29 June 2009

Michael Jackson R.I.P.

I had another post all ready for today but I couldn’t let Jacko’s passing go ‘unblogged’. It seems every blogger has had their say about his demise but I’ll simply say that in my opinion, the guy was a genius, albeit a troubled genius, but nevertheless, probably the greatest entertainer ever (when he was in his prime about 10-15 years ago) and if you think I’m going over-the top a bit, think of his dancing (amazing), his singing (excellent), his songwriting (prodigious) and his acting. His acting?

On Friday and Saturday, MTV were playing Michael Jackson DVDs 24 hours a day as a tribute and I just set our recorder to ‘go’. I ended up with about 10 hours of Jackson videos, much of the material repeats, but in editing it down to a 2-hour compilation, I watched his acting in those videos and I was very, very impressed. Don’t listen to the music or the lyrics and try and get the amazing dance steps out of the way and just look at the guy acting. He was incredibly good.

Of course, like many geniuses, Jackson was a troubled person. The hangers on, the constant media pressure, it all conspired to make the guy a bit of a weirdo and of course his health suffered. I’m afraid as soon as I heard about the 50 concerts in London’s O2 arena, I said it would kill him and I don’t take any satisfaction from being proved right, as it would appear.

A couple of final things to say is that when my youngest son was staying with J and myself in London, J took Timmy to Wembley Stadium to see Jackson perform live. I just wish I’d gone with them - I now feel jealous as I missed the chance to see one of the world's greatest entertainers. Then he was in his prime - it must’ve been about 1990.

And a couple of weeks ago when we had a house full of kids, I went downstairs and there they all were – dancing to Michael Jackson. His music lives on even in today’s kids, whom we normally associate with Rap, House, Garage, Shed, Bungalow etc etc!

Anyway, I think M Jackson is probably in the best place for him now. There’ll be no hangers-on up there. Nobody pushing drugs down his throat. No accountants insisting he does 50 concerts to clear his debts. Just St Peter asking for his autograph.

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