My Thoughts on Michael Jackson
Gone, but Far From Forgotten
More than a few of you have written wondering where my comments on Michael Jackson’s death and memorial are. Well here were my first thoughts, raw and simple.
1. The people of Iran are completely fucked.
2. I would hate to have a loved on in need of medical help at UCLA today.
3. The children of the world are a little safer now.
More on these thoughts later, but here are a few more elaborate thoughts.
I honestly wasn’t going to write anything, but I suppose I should. After all it is entirely possible that the most famous person in the world died two weeks ago. That’s a pretty heavy statement, but I think it’s probably accurate. Who else is better known around the world? The Pope? President Obama? Tiger Woods? I honestly think that Michael was probably the most famous person in the world and that makes his death at least noteworthy.
I was never a big MJ fan. I did love the Jackson 5 as a little kid and still enjoy their music quite a bit. I was in Jr High when “Off the Wall” was huge and I enjoyed that as much as any disco tail end work. By the time “Thriller” rolled around I was firmly entrenched in the New Wave/Punk camp. I never owned that album and was not a fan. I certainly appreciated the videos because they were revolutionary, but I was about ready to tear out the car radio if I heard “Billy Jean” one more bloody time. (Side note, I was much more affected when Joe Strummer or Joey Ramone died because they meant more to musically.) Over the years, I marveled at MJ’s ability to create music videos that constantly raised the bar. His songs sometimes interested me, but mostly did not. I liked “Man in the Mirror” and still think “She’s Out of My Life” is a great song. Overall though I wouldn’t say that Michael’s music meant all that much to me.
The circus that surrounded his life bored me. His skin condition, the plastic surgery nightmares, Liz Taylor, Neverland Ranch, his sham marriages, his dubious sexuality, the kids who weren’t his, the trials, the insanity all of it just annoyed me. He was an incredibly talented guy who had more money than anyone would know what to do with for a time. Was he gay? Was he straight? Was he a child molester? Did he buy babies? All of that crap complicates the story, but none of it takes away from his music and what it meant to millions of people. Just because I care more about Joe Strummer (Of the Clash people, look them up they were pretty great.) doesn’t mean he was more important musically than MJ. Few were in fact. His legacy musically is unquestionable. Few artists have ever had half the impact Michael had He was a master of both pop music and music videos and will probably remain untouchable in that regard.
That doesn’t mean we can’t address the obvious flaws. Though he was found not guilty few people can say with a straight face that they believe Michael Jackson to be innocent of the charges against him. We all believe that he did in fact have sex with young boys and probably paid off several families to help hide this behavior. How do we measure this against his accomplishments? I honestly don’t think we can. It’s a separate issue. None of it takes away from his music, but we can also never forget that on some level, Michael was a monster. A monster who gave millions to charity, make countless people happy with his music and by most accounts was a great guy. Yeah but….see there’s the problem. If the “but” is that he molested children, how can we just forget that?
That’s as much bashing as I’m willing to do. It’s been a few weeks, but he’s dead. Whatever he did is done, whatever eternal retribution there may be is not ours to dish out. Piling on now just seems cruel. Did he bleach his skin? Were his children his? Was he crazy? Who cares? He’s gone. His music is with us forever. Why isn’t that enough. See, that’s not an MJ problem. That’s an “us” problem. We are so eager to consume the shit the media feeds us that we gobble it all up. And I say this as a confessed trivia junkie. The whole situation just seems like a side show.
Back to my three original thoughts. Starting with the last one first. That was slightly tongue in cheek and a common joke. But it’s also true. If what we all believe to be true is in fact true then he is no longer able to hurt another child. That won’t take away the pain he caused of course, but at least he can’t do it again.
The second thought was a little more serious. I was working when he died so Mrs. Rog had to call to let me know what was going on. I switched over and watched the Clusterfuck at UCLA and thought that anyone who needed medical attention was truly fucked on that day. Not because the staff wouldn’t do their best, but because the whole place was swarming with paparazzi who attacked the hospital like cockroaches, fans who just wanted to be there and news copters galore. How easy do you think it was to help out poor grandpa with all that shit going on?
My first thought was the most serious and the one that I still shake my head over. For a week leading up to Jackson’s death the world watched in horror as the aftermath of the Iranian elections turned to a blood bath. We followed on Twitter and watched YouTube clips of people dying in the streets. The international community was focused on the human rights violations and for a time it looked like something had to give. In a truly cruel twist of fate, the deaths of Farrah and Michael wiped Iran off of our radar for good. His death gave A-Jod a two week window to clean up the mess and sweep it under the rug. That’s a true tragedy in my mind.
So Michael is gone but the media circus lives on. Who gets his money? Who gets his kids? Who fathered his kids? Where will he be buried? What killed him? Will the docs go to jail? How many unreleased albums does he have? Will the Elephant Man’s family try to buy his remains? (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) For as much as I wasn’t a fan of MJ, all of this crap means considerably less to me than did his music.
The world has lost a great artist. If only we could leave it at that.
