[Van]Gellie Jon

Jackson's 'Billie Jean' (1983) is all over the radio. The praise for it is extravagant. Extravagant is the praise. There's a fair bit quoted here, to this effect: 'I'm delighted that Billie Jean has been voted the greatest dance record ever made. This is Jackson at his best ... The bass line is awesome, the production is killer. It's just perfect.'

Fair enough, although (of course) the bass-line isn't Jackson's; it's lifted from Jon and Vangelis's 'State of Independence' (1981); another synth-heavy squeaky-voiced paean to the condition of being unattached. That's not a problem, except insofar as it, you know, is.

Otherwise, there's something rather unnerving about this Jackson song (in which he proclaims over and over that he is not the father of the children being attributed to him) being played so much after Jackson's death, as the futures of the actual children attributed to him is being determined.