THE JACKSON ONE
I can say that I really enjoyed the Jackson brothers when they first appeared on the Ed Sullivan program and continued to enjoy watching and listening to the family known as The Jackson Five perform. They were a very talented bunch of young kids and if history is accurate a very demanding father was managing them.
The boys’ rapid rise to fame could also be credited to the CEO of Motown Records, one very talented Berry Gordy.
In more recent times one heard occasionally about LaToya Jackson or Janet Jackson, sisters to the brothers, but rarely about any of the brothers other than the youngest, Michael.
With Michael’s death at the age of fifty recently, I find myself wondering what happened between the time I first saw the Jackson Five and the other day when I watched them loading Michael’s lifeless body into an ambulance.
These children of Joe Jackson were all talented. Michael Jackson was a star before he was a teenager. We loved him just the way he was.
Somehow, Michael did not get that message.
He kept changing himself, primarily through cosmetic surgery. It is not my intention to go into how many cosmetic procedures Michael underwent to look different, but they were many.
I don’t know if he did not like being black, or if he wished he were white, but I do know he took serious steps to lessen the dark tones of his skin. We can assume he did not like his nose because there are numerous recorded operations to change that feature on his face. Did he not appreciate how tremendously popular he was before any of these cosmetic efforts?
In fact, I do not know a single person who thought Michael Jackson improved his appearance through surgery.
What we liked about Michael was his singing and dancing. He was an incredible talent. He made the transition from little boy to grown boy without losing one iota of that talent.
He didn’t need any operations to improve. He also didn’t need any operations to stay atop the pop charts.
So we are left to believe that he just did not like himself very much, or at least not the package in which he arrived.
This is a tremendous sadness and one that undoubtedly applies to other young boys and girls. We as a society must be relentless in assuring our children that it is what they know and what they can do with their talents that determines their real worth.
In the end, in order to perform for us, Michael Jackson reportedly required a daily dose of Demerol, Xanax, Prilosec, Vicodin, Paxil, Soma, Dialaudid and Zoloft.
Can you imagine needing all those drugs to get through your day?
Don’t you think at some point you, or your physician, would decide it just wasn’t worth it and look for another line of work?
I am going out on a limb here, but I just don’t think Michael Jackson was ever allowed to be normal. From the time he was a very little boy he was not only in show business but very successful. That success brought the pressure to continue to perform and to continue to seek the praise of his audience.
Through puberty when most boys are dating, playing sports and dreaming of far away adventures, Michael Jackson was performing and hoping changes in his voice and physical attributes would not ruin his career.
Paul McCartney referred to Michael Jackson as a Man-boy. As I watched Michael grow I never saw a “man” but always a boy.
Michael was always seeking. He was seeking adulation, love, and respect. The ways in which he sought those sometimes brought him into very serious trouble. He was seeking a different face and a different body.
Like Peter Pan, Michael wanted to live in Neverland and to never grow up. He wanted to surround himself with playmates. He wanted to have fun, perhaps the fun he was never permitted as a child. Was he seeking his lost youth?
Writers with degrees in psychology and psychiatry will study the Michael Jackson phenomenon for years to come.
For me, I just wish he had the normal childhood most little boys enjoy and that somehow he could have accepted that people liked him just the way he was, originally.
