Human nature
When Steve Porcaro’s young daughter came home crying because a boy had pushed her off the playground slide, all he could think to say was that the boy probably had a crush on her (perhaps unlikely in the circumstances), and that people can behave strangely – “It’s human nature.” 1.
We refer to human nature when a socially tolerated feeling or behaviour escapes the boundaries of civil equanimity, to live for a while as a free spirit. What a performance, then, for a child not yet detached from their animal self to wear the shroud of adult civility!
Steve Porcaro turned his daughter’s encounter into rough lyrics while his band Toto were assisting with the production of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album in 1982. His song-sketch got aired in Jackson’s studio, where it caught the attention of the production team. With Porcaro’s blessing, they developed its chorus into the fifth single for the album. This iconic ballad, titled ‘Human Nature’, has the 24-year old Michael Jackson flavouring the wide-eyed thrill of New York City with unleashed forces of desire on a roving quest for connection2:
Michael Jackson died aged 50. With his burial at Forest Lawn Cemetery in California, human nature as he had possessed it reverted to nature.
However passionate, sinning, and rebellious the heart hidden in the tomb, the flowers growing over it peep serenely at us with their innocent eyes; they tell us not of eternal peace alone, of that great peace of ‘indifferent’ nature: they tell us, too, of eternal reconciliation and of life without end.3
Never mind that the sensual wonder celebrated in the ballad had forevermore been denied to Jackson by his elevation to rock-stardom. Human nature has an angelic life of its own. Looking back, he said: “The song had the prettiest melody … It’s music with wings.”
C.P. Doncaster, Timeline of the Human Condition, star index