One Year Later – Remembering Michael (by Howard Bloom)

by Karen Tortora-Lee on June 25, 2010

Today, in memory of Michael Jackson’s passing, we re-post a great tribute written by Michael’s friend and business associate, Howard Bloom, who shared his memories of Michael with me one year ago.

Guest Blogger Howard Bloom began his legendary career in music public relations when he co-founded The Howard Bloom Organization Ltd in 1976, and helped build or sustain the careers of Michael Jackson, Prince, Bob Marley, Queen, Billy Joel, John Cougar Mellencamp, Simon & Garfunkel, Bette Midler, Joan Jett, AC/DC, Talking Heads, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and roughly 100 other stars of the 1970s and 1980s. Here he shares some of his personal reflections on the passing of his client, Michael Jackson, and takes us past all the noise to a quieter place.

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On the night of June 25th, when I was on my nightly mile-long 1 am walk that loops me up to Prospect Park then takes me back to my brownstone, I passed a pair of 18 year olds sitting on a stoop at this lonely hour when the streets and sidewalks are usually utterly devoid of human beings. The guy had long dark black curly hair and the girl had a short, blond haircut and was wearing shorts. The male said something to me as I passed. I walked back, took off my headphones, and asked him to repeat it. He said, “Michael Jackson is dead.”

I asked him why he said that to me. I wondered if he knew me from the Tea Lounge on Union Street, where I do my writing, or from the streets and if he knew my Michael Jackson connection. No, he didn’t. He was telling it to everyone. He wanted no one to ignore it.

He was particularly emphatic about making sure that no one over the age of 30 pass it by or dismiss it. Michael Jackson’s death, he felt, was a loss to all of us whether we realized it or not.

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Related Posts:

• Michael Jackson’s “This Is It”