Our first was our awesome Ed McMahon, then Farrah Fawcett, and now - the biggest shock - MICHAEL JACKSON!!!!!

Three major Icons gone in a week! I watched Ed McMahon back when he was on the tonight show with Johnny Carson - in the 70's, of course everybody watched Charlie's Angels - well, my favorite was Kate Jackson but of course all males loved Farrah Fawcett, and now Michael Jackson.............. My favorite album by Michael Jackson was Thriller of course...... and the duet he did with Paul McCartney (Ebony and Ivory)....... and a couple of other songs......

What a tremendous loss.........

Quote by TRISHAFAN4LIFE re. Michael Jackson:



Sir Paul and MJ did do "The Girl Is Mine" and "Say, Say, Say", but "Ebony And Ivory" was a duet with Stevie Wonder.

In any case, it has certainly not been a great week for iconic figures--to lose Ed McMahon last Tuesday, then Farrah Fawcett on Thursday, and then, only a few miles away and a few hours after her, Michael Jackson made this one of the most catastrophic weeks in the entertainment world in years (IMO).

With respect to Michael Jackson--I really have to say that much of the self-generated hype surrounding him during the 80s, and his subsequent issues with having kids stay over at his Neverland Ranch during the 90s, really turned me off to him. Instead of it being about his music and trying to keep making great music even if he couldn't surpass the thirty-six million sales mark of Thriller, it became about getting attention in any way, shape, or form, and it subsequently backfired on him in very damaging ways. His public behavior was the only area, in my opinion, where he surpassed the father-in-law he never knew, Elvis, and not in a good way. And it would now seem that Jackson's untimely demise shares one too many similarities with the even more untimely demise of the music legend whom I personally consider the true King of Pop.

However, these comments are not intended as a slam against Jackson. Because in the final analysis, when one removes all the extreme media hype and attention over Jackson's extremely eccentric behavior, like with Elvis and John Lennon, you're still left with great musical memories. In the case of Michael Jackson, it would be with the Jackson Five hits of 1969-71; "Dancing Machine" in 1974; the 1979 album Off The Wall; and the ghoulish title track of Thriller, which is played on the radio each year as October 31st approaches.

LOL - I knew that ~ (about Ebony & Ivory)!!!!! I was having a blonde.....ummm senior.......ummmm doh! moment! lol Yes, loved The Girl is Mine and Say, Say, Say........... lmao Of course you know I'm a major fan of Sir Paul!

I totally agree with your post! Yes, I saw signs saying "The King is dead"......... Okay - there was only and will ever only be one King of Rock and Roll and that would be Elvis Presley! Michael Jackson was not....... not even close.

Yes, he had some great hits, but too much hype over his death - IMO.

I love watching the Tonight Show dvd's with Ed on them, and I was so sad to hear of Farrah's passing. She suffered for so long. RIP both of them

Quote by wmdude102086 re. Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett:

Quite true. Ed was the greatest second man on television, and a perfect foil for Johnny. Together with Doc Severinsen, they made the perfect three-man team. And with Farrah, I suspect that not too many people really looked at her as an actress of any substance (the notion that blondes have nothing upstairs, which I thought Dolly Parton disspelled). Now they probably do, but it's a little bit too late for that.


Quote by TRISHAFAN4LIFE:



What really ticked me off watching the news on Sunday was seeing Al Sharpton ream the news media over the coals for allegedly going hard on Jackson for his foibles when they didn't do so for either Elvis or Frank Sinatra. If all the talk about Sinatra's "friends in low palces" (Sam Giancana, et. al.) or Elvis' obsession with peanut butter and banana sandwiches and prescription pills is going easy on those two legends, what would constitute going hard? Michael Jackson's problems, like those of Elvis and Sinatra, were largely his own doing and undoing; and for Sharpton, one of those in the black community who pepertrates this utter lie about Elvis having "stolen" black music for his own, to be spewing borderline racist garbage like that is really a despicable act (IMO).

Erik ~ I love your posts!!!!

Yeah, I saw the Al Sharpton thing too..........

Very despicable, racist, and totally uncalled for!!!!

I agree 100%

Mind you, I'm not going to put MJ down just to elevate Elvis up. As I've said Elvis had personal demons, as did Sinatra, and as did MJ.

In the greater scheme of things, however, and contrary to what Sharpton and people like Mary J. Blige might have people believing, Elvis always acknwoledged the influence of R&B, gospel, and rural blues on his style, and he always gave credit to the Negro singers and artists of the 1940s and 1950s. Furthermore, artists like Little Richard, Fats Domino, James Brown, Chuck Berry, and B.B. King consistently applauded Elvis for making it "hip" for white kids to appreciate black music at a time when the mere associating with black people made those white folks who did so, in the eyes of the Jim Crow supporters, traitors to their race.

There's no question that Michael Jackson was a talent for the ages; no one disputes that he has a place in the pop pantheon. But in elevating MJ in the ugly way he did last weekend, Sharpton owes Elvis and the great R&B/blues music masters of the past a very big apology. Without those legends, MJ wouldn't be able to do the Moonwalk and get away with it.

AMEN!!! That is one of the reasons why Elvis had his beginning - he was a white boy who could sing R&B, Gospel, and rural blues.

I agree with the apology!!!

Elvis' 68 comeback special had all of the numerous aspects of music. Lawdy Miss Clawdy to Where Could I Go But To the Lord, to Baby, What You Want Me To Do. There's nothing like hearing an Elvis Presley Gospel song either!