"I read the news today oh boy. About a lucky man who made the grave."
It may seem odd to begin a tribute to a famous songwriter with somebody else's words, but considering he owned the most of the Beatles back catalogue for many years, it's not too much of stretch; in a legal way, they are his words.
Any analysis of the life of Michael Jackson is going to be tricky ordeal. It does stand that despite everything that has happened, his life and death needs to be viewed as tragic. It is weird to say a person died before his time when he's been a superstar for 40 years, but believe or not, he was only the young age of 50 when he died.
I have a soft spot for the guy, Thriller was released the year of my birth and I grew up with Jack-0 when he was at the height of his career, though that isn't too special of a claim considering that even my mother grew up with Michael Jackson. Over the last 15 years, with all the scandals and court cases, it has become easy to forget just how great Michael Jackson once was. I was in the anti-Jackson camp for long time, only recently having rediscovered his amazing music last year.
Before you judge the man, let's travel back to the sixties when he burst into the music scene. At age six, his father stole his childhood and made him a literal slave, abusing him, beating him, forcing him to perform and practice constantly to carry the family out of the poverty-ridden slums of Gary, Indiana. By the time he was 10, he was a national celebrity and he never left the spotlight since.
He grew up, never avoiding success and celebrity. His childhood was left behind, only to be buried deep in his soul. Meanwhile, his stardom grew and grew until he found himself the most popular musician of all time. How could he not buckle under such strain and slowly go insane? Then, suddenly, people stopped buying his albums. Music had moved on, punk made r&b into a thing of the past.
So what's a man to do when he's never not been loved, never not been famous? He let his growing essentricies take over and stole the spotlight through being a nutcase. Marry Elvis's daughter? Why not! I hate my nose! Take it off! Who says I can't have a chimpanzee for my best friend? Suddenly, without a thriving music career and truckloads of cash, he finally had an opportunity to buy the one thing he was never able to have: a childhood. You can't look at MJ's final years as the actions of man. Because he wasn't a man anymore, he was just living the life he was never able to have and he had to start from where it was hijacked from him the very beginning, age seven. He didn't mean to hurt any children; he thought he was a child. I believe that his actions in Neverland were as he claimed, innocent play. Only two people will ever know if he molested the boy, but if he did, he probably didn't even know it was wrong. Does this make it right? Not in any way, but it doesn't make his life any less tragic.
I hope that in his death, it will make people travel back to past and see Michael Jackson for what he was: one of the great performers/singers/dancers/songwriters of all time. See Michael Jackson as the man who broke racial barriers (please ignore his skin disease), and brought "black" music (I'm so sorry to have to use such a stupid term) to the mainstream. See Michael Jackson as the guy that everyone currently aged 15-50 was caught singing with in their bedroom as a child. Don't see him as the insane man/boy recluse who lived in a giant playhouse and had no nose. Maybe it's fitting that he died so young, since he started so young. Now that he is dead though, maybe we can just do as he always wanted us to do, leave him alone. Now excuse me, I have a date with my CD player.
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