Kicking off the final week of Round Threee of Montauk Madness is a showdown between two very different musical legends, Michael Jackson and Elvis Costello.
Jackson made his way here by defeating Belle & Sebastian with 86% of the vote and then easily winning the Motown Showdown with Stevie Wonder, 77-23. Costello bested Carly Rae Jepsen with 67% in Round One and John Mayer with 83% in Round Two. This will be his toughest competition yet. Continue reading
Fate has arranged the Montauk Madness bracket in a way that led to today’s spetacular Motown Showdown, pitting Stevie Wonder against Michael Jackson.
Wonder defeated Talking Heads in Round One, pulling in a sizable 71% of the vote. Michael Jackson fared even better, defeating Belle & Sebastian with 86%. Poor Belle & Sebastian… a top five band for me, but destined to ride the pine in the broader contest. Continue reading
Here’s a Montauk Madness first round matchup that has me hoping my blog audience skews more toward my sensibility than popular consensus. I assume R&B and pop legend Michael Jackson would take down Scottish indie act Belle & Sebastian in a poll of any significant size, by way of name recognition if nothing else.
But as much as I love the King of Pop, especially in his Off the Wall and Thriller days, I can’t give him the nod over one of my very favorite bands.
I never found Michael Jackson’s Bad phase convincing, and I can’t imagine anybody else did either. Just the sight of the slight, pretty Jackson in leather-and-chains garb makes me chuckle.
And I’m pretty sure Jackson never had a run-in with the sort of predatory groupie he describes in ‘Dirty Diana.’ I’m sure women threw themselves at him — he was the biggest star in the world, after all — but I doubt he was even mildly tempted.
Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall just missed my list of 1980 albums, having been released with a few months left in 1979.
I never got to know this album very well, unlike its 1982 follow-up, Thriller. Thriller is an album that, even at 10 years old, I knew by heart. But Off the Wall might be an even better record start to finish.
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