The Moonwalk Debut, 1983
The Moonwalk Debut, 1983
byu/Nice_Cobbler5539 inOldSchoolCool
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View Reddit by Nice_Cobbler5539 – View Source
The Moonwalk Debut, 1983
View Reddit by Nice_Cobbler5539 – View Source
The showmanship and the minimalism.
One person on stage doing their thing.
A move Jeffery Daniel showed him how to do and he made it famous l.
His vocal inflections are so unique. Its not just the notes he hits, but the way he hits them. He uses multiple techniques and does vocal punctuation in time with the beat. Its so special…then he is the greatest dancer/singer combo of all-time. Unreal.
Every move had purpose and looks effortless. He didn’t need a stage full of distractions behind him. He always made feel like I could be a dancer with how easy he made everything look.
Watch the behind the scenes to Moonwalker. Even professional dancers that HE approved have a hard time keeping up. To the point that Michael gets frustrated on set.
This may be the most engaging single song performance in TV history. I’ve probably seen it a hundred times, but anytime it comes on, I watch it all the way through.
Debut? Bill Baily would like a word.
*The first time Michael did the Moonwalk in front of a live audience, 1983. ftfy
The energy emanating from him in this performance… just on fire.
I remember being a very excited twelve year old watching this. A truly iconic moment.
I saw this when it aired and remember being blown away by the moonwalking.
As well as I remember that night of Motown25, I think I may only just now have realized it was lipsynched.
Magical. Still gives me chills watching this and puts a smile on my face.
EVERYONE was talking about this at school the next day.
I saw this live when it was on TV. I was about ready to graduate from high school. It really looked like some kind of magic.
Him moonwalking made us all try and fail. But, at least we could do the thrust from Kirk Gibsons HR in the World Series on one good leg.
Gold
This is the one. If someone asks to see a single clip that sums him up as an artist, this is it.
One of the greatest performers!
So I was a teen at this time and it’s hard to underscore how big of a star he was. MTV launched maybe 2 years before this and his music (along with other artists) was a nationwide-shared experience. We’d rush home from school to a friends house that had cable an watch music videos together for HOURS. It was heady times…
I remember seeing this when it aired. I tried explaining it to the kids on the bus the next day and no one believed me.
Imagine being that woman in the audience immortalized clapping on 1 + 3.
I came for the moonwalk, stayed for the performance… this was something else.
Man, if you could take this snapshot in time, and bottle up this Michael Jackson for eternity…
Gets me every time. I can’t even imagine the adrenaline rush for the people in the audience watching this live.
You can’t lipsync those moves.
I was 14 when I saw this in 1983. It’s the last time I saw it. My memory had him moonwalking over the entire stage throughout the whole performance.
His best years, such a sad ending
This brought back a lot of memories and actually made me tear up!
The end of the video is weird AF
That shiny shirt is phenomenal
Can’t deny that man could dance
In 1983 I was into Heavy metal, The Doors, Van Halen, etc, but this performance was absolutely amazing. Some perspective, this was before Michael got weird, or that we knew he was weird at least, and was basically a huge breakout performance that blasted him into superstardom. That Moon Walk was mind-blowing witchcraft.
So, little anecdote about this day. Can’t remember where I heard it, but I think it was at another Motown celebration some years later
Apparently MJ was SO freakin nervous about getting everything in this performance right, that he was just practicing like crazy, and right after he finished it, he went home and locked himself and was just too afraid to see or hear what people were talking about it.
He ordered to stay alone in his room, to not disturb him. Sometime late the next day, one of his staff comes in and say: “Sir, Fred Astaire is on the phone” and MJ was like “No fuckin way it’s him. I told you I don’t want to be disturbed”, the guy insisted “MJ, it really is Fred Fucking Astaire”.
And MJ picked the phone and Fred just said something along the lines of “You really gave em hell last night eh? Nice performance” and apparently that was enough to make MJ break down and cry happy tears.
He was back at his normal practice schedule the next day
This was epic at the time, and that’s not just nostalgia-talk.
He was a bad MF’er. I mean look at that, high water pants, shiny socks, blouse, jacket and one glove. That’s all you need to make history kids.
Say what you will about MJ, he was definitely one of the greatest performers of all time. I don’t think anyone revolutionized pop more than he did.
And to think he broke down and cried after this magnificent performance. All because he didn’t land his toe stand like he intended to. Blow my mind how much of a perfectionist he was. He delivered every single time
MJ did not invent, he popularized it but it was around since the 40’s
I remember a few days after watching this going to school with my loafers, short jeans and sparkle socks.. took me a few more days to find the sparkly glove. I must have spent hours and hours with friends trying to perfect that moonwalk. We were 16.
On another note if only he had left his face alone and stopped the surgeries. By the time he died his nose was literally gone.
Somewhere in a box in my basement is a staticy hs tape recording of this performance that is well worn from pauses and rewinds.
1 was 13 when I watched this live and live the rest of the nation who watched this on ABC or CBS, I was just floored. This was no longer little Michael of the Jackson 5, nor was it the sort of awkward 21 year old from the Off the Wall Album. He had come into his own.
I was a skinny white kid in the suburbs. I had a black hat and a single white glove I’d wear and dance with in front of a mirror or some times family. To the horror of my father.
My Billie Jean get better and got me a finalist spot in a school talent show. Years later it was a staple at any wedding I was in… or attending really.
I’m 53 now, heavier, my knees hurt, eyes aren’t are sharp, beard turning silver… but I can still glide across the floor backwards in a moonwalk that my teens can’t figure out.
Last April I was on my 1st cruise, took the whole family. During a game show contest I was on stage and had picked a “dare”. I was asked if I could dance… my family all screaming “Billie Jean” from the audience, the dj obliged and with the courage of several whiskeys stunned a packed room that this middle aged fat white guy was doing micheal Jackson, leg kicks, moon walk and all.
40 years after Micheal stunned the world with his performance, this Dad of 3 was on a cruise ship being 13 again.