by Sammy Stein

Created on: December 10, 2009

Oh for goodness' sake! Michael Jackson passes away at 50 - were we really surprised?

Yes, on one hand because he seemed impressively fit - recent videos showed him performing dance routines which would have many 20 year olds gasping.

On the other hand, we need to be realistic. There are many who say his death ' changed their life' and he was the King of Pop but is he really someone we will look back on with pride and admiraiton. He was perhaps the ultimate example of how early fame, pushy parents, a totally mixed up youth and false perceptions that go hand in hand with the pop business and superstardom can create a monster from an ordinary man.

Will we remember his hits - yes, undoubtedly so, from the snappy, unabashed pop classics like Billy Jean to the emotioanl renditions of 'Ben' but no more than many other artists.

Will we remember other facets ofhis life - his bizarre habits like sleeping in an oxygen tent, his dangling of his child from a balcony, his grotesque disfiguring surgery, his preoccupation with remaining youthful and his desire to change his apparance in denial of his true ethnicity? Yes, of course we will but for many he will remain the legend who was Michael Jackson.

That he died in mysterious circumstances is almost fitting - if he had simply ambled into his dotage and ended up as an eccentric once-famous guy we would have been more surprised. Still his death was untimely and largely unexpected. Many suspected it at first to be a stunt and the realisation of what actually happened only slowly sank in.

However, we need to put Michael Jackson in perspective. He was black but percieved this as a drawback and wanted to be white - he disliked his features and tried to change them, he was unhappy growing old and tried to cling to youth from the falsetto voice to the facial creams and operations. He lived a dangerously bizarre ife, marrying and fathering children yet doubting his parentage, creating a childhood fantasy world and inviting his children 'friends' to share week-ends (and supposedly beds and night time cocoa) with him. Who knows what the truth actually was and should we really care?

Yes, when it comes to court cases, the sense he got off the hook, the feeling that money can actually buy anything and the realisation that at the end of theday Michael Jackson probably died alone with only his doctor at close quarters, dependant on drugs for easing his physical pain and largely abandoned by fansand family. In many areas of his life the truth may never be really known but that all adds to the legend that was Michael Jackson. Whether suspicions are founded or unfounded, whether half the stories of his lifestyle are true (for all we knowhe could have been an ordinary guy, laughing at the gullibility of the press- who knows?), whether you like his music or not, the fact that many areas of his life are shrouded in mystery will fuel the minds of gossip merchants for many years to come.  

At his tribute concert, one of the most moving moments was when his brother sang an old fashioned song - Smile - nothing like a Jackson hit but sang with true emotion and feeling of the loss of a brother. Not the pop star but a brother. Jermaine was possibly sensing a far greater loss than that of a brother and pop star - he may also have been feeling a huge sense of what might have been had Michael not been so popular and so rich so young.

Wherever you are Michael, we know you are still boogying!

  

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