Daily Independent (Lagos)
Gbenga Bada
11 July 2009
analysis
Lagos — Michael Joseph Jackson may have been buried but the world still mourns his exit, just as shocking revelations as regards what actually killed the late music legend are unfolding on a daily basis.
This was as a result of Dr. Arnie Klien, the dermatologist and long buddy of the man dubbed Wacko Jacko, who recently admitted to giving MJ shots of Demorol.
According to Klein, the drugs were given to MJ occasionally just to sedate him as he suffered from insomnia. And when asked about also giving him Propofol, Klein maintained that he was aware of his friend using the drug but he had strongly warned him against it.
Klein, who was prevented from attending the Michael Jackson Memorial for reasons giving as 'suspicious' by the Jackson family, said that Debbie Rowe should get the kids because he felt Katherine was too old to guard the kids while Joe was just out of the scene. And as for Jackson's children, all eyes are now on Debbie Rowe, biological mother of Paris and her brother Prince Michael II. It has been suggested that she will attempt to seek custody.
In the last few weeks, things have certainly taken the direction of the 'entertainment Thriller' called Jackson leading every continent and celebrities from all walks of life to Los Angeles, where Michael Jackson breathed his last on June 25.
In a well attended and world wide viewed event on July 6 at the Staples Centre, the last and final rites tagged the Michael Jackson Memorial for the 'Billboard chart king,' still remains the most talked about memorial since the departure of slain American president, JF Kennedy, Ronal Reagan and Princess Diana.
The memorial, which had hordes of American celebrities in attendance, left a deep hole to the tune of $3.8 million in the coffers of the Los Angeles Police Department for providing extra security.
An estimated 31.1 million people in the U.S. watched the Jackson memorial on television, while several notable web sites had streams of audiences all over the world-the memorial was even said to have crashed some web site as a result of traffic, which was quite enormous and never experienced.
The star-studded event, had in attendance the entire Jackson dynasty, Usher Raymond, who couldn't stop shedding tears as he bid his mentor farewell in a sorrow filled voice; Quincy Jones, Lisa Marie Presley, Paul McCartney, Magic Johnson, Tony Mottola, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
Attendees and viewers all over the world and family members were shattered not only because of the words of Paris Michael Jackson II but the obvious awareness of the passage of her father and best friend.
Tears not only flowed ceaselessly but many people have been wondering if any musician would be able to perform such rare feat in many decades to come.
Following the Tuesday June 6, all-star tribute to Michael Jackson, the shiny and flower-adorned casket was wheeled out of the memorial venue giving fans and audiences no clue as regards where his final resting place would be.
Immediately after the memorial service, which was purely conducted according to Christian tenets, speculations have started flying about as regards the final and resting place of the man Quincy Jones once referred to as a savvy businessman and whose knowledge of the music business can't be measured.
Though his death certificate had the Forest Lawn, which also houses Michael's late maternal grandmother-Martha Bridges-as the mortuary, no one is specific if he would be buried there or not as speculations are also rife that the legend would be laid to rest at his multimillion dollars ranch, Neverland in Santa Barbara, California.
However, strong reports have it that Michael Jackson will be laid to rest in a well-known MJ outfit. The icon, whose life may have been controversial, his songs cut across all races and boundaries, will be wearing one of his favourite gloves on his right hand.
It was further gathered that Dorothy Gaspar, owner of Gaspar Gloves that designed Jackson's gloves specifically for the "This Is It" tour maintained that family members insisted that the musician must sleep with his ritual one hand glove.
Further findings showed that La Toya Jackson, the late icon's sister, wanted Michael to wear a glove inside the casket and had insisted that a white leather glove which Dorothy made for Michael 10-12 years ago and covered in Swarovski crystals, must be worn for the pop king.
And as the burial drama thickens, with untold results of the second autopsy, there are also indications that Wacko Jacko might not be buried with his brain.
It was gathered that coroners investigating the cause of his death to release a second autopsy, have decided to retain the grey matter in Michael's skull for an undetermined period of time to enable them get the required result.
The coroners working on Jackson's second autopsy were said to have instructed the family to either wait for them to carryout their tests on Michael's brain or bury him without the grey matter.
While remembering his days with Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones said Michael was part of his soul.
"We (Michael and himself) achieved heights in the 1980s that I can humbly say many never reached again, and reshaped the music business forever. How could Michael be gone? He was a part of my soul.
"For some strange reasons, I have a history of meeting young performers when they reach age 12 and just like Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Tevin Campbell, Michael came to my hands on the set of The Wiz in 1978.
"During the shoot, I approached Michael and told him I'd like to produce his solo album and the wonderment in his eyes locked me in his world forever. Even when his record label at that time Epic Records thought I was too jazzy and rejected the idea, Michael, a savvy businessman-it was one attribute that I think people underestimated because he had been around long enough to work on the record executives.
"He flatly told the company that I was doing the album and that sealed it. Michael was so shy, he'd sit behind the couch with his back to me while I sat with my hands over my eyes-and lights off," Quincy said, eulogising Michael Jackson.
Paying his final respect, Tony Mottola, former head of Sony Music, referred to Jackson as the cornerstone to the entire music business and true to his words, record sales have once again placed the pop king on the top of music charts immediately after his death.
Speaking further, Mottola said, "Jackson left behind dozens of songs. Mottola predicted the potential playlist was bigger than the one left behind by Elvis Presley."
Jackson is selling around the world. Michael Jackson has three of the five best-selling albums in the U.S. for the second week in a row. Number Ones sold 339,000 copies this week and would have held at #1 on The Billboard 200 if catalogue albums were eligible to compete on that chart. (The 2003 compilation sold a little more than twice as many copies this week as NOW 31, the album that holds the #1 spot.) Thriller sold 187,000 copies and would have jumped from #3 to #2 if catalogue albums were invited to the party. The Essential Michael Jackson sold 125,000 copies and would have dropped from #2 to #5. (Billboard excludes catalogue albums from the big chart on the theory that new albums need the spotlight the chart provides more than past hits do. Jackson's catalogue of solo albums sold 800,000 copies this week, up from 422,000 copies last week. (This was the first full week following Jackson's death on June 25. Last week's total reflected just four days of sales.) Billboard reports that 82 per cent of the Jackson albums sold this week were CDs (vs. digital downloads). Last week, 43 per cent of the Jackson albums sold were CDs. I think this shows that on a special album, people want the CD as a keepsake. Jackson's total song download sales this week, including hits with his brothers, stand at 2.2 million downloads, down just a little from 2.6 million last week. A total of 47 songs that feature Jackson are listed on the Hot Digital Songs chart. (This is down just a bit from last week's eye-popping total of 50.)
Number Ones racked up the biggest weekly sales total in Nielsen/SoundScan history for a catalogue album (excluding Christmas albums). Jackson also held the old record, which he set in February 2008, when Thriller 25 sold 166,000 copies in its first week. Number Ones also posted the biggest one-week sales tally for an album by a deceased performer since the Notorious B.I.G.'s Duets: The Final Chapter debuted in December 2005 with first-week sales of 438,000.
Number Ones has sold 564,000 copies so far this year, which puts it at #18 on Nielsen/SoundScan's running list of the best-selling albums of 2009. If it keeps going like this, it could topple Taylor Swift's Fearless as the #1 album for the year-to-date. (Fearless has sold 1,352,000 copies since January 1.) This will (in all likelihood) be only the third time in Nielsen/SoundScan history that an album by a deceased performer has ranked among the year's top 10. 2Pac's All Eyez On Me was the #6 album of 1996 (he died on September 13 of that year). The Notorious B.I.G.'s Life After Death was the #6 album of 1997 (he died on March 9 of that year).
In the U.K., The Essential Michael Jackson moves up to #1, dethroning Number Ones (which drops to #3). In Japan, King Of Pop vaults from #43 to #6. Jackson has five songs in the top 10 on Hot Digital Songs this week: "Man In The Mirror" at #2, "Billie Jean" at #4, "Thriller" at #5, "The Way You Make Me Feel" at #7 and "Beat It" at #10.
The singer also left an elaborate production dubbed 'The Dome Project,' which could be Jackson's last complete video piece. Additionally, there are more than 100 hours of footage from the rehearsals for his London concerts, which are likely to be released by promoter AEG.
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