NO ONE will ever have MJ's presence onstage

[backwoodsbob]

the man was unequaled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUYD13W-oWs&feature=related

[SunnySong]

1. Meh... he's no Lady Gaga... nt

[HipChick]

2. +100..he was a perfectionist..

[Lindsey]

3. I loved MJ but Freddy Mercury and Jim Morrison also had

quite a presence.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. You are so goddamn right.

He was one of a kind, no question.

Wow.

[Flaxbee]

5. I saw him in concert in 1990, I think it was.

Quite a show, and he really was there to perform, and to entertain. You could tell he took his job very seriously.

Now, I've also seen Ray Charles, and B.B. King in a small venue. While MJ knocked your socks off, Ray and B.B. were equally riveting in a different sort of way.

[nickinSTL]

7. I saw him twice in 1996 and 1997

At the time I was a HUGE fan - not quite the crying, screaming variety, but...embarrassingly close, I hate to admit.

That was the HIStory tour.

I haven't been to a lot of concerts, but I found each of them absolutely worth the price and the difficulties involved in getting there and out again.

The first concert was his tour opener in Prague, with an attendance of around 120,000.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. I don't know....this guy is pretty good;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HqSdQAl2RM

[RadicalTexan]

8. RIP MJ

When I was five I had an MJ tennis racket with a picture of him and Bubbles on it - no joke!

I always liked his music, knew he was a prodigy of sorts, and had mixed feelings about the child abuse allegations, but wasn't really a "fan" per se.

The day after he died, my boyfriend and I went to a midnight MJ video tribute at our local movie theater: two and a half hours of full, uncut MJ videos. By the middle of the second one ("Remember the Time") we were converts. My boyfriend, who I would NOT have pegged as a big MJ fan, just looked at me and said, "Wow. This guy was a genius." Seeing all his work like that, all at once, was amazing, and it became apparent to us that not only was he a great entertainer with some top-notch pop songs to his credit (which we already knew), but he was also a brilliant songwriter, choreographer, stage director, film director, and performance artist.

For the past year I have been listening to MJ almost every single day. And I am not tired of his music yet.

I think "Wanna Be Startin' Something" might be one of the best pop songs ever written. It's just sheer genius. You have to dance. Or at least clap at the end when the music stops and the chant takes over.

I think the choreography in Bad is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I remember watching it on MTV when it came out and thinking it was pretty cool, but I'd forgotten about it in the meantime, and just thought of it as good, but dated. And it also always reminded me of the also-brilliant parody by Weird Al. However, seeing the full 15 minute Martin Scorcese-directed film/video blew my mind. People in the theater were yelling out things like, "You go, Michael! You tell him! You tell Wesley Snipes!"

And "I Want You Back," while a Jackson 5 song that he didn't have any musical input on, is probably my favorite pop song ever, and has been for many years.

I went to see This Is It in the theater, too, and it was moving, sad, and yet also amazing.

And I still remember seeing this live on TV with my mom, and my mom being gobsmacked: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl7YWnFom5Q

O8)