Michael Jackson

To paraphrase an old saying, the line between genius and madness has Michael Jackson at the head of it, and he's been there since Thursday with a camp chair and a cooler full of pudding pops. That's too easy a shot to take, though, and it leaves out the saddest thing about this sad, insecure man. Apart from the whole question of his sanity, and whether he might be dangerous to children (both his own and others'), or may be just a big overgrown Lost Boy himself, the other tragedy is that it has been so very long since any of the Jacko buzz has been about the music.

Yes, tabloid fans, once upon a time, Michael Jackson was a musician. He started his career as an 11-year old sensation, performing with (and stealing the show from) his older brothers in a remarkable vocal/dance ensemble called the Jackson 5, the first pop group to have their first four singles hit the top. He had a few singles of his own during his early teens, including his first number one solo hit, Ben, a movie soundtrack song that was basically a love ballad to a rat.

Breaking out on his own as a young adult, Michael wowed 'em with a tight, exuberant album called Off the Wall, that set a new standard for dance music, and began a long collaboration with producer Quincy Jones. This record took him way beyond his brothers, with whom he had still been performing, but gave no clue to the phenomenon that his next album would become.

To say that Thriller was a record breaker would be like saying that The Beatles had some fans in the States. The album became the biggest seller of all time. Jackson's solo with Paul McCartney, The Girl is Mine, went to number two. Billie Jean and Beat It reached number one. The title track made the top five, and the accompanying long form video, an elaborate mini-movie, made him the first black artist to be promoted on MTV. Thriller remained on the charts for two years, garnering him eight Grammys and a Pepsi endorsement deal. Seven of its nine tracks hit the top ten. Michael Jackson had been a popular R&B singer. With one album, he became the King of Pop.

Another hit duet with McCartney followed, and a collaboration with Lionel Richie on a song written for the famine relief organization USA for Africa. That song, We Are The World, became one of the fastest-selling singles ever. Jackson's next album, Bad, further cemented his reputation, and served as some distraction from the mounting tabloid murmurs about his bizarre behavior.

Apparently very self-conscious and insecure about his appearance, he began repeatedly subjecting himself to cosmetic surgery, a process that, despite his total denial that it was even happening, began making him look more and more unnatural, even cartoon-like. A scandalous accusation of child molestation provoked further negative public attention, and sadly, with no small amount of irony, Jackson began a slow descent from his moonwalking peak of fame, into a whispery morass of gossip and innuendo.

Two more albums did little more than appease the diehard fans, and his portrayal of himself immortalized by an enormous statue on the cover of the pompously titled HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book 1 came across as rather pathetic. A 1997 remix album failed to go platinum, and although 2001's Invincible debuted at number one and went double platinum, the singles performed poorly, and Jackson's rancorous attack on the record company left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

Now, after the infamous baby-dangling incident, and with further allegations of molestation having led to his arrest and trial, the curtain may be falling on the King of Pop. Fortunately, his music remains, and hopefully people will continue to enjoy his pliant, expressive voice, the innovative, infectious dance rhythms he and Quincy Jones devised, and the sterling instrumentation by musical luminaries like Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather, long after his tragic fall ceases to reverberate.

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