Wacko Jacko

When I was a kid my parents told me about Michael Jackson, who had just released his "Thriller" album some time back. Of course there was something curious about it that I couldn't put my hand on, but later on I figured out what it was. It was the strange fact that the king of pop was black.

In a way, racism was more or less dead for me, from that day. I was an impressionable kid, but I no longer really believed that a black man was incapable of doing stuff that people of other skin colours were capable of doing.

But I'm still a little disturbed by the way that black artists handle fame and fortune. Bobby Brown - drug addict, and pulled down Whitney Houston with him. Sly Stone - the less said the better. Jimi Hendrix - dead. Tupac - dead. Marvin Gaye - murdered by his father. Notorious BIG - dead. So on one hand, there are no differences between a white man and a black man, but on the other hand, there are important diffences - one swims in a sea of mostly white people, and the other one swims in a sea of mostly black people. If people decide whether or not to screw with you, they see first whether you are black or white. Have they figured out how to become a star? Elvis didn't figure it out, the Beatles didn't quite get it at that time. Maybe the black brothers will, someday.

You couldn't say these weird stuff happened to all child stars. Shirley Temple kept her head. Stevie Wonder - you wonder whether he was ever a kid at all because he seemed to be an adult even when he was young. Some people never got over it, not only MJ, but also Beethoven and Mozart.

I had read J Randy Taraborelli’s biography of Michael Jackson, which I sold on to Nat. (Yes, all 650 pages of it) It’s full of interesting detail, a little tabloid-y, and not a few unsubstantiated stories, but the picture that emerges is consistent and disturbing. There is some real psychological insight to his stories. Because, let's face it, Michael Jackson is seriously one mentally unstable guy. You think his face on the "Thriller" video was scary? Look at his real face 25 years later, without the prosthetic nose. Now that is scary.

One line from his book struck me: Michael saying, “it’s not lying, it’s show business.” This sums up everything you need to know about his (non-existent) ability to distinguish fiction and reality.

The man has so many contradictions that it’s fascinating. On one hand, he’s a ruthless businessman, and one of the very few people who can basically fleece Paul McCartney of his profits. On the other hand, he’s done so much for children’s charities. On one hand, he’s got so much discipline to become a great artist, on the other hand he’s such a conflagrate spender. On one hand, as a newspaper describes him, he seems to have lived so many lives before. On the other hand, he really has had only one life – as an entertainer. No proper childhood, a prospect that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

You probably heard about the rumours concerning him living in an oxygen tank. That was actually a stunt that he engineered himself. He thought it would be quite funny to print some bizarre stories about himself. There was no truth to it. But the damage done ultimately was considerable – he started getting known as Wacko Jacko, and the breakdown in trust between him and the media started a cottage industry whereby anything strange he did would be amplified into real weirdness.

There were some funny stories in there, like the time when he got arrested by the LAPD, and they spent 1 day trying to open a huge bank vault in his mansion. When they did, there was only a suitcase containing the combination to the safe.

But there were also stories of his real humiliation, for example how they took of his pants and tried to identify the marks on his dick.

The thing about stardom is that it brings you into the gaze of the entire world while almost completely cutting off contact between oneself and the real world. He almost alienated everybody who worked with him. Lisa Marie Presley, with whom he had a real relationship, and the person who knows both Kings of Pop first hand. Debbie Rowe. Even Elizabeth Taylor. There was a very astute businessman who helped him obtain very lucrative deals, he got cut off too, and to me that was the start of his financial downfall.

He never learnt from his lesson. He was such a strong willed person that nobody could tell him the truth, or to scold him (except maybe Lisa Marie Presley, but in the end she gave up). He still conducted the pajama parties with the kids. He kept on making himself liable to lawsuits. He didn’t understand that it was all wrong, regardless of whether he was really molesting them or not.

Michael Jackson became similar in many ways to the only other person who is routinely called the king of pop, Elvis Presley. Elvis lived in Graceland, Michael Jackson in Neverland. Both became drug addicts – Elvis to pills, Michael Jackson to painkillers. Both ended their lives a recluses, holed up in their hiding places, surrounded by syncopants.

The concluding sentence of that book rings true: you have to wonder how it was that a person who overcame such great odds to achieve such success was unhappy, and you wondered what he must do to achieve happiness in his life.

When I watched the top of the pops for the first time, Michael Jackson was #2, and the Police was #1. The Police are now touring around the world, selling out shows and making plenty of money. That is what Michael Jackson should have become. But even as we mourn his tragic death, we might remember that this could have been the path that he would go down if he had not succumbed to a heart attack.

Don't blame it on the sunshine, don't blame it on the moonlight, don't blame it on the good times, just blame it on the boogie.

Elvis Presley	Michael Jackson
King of Pop	King of Pop
Popularised black music	The first (and possibly last) black superstar
Mawkish socially conscious songs like “In the Ghetto”	Mawkish socially conscious songs like “Heal the World”
Ushered in the age of Rock and Roll	Ushered in the age of MTV
Married Priscilla Presley	Married Lisa Marie Presley
Branched out into cheesy movies like “Blue Hawaii”	Branched out into spectacular long videos like “Thriller” and “Smooth Criminal”
Famous for sexually aggressive dance moves (like swiveling his groin)	Famous for sexually aggressive dance moves (like touching his crotch)
Famous for sequined Las Vegas jacket	Famous for sequined glove
Startling physical transformation between youth and middle age	Shocking physical transformation between youth and middle age
Lived his later years as a recluse in Graceland …	Lived his later years as a recluse in Neverland …
Addicted to pills …	Addicted to painkillers …
Died young (42) of health problems	Died young (50) of health problems