So, last week I finished reading J. Randy Taraborrelli's "Michael Jackson: The Music, the Madness, the Whole Story, 1958-2009", which was the 1st hardcover book I've boughten in I can't remember how long (tried to get the main library at school to ILL it, but they smacked me down and said it was "too recent").
Anyhow, at some point, I just stopped understanding Michael, and I also stopped thinking of him as a black man.
Beyond that, though, I find those insights somewhat helpful in understanding him:
- Michael was driven by being #1 in ticket sales, and was in a way trapped in the talent show mentality that got him and his family out of Gary; he couldn't understand how journalists said that Madonna had a successful tour when she wasn't selling out stadiums (i.e., he couldn't see success as solely artistic realization).
- Michael would lie - e.g. starting the stories of him sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber and wanting to buy the elephant man's bones - and had a hard time confronting people, and would surround himself by employees who he would put between himself and his family and one-time friends and associates when he didn't want to deal with them (and they would still think they were friends with him, but the people around him were keeping him from them).
- He lived at home for way way too long, and until he built Neverland, his only real time away from family (tours don't count!) was when he was filming "The Wiz" in New York - which, in my opinion, was the moment when a window opened for him, and he should have escaped.
Also, the 2nd molestation case was bullshit, but the 1st one, who knows. I can see him doing it. So, so fucked up.
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2 comments:
What was that exact quote about artistic realization? It was fantastic.
Don't have a page number. Google book search references for Madonna? I think it was made in reference to a response he made once to someone when Madonna's latest tour came up as a topic of conversation.
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