Off The Wall and Into Pop Music HIStory...Remembering Michael

Most of us will never know even fleeting fame firsthand. Michael Jackson knew uninterrupted fame, on a global scale, for more than 40 of his 50 years.

And it was a life that was chosen for him, and at an age so tender, that I still wasn't allowed to walk home alone from school at the age when Mike, 11, was fronting his five-man band on the "Ed Sullivan Show."

As a media circus worthy of MJ's Neverland Ranch unfolds in the wake of the death of the King Of Pop, I find that there those who would demonize him - and those who will lionize him.

For the former, Michael's transgressions, including an unpalatable affection for children and young boys, specifically, and a disregard for his own human anatomy, can't be overlooked. They overshadow his contributions and considerable innovation to the point of total eclipse.


To the latter, MJ is both a genius and a victim, as helpless as any child against the parasites who beset him in search of a payday. That he mutilated himself was only proof that The Gloved One was not one of us - he was larger than life. The child molestation charges? Unbelievable. Michael, they argue, was a eunuch, asexual, and thus incapable of anything as ordinary as sexual urges.

I hate to ride the middle, but MJ's legacy calls for perspective. Peter Pan, in his prolonged adolescence, might have withstood his morning wood. But a real-life, 50 year-old man (even bearing the scars of a sad, unusual childhood) would not have. It's "Human Nature."

I don't know for sure what went on during those reported sleepovers, but the singer was at least guilty of terrible judgement and a towering sense of invincibility. It's impossible to separate these acts from his biography.

That said, if Michael had stopped recording after 1982's Thriller, his impact on the pop landscape would still be immeasurable. But the hits kept coming: Bad. Dangerous. HIStory.

For those who complain that Mike hadn't created anything fresh in the last decade, I point to LPs by Usher, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, Keri Hilson, The-Dream. Should I go on? His imprint is pressed onto all of their projects.

So I'm choosing to focus on the discography, the songs too numerous to rank here: "The Way You Make Me Feel" "Rock With You" "Say, Say, Say"... . It's the one facet of Mike's life that'll remain untainted.



To any fans, who like my brother, E, and our after-school friends, once converged on a basement in red zippered jackets thinking we could make moonwalking magic of our own - I say "Remember the Time."

R.I.P. MJ