CHARLES GRAHAM: His music is what we should remember
There aren't many occasions when The Independent and Daily Star have the same front page story.
But they made an exception for Michael Jackson last week, as did every other national paper as far as I could see.
Even someone with little interest in pop culture, like yours truly, can appreciate that Jacko was a major cultural figure. At his peak he was a real showman who could sing and dance extremely well.
But his death comes after a whole heap of negative publicity about child abuse allegations, the extraordinary changes to the superstar's skin and face over the years, the palaver over fathering children, face masks and his quite outrageous spending sprees and debts.
His sudden death left me feeling rather uncomfortably guilty in a similar way to when Jade Goody died earlier this year.
But I think we should cut away all the chaff as we reflect on his career. After all, all those eccentricities were really none of our
business and he was never found guilty of any crimes.
I have sometimes managed to convince myself that he was so childishly naive that there really was no ill intent when he slept alongside young visitors to his home.
Put all that baggage aside and, unlike the late reality star, there remains a huge entertainer with great staying power. My guess is that we will now see his elevation to a new cult status, with parallels to all those myths about Elvis still being alive and conspiracy theories about Princess Diana's demise.
It saddens me that for all his talent, wealth and success, he never struck me as particularly happy. Materially he always wanted more, he was a black guy who apparently wanted to be white and he was a man who wanted to be a boy.
All these peculiar traits and dreams made for a far from straightforward hero. But for his family and millions of fans' sakes, I would hope that it is for music that he is remembered above all else.
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Thursday 09 September 2010
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