Michael Jackson Tribute Question

[edriskill]

I doubled doing mid-days and afternoon news at an East Texas station in the late '70's... and was in the newsroom when the death of Elvis was announced. For a small station, I recall we handled it pretty well... extra (brief) newsbreaks with info updates, followed by Elvis songs, a little live 'my favorite Elvis song' or 'I remember this or that' conversations... all done respectfully and tastefully. Listeners appreciate that kind of stuff. Can't voicetrack that last week.

Just heard that Billy Mays, the TV 'Pitchman' died overnite. He was irritatingly good... the Sham-Wow guy needs to go take a safe, healthy vacation.

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

I doubled doing mid-days and afternoon news at an East Texas station in the late '70's... and was in the newsroom when the death of Elvis was announced. For a small station, I recall we handled it pretty well... extra (brief) newsbreaks with info updates, followed by Elvis songs, a little live 'my favorite Elvis song' or 'I remember this or that' conversations... all done respectfully and tastefully. Listeners appreciate that kind of stuff. Can't voicetrack that last week.

Just heard that Billy Mays, the TV 'Pitchman' died overnite. He was irritatingly good... the Sham-Wow guy needs to go take a safe, healthy vacation.

Please God don't let anybody do a Billy Mays commemorative weekend.

 

[cowboybud]

I'll miss you, poops. Queen's News Of The World tour launched in late '77. The Summit was completed in '75. Hint: it was considered to be a "local" band at the time. Double-hint: they also played the last show in that venue (by then called the Compaq Center) before it became Lakewood Baptist Church.

That of course, would be ZZ Top.

However... I recall reading that the first-ever event at the Summit was an Andy Williams concert, and the last event at the Compaq Center was a performance of Aladdin On Ice (or something along those lines).

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

I'll miss you, poops. Queen's News Of The World tour launched in late '77. The Summit was completed in '75. Hint: it was considered to be a "local" band at the time. Double-hint: they also played the last show in that venue (by then called the Compaq Center) before it became Lakewood Baptist Church.

That of course, would be ZZ Top.

However... I recall reading that the first-ever event at the Summit was an Andy Williams concert, and the last event at the Compaq Center was a performance of Aladdin On Ice (or something along those lines).

Yeah, I guess I should have said "rock concert." It was, in fact, ZZ Top who played the first rock show, the night before The Who and the Summit's grand opening as a concert venue. I wasn't able to find anything about Andy Williams---if you remember where you read it, please send me an IM and let me know, thanks? Yes, I think you're right about the last-ever event being some Disney on Ice thing, but as for rock concerts, it began and ended with ZZ Top. You win 10 points...you can *use them to buy something from our fabulous Hollywood showcase!

*not really

 

[landtuna]

Perhaps it's because Michael Jackson was no mere singer.

Actually, that's just what he was. If MJ impacted anything it wasn't music but dance and showmanship (although compared to classic dancers he wasn't nearly that talented).

For as many people that liked MJ there are probably 80% more that he irritated with that falsetto voice.

Say what you will about his increasingly bizarre behavior and his idiosyncrasies, he still left a mark on pop culture like no one else.

You are repeating media puffery. Jackson popularized MTV and by extension music video's (which have decimated the overall quality of popular music since the early 80's). By comparison, Elvis created a whole new culture which is still with us - and there are others who have done similar. MJ was not one of them.

 

[cowboybud]

I'll miss you, poops. Queen's News Of The World tour launched in late '77. The Summit was completed in '75. Hint: it was considered to be a "local" band at the time. Double-hint: they also played the last show in that venue (by then called the Compaq Center) before it became Lakewood Baptist Church.

That of course, would be ZZ Top.

However... I recall reading that the first-ever event at the Summit was an Andy Williams concert, and the last event at the Compaq Center was a performance of Aladdin On Ice (or something along those lines).

Yeah, I guess I should have said "rock concert." It was, in fact, ZZ Top who played the first rock show, the night before The Who and the Summit's grand opening as a concert venue. I wasn't able to find anything about Andy Williams---if you remember where you read it, please send me an IM and let me know, thanks? Yes, I think you're right about the last-ever event being some Disney on Ice thing, but as for rock concerts, it began and ended with ZZ Top. You win 10 points...you can *use them to buy something from our fabulous Hollywood showcase!

*not really

I read it in the Chronicle around the time of Osteen taking over the property. Turns out the event was a benefit in which Williams was only one of the performers:
http://www.twogreenwayplaza.com/2gp/trivia.asp

• In November, 1975, Summit Sports and Entertainment Arena (later named Compaq Center), celebrated its Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting with a "Heart to Heart" benefit. The event was attended by several celebrities including Kirk Douglas, Andy Williams, Ed McMahon, Dyan Cannon, Debbie Reynolds, and Roger Miller. Beneficiaries of the "Heart to Heart" event included Baylor College of Medicine, Methodist Hospital and Texas Heart Institute.

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

Cool. I'm guessing that opening week was probably booked solid with private parties and business partnership events, but I'll happily stand corrected. In any event, ZZ Top kicked it off for the rock shows members of the public could attend, with The Who playing the next night in November, 1975. I actually found a torrent for that Who show; google Who Summit and it comes right up.

I'm feeling some Summit nostalgia, clicking around for info in this thread. How amazing for Houston to have that legendary venue in its history, and that there were so many fans who were at both of those shows, who were still around 30 years later to share their memories when John Entwhistle passed on. How awesome that they were willing to call in on that day with real, solid memories of the person who stood outside and smiled for their photos with them and their aunt Tillies. How crazy to be standing at the last ZZ Top show beside people who were at that very first show, feeling a part of their lives leave them with the sale and ending of the venue. So much history. So sold.

A lot of people feel personally impacted when celebrities die, but have had absolutely no connection to those celebs in real life---outside of the pact of entertainer + long-distance consumer. "Listening to his music inspired me and changed my life! He was an icon for our times!" is something people say when they can't explain their feelings of loss and connection to a dead celeb. Entwhistle's fans said, "He asked how to spell my daughter's name and told me it was really pretty." "He talked to us like we were the only people there." "He had me laughing so hard my face hurt."

Somehow, I find that connection with the fans to be a little bit more real than mere celebrity worship. It tops in sincerity anything I've seen from those mourning Michael Jackson. I was glad to open up the phones and give those true-blue Who fans a chance to grieve. Unfortunately, in more recent years, it seems to me that celebrity deaths, in general, have been treated with the couth and tenor of yet another marketing blitz. Yay, Michael died, call the syndicator and see who's got the official Special so I can plug in my avails, and hey, let's do a weekend, we'll have a moonwalk contest and hand out prizes. You know, 'cause we're just so sad.

 

[cowboybud]

Cool. I'm guessing that opening week was probably booked solid with private parties and business partnership events, but I'll happily stand corrected. In any event, ZZ Top kicked it off for the rock shows members of the public could attend, with The Who playing the next night in November, 1975. I actually found a torrent for that Who show; google Who Summit and it comes right up.

The Summit was the first arena in the country (I think) to have replay screens and in-house video production of all their events, so you'll find a lot of Houston concerts on YouTube.

 

[michaelshiloh]

Man, I'm not sure anybody could have put it better, Aunti.

 

[careful705]

That's one thing I miss about the old KLOL. The fact that they had that huge record collection that they could utilize if they needed it. If some rock icon passed no matter how iconic or obscure they usually could do a tribute. Or at least play a song from them because they had all that music on hand! (Comparable to my 10,764 songs I have on my ipod!)

D&R - "Yea, Syd Barrett was great but we don't have anything he did... Here's some other Pink Floyd song that we played yesterday!! We Rock!!" I remember those mid-80's late night all request shows KLOL had on weeknights with Linda Silk! Anything and everything goes! Now that's when radio was fun to listen to! The best was when there was a theme decided upon that you had to request a song to fit the criteria... Songs by dead guys, or songs with a color in the title, songs with 3-member bands only etc. Just anything but the mundane repetition of today.... Blah.

 

[dsadof]

A radio station in Belgium came up with a brilliant tribute to Michael Jackson. They put up a website called Eternal Moonwalk featuring a continuous video slideshow of people, animals and inanimate objects doing the moonwalk while a continuous loop of music plays in the background. I wrote an article with a more in-depth description and a link to the site:

Belgium radio station creates Eternal Moonwalk website as tribute to Michael Jackson - http://shar.es/hZKp

This won't come as a surprise to anyone, especially my Aunti-Terrestrial, but since you've been talking about Syd Barrett I thought I should mention that I was doing my High Fidelity show at KFNC-FM 97.5 at the time. On my show that week, Dug Pinnick (King's X) joined me for most of the 4 hour show. We paid tribute to Barrett by playing a set of 3 songs from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, a set of 3 songs from The Madcap Laughs, and a set of 3 songs that were written about Syd Barrett. The rest of the show was filled with psychedelic music from bands that were either directly or indirectly influenced by Syd Barrett. The music I played spanned 5 decades.

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

David, I love that there are still people around who actually get it, like you. Thank you.

 

[kendro]

"Life’s fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of humane ideals."

A lot of us get it. We've just been conditioned not to recognize it.