Michael Jackson: A
One-Glove Salute
At some point earlier this year I was sitting in my car when an old song
by Michael Jackson came on, and a strange thought occurred to me: How in
the world will I ever explain Michael Jackson to my children?
Let's try: He was a singer who grew up in poverty-ridden Gary, Indiana,
became a musical superstar as a little kid, and upon reaching adulthood
enjoyed a 10-year run as the biggest musical star in the world. Oh, and
he also underwent a series of increasingly grotesque surgeries that
turned him from black to white and eventually into something resembling
an alien. He was tried twice, 12 years apart, for child molestation but
never convicted. He had three children who rarely appeared publicly
except in veils, and oh yeah, he used to wear one, shiny glove, and
loved to interject vocal tics like "hee hee" and "jamon" into his songs.
Only in America, no doubt about it.
Michael Jackson died Thursday at the age of 50, and for someone who
spent several years as arguably the most famous man in the world, there
are many, many mysteries about him – some of which will probably be
solved in the coming months, but others that will likely remain
mysteries forever.
Was Jackson really a pedophile? What, if any, mental illness/other
health problems did he suffer from? What's the parentage of his third
child, and what was the true story behind his two marriages? That's just
the start of a very long list. Margo Jefferson dealt with many of these
questions and more, including issues related to race and gender in
Jackson's career and persona, in her standout 2006 essay collection
On Michael Jackson.
One thing there was no mystery about – Jackson created a catalog of
amazing music that has stood the test of time and will likely remain
part of the 20th Century songbook well into the current century. His
creative peak came with the Thriller and Bad albums in the
'80s, but his Jackson 5 work resonates much better than most '70s pop
music, and his work in the '90s and later showed occasional flashes of
brilliance.
True, his star certainly waned in the last years of his life. "Michael
Jackson Deposed as King of Pop in Hitless Coup" was the classic Onion
headline in late 2001. But Jackson's career was full of comebacks, and
he was even planning another for the month after he died.
Of course, cable news soon became all-Michael, all the time, in a
feeding frenzy unseen since the aftermath of the death of Anna Nicole
Smith a few years ago. True, Jackson, unlike Smith, was an actual figure
of cultural consequence, but still . . . what's going on in Iran these
days is both much more historically significant and much more urgent
than the latest developments in the death of Jackson who, to paraphrase
Chevy Chase, is still dead.
Also shortchanged by Jackson's death? Farrah Fawcett, who succumbed to
cancer earlier the same day. Although I have a feeling Mark Sanford was
breathing a sigh of relief when he heard the news.
Michael Jackson's life was complicated, eventful and ultimately hellish.
But it was absolutely, undoubtedly, one of a kind.
Click here to talk to our writers and
editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.
To e-mail feedback
about this column,
click here. If you enjoy this writer's
work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry
it.
