POP ICON'S DEATH:

THE TALENT AND THE TRAGEDY

RE-MID Josh Tyrangiel

http://amichaeljackson.blogspot.com/2010/06/michael-jackson-
history.html

The tragedy of Michael Jackson's death at age 50,

reportedly from cardiac arrest, pales in comparison to the
tragedy of his life. To understand all that Jackson had and
lost requires wiping away three decades of plastic
surgeries that deformed him, erratic behavior that made
his name synonymous with the warping powers of fame,
and a 2005 trial for sexually abusing a child that, even
though he was spared of any finding of wrongdoing1,
made him a pariah to all but the most brainwashed2 of
fans.
But if you can forgive or forget all that, underneath
was one of the most talented entertainers of the 20th
century. Quincy Jones, who produced Jackson's
quintessential solo albums, was devastated by the news
of his passing. "I've lost my little brother today," Jones
said in a statement. "Part of my soul has gone with him."
Added Jones: "Divinity brought our souls together... and
allowed us to do what we were to throughout the '80s. To
this day, the music we created together on Off the Wall,
Thriller and Bad is played in every corner of the world,
and the reason for that is because he had it all." Jackson
was born in 1958, the seventh of nine Jackson children,
and before he had reached age 6, he had joined his
brothers in the Jackson 5. By age 8, he had taken over lead
singing duties with brother Jermaine, but there was no
question who was the star of the group. Little Michael
was the best dancer and singer of the bunch, and he also
had the mysterious thing that record bosses and studio
chiefs crave: star power. Michael appeared to be his best
and most interesting self when everyone in the world
was watching. As Michael aged into adolescence, the
Jackson 5, renamed the Jacksons after departing Motown
Records, inevitably lost some of their charm. A solo
career followed, and after a steady stream of middling
hits that attempted to milk the last bit of innocence from
Jackson's voice, Jackson had the good fortune to hook up
with Jones while filming The Wiz. The two shared a
vision for what Jackson's career as an adult might be, and
on 1979's Off the Wall, they executed it beyond even
Jackson's dreams. With song writing help from Paul
McCartney and Stevie Wonder, Off the Wall spun ot four
Top 10 hits, including two No. 1s- "Don't Stop Til You Get
Enough" and "Rock with You."
At 22, Jackson became not only one of the most
admired pop musicians in the world but one of the
globe's most famous people. And his fame only increased
with the 1982 release of Thriller, which was to become the
best-selling album of all time (until it was eclipsed in the
late '90s by the Eagles’ Greatest Hits, 1971-1975). Seven of
the record's nine tracks made the Top 10, and the Jones-
produced hooks remain aweinspiring. In a cover story
about Jackson and Thriller, TIME described him as "a
one-man rescue team for the music business. A
songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with
the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all
boundaries of taste and style and color too."
While Jackson had few ambitions at the time
beyond global domination, it's worth noting that "The
Girl Is Mine" established interracial love as a pop-music
theme, and "Beat It" (with Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo)
bridged arena rock and soul four years before Run-
D.M.C. met Aerosmith. On March 25, 1983, Jackson may
have reached the very peak of his fame when he unveiled
his signature dance move, the moonwalk, live on the
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, For- ever television
special.
The years after Thriller, however, were marked by
a slow descent into what was at first dismissible as
eccentricity. Jackson attended the Grammys on a triple
date with Emmanuel Lewis and Brooke Shields,
purchased a chimpanzee named Bubbles and was given
a diagnosis of vitiligo, a condition he said was
responsible for the steady lightening of his skin. But his
songwriting genius remained undeniable. With Lionel
Richie, he co-wrote "We Are the World," a 1985 charity
single that raised an estimated $50 million for famine
relief in Africa and ushered in the era of celebrity
philanthropy3.
After the release of 1987's Bad, a disappointing
follow up Thriller, Jackson purchased the 2,800-acre
Neverland Ranch in California, and his public weirdness
became almost aggressive. In his biography Moonwalk,
Jackson wrote of childhood abuse at the hands of his
father and multiple plastic surgeries, subjects he returned
to in a 1993 interview withpower Oprah Winfrey that
was one of the most watched nonsports programs in
American history.
Shortly after, Jackson was accused of child sexual
abuse in a suit brought by Evan Chandler on behalf of
Jordan, his then 13-year-old son. Jordan told a
psychiatrist and police that he and Jackson had engaged
in sexual acts that included oral sex; the boy gave a
detailed description of Jackson's genitals. The case was
settled out of court for a reported $22 million, but the
strain led Jackson to begin taking painkillers4. Eventually
he became addicted.
To counteract the stigma that came with the
allegations of pedophilia, Jackson married Lisa Marie
Presley in a relationship Elvis' only daughter later
dismissed as a sham. Two years later, they divorced.
Given the tumult5 in his personal life, it's no
surprise that the 1990s were a barren period for Jackson
creatively. In 2001 he managed to pull himself together
enough to release Invincible and stage two concerts at
New York City's Madiformer. The shows, held a few
days before Sept. 11, were a capsule of all Jackson had
become. There were bizarre cameos from friends Marlon
Brando, LizaMinnelli and Elizabeth Taylor. Macaulay
Culkin sat next to Jackson in a royal box. But several
hours after the proceedings began, when Jackson finally
took the stage, all the years of Wacko Jacko melted away.
Then in his early 40s, he could still dance and sing better
than almost anyone in the world, and he still had star
power. The Jackson on display in those concerts was the
one the world admired and the one that will be missed.

Approximately 1,006
www.time.com
25 Juny 2009

Vocabulary
1Wrongdoing: behaviour which considered wrong
2Brainwashed: on the state of being influrnced by

somebody
3Philanthropy: desire to benefit humanity, good deed,

charity
4Painkillers: a kind of drug that reduce oain
5Tumult: chaos, disorder situation