Mpls city hall bell tower pays homage to Michael Jackson

Related: Autopsy set after Michael Jackson's sudden death

MINNEAPOLIS -- His music transcends time, place and generations.

In downtown Minneapolis on Friday, the king of pop's unforgettable music transcended instruments.

'We are the world', along with several other Michael Jackson classics, rang out from the Minneapolis city hall bell tower Friday morning as part of a carillon tribute to the man whose music had such an impact.

Volunteer bell ringer Dan Wascoe chose five of Jackson's songs, a tough job to adapt those complicated melodies for the tower's 15 bells.

"We're in a marketplace of music and if the melody happens to come through, then people will say hey at least the city acknowledged the passing of a popular cultural icon," says Wascoe.

And they did.

The notes were unmistakable.

"The first song was easy with 'We are the World,' " said one downtown listener.

For 20 minutes, people paused on the plaza in a lunchtime tribute and almost as if they were listening to the legend himself.

"I didn't think I was going to be that emotional about it, but I was with my son this morning that it's too bad that he is gone and that he could have been a great icon in the next 40 years," said Barbara Salchow of White Bear Lake
Every Friday, the volunteer bell ringers perform a concert on the downtown plaza. They just decided that it would be appropriate to include some Michael Jackson songs this Friday.

And they've done this kind of memorial before - playing Frank Sinatra after he died and 'take me out to the ball game' when Kirby Puckett passed away.

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