What was behind the music?

So the First Lady and I were watching "Beat It" the other night, laughing at the jazz hands and the leather and rhinestones and the Puerto Rican cat who went on to play Detective Eddie Torres on "New York Undercover."

Then it occurred to us both - at damn near the same time, once again - that Michael Jackson was almost certainly influenced by the rumble scene between the Sharks and the Jets in "The West Side Story."

You could see it, over and over again, in his music videos. "Beat It," of course. "Bad." "Smooth Criminal." It's apparent that Michael really, really liked his gang fights to have pocketknives, bandannas, a step, step ball change, kick and a spin.

But I'd never heard him say anything like that before. In fact, I could not ever really remember him talking much about his musical influences.

Which was sad to me.

Of all the things we lost when Jackson died Thursday afternoon, I think we'll come to regret never hearing much talk from him about his art and the forces behind it - and I'm not talking about Joe Jackson or Quincy Jones.

Now, maybe I need to read Moon Walk. Maybe I missed some Motown TV special that came on when I was too young to care. And it's plainly obvious that James Brown was someone that Jackson clearly modeled his career after at a young age.

But in a time where we can hear Zane Cook talk about his motivation on a special feature of the "Employee of the Month" DVD, it seems odd that there's not an exhaustive archive of Jackson really digging into his catalogue for the cameras.

Why the loafers and the army outfits? Where did "shamone" and "hooooooooo!" and the original pop-and-lock come from? Who got his feet tapping and head bobbing when he was rocking a 'fro?

Does anyone know the answers to these questions? And if you do, could you please send them my way?