the great moonwalk debate

There was a weighty debate in the corridors of power today. Myself and two esteemed colleagues were whiling away the day at the publics expense debating many topics of great importance. The merits and demerits of various professions as a career choice, the sub-prime lending mess and who did the first televised moonwalk? When matters of state as important as this arise they must be addressed immediately.

Legend would have it that the king of pop, Michael Jackson, took the stage in 1983 at a Motown television special and introduced the world to the phenomenon of moonwalking. Well I can testify that this was not the first time that a television audience had been treated to such a sight. Being a keen exponent of the art back in the day I was au fait with the moonwalk. I'd moonwalk to school, moonwalk on the football pitch and moonwalk at the disco. I'd moonwalk all the time. Sometimes my mother would shout that if I didn't stop moonwalking I'd turn into an astronaut. How wrong she was.

The first moonwalk I saw was Timothy 'poppin Pete' Solomon of the Electric Boogaloo Crew who performed it in a Talking Heads video around 1981. Then about a year later on Top of the Pops, Jeffery Daniel turned up without the rest of Shalamar and treated the audience to about 3 minutes of Marcel Marceau style dancing with a moonwalk thrown in for good measure. Armed with this knowledge I pooh-poohed the suggestion from my colleague that Mr Jackson had any hand in the matter.

As it turns out, people have been moonwalking for years. Apparently Cab Calloway was at it way back in the 1930's. Although I'm aided by the latest available technology I'm still unable to bring you the clip in question. Fuck it though, I found a better one. Here's Cab and his orchestra with 'Reefer Man'.



and here is the famous Top of the Pops appearance by one-third of Shalamar, Jeffery Daniels. To think this constituted entertainment back in my day.