Well this one has just blown up today… first heard just after I got up, then watched a lot of morning television while at the hospital with Sallie and Lachlan…
It’s one of those stories that is surprising yet somehow not that surprising. Jacko was increasingly odd in recent years and he reportedly had a lot of health problems. Sad, even considering what he’d turned into, of course. I’ve always thought that for all the famous types to die in their 20s (Hendrix, Morrison, Cobain et al), there is actually even more who have died aged around about 50. I think of Joe Strummer and many more… often they’d become hasbeens, other times they were roaring back to success, as Jackson might have been.
And you do have to remember that for all his weirdness, Michael Jackson was one of the most important pop performers of all time. Massive seller, definer of a whole genre of pop music, creator of a number of legendary songs… regardless of tastes he does deserve to be held in the same all time esteem as the likes of Sinatra, Lennon or Crosby.
It’s a big day for popular music, with the media being perversely obsessive as always… while I was never a massive fan, I did see Jackson play the SCG in Sydney in 1996 with the brother. Was a fairly impressive concert, guess I can always say now that I saw him.
RIP and all that.