Michael Jackson: Remembering the King of Pop
Posted
June 26, 2009 at
7:05 pm by
Hillary
When I heard Michael Jackson died, I felt like part of my youth had permanently disappeared.
For me, learning of his death is now one of those moments where I’ll always remember what I was doing at the time. I was at Kohl’s, looking for shoes. I had to put down the Dana Buchman flats and fire up my BlackBerry to make sure what I overheard was, in fact, true.
Being a forty-something woman, Michael’s music was a huge part of my teenage and college years. I went through a phase where I wanted to be a “Thriller” dancer. I practiced that damn Moon Walk for hours after seeing him slide backwards during a “Billie Jean” performance. I consumed alcohol more than once listening to “Bad.” The jukebox (yes; I am dating myself now) at my favorite neighborhood pub had lots of classic Jackson Five tunes.
And, who could forget the lip-sync in college where my whole sorority performed “We are the World.” I was Ray Charles. Ah, good times. Why we didn’t win that talent show, I’ll never know.
That said, Michael Jackson was weird. Over the years I watched him transform from a black man to a white woman with all his plastic surgeries and skin bleaching. I was appalled when he held his baby boy Blanket (calling a kid Blanket is a whole ‘nother post) over a balcony. The Martin Brashear documentary was truly disturbing. And I never really “got” Never-Land. Having a zoo and amusement park rides on my property? No thanks.
But, the dude could sing and dance. And you can definitely see and hear his influences in music and videos today.
Michael was reportedly gearing up for an extended performance gig in London, allegedly to stage a comeback. Whether it was to regain his position as the King of Pop or to get some cash to pay down his millions in debts, we will never know.
Rest in peace.
Tags: Michael Jackson, pop music, stars who die too young |
19 Responses to “Michael Jackson: Remembering the King of Pop”
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately in an effort to remove commercial messages, irrelevancies, excessive foul language, racist/sexist/hateful comments, spoofed/cloaked IPs and/or personal attacks and will be edited/deleted at our discretion. Thank you for your patience.
1. mully
June 26, 2009 @ 8:54 pm
The many settlements he was forced to pay in the millions, left him with serious debts.
Whether or not this is true, I have heard that the London concerts were booked for two reasons
1. to offset the staggering debts he had incurred due to the settlement money and his lavish lifestyle.
2. he wanted his kids to know what their Dad did for a living and what made him famous.
Whenever an icon of sorts dies, there will always be speculation and rumors surrounding every aspect of their lives.
Michael Jackson, in my viewpoint, was often his own worst enemy. He put himself in strange and weird situations that caused him so many problems. But I still contend that his life was a struggle to control his childhood demons.
The stories that I have read about the way Joe Jackson abused and mistreatd his kids, were enough to convince me that some, one or all of those kids were going to have serious adult issues.
Michael was a music genius. There is no question about it. Not only could he sing, but he possessed that rare gift of being able to “own” his audience. There arent many in my memory who had that gift and the ones who did, truly deserve the title of “icon”.
While I lost interest in him after the Bashear interviews and the many subsequent weirdo things he did (not mentioning his 3 kids weird names) I can honestly say that the world lost someone very special when Michael Jackson died yesterday.
2. mully
June 26, 2009 @ 9:05 pm
p.s. I so much loved the “We are the World” video, that many years later, I found it online, downloaded it and to this day, every once in awhile (including yesterday) I connect it on my pc and watch and listen.
I know there are lots of other much more popular songs that he was famous for, but this one really reaches in and grabs at my heart strings.
3. Valerie
June 28, 2009 @ 3:57 pm
OMG….. When my youngest son graduated from kindergarten, the entire class of five and six year olds sang We Are The World. There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience.
I remember loving the song Ben until I realized that it was about a rat. LOL
4. Jessica
June 29, 2009 @ 12:47 pm
I was never much an MJ fan. I was more into alternative/punk rock music in high school and beyond so I never appreciated MJ for his genius, but now that I’ve been watching the news which has covered his musical legacy, I was enlightened to his amazing talent. Now I want to go download some of his music.
And what a sad, sad, sad life he had. He obviously had some severe psychological issues. It’s so weird. When you watch Thriller, he was soooooo cute and good looking. Why would someone do what he did to such a good looking face? It has to be some freaky psychosis. And those poor kids. There’s no way they not damaged in some way, although it sounds like they truly loved him as their father. He seemed like a nice guy, lost and taken advantage of.
5. mully
June 29, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
There has been talk, in the past, from psychologists and pseudo-psychologists that Michael may have been trying very hard to “change” his appearance because he was trying as much as he possibly could to “get away” from the child/person/son that his father abused.
The thinking is that if he was as far removed from what he was when he was a cute, little boy, he could also get as far away as possible from the feelings he lived with as an abused child.
I hope Joe Jackson is lying in bed at night and re-living the horrors he inflicted upon his children and living with some regret.
6. Hillary
June 29, 2009 @ 8:10 pm
There was a made-for-TV movie on about 15 years ago or so, all about the Jacksons. (I think Angela Bassett was the mother.) Those kids did not have much of a childhood. That was not a good environment in which to grow up. You can kind-of see why Michael became the way he did. Yes, he made some bad choices along the way. But Joe was not the best dad in the world either.
I saw a news report that Joe Jackson wants to take control of Michael’s estate and wants his three kids to live with him. Are you kidding me? I think he’s screwed up enough people already, thank you very much.
And, why for the love of puppies is Jesse Jackson involved?
7. mully
June 29, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
This is probably going to cause a tidal wave of comments, but I really cant hold back.
Tonight on the news shows, its now being reported that the media reporting on his death, has been showing racial bias.
The point being made is that white, American icons, who have died, dont have their “dirty laundry” aired in public. They dont get drug use, family abuse etc. reported on after their deaths. But Michael Jackson, since he was black and since the media is talking about drug use and childhood abuses etc, is being treated differently because he is black.
Give me a break!
The very sad facts are that Michael Jackson DID have issues in his adult life. His father DID abuse him. There was dysfunction in the family unit while growing up and many of the Jackson kids suffered into adulthood because of it. These are facts people, not assumptions and they have little or nothing to do with race.
There are countless celebrities, both white and black, in this country, who, when they died, had everything good and bad dredged up about them.
Elvis’s death AND life have been scrutinized and put under a microscope for years since his death and every, single aspect of drug use, alcohol abuse, and even down to stories that his mother Gladys, had sexual inclinations toward him.
Kurt Cobain died from an overdose. You dont get much more personal and intimate about someone’s lifestyle than that.
Do I need to recount all of the stories written about Anna Nicole Smith and her forays into substance abuses?
What about Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe if we go back several decades? Both of these women had alcohol and drug issues and both of their lives were written about, almost ad nauseum, after their deaths and every journalist or pseudo journalist landed a story, it seemed to come up with something horrid that had happened in their pasts to explain why they had gotten to the point in their lifes that they no longer wanted to live.
What about Kurt Cobain, John Belushi, River Phoenix, Jim morrison?
Janis Joplin, while no means as iconic as a Michael Jackson, will still go down in history as someone who made a huge difference in the world of popular music. She died from an overdose and her life was splayed out along with all its problems, for all the world to see.
What ALL of these people (including MJ) had in common was a problem getting thru life while being famous. Many of them, like MJ, suffered abuse at the hands of parents which in turn, caused them to lead dysfunctional adult lives.
Race and color doesnt enter into this and it shouldnt be yet another mantra for blacks in this country to play the race card.
Lets not cloud the real issue here. A true music genius has left us and its a sad day for the entire world because of it.
8. Jessica
June 30, 2009 @ 8:18 am
Yeah, right, just like they were sooooo respectful of Anna Nicole Smith.
The media is high.
9. mully
July 6, 2009 @ 8:29 pm
OK America and media: Enough is enough.
Michael Jackson is dead and no amount of publicity or reporting on how he died, is going to change that. In fact, the more I hear about how he died, the more I am convinced that his death was very likely to have something to do with the overuse and abuse of drugs.
At his best, he was a musical genius leaving behind a legacy probably not to be seen again, in at least my lifetime. No one can take that away from him.
At his worst, however, he was a troubled adult with leanings towards pedophilia and possibly serious psychological issues causing erratic behaviors ranging from dangling his child from a balcony to changing his identity in some strange attempt to further himself from what he was as a child, as well as massive spending resulting in over 4 million dollars in debt.
Michael Jackson was not a deity. He was not someone, in my viewpoint to be honored for anything other than his music talent.
The country at large acts as though Michael Jackson, the man, did something in his lifetime worthy of a Nobel Prize.
He didnt.
Im sorry, but to honor him for anything other than his musical abililty is just plain wrong.
Get a grip America! There are people dying everyday for much worthier causes than anything Michael Jackson accomplished in his lifetime. Men and women are giving limbs and lives in Afghanistan and Iraq in order to serve our country.
I am happy to honor them, praise them, throw accolades at them, for they have done something both in their lifetimes and in death to warrant that.
Again, while Michael Jackson deserves praise for his talent, but he’s no example for the youth of America on how to be a mature, contributing adult in our society.
10. Valerie
July 7, 2009 @ 5:53 pm
AMEN, AMEN, AMEN
11. Jessica
July 9, 2009 @ 10:39 am
You know what I really found laughable? During and right before the memorial the media and MJ’s family friends were totally canonizing MJ and suggesting that the reason Barak Obama got elected was because of Michael Jackson.
Bwwwwahhhahaahhaahhhaaa!
That’s the most f%^$ing ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
That’s when MJ’s death officially jumped the shark.
12. mully
July 9, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
Or…the suggestion that his body should lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
Are they serious??????
13. Jessica
July 9, 2009 @ 2:44 pm
I know, pretty soon that’s going to be it’s own joke, kinda like the whole, “I just saw Elvis in the grocery store”. Now people will see pictures of MJ in their toast and children will be lifted from tragedy by the ghost of MJ.
His kids are so adorable though, aren’t they. I just want to pinch their cheeks. Some comedian was saying though - questionning the idea of those kids being raised by the same people who raised MJ. LOL.
14. Hillary
July 9, 2009 @ 3:36 pm
That service was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever watched. Political convention/prayer meeting/concert all in one.
I thought the comment about Michael Jackson breaking the barriers for other Americans of color was a little much. Seriously, Martin Luther King didn’t do anything for the African-American community? (That was sarcasm.) Give me a break.
When Rev. Al Sharpton was on stage (because he has a comment about everything!) my daughter said “We know already!”
The other thing that is frosting my cornflakes is now LA is wondering how it’s going to pay for all the extra security/police presence/etc. around the service. Shouldn’t they have thought about that before they agreed to let the family have such a huge production?
Oh, and Mully, the Weekly World News has already published a Michael Jackson/Elvis sighting. But you know more are coming.
15. Valerie
July 9, 2009 @ 4:12 pm
I just knew that people would soon be claiming to see Michael Jackson alive and well somewhere. I saw where someone was trying to sell a cheeto in the shape of Michael doing the moonwalk and also a piece of toast with his impression on it. What a looney world we live in.
16. Jessica
July 9, 2009 @ 4:16 pm
And the topping on Hillary’s cornflakes is that Michael Jackson was WHITE!!! He turned himself white and his children are white. If he wanted to celebrate his heritage so much, why didn’t he adopt African American children?
AND, I read that Brooke Shileds hasn’t even seen MJ since 1991!!!! OMG, those celebs are so fake!
17. mully
July 9, 2009 @ 10:53 pm
Im really just so sick and tired of the whole sordid mess.
I washed my hands of MJ a long time ago when the child molestation case was going on. Once he admitted to sleeping in the same bed with boys, regardless of being acquitted of the charges, I was done with him.
Yeah I know, hes a musical genius and I wont try to take that away from him. But thats really all he was and the Black community is making it seem like Michael Jackson was something akin to God.
What a sham.
18. Lauren
July 10, 2009 @ 12:55 pm
I watched part of an interview with Joe Jackson on GMA this morning. When asked how Joe remembered his son, Michael, he responded, “As the greatest entertainer ever . . .” That struck me as odd for a parent to say. I don’t know; I looked at a picture of my son (thankfully still alive!) when he was 2. His Sunday School teacher sent it to me the other day when she found it. I thought, that’s how I’ll remember “B” definitely. With a pencil in his hand and a guilty, but adorable expression on his pretty little face. My son.
Then Joe went on to say that he believes MJ’s death is “foul play.”
Even after everything . . . his son’s distance and outspoken hatred of his father, Joe still doesn’t get it.
This is about money. I would bet my home that Joe’s first (or second) thought upon hearing of his son’s death was, “We gotta get to da courthouse.”
19. Valerie
July 10, 2009 @ 7:43 pm
Lauren, I watched the interview with Joe Jackson the day of Michael’s death. He didn’t seem upset in the least. You’re right, it is all about the money. All he sees are dollar signs.