The King of Pop

During my early childhood, there were two albums that left an indelible impression on my life, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. and Michael Jackson's Thriller.



The album left the same impression on millions around the world, and is still, by most accounts, the best selling album of all time. And although I was not one of those die-hard fans who worshiped him unconditionally, I still have a tremendous appreciation and fondness for the music he created in his lifetime. I did declare to some friends a long time ago that I consider "Billie Jean" to be the most brilliant dance record of all time. I could expound on it in greater detail, but I'll keep those thoughts to myself for now for the sake of brevity. And though I was born too late for the advent of the Jackson 5, I am still in awe of Jackson's mastery of the stage at such a young age.

Sadly, as a consequence of his tremendous success in the music world, Michael Jackson never really formed into a complete person. Crushed by the demands of his abusive father, and unprepared for a life of unlimited excess, Jackson retreated into a world of fantasy his entire adult life, a world that protected him from the reality of his suffocating fame, but also trapped him in a very literal Neverland, a world where all boys grow up, except one. This extended fantasy may have led him to commit indiscretions with children who he invited to his home, and prevented him from ever truly confronting his fractured childhood.

His life in the last decade had deteriorated to the point where he lost the property he had so assiduously constructed to protect him from the world, and he drowned in the debts one occurs as a byproduct of a lavish lifestyle. His attempts to live as an adult, to try and build a family through artificial creation, all were twisted as a result of his continued infamy and unwillingness to sacrifice his appetite for adulation and attention.

To die of a sudden heart attack, at the age of 50, seems like a cruel twist of fate for a man who lived so extraordinarily. But perhaps his heart finally gave out, burdened by years of physical, mental, and emotional anguish, much of which was self-inflicted. The Michael Jackson the world fell in love with probably died a long time ago, but now it may properly mourn the man so many loved dearly.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson 1958-2009