The time was 6:30 AM IST on June 25, 2009.....I wake up rubbing my eyes when I heard some shocking news from the CNN....... "*We won’t see Another Michael Jackson*" said Larry King on CNN when his death news flashed on all other channels too. For a moment I was breathless ! What a loss! That was a day when USA and rest of the world skipped millions of heartbeats.
I couldn’t hold back my tears when his 11-year-old daughter, Paris Katherine, cried as she told the crowd during his memorial service, "*Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine ... I just wanted to say I love him ... so much*.". Surely I say... I wept much as her. I*Remember the Time* long back when my life was on rocks - his songs recorded in my T-Series cassette’s PartA & PartB were my only source of inspiration. Doesn’t matter what my mood was, his songs used to transform me in2 a happy person! You see, some people are born with extraordinary talents. They are blessed becoming so so different from others of the same class. They are a class apart. MJ WAS one such person.
Pop music (abbreviation of popular music), is something that gained fame in the early ’80s. *Modern Talking, Madonna, George Michael, Britney Spears, Celine Deon, Stevie Wonder* etc are some of the best pop stars of the past 25 years. But MJ is someone who ruled Pop.
*HIStory: **During the ’60s. There was a certain music group in US named Jackson 5. It was a group of 5 Jackson family brothers. One lead singer in it was**Michael Joseph Jackson**. What Joseph in the Bible was among his brothers, so was Michael Joseph among his brothers...sorry, among the pop stars ! This boy had a very smooth voice and very beautiful eyes. Jackson sang from childhood, and over time his voice and vocal style changed noticeably. Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson’s voice descended from boy soprano to high tenor. As a boy he sang a single "One day in ur life" which still moves my heart .... what a voice ! Later he began a successful solo career in 1971 and later in 1979 released his solo album "**Off The Wall**". It gained a Grammy, some success and recognition. Maybe the obviously talented Jackson was not *contended* with it and he gave his full thrust and released an album "**THRILLER**" comprising many hit singles. You see, even I don’t know what’s SO great about this album but we all know this album sold 109 million copies worldwide making itself the highest sold ever (double that of second highest selling album by AC/DC !). My fav song is Beat It. It propelled his fame to a level no singer cud imagine. MJ became the sensation of millions worldwide. People started dancing the same way he would and imitated the "Moonwalk". The video of Thriller song is the most notable one as it gave importance to songs’ videos. "**THRILLER"** also cemented a place for *Pop* in the music industry. Thriller won him 8 Grammys.
*Journey of the Invincible: **There started his journey and Jackson simply ruled the air like the Devil. He helped break the wall of hatred between whites & blacks after his meeting with Ronald Reagen in the White House in 1984 to receive an award for helping the poor people (!)....he was the first black to achieve this status. Jackson also created a "Neverland" Ranch where he had a zoo and amusement park inside. His favorite was "Bubble" a Chimpanzee. But the -ve turning point was the accident that happened in 1984 when his scalp had 2nd degree burns. MJ cud never heal from it completely - it was this that had him change his skin color 4ever. Black or White? Yet his musical success continued and he churned big hit albums like Bad, HIStory and Dangerous. Dangerous gave him the name "King of Pop". These albums had superb #1 hit numbers like *"Smooth Criminal", "Black or White", "Bad", "Dirty Diana", "Jam", "Scream", "They Don’t Really Care About Us", "Leave Me Alone"*, "*You Are Not Alone"* ....a few to say. *Blood On the Dancefloor* stands as the highest ever sold Remix Album. Unlike many artists, Jackson did not write his songs on paper. Instead he would dictate into a sound recorder; when recording he would sing from memory. Michael Jackson was inducted onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984. Throughout his career he received numerous honors and awards, including the World Music Awards’ Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, the American Music Award’s Artist of the Century Award and the Bambi Pop Artist of the Millennium Award.But the setback was "Invincible" album released in 2001 which was a hit but the sales number was trivial compared to his earlier albums.
*Charity**: Jackson also contributed millions of dollars to charity and poor people in America. There have been times when he gave all his income to Charity and poor children(maybe it was this that saved him from all the child molestations accusations in the future). "We are the World" a highly sold chart topping single he performed with other black singers helped him further do this.
*Setbacks: **The main setback in the whole of his life/career was the Child Molestation accusations in 1995 and 2004. Though he was acquitted from these charges the media degraded his image so much that he cud hardly recover from these charges. It’s said that once Police did a strip-search of Jackson checking his genitals which gr8ly affected his mind - he cud never recover from it totally. This is what happens to a person who is exceedingly good and lavishly donates. He begged to others "*Leave Me Alone*". This great entertainer had 2 marriages & 3 children. Also MJ had a gr8 deal of addiction to drugs, as any other demon possessed singer.
*Rumors:** Some rumors about Jackson are:
He married an alien.
He slept in anOxygen chamber.
He was a homo.
He had AIDS.
Controversies aside, I think MJ is an unmatched person blessed with unusual talents. So much talent within one person .... God must have missed an *Angel *of Heaven. He was a person who sang, danced, choreographed, entertained...all at the same time. I’d love to add much more of this unmatched legend but space limits me. For me MJ is an *unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power.
My verdict: *Show me another person with such creativity.
Finally I’d like to dedicate to the genius his own song:
Like a comet
Blazing ’cross the evening sky
MJ is Gone too soon
Like a rainbow
Fading in the twinkling of an eye
MJ is Gone too soon
Shiny and sparkly
And splendidly bright
Here one day
MJ is Gone one night
MJ is Gone toooo sooooon.
*Goodbye, Michael, WE MISS YOU.
With tears that roll forever,
Vijayanth.