I am sitting here listening to Michael Jackson's 'Number Ones' cd, and still feeling very sad. The first 'pop' song I can remember singing (besides the usual toddler standards) was Puppet on a String, and The Jackson 5's 'ABC' (I was about four/five).
Yes, I confess. I love MJs music. I didn't mind the poor bugger either, despite what people claimed that he did. I have always thought of him as this strange but wildly talented being. I have never really made up my mind about his 'guilt'.
How the hell does anyone know? There are three sides to any story. One persons' the other persons and what really happened. I believe Michael Jackson was a serial hugger of children. I also believe the poor man was seriously mentally unstable, thanks in large to an abusive childhood. Therefore in his reality, there prolly was nothing with having sleepovers with children. He was in essence, his own worst enemy.
I might be wrong. He may have been a paedophile. Who knows. I want to separate that side and mourn the singer and dancer. Man, the only ones he fell short of IMHO, was Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor.
I wasn't a great fan of the crotch grab, or even the Moonwalk, clever as it was. It was just the litheness, the grace and the power. I never could believe that skinny frame could have so much power. The muscle strength to bust those moves was enourmous. A lot of people don't stop and think about that.
His music has always, always been in my life, whether I liked it or not (mostly I did).
My favourite (despite the once cringeworthy monologue in the middle, which is now just painfully sad) will always be "Will You Be There". Earth Song, Black and White, Thriller, Rock With You, Ben etc etc etc.
A poor tortured soul, hopefully now at rest, out of the world he could never quite fit into.
