posted on Jul, 7 2009 @ 11:14 AM
Michael Jackson...
The GOOD
Since his sudden and surprising death, I have gone back and listened to The Jackson 5, The Jacksons, and Michael's solo work. I had not bothered to
listen to most of these tracks in many years. Michael was many things, but first and foremost he was a brilliant singer. His voice makes the early
Jackson 5 tracks stand out and transcend a lot of other pop music of the same period. Michael's young voice cuts through the mix and truly inspires
the listener. His voice had the energy, pitch control, phrasing and all those qualities that define a superstar vocalist. These Jackson 5 recordings
are so full of hooks that once you rediscover these tracks, warning... you may become addicted to the recordings... they are that powerful. Why is
this good? Well, that's the magic of music... it moves the soul and words cannot adequately describe the sensations you feel.
Michael continued to achieve greater and greater heights in dance music expression. Culminating with the album heard 'round the world... a work of
genius by producer Quincy Jones and performer Michael... THRILLER... Michael made sure he would have a permanent place in the history of popular
music. He made it into the top level of pop music legends and in doing so, brought joy and happiness to hundreds of millions and perhaps one to two
billion people. Only The Beatles and Elvis are in that category. If you think it is easy enough to get there... you try it.
WE ARE THE WORLD was perhaps the greatest moment of all, for Michael. He was at the top of his form, the top of the pop music game, and he led this
project with Lionel Richie and his beloved producer Quincy Jones, who famously instructed all the pop superstars in attendance "leave your ego at the
door". This message... put your ego aside... and the charitable giving of the project made it like the angelic shining light of Jackson's heart
sending waves of love around the world. This was like The Beatles doing "All You Need Is Love" for the largest satellite TV audience of their day,
but on an even more spectacular scale and producing untold millions of dollars for charity.
THE BAD
Obviously, from news reports, Jackson was troubled from many angles by the smiling faces, the backstabbers, every financial parasite, leech and
opportunist imaginable. Anyone would go a little crazy with the unbelievable pressure of defending oneself against all the social climbing predators
who continually came out of the woodwork like monsters in THRILLER. Many of them were wolves in sheep's clothing. If Michael failed to see through
them, they would take a piece of his pie sometimes in the tens of millions.
The insane contract for 50 concerts would place a level of anxiety on any performer that would be one hell of a cross to bear and simply too much for
anyone to attempt. Ask any Broadway performer if a string of 50 show dates would be grueling and I think I know the answer. That's a level of
pressure I don't think any of us can comprehend. He was bound to have some if not all of the critics of his London shows sharking for negatives...
adding to the pressure of living up to legendary standards.
The allegations of child molestation were and are still very troubling. We may never know how true or false the allegations were. It's a dark mystery
that tarnishes his place in history.
Plastic surgery that went too far, ruining Jackson's popularity among the worldwide African descent community. Reshaping his nose, the artficial
cleft in the chin, the anglo skin lightening and all the other reshaping in order to appear more like Peter Pan... poor decision-making, vanity, ego,
insecurity... another tarnish on Michael's place in history. The creepiest thing about all the plastic surgery was that in his final rehearsals,
Michael looked more and more like Heath Ledger's The Joker. Sad fate that Michael apparently died from an accidental overdose of prescription drug
just like Ledger. A dark coincidence.
Erratic behavior... hanging his child over an upper story balcony railing... jumping on stage to collect an award before being introduced... doing a
lifetime achievement award acceptance speech not realizing he was not the one being awarded... spending sprees that sinfully turn a back on the
world's poor... prescription drug addiction... the poor choice of acquiring a hospital setting only anaesthetic for home use, an act that in
retrospect was like a 'soft suicide', a pushing of the edge of the envelope to the boundary of life and death where one so foolishly daring might
never come back... a sad end to a brilliant career.
THE UGLY
News reports have put Michael's debts at around $400 million. He was once worth an estimated $700 million. How can someone blow that much money when
most of the world suffers in poverty?
Buying into the "king" thing and putting that royalty nonsense onto his kids, naming them Prince this and Prince that. C'mon now, this "king of
pop" thing was a marketing tag used to sell magazines and stuff... it was not something to be taken seriously, yet it seems that Michael took it very
seriously, making the pure narcissism and vanity aspect of Michael's twisted celebrity status add to the mental case picture towards the end. Ego can
get in the way of almost everything and bring down an otherwise good person. Was it ego that motivated Michael to use surrogates and donors to have
intentionally motherless children?
The crass commercialization of the Michael Jackson myth is now well underway. Scrambles and grabs for money made by marketing, merchandising and so
forth will feed the greed of materialists. It will somehow get ugly... and in the next couple of years, we will see how greedy companies and
individuals can be.
REST IN PEACE
Michael... thanks for all the great, great lead vocals. Man, you made so many pop music recordings touch our hearts. Thank you for getting us out
there on the dance floor... no one danced better than you, but we were moved to dance to your music at one time or another in our lives and it was
fun. We are grateful for your inspiring messages of love that were the heart of many of your songs. When you helped produce WE ARE THE WORLD, you came
into the circle of Gandhi, MLK, and other legends of world peace.
For all the love generated by you around the world, Michael Jackson, rest in peace with our love lifting you up.
[edit on 7-7-2009 by switching yard]
[edit on 7-7-2009 by switching yard]