Writing this now even as it runs live on TV, I can already say that the Shrine memorial event for Michael Jackson defended his legacy in ways MJ himself could not.
Stevie Wonder, himself an ex-child star rising through the Motown system, sang the best and truest response to those who would still ridicule and belittle Michael’s achievements.
“They Won’t Go When I Go” was written back when Stevie was feeling himself attacked and undermined by those he trusted, and remains an eloquent cry-from-the-heart from someone who’s learned the hard way that fame and worldly power (with all it’s material benefits) won’t ever protect its owner from worldly tragedy, failure or heartbreak.
Even Rev. Al Sharpton, frequently a controversial public crusader, hit the right notes when speaking of Michael. “You’re daddy wasn’t strange,” he affirmed to M.J.’s kids in the front row, “what he had to *deal with* was strange!” Sharpton intoned to spontaneous applause. Growing up in public, a black boy when America still segregated and limited black aspirations, working class and under pressure from within and without to excell and succeed in a game rigged against him from the beginning, Michael coped with adversity as best he could–and better than most.
“Thank you, Michael,” Sharpton added at the end of his testimony, “Thank you because broke barriers for all the rest of us, and thank you because you never gave up. “
2 Responses to Michael Jackson’s Tribute
Although I’d argue that Stevie had just as much to deal with as a child star, if not more – he was, y’know, blind – and dealt with it better.
And I’m not sure that Al Sharpton is the best judge of what is or isn’t strange.
Hiya Tim. Yes, Michael had one less handicap than Stevie to overcome. But have you experienced enough of a superstar’s touring life to be able to say with conviction you would have been more generous and less idiosyncratic than Mike had you grown up in his shoes?
As a precocious child preacher, Rev. Sharpton grew up as a celebrity on the black pentacostal circuit before migrating to community and state politics–a demanding public life which except for generating far less wages than pop music, gives him a certain insight into the life the Jackson 5 lived…perhaps insights that would escape you and me.
In 1977 while covering the 2nd World Festival of Black and African Art & Culture in Nigeria, I had the brief chance to meet and spend time with Stevie Wonder who was travelling with several of his brothers and his publicist–whose father had been the lead singer of the Dixie Hummingbirds gospel group. It became clear to me then that Stevie’s family and friends supported and protected him in his formative years better than I suspect Michael’s siblings (who were also often overtly competetive with each other)protected him. The results are clear: Stevie is still alive, Michael is not.