The Michael Jackson circus continues, and I'm jumping belatedly into the ring. It's sad to see a talented person die, especially when he peaked so early and suffered such a long decline.
Sure, Jackson was a pop star from an early age, and one of the few to become more popular in his adulthood than in his youth. He didn't suffer Frankie Lymon's fate.
However, there's no question that his best work was in the early 1980s with the mega-selling albums "Off the Wall" and "Thriller." They were his first two albums after becoming free of Motown, and most of the rest of his career was spent trying to figure out how to top (or even match) that opening salvo's creativity and excitement, but whether he recorded with producer Quincy Jones (who in addition to "Off the Wall" and "Thriller," also produced "Bad") or with producers like Teddy Riley in an effort to update his sound -- there was always a sense that the subsequent albums were retreads of "Thriller."
And what's the reward anyway for creating the best-selling album of all time ("Thriller"), being an eye-popping dancer, and elevating the music video from a clumsy promotional item to an opus in its own right?
Life in a bubble.
To be fair, Jackson had no real childhood, working from well before he became a star at age 11. Perhaps his family could say "no" to him, but once Jackson was on his own, he was surrounded by functionaries who had to say "yes." He never could visit a supermarket or a movie like you or I could. Fans would surround and demand.
Jackson's story is a lot like his former father-in-law's -- Elvis Presley. Presley got his privacy at "Graceland," surrounding himself with his "Memphis Mafia," while Jackson's bubble was "Neverland." Did he see himself ironically as Peter Pan or did he romanticize Peter Pan's never growing up? We'll never know because no one asked what he actually thought about anything. The questions were all about life as a celebrity.
Presley was known as "The King" -- short for "The King of Rock and Roll" much to the bemusement of folks like Chuck Berry -- but Jackson claimed even bigger ground, being crowned "The King of Pop," of which rock is only a subset.
The success of both depended on the complex history of race relations in America. Elvis' initial popularity was based on his being a white man who sang like a black man. Jackson proved that a black man singing like a black man could be even bigger than The King. It was a sign of how times had changed.
Both Presley and Jackson had hits with songs that dealt directly with race: Presley with "In the Ghetto" and Jackson with "Black or White."
"Black or White" is the more interesting of the two because of Jackson's changing complexion. He claimed his skin lightened because of vitiligo, a disease in which the skin's pigment slowly disappears. Generally speaking, vitiligo creates patches of pale skin. The Mayo Clinic says, "Medical treatments for vitiligo aim to even out skin tone, either by restoring color (pigment) or by destroying the remaining color." Jackson denied that he did the latter, but it's very unlikely that vitiligo would have left him with such an even skin tone over his whole face. So if he did whiten his skin, did he really believe "it doesn't matter if you're black or white"? It may be the most interesting and personal question posed by his songs, which lyrically are as impersonal as his performance and music was passionate.
He didn't have life experience outside the bubble, and it shows in the paranoia of "Billie Jean" and "Beat It." "We are the World," which he co-wrote with Lionel Richie, when you get down to it is little more than a commercial jingle. It's anthemic, yes, but doesn't say much. The single was a sensation because of all the performers who joined to sing on it, including icons Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, and because the cause of providing relief to famine victims in Ethiopia was so compelling. It also made charity another form of American instant gratification: Buy a record and end world hunger. (By the way, the USA for Africa Foundation still exists and is still fighting poverty and hunger.)
Although Presley had various co-songwriting credits through contracts that his manager, Col. Tom Parker, foisted on songwriters through the years, Presley admitted that he could not write a song. Depending on outside songwriters helped pierce the bubble and let Presley tackle songs about a variety of scenarios that were outside his experience, like "In the Ghetto."
Presley was 42 when he died in 1977, and Jackson was just 50, which some say is the new 40.
Allegations that doctor-assisted use of prescription drugs that may not have been necessary and may have helped cause their premature deaths are similar. In both cases, the stories suggest the doctors had a murky sense of ethics or were unable to say "no" to their famous patients. (Looking at medical ethics statements issued by the American Medical Association over the years actually hints that the relationship and service offered by a physician is much more complicated than most people believe and that a physician may ethically say "yes" depending on their judgment of the situation.)
It's unclear from the historical record whether Jackson dubbed himself the King of Pop or whether it was a name imposed on him. But when he married Lisa Marie Presley, it seemed clear that he understood the iconography of American pop and that he wanted to create a dynasty, lending legitimacy to his reign as the King of Pop by marrying the King's daughter.
Jackson also named one of his children Prince Michael. If that seems odd to you, think about this, it's a combination of George Foreman naming his children after himself (Jackson's daughter is Paris Michael) and taking the name of another pop star, Prince, into the dynasty. Prince is Prince's actual first name (he was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958, so he had just turned 51 when Jackson died).
Prince was also the only serious challenger to Michael Jackson's rhythm and blues throne at the time when Jackson was at his peak. Prince's "1999" and "Purple Rain," released during "Thriller's" long run on the pop charts were outsold by Jackson, but nonetheless, "Purple Rain" was a 10 million seller, and only a few recording artists besides Jackson have hit such a sales milestone.
Who knows how the dynasty will continue? However, much like Elvis' posthumous career, Jackson's will feature a ton of repackagings of already released material, rehearsal material for the shows he was planning to put on in London (like Elvis' posthumously released final tour film) and who knows how many rarities and unreleased recordings landing in the marketplace over the coming months and years, making Jackson, like Elvis, one of the hardest-working dead men in show business, for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment