Michael Jackson’s Death

I have tended to downplay the recent death of Michael Jackson. I am sorry that he died, but I am generally sorry when people die anyway. He was a very successful entertainer who surrounded himself with “yes” people and came to regard himself as a messiah figure and his fans as “his children”. That I just couldn’t take. I don’t care one way or another about his repeated surgeries and skin treatments that drastically altered his physical appearance. If he wanted to look a certain way, then that was his own business. And I’m not at all convinced that he ever had any designs on children that exceeded the most purely innocent of intentions. But since he was accused in the past of such nefarious designs, in the eyes of many in our society, he stands convicted solely on account of those accusations. Not from me, though.

I never cared too much for Michael Jackson’s stage performance, which even with my limited knowledge of dancing seemed to me to be overly repetitive. And I didn’t care at all for most of his over-produced and over-hyped videos. No, I was interested in his well-crafted studio music. And his best works by far were his Off the Wall and Thriller albums. But although I liked them, they still don’t figure as personal favorites of mine. I can pretty much count on one hand the Michael Jackson songs that really “grabbed” me: I Want to Be Where You Are (from 1972), Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough and Rock With You (from Off the Wall), P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing, from Thriller), and Man in the Mirror (from Bad). True, Off the Wall and Thriller had a continuity of good music in them, but most of the tracks were good, not super-great, listening.

Hopefully, all of the legal wrangling falling out from Michael Jackson’s death won’t wreck too many lives. Like many, the only party that I really care about is his children and that they are properly cared for. But this excessive public outpouring I’m seeing over him borders on the creepy (to me).