Michael Has Left The Building

2009-06-29
By Eric Easter

We say that history repeats itself, but at the most obvious times we always forget that lesson. Yet t if stayed true to our beliefs, we would have seen all this coming. Maybe not the date or the circumstance, but certainly the event. Perhaps not now, but soon enough.. It was inevitable. Predictable. Logical even. Jimi. Martin. Elvis. The Guitar God, King, and The King provided the framework

If The King of Pop had spent his last few years playing Vegas, as some rumored he had considered, the similarities would have too easy, too similar. Stars who die young need their own mystery, their own narrative.

As students of our past, we also know how the next chapter will play out. First come the rumors, then the facts will trickle in, then the blame, then the mourning. Someone in the family will not grieve the way we expect them to grieve, and there will be more speculation.

The amateur photographers from city to city, country to country will bring their pictures out of the dust. Michael backstage. Michael reaching out a hand. Michael signing an autograph. The artists, amateur and pro, will immortalize him and pick their media – oil, stone, wood, plates, soap, cheese.

What is the 21st century equivalent of a velvet painting? A t-shirt? A favorite Michael period will rise above the others. Will it be Motown Michael, Thriller Michael, Bubble-period Michael or the later years? And we will find places of honor to hang those works. In what order does Michael fit on the wall next to Martin, JFK and Jesus?

There will be the messiness over the things he left behind. Right now the vultures who picked over the recent auction of Jackson’s things are making plan. E-bay or Christie’s? The creditors will want a cut, and the argument over who gets what, who owns what, and for how much, will get bitter before it gets better.

There are the backup singers being interviewed. We’ve seen this movie before as well. They have seen him closest, and one will say something very profound. That already happened when Sheryl Crow said we did not want to see Michael get old. We didn’t. Nor Jimi, nor Elvis. Let them die as we remember them best, or close to it. We probably would have shunted Martin to the side as he got gray, just as we did Jesse. History repeats because we forget it so soon.

Some Friend of Michael, probably anonymously, will get back Neverland for the family and it will become, as with Graceland, a shrine not so much to Michael but to our own childhood. We will make pilgrimages there, as a side trip on the way to Disneyland.

When it all settles down, Michael will have left not only a legacy, but a secure retirement for Randy, Marlon, Jermaine, Tito. Oh, and Rebbie, Latoya and all the nieces and nephews. Janet will be OK. But what of Michael’s children? They will be fine financially, but who will they be in ten years? We will clamor for them to be public and hope they look just like Michael, just like that Presley kid does. But this time, they probably won’t. We will want them to have Michael’s talent. But again, if history is a predictor, they probably won’t, at least not on the level of the King.

Eventually we will forget, but our children won’t. They’re just discovering Michael and practicing the Smooth Criminal lean and the Moonwalk, and grabbing their crotch while it still looks cute, and singing Beat It at the top of their lungs until we yell stop. 

We’ve seen these passings before – Janis, Lennon, Diana. How do we explain this one? For many, this death is their first, and it’s not a distant aunt or a goldfish, it’s Michael. an idol. For them it will be a defining moment, much more than our defining moment back in January. You say all you can say. He lives on in our memory, and in his music, and video, and in that one-of-kind MJ tapestry that we just bought that now that adorns the family room. It only cost $300. Someday it will be worth something.

Eric Easter is VP of Digital & Entertainment for Johnson Publishing, Co., Inc. He writes about politics, culture and technology for EbonyJet.com.