Michael Jackson: The lost child

Michael Jackson died last Thursday, June 25. He was only 50 years old and after some difficult years, was getting ready for a big comeback concert next month. He was one of the greatest entertainers of all time. His passing got me thinking about the untimely deaths of other music stars, most notably Elvis Presley and John Lennon.

These three had something in common, qualities that made them into cultural icons. They took something that already exists and through their genius established new standards by which everything else would be measured. After that, nothing would ever the same again.

They said that Chuck Berry and Gene Vincent discovered the music first but it was Elvis who became the King of Rock ’n Roll. The Beatles derived inspiration from the the likes of the Everly Brothers in America but it was the guys from Liverpool that took the boy group sound to unheard-of levels.

For his part, Jackson with his pacesetting albums like Off the Wall and Thriller, raised the bar in the interpretation and production of R&B recordings in a way that fully-cemented the black invasion of popular music. Remember, music channel MTV junked its white-dominated programming in the face of the onslaught of Jackson‘s innovative videos that viewers could not get enough of.

Of course, aside from their talent for creating music, it also helped that Presley, Lennon and the other Beatles and Jackson were all enormously appealing. Elvis was sexy and movie star handsome. Lennon was a witty, attractive and rebellious bloke. And Jackson had a childlike quality that fans of all ages found irresistible. In the latter, it was his futile search for the lost years of his youth that resulted in what turned out to be is most iconic images.

I used to see a white glove and think of Mickey Mouse, the rodent responsible for the child‘s Nirvana of ultimate fun, Disneyland or I should say, all things Disney. But in characteristic fashion, Jackson upped the original gloved one by having sequins in his. I do not remember when he wore the glove for the first time but from that moment on and now into forever, the sight of a sequinned white glove meant only one thing, Michael Jackson.

There were also the white socks and penny loafers. Only children were those and only while in their school uniforms. But think back to the past and you will find a time when kids wore those until they graduated and became adults. That was why Sinatra‘s teen-aged fans were dubbed bobby-soxers. But Jackson defied convention and chose to sing and dance in white socks and loafers. It was another bid to go back to a past when there would be no Michael Jackson.

Which brings us to another one of Jackson‘s most enduring images. White socked and loafered, singing Billie Jean and doing the Moon Walk. I do not know if he was the one who came up with the term or if somebody did and he gave his approval. It was what an astronaut did on the moon. Walk. And he did his own version, maybe because like little boys because he wanted to leave everything, fly off to space, and be on the moon, a far off place where he can be just himself or whatever he wants to be.

That was why he named his ranch Neverland. You know Neverland, that was the setting for James Barrie‘s play Peter Pan. It was a place where boys didn‘t grow up. Jackson wanted to remain there with his pet chimp Bubbles, with the fun rides and the children who came to visit. The enchantment was broken by allegations of child molestation on Jackson‘s part. None of the charges were proven but financial difficulties forced him to give up Neverland. Having to do that must have broken his heart.

Jackson also liked to play monsters and made out like a werewolf in the landmark Thriller video. He liked to play soldier and had lots of military jackets with epaulets and large shiny gold buttons. And sometimes like a child, he cries. Maybe he did for all that he could never be again. That sob at the end of She‘s Out Of My Life stabs the heart.

So do these words from his song Childhood. “Have you seen my childhood? I‘m searching for that wonder in my youth like fantastical stories to share of dreams I would dare. Watch me fly.”