Is the Dark Side Real?
July 18th, 2009Life Imitates Star Wars
Am I the only one who sees a creepy kinship between Michael Jackson and Darth Vader?
It just occurred to me. They both appeared godlike to their minions, and both made use of impressive costumes. But underneath…pale, sickly, grotesque bodies with lots of scars and damage.
Now I’ll be thinking about this all weekend.
I never understood the Jackson phenomenon. “Beat It” was a pretty good pop song, but his other stuff was awful. “Thriller” was just plain stupid. And although he danced well, he didn’t do his own choreography.
Some pop giants make sense. Sinatra was amazing. Elvis was overrated, but pretty good. I always thought the Beatles sounded like a bunch of tipsy middle-aged British spinsters singing along with the telly, but I realize they were talented. But Michael Jackson is like Madonna. A craze in search of an explanation.
It’s funny; some people who are truly talented never achieve great success. Other people become huge stars and then, in retrospect, appear mediocre. If you become a popular idol, and then afterward, when viewed objectively, your work seems forgettable, haven’t you traded your life for nothing? Didn’t you chase a mirage? Weren’t you cheated?
The end of a thing is better than the beginning. The Bible says that. Unless it was Shakespeare. I forget. But it’s true. No matter how good your life seems while you’re caught up in it, if it’s not based on something solid, it can turn sour in an instant. Faster than you could imagine, you could come to the realization that you traded your life for a bill of goods. On the other hand, a change for the better is always worth it, as long as you have breath in you.
At the store yesterday, I saw the gossip rags. Half of it is about Jackson. It’s as if human maggots are coming out to feast on him. To destroy whatever it was that he built up during his life. As if to spite him. To make sure that wherever he is, he realizes he got nothing in exchange for his years.
Someone help me understand all the news anchors I’ve seen, claiming they have Ipods full of Michael Jackson music. I didn’t realize people actually listened to that stuff. I thought they just watched the videos and built shrines to him and had plastic surgery so they could look like him. It’s hard for me to believe that relatively normal people were Jackson fans. I always thought his fans were more like the alienated kids who dress up for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Fringe nuts. But I guess that can’t be true, given the number of albums he sold.
I wonder when I’ll be able to wear black loafers again, without people thinking it’s some kind of tribute.
July 18th, 2009 at 10:47 PM
Someone help me understand all the news anchors I’ve seen, claiming they have Ipods full of Michael Jackson music.
They are at the age where people start to look back at their childhoods wistfully.
They want to pretend that they still have a piece of that adolescent spirit. They want to recapture the good kind of youth, enthusiasm, confidence and sexual potency. Trouble is, many of them just adopt the bad parts of youth, childishness, immaturity lack of wisdom.
Michael is a part of their psyche that brings back dancing, partying, and fumbling in the backseat with that girl who was a friend’s cousin’s neighbor they met at the yacht club that time Kevin stole the tequila from his dad’s liquor cabinet.
Michael Jackson was child who never grew up, much like our current media class and “hip, cool” college professors.
July 18th, 2009 at 11:11 PM
Another couple months and he’ll be nobody again.
Althought there were a lot of nutty fans (many who seemed normal).
July 19th, 2009 at 1:26 AM
Ecclesiasties. Kind of a um, deflating book.
July 19th, 2009 at 1:27 AM
Meant “an” of course.
July 19th, 2009 at 3:39 AM
I used to think the world was stuck in the 1800s: dictator/monarchy led countries bickering with each other over nothing.
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But things seem more regressive now: idol worship now seems more in line with the worst the Romans had to offer, or the worst the Egyptians brought to the table long, long ago.
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July 19th, 2009 at 7:15 AM
No, actually Jackson was beloved by the mainstream. Which just goes to show you that the mainstream is polluted. I never understood it either. He had some good tunes, but his best work was when he was with the Jackson Five. I used to collect their records off the back of cereal boxes. When he went solo he was okay, but nothing spectacular — none of his hit songs stood out for me. But I’ve never been one to follow the crowd. The MJ “phenomenon” was a coldly-calculated marketing plan aimed at the bulk of the population, who are sheep when it comes to stuff like that. I don’t know why, but they are. The weirdness started, I think, because deep down inside he knew he was living a fake life, but no one tells a cash cow “no” so he did what he wanted. I think it was when he started the whole one-glove thing that he started actively giving me the creeps. I agree “Thriller” was overrated — the best part about it was Vincent Price’s laugh at the end.
July 19th, 2009 at 8:05 AM
Ecclesiastes 7:8. Definitely not Shakespeare.
I see more similarity with Elvis and Jacko.
I’m wondering when I can wear one sequined white glove again without someone thinking it’s some kind of tribute.
July 19th, 2009 at 9:08 AM
I never noted the Darth/Jacko common threads though.
July 19th, 2009 at 10:36 AM
Did you ever read _The Ministers Black Veil_ by Nathaniel Hawthorne?
I cannot paste the URL for some reason, but the short story is easy to find on the net. Not that Jackson is like the minister, but that one man hiding reminds us of what we all hide.
July 19th, 2009 at 10:49 AM
I can’t explain the news anchors’ fondness for Michael Jackson, but their fondness might explain the dismal state of news reporting.
July 19th, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Yeah, I missed the whole MJ thing too. I was busy during the 70s and 80s making people. I guess he could dance but wasn’t he trained by Paula Abdul, so big deal. Even the moves weren’t his.
July 19th, 2009 at 1:27 PM
Let me explain, when MJ hit, I was 12 years old in sixth grade. Every kid I went to school with was nuts for Thriller and Michael Jackson. He appealed to the tween set and was non-threatening.
My dirty secret-I had a zippered “Beat It” jacket, but remember I was 12! Dang, I wish I still had it because they are going for hundreds on Ebay!
I outgrew it, as did most of friends when he started getting weird.
July 19th, 2009 at 3:28 PM
If Joe Biden was hosting American Bandstand in 1970, he’d have said this about Michael Jackson: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking kid who can dance. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
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The J5 were “safe” and weren’t likely to appear following Otis Day at the Dexter Lake Club and seem threatening to suburban parents of aspiring Brunellas.
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In 1970, people WANTED a safe and clean pre-adolescent (aka pre-sexual) black to like so they could tell their friends they weren’t racist. After the J5 broke up, continuing to like MJ and his inferior pop was pure affirmative action that was only sustainable because he STILL showed no sexual interest to Brunellas or any other female.
MJ had a fraction of the original talent of Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and others. An interesting list of rock’s 200 greatest songwriters has MJ at 55th, one above Dr. Dre (who?):
http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best_songwriters.html
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MJ’s top single, We Are The World, is tied for all-time sales with In the Year 2525–proving sales and artistic quality are not necessarily linked. Billie Jean is up there in sales with Seasons in the Sun.
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Fame and lasting meaning are rarely connected.
July 19th, 2009 at 4:52 PM
How can anyone take seriously a “man?” that wears glittering silver speedo outside over his pants?
What is the story with “his” children? Why did he need to have a former employer of his ex wife impregnate her?
To me Michael is a sorry excuse for a human been, 100% phony, bizarre at a minimum a phedofile for sure.
July 19th, 2009 at 4:53 PM
That is the worst list I’ve ever seen. Where is Buck Ram?
July 20th, 2009 at 8:07 AM
The list is a quite a bit of crap. Jim Steinman who has written “hits” for more than a dozen artists, despite having a voice that sounds like a rusty bucket scraped across a slate blackboard, is at the bottom of the list. NWA (Dr. Dre and Ice Cube etc) who had all of two albums together, is under MJ…
I also do not see Randy Newman on the list at all. And please, what kind of list with the word “Rock…” has John Denver in it?
July 20th, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Okay, I gotta disagree here. Jackson’s genius – and yes, that is exactly what it should be called – was not in the songs. Or the writing. Catchy, some songs were …but that’s not the “it” of it.
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The “it” was his ear. For production value. He was a monster in the studio (that was a compliment); pure genius.
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If the rest of Jackson was all crap (I’d argue, but I’d acknowledge that there is an argument to be made on way or t’other at least …and I liked his voice, both his kid voice, and the more mature Jackson voice of the early ’80’s: he was no Sinatra, but, well, he didn’t have to be Sinatra), he was one of the best at pop production, a talented engineer of the board.
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I guess maybe you gotta have sat in the seat, or thought about it a bit, to recognize his considerable skill at the board. You may think Thriller is a POS as a song, but I doubt you’ve ever listened to it on any speaker or stereo or whatever that it hasn’t sounded good, and generally VERY good (whatever you may have thought of the tune/lyrics/content/whatever-else). That ain’t easy. That very much is NOT easy.
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The rest of his life …sadly wasted. IMO (I’m no fan: but I’ve been a musician most of my adult life; no, not a pro …very often, at least). But he deserved – and deserves – recognition for his, rarely matched – skill in production.
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…just my two bits.
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July 20th, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Would anyone who has a good stereo waste it on Michael Jackson?
July 21st, 2009 at 10:52 AM
heh. Point.