R.I.P Micheal Jackson

I just a thread to pay our respects to a legend and a true brilliant musician, there is some rumours of his child abuse etc but everyone is entitled to there opinion but there is no argument that he was a great musician !

Thanks,

These "rumors" were stated in open court. Jackson's former security guard testified he saw Jackson performing sexual acts on children; other people testified to similar stories. It is not an opinion that people swore, under penalty of perjury, that they saw this. I choose to believe these people, but the jury believed differently. Jackson spent many millions of dollars to silence other people, who I believe were victims.

Having said that, I think Jackson was the greatest entertainer that ever lived. He also happened to be a very, very messed-up individual. Even his death by drug overdose is a very screwed up way to die.

There is great temptation to honor famous people as flawless. They're just like any of us, sometimes better and sometimes worse. People should be remembered in their entirety, whether living or dead.
 
There is great temptation to honor famous people as flawless. They're just like any of us, sometimes better and sometimes worse. People should be remembered in their entirety, whether living or dead.


I don't think that you can get a true understanding of Jackson without understanding all of the controversy. Even taking his lyrics like "Man in the Mirror" about a guy who looks in the mirror and doesn't like what he sees or a teenager out dating a girl who transforms into something ugly before her eyes, like Jackson seemed to do before our eyes. He saw the need for healing children as an act of healing the world because he himself was destroyed by the abuse of his childhood. He wrote Black and White as he changed his skin color because of his skin condition.

He was a megalomaniac who fed on the power he got in the world and then complained about it when it overpowered him. He tried to overcome the conventions of common decency like sleeping and showering with children as though it were all innocent and was destroyed by it. It seems to speak to the whole myth of radicalism in rock culture: sex, drugs and rock and roll. There is a reason why the convention are there.

At the same time he seemed like such a kind gentle soul naive and incapable of realizing the dangers of dangling a child over a balcony. He was probably the most famous man who ever lived and succumbed to those pressures. This is the world that Andy Warhol knew, a world governed by fame and celebrity, where the only thing that matters is what sells. Where people devoid of any sense of common decency are upheld as gods and pop icons. Ozzy, Slash, Jimmy Page had an affair with a fourteen year old girl, Madonna humping the stage. It becomes about the controversy and in the end it is hard to separate fact from fiction, controversy from reality, or the artist's life from his art. When it comes to knowing that world, Michael Jackson mastered it, and his life points out the fallacies of it as well. In the end, don't expect me to feel sorry for him or anyone when they get what they deserve. But he is dead now and should be forgiven for his transgressions and accepted for all that he gave or tried to give to the world. In the end, there was a lot more good than there was bad.
 
I don't think that you can get a true understanding of Jackson without understanding all of the controversy. Even taking his lyrics like "Man in the Mirror" about a guy who looks in the mirror and doesn't like what he sees or a teenager out dating a girl who transforms into something ugly before her eyes, like Jackson seemed to do before our eyes. He saw the need for healing children as an act of healing the world because he himself was destroyed by the abuse of his childhood. He wrote Black and White as he changed his skin color because of his skin condition.

He was a megalomaniac who fed on the power he got in the world and then complained about it when it overpowered him. He tried to overcome the conventions of common decency like sleeping and showering with children as though it were all innocent and was destroyed by it. It seems to speak to the whole myth of radicalism in rock culture: sex, drugs and rock and roll. There is a reason why the convention are there.

At the same time he seemed like such a kind gentle soul naive and incapable of realizing the dangers of dangling a child over a balcony. He was probably the most famous man who ever lived and succumbed to those pressures. This is the world that Andy Warhol knew, a world governed by fame and celebrity, where the only thing that matters is what sells. Where people devoid of any sense of common decency are upheld as gods and pop icons. Ozzy, Slash, Jimmy Page had an affair with a fourteen year old girl, Madonna humping the stage. It becomes about the controversy and in the end it is hard to separate fact from fiction, controversy from reality, or the artist's life from his art. When it comes to knowing that world, Michael Jackson mastered it, and his life points out the fallacies of it as well. In the end, don't expect me to feel sorry for him or anyone when they get what they deserve. But he is dead now and should be forgiven for his transgressions and accepted for all that he gave or tried to give to the world. In the end, there was a lot more good than there was bad.

Very valid and well-stated analysis.
 
I started wondering if MJ had multiple personality disorder after an interview where he was asked about his plastic surgery. His denials were so vehement it was as though he believed it. I found it strange. If he had any sense of reality surely he would have known that his denials were absurd.

Still Jacko on stage and in the studio seemed to be a very different beast to the person you'd see interviewed or who did so many bizarre and allegedly committed grave wrongs. His daughter's tearful comments at his funeral didn't gel with his public persona either. A confusing character, all round.

So I'm glad to just enjoy the songs and see the vids of his amazingly funky live performances without inviting his impressive array of disorders into my living room :)
 
It is interesting to listen to some of the "professionals" who comment on MJ's various disorders. One specialist in body dysmorphic disorder said that the reason Michael lied about his plastic surgery, or "could lie," is because for him they surgeries were not cosmetic. They were a necessary medical procedure and not 'elective' surgery. If it weren't for MJ, we wouldn't even know what body dysmorphic disorder is. Because of MJ, we are all living room analysts. :)
 
My impression in the interview is that he was flatly denying having any surgery, there with his weird turned-up skinny nose and cleft chin. Accelerated evolution? Did he blow half his nostrils off during a bad cold?

Ken, I'll have you know I was a living room analyst long before MJ! (and I already knew about BDD, which they claim is the problem with anorexia). You can blame my mother for that, who was a writer and so, unsurprisingly, also an enthusiastic LRA and she passed her LRA "chops" down the line :)

Whatever, MJ was one messed up puppy, following in the long tradition of messed up stars - Elvis, Janis, Brian Wilson, Syd Barrett, Jim Gordon, Phil Spector, Jaco, Amy Winehouse, Britney ... there's a lotta talent in that list.
 
I don't think that you can get a true understanding of Jackson without understanding all of the controversy. Even taking his lyrics like "Man in the Mirror" about a guy who looks in the mirror and doesn't like what he sees or a teenager out dating a girl who transforms into something ugly before her eyes, like Jackson seemed to do before our eyes. He saw the need for healing children as an act of healing the world because he himself was destroyed by the abuse of his childhood. He wrote Black and White as he changed his skin color because of his skin condition.

He was a megalomaniac who fed on the power he got in the world and then complained about it when it overpowered him. He tried to overcome the conventions of common decency like sleeping and showering with children as though it were all innocent and was destroyed by it. It seems to speak to the whole myth of radicalism in rock culture: sex, drugs and rock and roll. There is a reason why the convention are there.

At the same time he seemed like such a kind gentle soul naive and incapable of realizing the dangers of dangling a child over a balcony. He was probably the most famous man who ever lived and succumbed to those pressures. This is the world that Andy Warhol knew, a world governed by fame and celebrity, where the only thing that matters is what sells. Where people devoid of any sense of common decency are upheld as gods and pop icons. Ozzy, Slash, Jimmy Page had an affair with a fourteen year old girl, Madonna humping the stage. It becomes about the controversy and in the end it is hard to separate fact from fiction, controversy from reality, or the artist's life from his art. When it comes to knowing that world, Michael Jackson mastered it, and his life points out the fallacies of it as well. In the end, don't expect me to feel sorry for him or anyone when they get what they deserve. But he is dead now and should be forgiven for his transgressions and accepted for all that he gave or tried to give to the world. In the end, there was a lot more good than there was bad.

great post.

20202020202020
 
wow...a thread called "rip michael jackson" and everyone is talking about all his faults. He was brilliant, very talented person, almost bigger than life...i'll miss 'em. we are musicians. we are all a bit f'd up arent we?
 
manderson said:
wow...a thread called "rip michael jackson" and everyone is talking about all his faults

Not just his faults. There were a few facets to that boy and he's not the first person to be both brilliant and crazy. As with many, for me Thriller period was the high point - Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean, Wanna Be Startin Something - too funky!
 
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