Goodbye Michael, You...

I don't quite know how to finish that title. 

Genius? Sure.

Michael Jackson was a talent the likes of which we see maybe once or twice a century.  He could sing, and what he did for dancing made rhythm-challenged oafs like me cringe.  How could we ever compete with that?

It's funny how many people tried.  Back in the 80's, I remember seeing stupid people try and emulate Michael's dress, his look, even that inane one glove thing.  Fail.

But was that all he was?

"Thriller" caught lightning in a bottle, to be sure.  In the past 24 hours, I've read countless eulogies and remembrances about Michael Jackson.  I got text messages from friends who were toddlers back then, or not even born.  They grew up in a post-"Thriller" world, where MTV and radio weren't segregated like before. 

Was "Thriller" a work of genius? Sure.  I'd argue that it was equal parts Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, who produced the record.  It had a sound, slick and dark, with post-disco dance beats and lush orchestration.  There were some good songs on "Bad," the follow-up, and a few hit-or-miss songs after that, but nothing he ever did touched "Thriller."

On the other ungloved hand, after "Thriller," Michael began falling apart.  The media loves apart-falling, and Michael went from undisputed genius to flawed genius to full-bore whacknut before "Thriller" was even ten years old.  It started with the little things--plastic surgery, the ever-lightening skin, the rumors of sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, cavorting with Bubbles the chimp, and showing up at the Grammys with Emmanuel Lewis on his knee.  The 1990's were worse for Michael, freakwise.  His music wasn't selling in "Thriller" numbers, his face got creepier, his video persona more unstable, and we started hearing about little boys.  This decade saw Michael be evicted from his Neverland Ranch, and be arrested and tried on molestation charges.  He never recovered.

It sucks, really.  I remember seeing him on the Motown at the Apollo special, and...holy crap.  What can you say? He was just spectacular.  Even watching Martin Bashir's smear-you-mentary a few years ago, I saw something in the way he moved at one point that suggested that Apollo exuberance.  It's the way Gregory Hines moved, even when he was acting in "Law & Order," a hint that his limbs were more in tune to the Universe's music than ours are.  How far he fell to the frail, fright-masked freak walking into that courtroom a few years ago. 

I have to admit, I was never Michael Jackson's biggest fan.  I got sick of his overexposure, and while I appreciated the slick production and occasionally tasty groove ("Smooth Criminal," eg), I didn't feel any sort of link, the way I did when Prince was in his purple reign.  I was sad when Kurt Cobain killed himself, too, but I'd damaged my hearing blasting Nevermind in my truck. 

But Michael Jackson was different.  He seemed to be attracted to the publicity that imprisoned him.  He did ridiculous things--walking around with that stupid germ mask, or the countless plastic surgeries that left him so horrific--and always seemed to be fighting to recapture that "Thriller" status.  He wanted the worship and adulation.  He erected a statue of himself, for God's sake--he made himself his own graven image. 

Yeah, I admit he had a rough childhood.  His dad was a bastard, blah, blah, blah.  Lots of people have terrible childhoods, some 1000 times worse than Michael's.  People heal.  Seriously, what he spent on his Neverland Ranch's train alone could've bought him years of amazing therapy.  I have a hard time feeling that bad for somebody who blew hundreds of millions of dollars on gaudy crap while people I know are struggling to survive.  The $20 million he paid the first kid who charged him with molestation? That would feed and house a lot of people.  It's sad that Michael Jackson was screwed up in the head, so megalomaniacal that he thought he could get away with anything.

Sadder still, I'd lay even odds his toxicology report will read just like Elvis', a veritable PDR of uppers and downers and narcotics.  Somebody in MJ's party was said to have told a paramedic that Michael had gone into distress after an injection of Demerol.  Kurt Cobain will be remembered as a junkie for abusing heroin.  Michael's chemical abuses have had the good PR sense to be called "medicine" instead of "drugs."

Michael was a superstar among superstars, same as Elvis before him.  He had talent, and the camera loved him.  He'll always be remembered, same as Elvis.  Thing is, Elvis is generally remembered as the fat, Vegas version, not the lean, dangerous rebel of the late 50's.  I'm afraid Michael will befall the same fate.  In the same breath as "Thriller" will be whispers of "and THEN what happened to him? How sad."

How sad, indeed.  Sad for us, left wondering what he could have become had he focused more on his music, and less on his legend. 

R.I.P., Michael.  I hope you find what you need on the other side.