Almost Too Painful

[poliphilo]

I expected LJ to be full of stuff about the Jackson trial and it isn't. At least this corner of the LJ universe isn't. I wonder why.

My reason for steering clear (until now) is the difficulty of writing about it with dispassion. Jackson has been getting me all stirred up for decades now. Love the music (some of it.) Hate the preening and self-deception.

I wish I didn't care, but I do. There was a moment- a very brief moment- when Jackson was not only the greatest singer and dancer in the world, but also the most beautiful human being. Bille Jean. That's a fabulous song. And Michael is a vision, a visitation, an otherworldly androgyne, a god.

And then....

And then the decline, sinking deeper and deeper into freakishness, into Messianic fantasy, into a candy-coloured porno-heaven. It's been like watching a self-exiled Caesar go to the dogs.

Tiberius on Capri- all alone with his flatterers and pimps.

Yesterday, he turned up at the courthouse an hour late in his pyjamas and nearly got his bail rescinded. He doesn't seem to realise how serious this is. It's as if there's no-one in his entourage with the balls to tell him, "Er, Michael, you're not actually writing the script any more."

Comments

not my area of interest

[goodfoot08.livejournal.com]

but I do want to make a passing comment. I think there are two endgames in process. The legal one involving "lifestyle" issues is certainly the more compelling arena for those that care. I frankly don't. It smells of the sort of bread and circuses that the popular press favors. More of the silliness that has professional baseball people being subpoenaed by Congress to weigh in on the use of steroids in baseball. If you make a list of the top 100 things that matter for our future, neither MJ or steroid use matter a fig.
Second endgame with MJ, is that he has lost control of his creative process and the way his last failure was promoted was the sort of corporate think inertia that results in useless expense and embarassing press for years to come. I have grown up with MJ in pop music and only grudgingly gave him acknowledgement for his accomplishment as a performer with the Killer album. I am reasonably certain that the army of pros that made that possible, starting with Quincy Jones, gave MJ the body of work that he has lived off of. As he has tried to "mature" and take control of his music, the results have consistantly lost the respect of musicians. The nadir was his petulant law suit against his record company for not properly supporting the album when all the money pissed away could have supported a hundred new artists who deserve a chance. The simple fact was the album was unlistenable.
The trial can't be over fast enough for me, regardless of the verdict. Assuming it is even possible, MJ needs to be refind his roots as a performer as so many others have had to do. Then he might find the respect he has lost.
Compare this to someone like Ronnie Lane, who has continued to create and perform music as he battles MS. There are other stories like his involving artists who continue to create. To focus on MJ is to buy into a cult of personality.

Re: not my area of interest

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Pop musicians can normally only expect a brief time at the top. Jackson has defied the odds by staying in the spotlight for as long as he has. Like you, I've been turned off by the attitudinising and the media stunts.

"King of Pop", indeed!