The Hindu Business Line : In memoriam

“Seems to me, you lived your life like a candle in the wind,” could well be the musical tribute millions of Michael Jackson fans would want to sing to him. And like Elton John sings in Candle in the Wind, “Your candle burned out long before/ Your legend ever did.”

In his surreal passing too, the gifted singer has created history. His albums soar up musical charts in the US and the UK, and blogs and tweets spill over and slow down as fans connect in their outpouring of grief.

Even the bitter critic is forced to tip his hat, humbled by just one fact — that Jackson was loved by fans across the world, across generations and across economic strata.

When it comes to Jackson, it seems the biggest of celebrities also become fans! Not surprising then, tennis champion Serena Williams takes time out from Wimbledon to call Jackson the ‘celebrity of celebrities’; Amitabh Bachchan blogs his thoughts on him and A.R. Rahman remembers his dizzying meeting with Jackson.

There is something about Jackson that seems to connect differently with each of his fans. That makes it difficult to recreate the magic of Thriller, billed the biggest grosser of our times. That makes We are the World an anthem of sorts.

Scan YouTube and there are versions and versions of his iconic Thriller dance at the graveyard — with brides and grooms (to mention just the wedding series!) trying to match him step by step.

Blogs brim over with messages from Turkey to Romania, Russia to Poland, Bagdhad to Pakistan. And make no mistake, this is not blind adoration from a generation without heroes. This is the generation that fell in love with the Beatles, imagined with John Lennon, marvelled at Bruce Lee, idolised JFK, was mesmerised by Star Wars and boom-boomed with Boris Becker. And yet, there was a connection when the young, soft-spoken Michael Jackson blazed a trail at the Grammy Awards in the 1980s, making the award a cross-continental brand by the sheer stature of his personality and performances.

He broke the mould in many ways — paving the way for MTV to play music by Black artists. The earliest visuals of morphing were seen in his Black or White video. And he is even said to own a patent on a shoe that allows the dancer to lean forward in his gravity-defying dances! His reflective Man in the Mirror spoke of bringing about change, way before Barack Obama made it cool again.

Unfortunately, controversies and the theatre of the bizarre overtook his life, keeping him away from what he is best at — making and performing his music. Instead, the distance only seemed to grow, between Jackson and his fans, between his celebrity persona and the lonely, reclusive life he seemed to be living.

But there was hope again, when the frail and perceptibly tormented star was set to blaze a trail at what was to be his last concert in London. He was writing music for the environment. The thrilling wait had started all over. But now, we will never get to hear it from the genius himself, as his life was (as his own song says) gone too soon.

To take from another music great, Kenny Rogers, ‘They just don’t make ’em like you, anymore, Michael’!

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