Boyz to Men
"Ben, most people would turn you away
I dont listen to a word they say
They dont see you as I do
I wish they would try to
Im sure theyd think again
If they had a friend like ben..."
SO who is this 'BEN' then Michael?????? And there lies the problem with Michael Jackson. There was always too much sexual ambiguity about him and I feel that fact, and his bullying father, is what broke the man early on and led to his alleged overdose and so death. Some say he was a boy in a mans body, others say he was a man in a boys body (the prosecution!) and knew exactly what he was doing all along, hiding behind this constructed childish persona to get away with it….I'm Michael Jackson so you can't touch me type deal... How has he been able to make so much money if he is this child like immature figure we have to ask? Did he not have the nouse to buy half the Beatles back-catalogue? The jury is still out on the dark side of Jackson and for legal reasons we cant accuse him of being what he probably was, although the same city and jury demographic that found Michael not guilty on that score also found OJ Simpson not guilty on a similar score, he, too, a man who may have a left a glove or two at the scene of the crime. 'Ben', the song supposedly about his pet rat, has a whole new meaning in 2009, the year of Jackson’s death. Let's not forget Will Young's first few songs took on a whole different meaning once the screaming teen girls twigged he was gay. We just don't accept that our stars have our problems and our conflicts and when they die we look to blame others for that death, as is the case with Jackson's diehard fans, his heart surgeon in the frame over the toxic cocktail of medication ‘Jacko’ seemed to be taking. But if Wacko asks for more pills he gets more pills. Depression and the anxiety of sustaining genius as it fades gets most creative people in the end. After watching the Martin Basher interview we saw a guy who likes the company of children, of which Jackson admitted, and shared a bed with some to back it up. Come on guys, if you wanted to attract kids around to your place then you would build a fairground in your back yard and dress like Peter Pan, right! I don't believe that was just some personal plaything where he relived his youth or something. It was a fantasy alright but not one his fans want to talk about. We want to remember 1980s Michael Jackson as our parents want to remember 1960s Elvis. But when you have the best lawyers and can pay off the accusers with twenty million dollars, enough people will always refuse to believe the obvious that's starring you in the face. Rather surprisingly it was the black American fans of Michael, including Janet Jackson, who turned away from him first when those stories started to break in the mid-nineties. My opinion on that is if he did do anything with children it wasn't him anymore and all part of some sort of mental breakdown.
More proof of his unwillingness to accept who he was are his children, who look nothing like him, Michael seemingly thinking his plastic surgery would somehow mutate into their genes and sperm and appear to carry the line to his kids.
When he married the Presley girl it was almost as if he was seeking out the perfect Caucasian gene so to be accepted to all Americans. The kids from his last wife were kept out of sight because they had none of his characteristics, and not an exercise to protect their privacy so much. The constant face mask was just as much about him subconsciously trying to stop inhaling his lies and fantasy world he had created as it was about Michael thinking he was immortal...if he could stop breathing in the pollution of the mere mortals like you and me in he would live for ever, a plastic heart the final piece of the creation. This was a guy who couldn't face the world - and who could in his shoes.
His mounting debts and painkillers are fair enough as that huge ego was expensive and hard to deal with. But the plastic surgery and colour bleaching is about a very good looking black kid not wanting to be black, end of, one of many taboos in his life. Since the recent African and Asian immigration to my home town of Northampton loads of these shops selling hair extensions and bleaches have sprung up everywhere. I suspect that is what hurt his black fan base the most that once he was King of Pop he wanted a female tennis players square jaw and an albino sun tan, getting whiter and whiter every record.
We all loved the music and I have three CDs of his but you do feel the white majority will remember the bad stuff and the black's folks will remember only the music and the brilliant stage performances for his legacy. Everyone will remember where they were when he died but all I will recall was that the clock was midnight and I was ready for bed, the big hand on the little hand, if you excuse the pun.
Some of you think we shouldn't speak ill of the dead but all your cell phones are chirping away with those jokes and most of you laughed or giggled. Its human nature to joke about death as we know it comes to all of us so fairs fair, even Jackson a mere mortal in the end. I wasn't so shocked he died as I was when Diana died, the curse of Martin Basher striking again. I thought Britney would beat him to it though. He was never going to be one of those really old black blues guys telling stories of riding trains and playing the harmonica for a buck.
'Thriller' was a superb album, seven number ones and the most purchased record on the planet to date, sales going through the roof once again with his untimely death. A lot of young kids are about to discover an amazing artist. 'Off the Wall' is also a great album and if you consider how handsome he was back then and how many people adored that guy you can understand why being black can be such a tough journey when even a guy like that isn't happy. But the music is his legacy and the tunes are immortal and my favorite is Beat It, a guy who not only put black music on the world map but on the predominately white MTV in the early days. Now MTV is only black music.
After 'Bad' his albums tailed off dramatically as he started to believe he was God and the rest is history, forgetting about his music and getting mixed up in medicine and young children. Alas there's too much darkness there for me to idolize this guy and only wish someone had got hold of him and not his wallet at the right time. RIP son and I do hope they accept the old Michael Jackson up there and not the dark one that one the battle. Now go teach God the moonwalk as he's been itching to do it.
Dont blame it on the buggy! 
