Words are not even good enough to describe Michael Jackson. An almost impossible pill to swallow when an era of your life has ended and especially so abruptly. I am a huge advocate of true talent and having a purpose when one has such influential power. MJ was one of the very few who embodied those things. Michael IS the music video era and he IS the definitive example of a pop culture humanitarian icon who has single handedly influenced the entire world. But even though Michael’s gone, we still can remember his sacrifices as a child to give us the music we love and the talent that not one person can or ever will replace.I understand that last night, MTV played non-stop Michael Jackson videos (it better have, since the late entertainer made that network!
Like a lot of you, I imagine, my mind this afternoon keeps drifting back to childhood memories of Michael Jackson. So my memories start around the time of “The Wiz” and “Off the Wall.” I never did get enough of that album’s delirious dance numbers, pure exuberant joy on vinyl (though I felt a little uncomfortable when Michael got all choked up at the end of “She’s Out of My Life”).
Then “Thriller” came out and took over the world. I remember watching “The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” on VHS over and over again one night at a church lock-in, staring with slack-jawed amazement each time they showed that clip of Michael when he first busted out the moonwalk on that Motown TV special. (Yup, MJ at a church lock-in. Remember when Michael Jackson was the sweet, good one your parents liked and Prince was the bad, filthy one? Boy, things change.)
It was all downhill from there, more or less. I enjoyed seeing some of the videos from “Bad” on MTV — “The Way You Make Me Feel” had a certain charm — but excessive plastic surgery had turned his handsome young face vaguely reptilian. The last time I paid any attention to his work was when he premiered the “Black or White” video on Fox before a “Simpsons” episode, choosing to follow his upbeat plea for racial unity with four minutes of inexplicable crotch-grabbing and car-smashing (the racist scrawls that provide some motivation to his actions in this version of the video were added digitally after the first airing). It was clear he was losing his grip on the public imagination, and maybe on reality, even if you tuned out the increasingly disturbing reports about his personal behavior. So that was pretty much it for Michael and me.
When Jackson announced that he was doing 10 shows — and eventually 50 — at London’s O2 arena a few months ago, my friends and I talked about how great it would be to finally see him live, but I could never imagine them actually happening. He so desperately wanted to get back to that “Thriller” level of fame and artistry, and there was no way the 50-year-old Michael, with years of rust and bad press and drug abuse and ill health and disappointing records behind him, was going to be able to pull it off. When the first shows were pushed back a few weeks ago, the doubts really started to build. In the end, it seems, he preferred to die rather than disappoint us.
Thank God we’ve still got the records and clips of those remarkable performances. As a human being, the guy was a mess. But as a musician, dancer and all-around performer, the dude was one in a billion. I’m glad I was around for Michael Jackson. Aren’t you? I think I’m going to go listen to “Off the Wall” now.
AE Houseman captured the transitory nature of fame in his poemTo an athlete dying young.
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.
Jackson was quoted by TMZ as saying, Jackson was “looking forward to doing a lot of great things. … I think the best is yet to come in my true humble opinion.” Maybe this was the best he could hope for. No slow decay of rented cars or mocking stares but the gentle hands of family and friends.
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears.
In the weeks before his death, we might have said we didn't know how we felt about Michael Jackson. He'd become so bizarre, so pale, so foreign and different from the musical genius some of us once worshipped. We thought that we hardly thought about him, except perhaps as a punch line. We felt that we felt nothing. But when news of Jackson's death broke yesterday, it turned out that we were wrong. Fans and unfans alike, all around the world, all felt something, and sometimes very deeply.
I am still in shock with Michael Jackson sudden death. Off The Wall was the second LP I ever brought. I remember playing the LP. I remember all his video. I was his biggest fan. When I was a teenager, I was obsess with him. He was amazing...but changed after his Bad album.
Honestly, who could not see this coming with the many cries for help along the years that Michael Jackson put forth? Does anyone think that such behavior is normal, even from Michael? Sadly, with all the abuse to his body and the drugs, no one was able to step in and intervene to help this poor lost soul. Those around him did not help, they appeared to have made matters worse. In the end, another generation has a talented entertainer that defined the late 70’s and 80’s die too young.
-he spent money he didn't have
-he keep asking for problems when he continue allowing kids sleep in his bed.
-taking drugs
-married his second wife....who he didn't really love. She was just a baby machine.
I feel sorry for him. I do blame his father who mess him up. Father hitting him. I am crying for the inner child in him. But I love his music.
Brian Oxman, Jackson family spokesman and attorney, reacted to the tragic news of Michael Jackson's death on CNN. He said he was "stunned" and that he cried with the family. He also said that the people surrounding Michael were "enabling him" and that he "warned" the family that Michael may have been abusing prescription drugs.And he had too many millions of dollars for anyone around him to ever say "Michael-- you idiot--a what are you doing?" His family deserves most of the blame. Noones ever heard of an intervention??
Personally, I think we will find out that the doctor who was with him and gave me the dermerol injection was the one who killed him.
Honestly, who could not see this coming with the many cries for help along the years that Michael Jackson put forth? Does anyone think that such behavior is normal, even from Michael? Sadly, with all the abuse to his body and the drugs, no one was able to step in and intervene to help this poor lost soul. Those around him did not help, they appeared to have made matters worse. In the end, another generation has a talented entertainer that defined the late 70’s and 80’s die too young.
