From Gloved Greatness to Gridiron Glory: My Pal Sammy Last Dances into Excellence with MJ's Thriller and Tom Brady!

Michael Jackson X Tom Brady X Nelson George X Charles Dickens

Yo…

Over the next 3 to 5 weeks, we shall passionately dedicate ourselves to the relentless pursuit of excellence.

No mere Olympians are we; rather we embark on this grand journey under the banner of New Year’s Resolutions. We sign up for gym memberships, with resolute determination we cut out bread from our diet…why some of us strive for consistent and deeper daily naps. (These are all random examples! I could be speaking about anyone.)

Come February, we’re usually burnt out on the whole excellence thing and cozied up to mediocrity like going back to a ex because it’s better than being lonely.

If you haven’t written down your Resolutions from last year…can you remember what they are?

Wasn’t that sorta kinda the takeaway of A Christmas Carol?

We’re often haunted by the ghosts of excellence…Shoulda (Ghost of Excellence Past), Woulda (Ghost of Excellence Present) and Coulda (Ghost of Excellence Yet to Come).

Excellence showed up a couple of times during my pop culture week, as we move towards New Year’s Resolutions.

That’s why I bring it up now…the Dickens ghosts have already started visiting me…ahead of schedule.

Today streaming on Paramount+ is Thriller 40: “40 years after the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, director Nelson George takes fans back in time to experience the making of the record-breaking album and the release of the accompanying short films that forever redefined the music video format.”

(You know Nelson George…he is an author, a columnist, music and culture critic, journalist and filmmaker. He produced the Chris Rock movies Top Five and Good Hair…his books on culture and hip hop are essential reading.

Many moons ago I recognized Nelson in a New York City bookstore. I had so much I wanted to say to him about music and hip hop and culture but instead I gave him a fist bump and shallowly said: I dig your writing. He laughed and we talked for a bit; standing there in the culture section of the bookstore. Nelson George should get a critical documentary but clearly nobody needs to talk about our 5 minute interaction.)

Thriller 40 is the third Last Dance Michael Jackson has scored. Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall is a 2016 documentary directed by Spike Lee, chronicling the rise of little pop star Michael Jackson through the creation of his landmark solo album Off the Wall.

Journey is the second Michael Jackson-focused documentary Spike Lee has made, after Bad 25.

Bad 25 is a 2012 documentary about the 25th anniversary of Michael’s 1987 album Bad. Nelson George was featured in that. George also wrote Thriller: The Musical Life of Michael Jackson which came out in 2011. So it’s all connected.

(I’m surprised Spike Lee didn’t finish the Michael Jackson trilogy…he made docs on Off The Wall and Bad. Thriller is just sitting there in the middle…impatiently awaiting a documentary. I’m not sure how Nelson George got involved over Spike Lee but I’m happy he did.)

One of the best observations in Thriller 40 comes from Raphael Saadiq. Reflecting on the Thriller album he’s holding in his hands Saadiq points to the first song: “Wanna Be Starting’ Something. The title says it. He wanted to be starting some shit right now. He's like "I’m about to start some shit in the industry right now. I’m about to blow everybody up."”

There’s no evidence Jackson said something like that but oh it’s so clear that was Jackson’s sentiment.

Off The Wall wasn’t properly recognized and Michael Jackson was furious.

Working on Thriller he’d write many affirmations...this is my favourite one from the documentary:

This affirmation works because Michael knew exactly what he wanted. And just as importantly he could define exactly what he didn’t want.

Eddie Murphy taught me that…comedy isn’t just knowing what’s funny. It’s also knowing what’s not funny and why it’s not funny. That’s the secret…that knowledge coupled with a passionate dedication.

In audio heard in the documentary Michael Jackson says: “My attitude was: I want the biggest-selling album of all times, to break records, to do phenomenal work. I came in angry.”

He showed up to the studio to work on Thriller angry.

He understood what The Gold Standard was and he simply decided to destroy it.

This is all inspiring.

What Thriller 40 does so well is demonstrate how a singular focus can unleash creativity. Truly if creativity is sewn into your lifestyle or work style you should check out Thriller 40.

Where the documentary struggles is it tries to put Michael Jackson in a current context and it fails spectacularly.

One of the doc’s talking heads is Ole Obermann the Global Head of Music at TikTok.

Ole first (rightfully) praises “the amazing storytelling through the (Thriller) videos...” and then attempts to connect them...40 years later to the surging videos on TikTok. Yeah, no we ain’t doing that.

He says: “It’s the same feeling we maybe had when we watched the MTV video for Thriller or Beat It. They’re having that same experience 40 years later.”

Yeah, no we ain’t doing that.

And it’s not at all the same experience. Thriller was werewolves and zombies and the jacket and the dancing…it tapped into a horror-filled ‘80s. Watching a TikTok of a kid imitating the dance moves in his bedroom with poor lighting is far from the same thing.

MJ’s music has been on TikTok since August 2020. I’m cool with the youths engaging with the music but none of em are moving culture; they’re certainly not creating culture. They’re a Xerox.

You settle for a no-name kid on TikTok. You crave a Michael Jackson.

As if any of this was impressive Ole reveals “there are 10 million video creations on TikTok right now that include music from Thriller. There are 17 billion views of those ten million videos that exist. There are about two billion likes on those videos.”

He concludes with: “Pretty massive numbers.” As if this was a detective TV show and it’s case closed.

That’s a stupid thing to say out loud. It’s as asinine as saying a box office hit is a good movie because it made lots of money. Or a movie is bad because it box office bombed. Fight Club was a box office bomb...that’s a bad movie?! Yo, son.

Music more than any other medium of pop culture is timeless. Music naturally exists in the past and present and in the future.

Wasn’t that sorta kinda the takeaway of A Christmas Carol?

We’re often haunted by sonic ghosts…The Ghost of Thriller Past (we listened to Thriller in the ‘80s), The Ghost of Thriller Present (we listen to Thriller now (how many times did you hear the song during this past Halloween?)) and The Ghost of Thriller Yet to Come: you know we’ll be listening to it in the future.

A handful of TikTok views for a no-name dancer doesn’t mean anything or provide any nutritional value.

The Work has to be good. That’s the standard Michael Jackson set. If it’s not good what value does it provide?

Tom Brady brought this up earlier this week. (I know I was surprised as well.)

Brady was on The Stephen A. Smith Show. I can’t stand Stephen A. Smith. He’s like a wrestling character always shouting about disrespect. Brady was the guest so I reluctantly pushed play.

I’ll listen but I won’t make a tea. I was wrong…it was tea worthy.

At about 7:48 Stephen A. asks Brady a good question…I did not expect that. He asked about his mentoring of the youths like a Shedeur Sanders…how often and how active is Brady doing that?

What underpins the question is…TikTok. Any player can market themselves…their highlights and greatness via social media now. It doesn’t mean you’re great…but you can tell strangers you are and they will believe it. That’s a lazy shortcut.

You have no accomplishments and yet you’re going on TikTok to say you’re great?! That’s so embarrassing and that’s so stupid.

Brady nodded and replied:

“I think the challenge with what we’re dealing with...with young people today is they all have the ability to self-promote. And get gratification from their own self-promotion.

When we were young for me to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated like my idol Michael Jordan was a big deal. So man I had to do a lot of good things over the course of an NFL season to get recognition; to be on the cover of a Sports Illustrated.

That was unbelievable! I mean I thought holy shit that was unbelievable for me and I was in my seventh year.

Now these young athletes have hundreds of thousands sometimes over a million plus people follow them on their social accounts and they think that there’s something sustainable about that. Because you have people paying attention to you.

But we used to be paid attention for excellence.

Now for some moment people could see us being like a jackass. Okay we're going to pay attention to that because he jumped off a balcony into a pool. Like okay yeah that may get a lot of clicks but in the end there’s nothing sustainable about your excellence in that.”

Somebody give this man a pulpit: preach Tom Brady; preach!

Of course the bold was me: But we used to be paid attention for excellence.

Anybody whose work has lasted from photographers and designers and to music and film and comic books and more…is because they were consistently excellent.

This was what Michael Jackson was talking about and it echoes throughout Thriller 40.

I wrote about this in Light The John Wick On All Of Em: Jordan to Jackson the My Pal Sammy on November 17.

MTV had erected a color barrier and Michael’s Billie Jean was having a hard time getting airplay.

In Thriller 40 they play a clip from audio tapes from the Michael Jackson Archives where he talks about his upcoming Beat It video:

“I was kind of upset about the news I heard about MTV and how they weren’t showing Blacks and that kind of hurt me. So I wanted to do something that was so powerful, so strong that everybody would have to show it.”

This next part is so dope…Michael Jackson is a snob. He understood the current music videos were terrible and failing to tap into the medium. Music videos could be so much more…they could be greater! Man…long live the snobs!

“The story had to sell itself. And...these so-called videos weren’t doing that. They were terrible. They were just a lot of nothing put together just to sell a song. I wanted my things to be powerful. I wanted to stand out from everything else; that when you see it, you run to the set and you’re glued to it, watching it. I wanted quality. I wanted excellence. I wanted the best. I wanted to perfect perfection.”

There it is again…excellence.

It came up with Tom Brady and it came up with Michael Jackson. And it’ll come up with our office Christmas parties and Holiday Hoedowns (I dunno what those are either…).

Are you gonna make New Year’s Resolutions?

You’d be wise to watch Thriller 40 before you do.

Now if you’ll excuse me I am gonna go work on taking an excellent nap.

I shared a Thriller 40 quote from Raphael Saadiq. I got another one that made me laugh and say YES!

There’s a stunning scene…literally jaw dropping breaking down MJ’s extraordinary Motown 25th Anniversary performance.

Through this one performance Michael Jackson established a dance vocabulary. They go through this performance like an NFL instantly replay with close ups: “See that? See where his foot is?” I do now. And slow motion: “See how he puts his hand in his pocket like a magician?” I do now.

That scene is special and makes Thriller 40 Must See TV. I didn’t get half of that…it took that scene in 2023 to fully unpack that 1983 performance. I didn’t get like half of that…I finally understand what I’ve seen decades later.

Or as Steven Ivory a music and culture journalist summed it all up: “Mike just turned it the fuck out.”

Granted that’s not how I woulda summed it up in 1983 but Steven Ivory is bang on right.

May Mr. Burns Look At You In 2024 and Say Excellent…
by Sammy Younan
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