Michael Jackson – 1958-2009

Much has been said, and much more will be said in the weeks and months to come, about Michael Jackson, who tragically died on Thursday. Even now, it stills feels weird and surreal, much like the latter part of his life really.

I wouldn’t class myself as a fan, to be totally honest. Certainly not in the same sense that I am a fan of other artists, but there is no doubt that I, like most people, totally admired his work. He was the ultimate accessible song & dance man. His appeal was so far reaching and inspiring to so many. Was he the greatest ever? Debatable. The greatest what, exactly? Jackson was not a singularly talented man. His body of work was the culmination of a great many talents and contributors, all sparking off the imagination of Jackson. He was a catalyst. His music was a combination of self composed material, co-writes or songs by other writers. Rod Temperton goes vastly unnoticed as the man who wrote some of his best known songs and Quincy Jones’ production polished the material to make it what it is today; a benchmark in popular music. He was a modern day Gene Kelly or Sammy Davis Jr. Song & Dance was his game. He didn’t bust out killer riffs on a piano or guitar, but he choreographed and danced his way around the world, all backed up by his own incredible instrument; a voice of soul, dynamism and power.

Michael Jackson ceased to be a viable and relevant musical force a long time ago. No new material since 2001’s “Invincible” album and his best work being that classic triumvirate of albums, “Off The Wall“, “Thriller” & “Bad“. After that, he became a parody of himself. The unparalleled fame and notoriety rarefied his world even more than it was previously and we saw him turn from artist to freakish sideshow act in a shockingly, and tragically short amount of time.

That said, whether you liked his music or not (and I imagine there are very few people that completely disliked all of his output) you could not deny the showmanship, professionalism and quality of his work. His material was an indulgence of not only his peers and admirers, but also a guilty pleasure of many people you would not immediately think of as Jackson fans. His vision of performance single-handedly inspired every other musical genre. To witness a Jackson video or live show was to see a full scale theatrical event and even the most extremes of the music industry stole inspiration from them.

Whilst we should all try to forget the “other side” of his life, the side that had nothing to do with his musical talents, it simply cannot be swept under the carpet. His financial extravagance was the stuff of legend. Many of the more famous stories (the masks, Bubbles, the oxygen sleeping chamber) were just other performances and as well choreographed by Jackson as any one of his stage shows. He gave the media and the celebrity hungry public what they wanted, but the price was heavy, and his social ineptitude, exacerbated by having to live his quite unique life in the public gaze, made him even more eccentric and outlandish. His dalliances with young people soon began to generate the most controversial and unwelcome accusations of his life. And it was to haunt him for the rest of his days.

In my humble opinion, none of us can even begin to comprehend what his life must have been like. Taken as a child, by his father, and along with his brothers, made to work and perform with little or no time to grow up and interact was only ever going to have a major adverse effect on him. We take for granted, the ability to socially and physically interact with others of our own age. And it is what Michael never got. The child in him was suppressed into almost total non-existence. So was it any wonder that when he eventually had the ability to express his inner child, it manifested itself in such an elaborate and enormous way. It is my belief that he surrounded himself with young people to simply satisfy his own urge to be a child again. Maybe some of the awful accusations were based in some truth, although he was never found guilty of any crime, but he clearly couldn’t understand a rational adult point of view that his actions could be construed as inappropriate. It is also fairly safe to assume that parents and lawyers saw an easy (and wealthy) target and did whatever they could to screw him for everything they could. And of course, the media fed off the whole thing as only they can, further perpetuating the misinformation and speculation, simply to line their own pockets at the misfortune of others.

It would be entirely safe to assume that in the coming months and years, we will begin to see and hear many people coming out of the woodwork, all with stories to sell.

His own insecurity with his self image and appearance was also a major part of his public persona. Whether he had a skin disorder or not, there was no getting away from the fact he felt totally uncomfortable in his own metaphorical skin and sought to change himself as much as he could. Was it a subconscious effort to build a “mask”? Was it a form of elaborate self harm in reaction to paternal jibes? Was it medically necessary? We will probably never know, but the shell of a man we saw a few months back in London was a far cry from the handsome young man of the 60’s and 70’s. It is heartbreaking to see pictures of him back in those days, full of youth and boyish good looks, a handsome African American man with all the alluring physical traits that that brings. His self destructing actions were left unchallenged by those close enough to him to care and they must all accept some responsibility for the damage he did to himself.

And it was this self harm that may well have been the driving force behind the events that led to his untimely passing this week. His alleged addition to pain killers, taken to suppress pain induced by years of physically demanding performances and the constant and unnatural abuse of his physical appearance may well have rendered his internal functions so weak and fragile that they simply said, “No more”. Toxicology reports due by the end of July will confirm or deny this, and reports just today claim that a dose of morphine administered by his personal physician may well have been the final straw.

So now, we are left with a cultural void of sorts. No doubt, we will see a massive resurgence in sales of his back catalogue. Bets are already off him making No.1 in most charts around the world this weekend. The funeral will be a spectacle of equally fantastic and embarrassing proportions. Conspiracy theories are already rife, and will only grow with time.

And will the world learn from this? Probably not. Society will still crave it’s idols to worship and ridicule in equal measure. It will hound these individuals, demanding them to perform the sick and bizarre dance of celebrity until it either tires of them or kills them.

At least now, Michael Jackson can rest in peace, free from the obvious pain and suffering he endured both physically and mentally and our memory of him can revert back to one of what he did better than almost anybody in the history of this world.

The ultimate song and dance man.