Al Sharpton stood on the stage at Michael Jackson’s funeral and declared to Prince Michael, Paris and Blanket ( still can't believe anyone is seriously called Blanket)
‘Weren’t nothing strange about your Daddy.’ with a straight face and in all sincerity.
Is it not possible to be talented and emotionally damaged at the same time? Apparently not, according to the outpouring of grief and finger pointing from Jackson’s family and fans.
Earlier this year an acquaintance spoke of her frustration about being unable to purchase tickets to the ominously named ‘This Is It’ concerts that Michael Jackson was (being forced) to perform in London this summer to slave his way out of debt. ‘He is the greatest performer of all time’ She said, ‘and I want to go and see him this summer because you never know, he might be dead next year.’ She punctuated the end of her lament with an embarrassed giggle. Her desire summed up the carnivorous atmosphere surrounding Michael Jackson in his later years. For the last nine years of his life he became increasingly emaciated and even more out of it. Since the year 2000 Michael Jackson hadn't looked as if he could handle anything more than rehab, intense psychotherapy and six months convalescence.
‘We see you ill and thin and broken, we see you emotionally crippled unable to recover from the childhood you never had, but we will buy tickets to your concerts this summer just in case you’re dead by the end of the year., don’t get well first Michael- entertain us’. Oh, how they brought out the fan in the word fanatic.
They saw his extraordinary physical metamorphosis over the years, his extreme skin bleaching, was surely a first. What was left of his nose became as thin and sharp as the needles used to satisfy his addiction to painkillers.
I along with millions of others of my generation grew up with the music of Michael Jackson. He was the ONLY handsome young boy of African descent on the TV screens back in the day. He was someone who filled so many of us with something beyond pride - a sense of self-satisfaction, after all he was that good. But then came the cover of the Bad album and he no longer looked like Michael Jackson to me, worse was of course to follow.
Regardless of his iconic status as an entertainer and trailblazer.. no matter how wonderful his music and dance moves, his physical appearance, bizarre behaviour and fixation with holding pyjama parties with cute young boys, made me feel uneasy and embarrassed.
Michael Jackson's life from beginning to end was strange and after a certain point I think we all knew it was going to end in tears.
May your music live forever.
Once you were my hero, but that was a long time ago.
RIP Michael.
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