MICHAEL JACKSON
I will say: my most recent favorite Michael Jackson songs were the kitschy crap songs I’m sure he would have liked to disown (if he cared about his own catalog after buying so much of the Beatles’). I’m talking ‘bout PYT. I’m talking ‘bout THE GIRL IS MINE.
But there was a time. A SEGA Genesis “Moonwalker”-playing time. When I looked at this man as the epitome of the kind of performer I wish I could be. His life will be dissected for decades as an analogy of Americanization. Pressures of race, sex, religious conformity, commodification and capitalism. For the world, I beleive Michael Jackson was the greatest American export.
And now, he’s died. On the eve of his “This is It” comeback performance run in Britain.
I look at Michael Jackson and see the saddest man in the world. I can’t help but think that he never had a happy day in his life. A probable homosexual, closeted by public scrutiny, familial expectation and religious damnation. A child performer, forced (and we should all be grateful) into strenuous labor by his taskmaster father. A confused adult, trying to fulfill the desires of the public, the only kind of love he understood. Child molestation charges? A product of a poor and warped self-image that hindered his mind for life. History will judge the man and his actions, and like many before him, history will forget the blemishes in favor of the accomplishments. There is nary a soul on earth that Michael Jackson didn’t touch. And though his relevance died years ago, though his memory would have been much more secured had he not survived the 80’s, the world lost a bit of its childhood today.
Michael Jackson was a living myth, legend, god, hero. Everyone had their own interaction with his life and work. Everyone thought they knew him in their own way. Who knew Michael Jackson? Nobody. Not even his family. No one can speak for him, now that he’s gone.
Remember:
He was once the child.
Goodnight, Sweet Prince (King).
And in case, anyone is feeling too sentimental…
Huh?
Thank you, Michael. I’m sorry life was so tough on you.
