Michael Jackson remembered

“Sure he was a freak who hung around with kids and monkeys but the man also had a talent so profound that it is hard to comprehend it.”


Neill O'Neill

I CANNOT claim to be a hardcore Michael Jackson fan. I know as much about him as the average person, upon whom his weird antics and undeniable talent have been thrust for the last three decades.
I wasn’t alive when Elvis stuffed himself with cheeseburgers and narcotics in a Graceland toilet, nor when an assassin’s bullet deprived the world of John Lennon, but Michael Jackson’s sudden death last Thursday is surely a day of similar reckoning.
In a world full of over-hyped and talentless celebrities, even the biggest of critics will have to admit that Jackson was the real deal.
Sure he was a freak who hung around with kids and monkeys, had a manufactured face and died with a skin colour different to that he was born with, but the man also had a talent so profound that it is hard to comprehend it.
As a fresh faced five-year-old from a working-class town in the Indiana backwaters, Jackson burst onto the scene in the sixties to launch a career that has single-handedly changed the music industry, and pushed the known boundaries of fame to new levels. For all his many flaws, Michael Jackson could sing, dance, write music and above all captivate people in a way that has not been seen since the heady days of Beatlemania. His songs span many genres from dance to rock and of course pop, his dance moves have provided the inspiration for many modern artists, and his music videos remain the benchmark for all that have come since. Many entertainers contribute to the music industry, Michael Jackson changed it.
In the coming weeks his album sales could well exceed the billion mark, a testament in itself to his talent. It is difficult to imagine selling one billion of anything, so for a black kid from the middle of nowhere to become the biggest selling male solo artist of all time, and arguably the most famous person on the planet along the way, is quite some achievement. This is why such a big deal is being made about his premature death.
His detractors will only recall Jackson as a paedophile, something he was never convicted of, and a weirdo, an accusation there is no point trying to defend, but watching the constant stream of his music videos on television over the weekend, even the sternest of his opposers would have to accept that he truly was a genius.
Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh can give record deals to all the Scottish grannies and spikey-haired stuttering little gits they want, but none of these flash-in-the-pan singers are anywhere to be seen once their fifteen minutes of fame have passed. Michael Jackson brought a unique product to the world for 45 years, and with 50 sold-out shows in London on the horizon, it is quite clear that the appetite out there for the ‘King of Pop’ remained.
His death, like any, has left a void in many lives and he will be missed, but in truth, Michael Jackson has probably now only truly found peace for the first time in his life. His existence was a circus. From a seemingly ruthless upbringing he went on to live his life in a goldfish bowl where his every move was observed and recorded. The end result was that he was as odd as a bottle of crisps, yet tragically, the rest of the world seemed to get off on his eccentric shenanigans, which only intensified the problem for him. His life can’t have been easy, and one can only suspect that his innocence was manipulated and he was influenced by the wrong people over the years. Couple this with his outrageously expensive lifestyle, and the end result is that for somebody who had the potential to be the richest entertainer on the planet, Wacko Jacko died last week with not a pot to piss in.
This circus now looks set to continue, and years of court battles over the custody of his three children and control of his estate may commence before it is even known conclusively what killed him.
In death, as in life, it seems, tragically, that Michael Jackson will dominate the headlines for years to come. His musical legacy however is much more of a certainty, and for a man who achieved so much, it is only appropriate that he be remembered as he was – one of the most precocious talents and greatest entertainers the world has ever known. His like will probably never be seen again.

Neill O’Neill runs the Asgard Bar & Restaurant, The Quay, Westport.