valley in Alston, listening to Bad on a tiny, tinny tape deck.

Michael Jackson - Man in the mirror

[Poll #1150394]

Comments

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

I've voted on it without listening to it - but then Bad was the first album I bought. I still think he's singing about a librarian girl.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

You missed out the "I remember the horror the first time round but will subject myself in the interests of SCIENCE" box.

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

I also have to admit to being a childhood Michael Jackson fan. I think that Bad was the first albumn I ever owned. These days this is something I rarely admit to!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

There are some good things on this album, but this is not one of them IMO.

Strange to think he was still only 28 or so when it came out.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

My sister had a major crush during the Bad phase. I have to admit to watching the video and thinking he was really striking.