Michael Jackson born August 29th 1958 died June 25th 2009

By David Treharhne

It’s almost impossible to get any real sense of what  Michael Jackson was like, or indeed who he really was since his life was shielded and manipulated not only by managements and record companies but by a series of publicists and ‘friends’.

When Elvis Presley died in August 1977 a cynical record company executive described it as ‘A Good Career Move’ and in the 32 years since his death his estate has sold almost more records and merchandise than they did in his lifetime - a fact confirmed by a revealing article in Time magazine on August 15th 2007.

It might well be argued that Michael Jackson’s estate will benefit in just the same way.

There are, as well, striking comparisons with the history of other troubled stars that started out with the Motown label in the early 1960s like Marvin Gaye.

In Jackson’s case there was also the uneasy relationship with the Jackson 5. If his legacy is to be his recorded output of music, then it will fall into three separate periods, his time with the Jackson 5, his gradual emergence as a solo start leading to stellar success with albums like Thriller to be followed by an uneasy period in which he sought a set of new directions and to come to terms with trying to live with the persona that had been built around him.

The period with the Jackson 5 is marked by a growing alienation with possibly his family, but almost certainly with the constraints of working for Motown Records.

The second period, and the one in which he enjoyed the most critical acclaim was built on the four elements of strong material, the emergent video industry, an undoubted energy in live performance, and the working relationship he enjoyed with Quincey Jones.

Finally there was retreat into a hinterland of strange publicity, apparently peculiar personal lifestyle choices and gossip column notoriety which seemed to make his decision to re-emerge with a series of live dates in London even more inexplicable.

It’ll probably take years for anything like ‘the truth’ about Michael Jackson to emerge and it would be pleasing to think that it will done with thoroughness that Peter Guralnik lavished on his two Elvis biographies.

In the meantime the ‘legacy’ which will probably become more and more distorted and will probably need to be viewed by individuals against their own experience of that very 70s and 80s phenomenon The Disco , and lurching round to hits like Beat It and Thriller rather than the rather more ordinary fodder like One Day in your life or Farewell My Summer Love .

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