The King is Dead: Lefsetz on the passing of Michael Jackson - Boing Boing

The King is Dead: Lefsetz on the passing of Michael Jackson

Posted by Xeni Jardin, June 26, 2009 6:14 AM | permalink

They're saying on BBC radio right now that when news of his death started to hit late Thursday, so many search queries for "Michael Jackson" were hitting Google and other search engines, the flood was perceived at first as a malicious automated attack.

Above: my own personal favorite.

Below, words from music industry writer Bob Lefsetz (Twitter, blog) on the passing today of one of the most important pop culture figures of our time.

He missed his childhood and now he's gonna miss his old age.

How fucked up is that?

Michael Jackson never had a chance. He had to succeed for his family, his parents' dreams were dependent upon him.

And a boy with that much pressure delivers. He works truly hard, so he will be loved. That's all Michael Jackson was looking for, love.

He wanted to be accepted. Wanted to be so good that he couldn't be denied. But you can't change family history, and the public no longer treats you as human, as an equal, once you break through. People want to rip you off or tear you down, or shower you in faux love that's more about their unfulfilled desires than yours. It gets so confusing that you retreat.

The rest of his essay continues after the jump.

The Jackson 5 broke through at the tail end of the sixties. When both Motown and Top Forty radio were in decline. But the burst of energy known as "I Want You Back" could not be denied. And the continuous singles made Michael Jackson a star.

He sang a horror movie theme. He endured puberty. He was a faded child star. Then, suddenly, he released a dance floor epic. When disco was supposedly dead, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones concocted a synthesis of rock and beats that could not be denied. Few were paying attention when "Off The Wall" was released. But over the course of two years, word spread. This was an album that could be played endlessly, that made you feel exuberant, totally alive. We didn't stop listening because we could never get enough.

Then came "Thriller".

There are indelible television moments. When there's only before and after. Michael Jackson's "Motown 25" moonwalk was one of those events. Akin to the landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon over a decade before. MTV was AOR. Dancing was something you saw on Broadway. Give Walter Yetnikoff credit, he forced MTV to play Michael Jackson and not only was the color barrier broken, not only did videos turn into extravaganzas, the biggest star since the Beatles was hatched, fifteen years after Michael had first gained public notoriety, years after he'd started performing. It's "Outliers" in action. Michael Jackson made it look easy.

But there were far in excess of 10,000 hours involved. When everybody was finally paying attention, no one else was close. You had newbie bands from the U.K. who could barely sing, never mind play. And you had this phenomenon prancing on screen fully realized. It was like the 1927 Yankees playing a Little League team.

And then it was over.

There was another album with Q, but it was a step down. There's nowhere to go from the top but down. But Michael Jackson couldn't accept this. Everything had to be bigger and better. A musician's career can last forever. But to have those legs, you've got to have perspective. Existing at the center of the hurricane, unable to step outside the maelstrom, means that you have no frame of reference.

Not that you can't buy one. Or that hucksters and shysters don't try to give you one. You trust everyone but know you can trust no one. You're a party of one. What means so much to everybody else means almost nothing to you. You don't want to give up your money and fame, but they don't buy you peace of mind, they don't buy you love, they don't keep you warm at night.

It's been a sad movie that's been unspooling. We can delineate the low points. But let's just say it started with plastic surgery and it ended with court cases. Michael Jackson just didn't think he was good enough. And when he tried to explain, when he showed up in court in his pajamas, we didn't want to listen, we didn't want to give him a break, we just wanted to make fun of him, deride him.

Michael Jackson was an entertainer until the very end.

It's just that his latest gigs were not inside theatres, but played out on "investigative" television shows and gossip Websites. Everybody was living off Michael Jackson. He gave good ratings. He rescued the hoi polloi from a life of drudgery.

But that's all over now.

Sony can be thrilled that the digital marketplace insures there's endless inventory for those sitting shiva to buy. And they're going to end up with the Beatles catalog too. But we've lost something with the passing of Michael Jackson. A belief that America is a good-hearted place, a supportive place, where we want everybody to have a good life and be happy.

Wonder about the price of fame? Just look at the miserable Jon & Kate. Never mind their eight children.

We did this to Michael Jackson. And there wasn't a single person who could save him. He was too isolated.

We'll remember where we were when we heard the news. But I'd rather remember that explosion emanating from the radio back in '69.

Michael, we want you back! We want to see you moonwalk one more time! We want you to sing "Billie Jean"!

Alas, that's impossible.

As he once sang, "now it's much too late for me to take a second look."

The king is dead.

Long live the king.

Read more of Bob Lefsetz here.

Previously:

• RIP Michael Jackson
• Michael Jackson's weirdest detritus, a photoset
• Michael Jackson Playmobil figures on Flickr
• Michael Jackson: music industry conspires to steal from artists ...
• Michael Jackson Halloween mask
• Creepy Michael Jackson fright-mask

The 10 Best Political Videos You've (Probably) Never Seen

The 10 Best Political Videos You've (Probably) Never Seen

by Barrett Brown

April 15, 2009, 4:15 PM

Thousands of “post-partisan” citizens who discovered on January 20 that they are very much opposed to federal deficits are taking to the streets today in what’s being billed by its supporters as the most significant anti-tax demonstration since 1773, when that early American flash-mob action, the Boston Tea Party, served to raise general awareness of British perfidy in the realm of revenues. But the success of today’s tea party circuit in winning hearts and minds may hinge on whether or not the gatherings result in any iconic YouTube videos of the sort that register with the American public at large. Most likely, they won’t. Thus it is that we present a gaggle of the lesser-known political clips of yesteryear, tax-free.

10. Nixon on Bohemian Grove, San Francisco, and the Homos To Be Found Therein

In one of the more colorful of the secret audio-tape excerpts to have emerged in subsequent years, Nixon waxes homophobic on San Francisco’s homo-friendly upper class before segueing into a short lecture on Bohemian Grove, an invitation-only outdoor extravaganza that plays host each year to an all-male guest list of presidents, defense contractors, and Rockefeller hangers-on. For his part, Nixon describes it as “the most faggy goddamn thing you can imagine.” And although Nixon’s imagination in this regard is probably limited, he’s not entirely alone in his assessment: Bill Clinton once described the California club gatherings as being “where all those rich Republicans go up and stand naked against the redwood trees.”

9. Dole on Something-or-Other

While Gerald Ford was busy being Gerald Ford, 1976 vice-presidential hopeful Bob Dole was busy being Bob Dole, which is not a particularly good thing for a vice-presidential hopeful to be. Asked about his earlier condemnation of Nixon’s Watergate pardon, in light of his current status as potential No. 2 man to the fellow who gave the pardon in the first place, Dole retorts that, although this was “an appropriate topic,” it was not “a very good issue.” He then helpfully notes that World War I, World War II, and the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam had all been “Democrat wars” which had left many Americans killed or wounded. So, there you go.

8. Lyndon LaRouche Blasts Mondale and His Nefarious Paymasters

Like those youngish supporters of his to whom I once unwisely provided my phone number out of curiosity, “independent Democrat” Lyndon LaRouche is incapable of uttering even a couple of sentences without saying something confusing; this is a movement of people who hold strong opinions on the allegedly negative sociological impact of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s later symphonies. Veteran skimmers of LaRouchian pamphlets will not be surprised, then, to see the big man himself announce that Walter Mondale is not only “a K.G.B. agent in the ordinary sense,” but also owned in part by “the grain cartel interests,” which is certainly a strange thing by which to be owned, even if only in part.

7. Americans Turn to George Wallace

The general thrust of this George Wallace presidential campaign ad from 1968 is this: if you fail to vote for the Alabama governor, someone is likely to throw a firebomb through the window of the discount television store that you just opened. That particular someone, the context suggests, may be presumed to be a rioting Negro or some such and not Wallace himself, angrily retaliating against those who opposed his pro-segregation presidential bid. The ad also notes that your school-aged children are in danger of being “bused across town” to be educated alongside black children, where they will perhaps learn to make their own firebombs. And thus the circle of life is complete.

6. Nixon on the Espionage Capabilities of Jews

When Mark Felt was identified as Deep Throat, in 2005, former Nixon speech writer Ben Stein was very angry indeed, comparing the aging Watergate informant’s face to that of “one of those old Nazi war criminals” and wondering aloud how Felt—whom Stein believed to be “at least part Jewish”—could have betrayed his fellow Jews by turning against a president who was concurrently “saving Eretz Israel” and otherwise providing “salvation” to the Jewish people as a whole. It’s hard to disagree with Stein’s reasoning as one listens to the former president compliment the Hebrews with such lack of reservation, noting that “Jews are born spies” due in part to the “strange malignancy” and “arrogance” that he’s observed in that particular tribe. Nixon then goes on to worry aloud over how ashamed Kissinger must feel over the general perfidy of his Jewish brethren, which is also quite touching. Ah, Ben Stein.

5. Reagan On “What’s My Line?”

This cannot be described.

4. Prescott Bush Turns on the Charm, Such As It Is

Herein lies a rare look at the first political notable of the Bush clan, as well as an early specimen of the public affairs program. For his part, the Senator from Connecticut comes off as rather articulate for a fellow who appears to have been drinking, though he lacks the genial charm of his most prominent grandson and even of his most prominent son. Had he been an actor and not a politician, he would have almost certainly been typecast as someone whose nefarious plans are foiled towards the end of the film. This isn’t so much a criticism of Bush as it is of Hollywood movies of the time, which, as people often forget, were generally pretty bad.

3. William Buckley and Gore Vidal Hold Pompous Asshole Contest

Though the two are better known for their earlier ABC debate, in which Vidal called Buckley a “crypto-Nazi” and Buckley called Vidal a “queer,” this later segment, in which the two pundits are wisely kept in separate rooms, is somewhat more representative of their respective approaches to rhetoric. Here, both are at the top of their craft (to the extent that pretentiousness can be considered a craft), but Buckley manages to steal the show with his extended quotation of some very surreal “hippie play.” The clip ends with an unusually well-produced Pepsi commercial in which it is announced that the soft drink will give you “zap.”

2. Nixon Campaign Makes What May Well Have Been an Effective Ad by the Standards of 1972

This conservative bid for the youth vote makes liberal use of still shots depicting youngsters who are hip enough to perhaps convince other youngsters that Nixon is far out and whatnot but not so hip that they might be actual hippies. The accompanying song, like every song that ever accompanied anything in the early 70s, is terrible and ought never to have been written.

1. Nixon Plays His Piano Concerto

Look, I just think Nixon was an interesting guy.

In Memoriam: Michael Jackson + Neverland's Lost Boys | vanityfair.com

In Memoriam: Michael Jackson

by Julian Sancton

June 26, 2009, 1:24 AM

The King of Pop died yesterday. According to the Los Angeles Times, Michael Jackson passed away at the UCLA Medical Center yesterday afternoon after suffering cardiac arrest at the home he had been renting in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. Jackson had been staying at the $100,000-a-month chateau while rehearsing for a series of 50 sold-out concerts at London's 02 Arena. The much-publicized shows, which would have been Jackson's first in years, were meant in part to revive his musical career, and in part to rescue his troubled finances. The world will remember two Michael Jacksons. One was among the greatest artists of the twentieth century, who redefined pop music and popularity itself. The other was a troubled soul, a punch line, and a cautionary tale about the perils of that celebrity.

Jackson was only 50 when he died, but behind him trailed one of the longest and most prolific careers in American music. He recorded his first hits in the 60s, as the 11-year-old frontman of a band of brothers, the Jackson 5. From there, his fame only continued to rise, above that of his siblings, as he grew and changed, both musically and physically. His music was intense, danceable, memorable, infectious and inspired. His 1982 record Thriller broke new ground, and is to this day the number-one selling album of all time. He has recorded with such legends as Paul McCartney and his fellow Motown child star Stevie Wonder, both of whom would be honored to be at his side in the musical Pantheon.

He was different from all the other celebrities. He dressed different. He looked different. He even walked different. He did it backwards. And he aged backwards too, or at least he tried to. And that was the great tragedy of his life. His youth had been sacrificed to the music industry, spent in recording studios, and dealing with the trappings of fame. He would spend the rest of his life trying to recapture that innocence, receding into the William Randolph Hearst-like seclusion of Neverland Ranch, seeking for his own Rosebud. He surrounded himself with candy, toys, and other children, with whom he would never have normal relationships. Beginning in the early nineties, accusations of child molestation and troubling reports about his private life would overshadow even his own sublime music.

Radio stations across the country are already playing marathons of his music. What sweeter eulogy can there be?

Annie Leibovitz’s 1989 cover portrait of Jackson.

Neverland's Lost Boys

The latest charges against Michael Jackson—of molesting a 13-year-old cancer patient—are more than a déjà vu of allegations that led to his $25 million settlement with young Jordie Chandler in 1994. Once again, Jackson and his lawyers are saying the motive of the boy and his family is pure greed. But the King of Pop's shield of fame and money is wearing thin. MAUREEN ORTH reveals new information from the star's former business adviser, the ex-wife of his notorious p.i., and other insiders about alleged porn and wine seductions, the forensic search of Neverland, and how both accusers' lives have been torn apart.by Maureen Orth March 2004Michael Jackson refers to white wine as "Jesus juice" and red wine as "Jesus blood." He prefers the juice and usually drinks it out of soda cans so that nobody will know he is consuming alcohol. In and out of rehab over the years for addictions to Demerol and morphine, the King of Pop also habitually gulped down soda cans of wine, particularly when he was on airplanes. On a flight to Frankfurt in 1999, for example, his former business adviser Myung-Ho Lee, who was accompanying him, had to help the staggering Jackson stand up to get off the plane. "He was lying on the floor by the time we landed," says Lee. "I told Security, 'You can't get drunk like that on white wine,' and the security people said that it's not only wine but that he takes pills with it."The incident may be telling, because in January, Michael Jackson was arraigned on seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an "intoxicating agent with intent to commit a felony" between February 7 and March 10 of last year at Neverland, his 2,700-acre ranch near Santa Barbara, which he has converted into a mini Disneyland for kids. The boy in question in the case—a cancer victim who was 13 at the time—alleges that Jackson gave him wine in Coke cans on a flight from Florida in February 2003, right under the nose of the boy's unsuspecting mother. The boy knows Jackson's names for white and red wine, which Lee says "only his inner people know," adding that it "tells you that the boy spent 'quality time' with Michael." The boy and his siblings, however, have said that "all the kids around Michael" knew about Jesus juice, and that he told them, "Jesus drank it, so it must be good."...The trip the boy and his family made to Florida coincided with the airing of the British documentary on ABC last year in which Jackson, now 45, told interviewer Martin Bashir that there was nothing wrong with sharing his bed with little boys. It was a very brazen thing for Jackson to admit, given the fact that in Los Angeles in 1994 he had had to pay $25 million to Jordie Chandler and his family in order to settle a civil suit in which Jordie, then 13, charged that Jackson had masturbated and fellated him during their relationship, which ironically also included a trip to Florida. Similarities in Michael Jackson's modus operandi between the latest bizarre scandal and the one that preceded it abound, right down to the tactics of intimidation and the controversial use of the Nation of Islam for security. In 1993 armed members of tough South-Central L.A. gangs, including the notorious Bloods, were transported to Neverland. The employment of these toughs was said to have sent a strong message to Neverland employees who might have considered cooperating in the Jordie Chandler investigation, not to mention the subliminal message it gave out to other boys and their families who might have been thinking of coming forward.When 70 members of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department and D.A.'s office, including a team of forensic experts, invaded Neverland last November 18, while Jackson was in Las Vegas, they had already spent five months investigating the child's allegations. Although Jackson was reputedly taken by surprise—cops with search warrants also entered the homes and workplaces of Jackson employees and a private investigator named Bradley Miller—his high-powered and expensive criminal attorney, Mark Geragos, had already been on the case since February, a curiosity in itself, since no criminal charges had been filed.Over the years Jackson has doled out millions upon millions of dollars to lawyers, doctors, accountants, security people, con men, voodoo chiefs, business advisers, members of his bankrupted dysfunctional family, an ex-wife who allegedly threatened to tell his secrets, former staffers on remittance, and the families of young boys he has made his "special friends" all over the world. There is almost never a time when he is free of crisis, and as a result, say many who know him, it has become more and more difficult for him to trust his advisers or not to feel paranoid about something. "He has a lot of skeletons in his closet," says Lee. "Some are real and some are in his mind, which makes him a prisoner of all those around him." The result is often chaos. Jackson has a $200-million-plus bank loan—guaranteed by his half-interest in the Sony/ATV music catalogue, which owns the publishing rights to 251 Beatles songs and many other pop songs—and it falls due in 2005. These days it is difficult to get a straight read on Jackson's finances, other than the cash-flow situation, which is reportedly dire. "Nobody really knows if there is money or not," says Dieter Wiesner, one of his recent managers. The coveted Sony/ATV catalogue is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. However, as I reported in this magazine last year, Sony has the right of first refusal if Jackson is forced to sell his share, and he cannot sell, according to Lee, before October 2005, the 10th anniversary of the partnership. There are reports that Jackson is meanwhile being bailed out by a number of interested parties, including Al Malnik, the flamboyant Miami lawyer who once represented Meyer Lansky. Malnik reportedly put up much of the money to settle two civil suits against Jackson last year —a figure estimated at close to $10 million.In times of trouble in the past, most notably during the first molestation case, Jackson has turned to drugs. Kat Pellicano remembers a very high Michael Jackson in her house in August 1993, nodding out and drinking glass after glass of orange soda. Kat is a former wife of Anthony Pellicano, the private investigator who worked back then for Jackson's attorneys Bert Fields and Howard Weitzman. Fields has been questioned in a current F.B.I. investigation involving Pellicano's use of wiretapping for clients. Pellicano, who is now in jail, was then the muscle the Jackson team used to intimidate potential witnesses against the singer and to accuse Jordie Chandler's father of extortion. After the first molestation scandal broke, "Anthony wanted to get Michael out of the country as soon as possible," Kat says. "When Michael came into the house, my three-year-old daughter asked if he were a boy or a girl. I told her a boy—that some boys had long hair. 'But do they wear makeup?'" That day Kat drove her husband and Jackson to the airport, where they boarded a private jet for Asia. A few months later Jackson checked himself into a London detox center.

Neverland's Lost Boys | vanityfair.com

News from DEA, Domestic Field Divisions, New Orleans News Releases, 06/25/09

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2009
Contact: Special Agent Warren Rivera
Number: (504) 840-1070

Defendants in Mississippi Charged in Multi-Pound
Methamphetamine Conspiracy

JUN 25-- Jackson, Miss - Acting United States Attorney Stan Harris, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Director Marshall Fisher, Drug Enforcement Administration New Orleans Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jimmy S. Fox III, (DEA) Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Joel K. Reece, Rankin County (District 20) District Attorney Michael Guest, and Pike County (District 14) District Attorney Dee Bates announce the culmination of a one year joint federal and state investigation targeting a large methamphetamine distribution organization operating in the State of Mississippi and elsewhere.

Members of this organization imported into and distributed up to 50 pounds of methamphetamine per month during the course of this conspiracy. Until today, this organization was the largest identified methamphetamine distribution enterprise operating in the State of Mississippi. It was a highly structured criminal organization that has a demonstrated history of violence to facilitate its drug trafficking activities.

On June 23, 2009, teams of state, local, and federal law enforcement officers arrested numerous defendants and executed multiple search warrants at locations in Walthall, Lincoln, Pike, Marion, Hinds, and Rankin Counties. Related enforcement operations were also conducted in Florida and Alabama today.

The arrests were the result of a joint investigation between the DEA Jackson Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Enforcement Group, and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. Also participating in the investigation were: the Lincoln, Marion, Pike, Rankin, and Walthall County Sheriff ’ s Departments, the Brandon, Pearl, Richland, Florence and Ridgeland, Mississippi Police Departments, Hinds County (District 7) District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith, and Marion County (District 15) District Attorney Hal Kitrell. U.S. Marshal Nehemiah Flowers and the U.S. Marshal Service Gulf Coast Fugitive Force were also recognized for their assistance in arresting those indicted as part of the operation.

As a result of this investigation agents seized numerous pounds of methamphetamine with a street value exceeding 1.5 million dollars. Also seized were 5 vehicles (two of which had hidden compartments), 2 stolen motorcycles, 2 stolen 4-wheelers, over 50 firearms at least one of which is believed to be a fully automatic assault rifle, and 3 silencers. Additional arrests/indictments are anticipated as this investigation continues.

Acting U.S. Attorney Stan Harris praised the cooperative efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement. Harris noted that methamphetamine is one of the most highly addictive of all narcotics, and its production and distribution rank among the most destructive criminal enterprises in the State of Mississippi.

DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge of Mississippi Joel Reece stated that, “T his investigation and subsequent arrests of these individuals resulted in the complete dismantlement of a sophisticated drug trafficking organization responsible for the distribution of significant quantities of methamphetamine into Mississippi. This success can be attributed to an outstanding partnership between DEA and our state and local counterparts combined with guidance and aggressive prosecution from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, and the aforementioned District Attorneys. ”

MBN Director Marshall Fisher stated that “ this violent organization has operated with impunity for some time, and is responsible for distributing multi-pound quantities of Mexican methamphetamine over a significant period of time. We believe the arrests and successful prosecution of this entire organization will significantly impact the availability of this highly addictive illicit narcotic in the state of Mississippi.

Fisher added that “ this investigation has been a team effort from its initiation. The tireless efforts of agents and prosecutors in this investigation have resulted in what may be the most significant blow to methamphetamine distribution in the history of Mississippi drug enforcement. To have simultaneous multi federal and state charges in so many different areas of our state is an indicator of the significance of the accomplishments in this investigation. ”

As in any criminal case, a person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The charges filed merely contain allegations of criminal conduct.