NME Michael Jackson Tribute Special

Join enough dots between the prodigious youth and the all-conquering adult, and he could almost be the entertainment industry’s own Alexander The Great, architect of an empire on a scale that had seemed hitherto unimaginable. Unger on his nomadic latter years as an eccentric recluse shielded from any semblance of reality, meanwhile, and his story seems to mirror that of billionaire aviator Howard Hughes, a sad tableaux of madness, money and faded talent. Even his tragic death last week and the mass outpouring of grief that accompanied it can’t help hut invite inevitable comparisons to luminaries such as JFK, John Lennon, Elvis and Diana. In uuth, though, it feels rather trivial to compare MichaelJackson to anyone. The man was many things, hut paramount among them was his status as a true original. There was no precedent for him; he read from a bugged-out script all of his own making, although he never quite got to play out the redemptive final act he so craved. As such, he should be remembered not as the translucent-skinned celebrity sideshow he became, but as the unique, innovative talent that he was. And as the vultures circle hungrily overhead in preparation for one final forage through the detritus of his life with which to nil gossip blogs and biographies, one sad fact seems certain: we will never see his like again.

Born on August 29, 1958 in the midwest industrial town of Gary, Indiana to Joseph and Katherine Jackson, Michael displayed a preternatural musical ability from a freakishly young age, but was subjected to physical and mental abuse by his disciplinarian father; abuse that would affect him for the rest of his life. Jackson would often retch with fear when his father walked into a room and later recalled Joe Jackson sitting on a chair at early Jackson 5 rehearsals with a belt across his lap and that, “If you didn’t do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you.” Hejoined The Jackson Brothers in 1964 aged just six, backing his older brothers on tambourine and maracas. By 1966, he had assumed lead vocals and the Jackson 5, as they were now known, began extensively touring the African-American clubs of the midwest, often as the opening act forthe local strippers.After the band signed to Motown and had their first four singles top the US Billboard charts, they became a phenomenon, and whatever kind of childhood Michael had enjoyed up until that point (and whether he was opening shows on the titty-bar circuit or being beaten by his father formissing a note, it wasn’t much of one) ended there and then. At the age of 10 he became public property, and remained that way until he died. “When I look back on my childhood,” he laterwrote, “it is not an idyllic landscape of memories. I began performing when I was nve years old and my father – a tough man – pushed my brothers and me hard, from the earliest age, to be the best performers we could be.

He seemed intent, above all else, on making us a commercial success … my father was a managerial genius and my brothers and lowe our professional success, in no small measure, to the forceful way he pushed us. He trained me as a showman, and under his guidance I couldn’t miss a step. But while performing and making music undoubtedly remain among my greatest joys, when I was young I wanted more than anything else to be a typical little boy. I wanted to build tree-houses, have water balloon nghts, and play Hide’n'Seek. But fate had it otherwise.”

“HE WAS A MASSIVELY TALENTED BOY-MAN WITH A GENTLE SOUL” PAUL MCCARTNEY

His only opportunity to interact with kids his own age came on Sundays, when hewas given the day off to do missionary work forthe Jehovah’s Witnesses, the church he belonged to at the time. Because of his fame, however, he could only do it from underneath a fatsuit and a wig – a habit he was forced to carry into later life. With the hits drying up, the Jackson sleft Motown in 1975 in a dispute over creative control of their music and became The Jacksons. With Michael as their main songwriter, they experienced a revival of fortunes with hits such as ‘Can You Feel It’ and ‘Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)’, but by the late ’70S, Jackson was ready to go it alone. He met producer Quincy Jones on the set of the movie The Wiz, and with him embarked on a trilogy of albums that would more or less change the face of pop musle forever. “A lot of people said at that time he was as big as he was going to get,” Jones recalled in a radio interview last year. “But I saw a depth there. He told me he was getting ready to do a solo album and could I help him find a producer. I’d been watching him and his eyes we’re so innocent, but he knew everybody’s dialogue, knew all their dance steps .. . I’d never seen somebody
absorb so much so qulekly, and so I said I’d Uke to take a shot at producing it.” The three albums he made with Jones – ‘Off The Wall’, ‘Thriller’ and ‘Bad’ – enjoyed combined sales of over 150 million; monstrous, ridiculous numbers that are nonetheless dwarfed by their influence overthe next 30 years of popular music. “There is no way of preparing for success,” mused Jones, “Especially the biggest success that ever occurred in music history.”

continues in NME 07/2009

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