He was just too tired to go on...

The world mourns the big pop star, the self-styled & self-professed "King of Pop", but this is not the Michael Jackson for whom I weep. I weep for the child-genius. The embryonic elder-statesman soul man who channeled David Ruffin & James Brown. The one who doesn't ask for your respect but demanded it, amazingly he always stayed black, sounded black, and crossed over in a huge way to a white audience (who amazingly were clued into real-blackness for a brief moment in the early-seventies before radio in the '70s fragmented and segregated itself into severe and rigid micro-genres and re-ghettoized/self-segregated for enumerable demographics). He was pop without being white; accepted on his own terms (with the help of a lot of very smart people: Gladys Knight, Bobby Taylor, Suzanne dePasse, Berry Gordy, Shelley Berger, Suzee Ikeda, Diana Ross, Freddie Perren, Deke Richards, Alponzo Mizell, Hal David, and Willie Hutch to specifically name a few). Can you imagine? The one who mounted not just one career but succeed in two careers: one group and one solo. The boy who innately knew more about pain, love, heartbreak, passion, ecstasy, and loss than most adults. All this and two dozen hits before his voice changed. AMAZING.

Yet it is remarkable that people forget about his early solo years. Sure they know a few Jackson 5 hits unless they lived for the boys, and everyone knows every monster track by 1979 on..., but a lot of people don't even know "Ben". Well it is time to re-discover his early solo albums. Hip-O Select was right on time to school all the kitty babies on M.J. for this years soul summer school, and M.F.G.F. can help with lessons. To tell you the truth I wasn't gonna do it. I was gonna resist, but now I want it more than ever. I broke down and just pre-ordered Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection tonight. You should buy it, too. Only 7000 copies so order it before it arrives on July 10th.



The scandal with slip away. It doesn't matter when the work is this good. It is difficult to grow-up in the public eye; since, your daddy put you on stage at age 5. Being a Jackson made him tough, but it was also difficult to be a Jackson. I think he just gave up. It was too hard. He was too tired. He was used and abused by many men. He was too weak to go on... From the early reports we are lead to believe that Michael Jackson died today at age 50 from cardiac arrest because he was strenuously preparing for his first world tour in 12 years. Fears about his health had been stirring for months. Ultimately I neither see Michael Jackson as a tragic figure, sure he was complex, flawed, and led an extraordinary life, nor do I believe he failed on delivering after his early promise. His career seems just right. A few more terrific records would have been nice. He is gonna be in my thoughts for awhile as are the rest of the Jackson dynasty, so I am gonna be listening to Michael Jackson from the beginning, the Michael Jackson who started it all.

But if you need some help listen to my favorites (It's the best of the best as far as I'm concerned). When people say genius this is what they mean:
"I Want You Back"/"Who's Lovin' You"
"You've Changed"
"Don't Know Why I Love You"
"ABC"
"The Love You Save"
"Born To Love You"
"I'll Be There"/"One More Chance"
"Mama's Pearl"
"Maybe Tomorrow"
"Got To Be There"/"Maria (You Were The Only One)"
"I Wanna Be Where You Are"
"Ben"
"Farewell My Summer Love"
"Billie Jean"
"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"

Listen to me on the radio: Tomorrow it is a Tribute to Michael Jackson: A Lifetime in Music and the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall: The Revolution.