[78-L] Michael Jackson. A Balanced View.

[Spats]

Hi!

Michael Jackson's death is of-course mentioned on the media in the UK 
as a lead story, not least because he was due to give several massive 
concerts here in the next couple of months. However, we are not 
getting wall to wall coverage. Other news stories from politics 
around the world to Wimbledon's tennis (we actually have a British 
player with a chance for the first time in decades) are also getting 
mentioned.

He was, there's no doubt, a fine artiste in his genre, whatever his 
strange behaviour and people in the future may well look back on his 
best work...such as the Thriller video, in the same way that we look 
back on Fred and Ginger routines. It definitely was a classic in its 
genre.

Personally, however, even within the world of pop music, I think that 
there are others, still alive, who are more important. Paul McCartney 
and Stevie Wonder come to mind, even if their more recent output 
hasn't been up to the standard that it once represented.

Of-course, the outpouring of grief at his death is really a 
generation mourning the end of their own youth; just as it was with 
the death of Presley, Lennon, Pres. Kennedy and Princess Diana. 
Someone who had been an omnipresent icon is suddenly there no more.

He was a troubled man and I don't think that he would have found it 
easy to face the aging process.
None of us do, but for him, a sort of Peter Pan in ihs own mind, it 
would have been especially difficult. So, maybe he went when he 
should have; still able to perform...

Earl.