Thoughts on Michael Jackson

Ok, I'm sure everyone on the Earth, from the cold of Alaska to the heat of the Sahara knows MJ died. Opinions on MJ have as varied a range as the all the spices in Martha Stewart's spice rack.

Here's mine, if anybody cares....


Music wise, it's hard to deny MJ his place in the spotlight. The guy had an unbelievable career from like age 5. Many of his songs are in fact near perfect, if not totally perfect pop songs. They don't make them like that anymore. I dare anyone to come up with a pop hook better than those in Beat It or Smooth Criminal (My personal favorite MJ song). I mean come on, the guy did Thriller, which is by far and away the best selling album ever. With the state of the music industry today, it's likely it will never be touched. Love MJ or hate him, you can't take that away from him.

It's funny. If you know me, you know that when I was a kid my parents were on a bit of a fundy kick and didn't let me listen to secular music in the house, largely thanks to a dumb lecture they attended put on my this douche-nozzle. Anyways, what my parents didn't know, and why this type of parenting doesn't work, is that I often went over to my friends' houses and still got my fix of all things MJ...Thriller, Bad, you name it. I loved Beat It, damn it! So even the child of religious fundies in the 80's wasn't immune from Jackson mania. In that way, MJ and his music will always be part of the fabric of my childhood. It's great stuff, at least up until Bad, and will always carry a heavily nostalgic effect on me.

What about his weirdo personal life? Well this is difficult for me. As far as the child molestation stuff goes, it's hard not think that where's there's smoke there's fire, but the guy was never convicted or found liable in any court of law. Innocent until proven guilty I guess. Personally I like to give him the benefit of the doubt. I watched a lot of the trial, and though I wasn't convinced he was guilty, I was surprised when he was acquitted.

I guess I think the guy had a pretty mixed up childhood. Even Lisa Marie Presley said being married to him was like being married to a ten year old. I sometimes wonder if having to lead so much of a public life kind of stuck MJ as a child mentally. Now I'm not excusing anything he did wrong. Dangling your kid out of a window is kind of a dick move, and a non celeb parent probably wouldn't get away with it. However, to criticize MJ for bad parenting...well it's not exactly the first time in the world someone's been a bad parent.

Bottom line for me is this. He is a music and pop culture icon, and rightly so. A lot of bizzare crap went on in his personal life, we'll probably never know the truth about a lot of it, but for me, his music will be what I remember about him. I'm also sure that's what most of the world will remember as well. I'll let God judge him and his soul.

RIP MJ.