Okechukwu Uwaezuoke
27 June 2009
analysis
Lagos — Barely two months before his 51st birthday, Michael Jackson's star took a final dip and disappeared from the musical firmament. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke scours into his lifetime of phenomenal success and unearths a childhood marred by an overbearing father, who physically and emotionally abused him
"And though you fight to stay alive/Your body starts to shiver/ For no mortal can resist/ The evil of the thriller," goes the guttural voice over in the musical clip of Michael Jackson's chart-buster "Thriller". This is before an eerie laughter wraps it up. Indeed, fighting to stay alive turned out to be the lifelong obsession of this legendary icon shortly after the release of his album Off the Wall. Of course, the man who came to be known as "Wacko Jacko" was not diagnosed of any life-threatening ailment. His obsession led to his strict dietary rules. He literally became a health addict, eschewing meat diet and shunning alcohol.
Back in 1969, Michael Joseph Jackson was just 11 years old when he came to the limelight as a precocious member of the famed Jackson Five. The group's hair-do and sartorial tastes - the rave of the then African American community - soon became de rigueur for many Nigerian youths in the 1970's. His passionate and soulful rendition of songs like "I'll be There", "ABC", and "Got to be There" serenaded those wonder years.
Just when the group's fame appeared to be sinking beneath the horizon, Jackson's meeting with the producer Quincy Jones redirected his course upwards. His dexterous moonwalk strut and suggestive pelvic thrusts and crotch-grabbing held fans worldwide in thrall. So by the time he had released Thriller - the album that would define his career - he had become a phenomenon.
And tattle tales trailed his roaring ascent up the ladder-rungs of fame. This was not without reason. For as his fame grew, so did his eccentricities. Michael Jackson's once chocolate - brown complexion soon transformed into an unsightly pasty colour, making him look more Caucasian than Negroid. Besides, his hair changed from its previously frizzy texture to straight strands, his nose reportedly went under the surgeon's blade to alter its former broad frame. Then the poisoned arrow darts of sleaze began to whiz his way. From an alleged case of abusing a 13-year old boy in 1993, settled out of court, to another case of molestation of a young boy in 2004 from which he came out acquitted, his reputation was badly dented. Even allegations of anti-Semitism haunted him in early 1996 when the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) frowned at the lyrics of his track "They Don't Care About Us" (which was the fourth single in the album HIStory.
How his much-anticipated 50 comeback shows - which were billed to start in London next month - would have reversed his dwindling fortunes and battered public image would never be known. His death seems to have swept the deluge of controversies under the carpet. The world's spotlight has temporarily swung away from Iranian post-election violence. The outpouring of grief, though not unexpected, has so far been overwhelming and crossed all borders. This was as his musical kindred reeled from the news of his sudden passage. Madonna, the music diva who was recently in the news for her adopting a second Malawian child, couldn't stop crying over Michael Jackson's death. Justin Timberlake was groping for the right words to express how saddened he was by the news. Britney Spears was devastated. Chris Brown called him "the greatest entertainer ever." Jackson's former wife, Lisa Marie Presley said she was "completely shocked and saddened by Michael's death" and that her "heart goes out to his children and his family". Even the Germany-based, Nigerian-born Ade Bantu Odukoya posted on his Facebook status profile: "The moonwalker has left the building with one of Charlie's angels."
But beneath the glitzy life in the limelight, lurked a lonely soul. Could this have a Freudian connection to his eccentricities? He was born in the Chicago industrial suburb of Gary as the seventh of the nine children of Joseph Walter "Joe" and Katherine Esther Jackson. He began singing with his brothers - Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito - in the Jackson Five when he was just four years old. He had winced as he told Oprah Winfrey in 1993 - during his first television interview since 1979 - about his childhood. It was not such a pretty tale of a father who both physically and emotionally abused him. But could his father's many whippings and name-callings whittled down his self-esteem enough for him to wish to alter his physical appearance as he advanced into full adulthood? The sight of his father sufficed to make him vomit as he cried from loneliness. His father, Joseph, he recalled would sit in a chair clutching a belt in his hand young Michael he rehearsed with his siblings threatening to tear them up if they failed to get it right. In another interview, Living with Michael Jackson (held in 2003), he even covered his face and wept as he recalled his childhood abuse.
Marriage could just have been the soothing balm he needed. But his conjugal ventures were anything but idyllic. His first with Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, in 1994 crashed two years after. So did his marriage with the former nurse for his dermatologist, Debbie Rowe, the mother of his first two children Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (a.k.a. Prince Michael) and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, ended in a second divorce. His third biological child, Prince Michael II was the child of a surrogate mother.
Could his being deprived of paternal tenderness as a child have so distorted his life that it made his adult life scandal-ridden? Parallels were drawn between the child molestation allegations, which contributed to the waning of his popularity, and his odd love for animals and toys. The self-acclaimed "King of Pop" nevertheless still had it all wrapped up until the Grim Reaper's sickle snatched him away.
His death somewhat echoed that of Elvis Presley, who died in his Graceland (Memphis) home on August 16, 1977. Presley, who had retired to bed it the routine time between 6 and 7 am, was found by his girlfriend Ginger Alden. He was pronounced clinically dead by his physician, Dr George Nichopoulos, on the steps of the Memphis Baptist Memorial Hospital. The outpouring of grief from fans was equally overwhelming.
Jackson's death also evoked that of John Lennon. In 1980, a fan was reported to have taken his own life after the English rock musician and one of the founders of the celebrated The Beatles was shot dead. Just as in the case of Jackson, crowds of sympathisers had gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of The Dakota shortly after local news stations reported Lennon's death.
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