Maybe we should remember the actual man in the mirror

[Daniel B. Kline]

By Daniel B. Kline

Exactly how many hit singles does a singer need for people to forget that he was likely a child molester? If you only have a couple is it okay to rob a store or maybe to beat your wife? Perhaps Huey Lewis gets a free pass on a speeding ticket but Paul McCartney could murder a hobo with nobody thinking negatively about him.

Michael Jackson recorded a lot of hit songs many years ago, but he hardly deserved the fawning praise he has received since his death. Though never convicted of anything, Jackson was repeatedly the subject of allegations of child molestation. These accusations made public the revelation that the singer spent nights alone in his bedroom (housed in a giant amusement park) with young boys.

In addition to simply spending the night, more than one of these boys told tales of drinking wine and actually sharing a bed with Jackson. Clearly no grown man, no matter how childish, should behave this way and it's wildly inappropriate at best, criminal most likely. When you're rich and famous though, the law hardly matters as the singer paid out millions to make potential accusers keep their mouths shut.

An important performer who became the biggest singer in the world for a time, Jackson's skills as a showman essentially forced MTV to play his videos. That broke barriers for black artists and ultimately changed the face of music history. He also had a lot of hit songs, wrote "We are the World" and created the long-form video with "Thriller."

The so-called (and self-named) "King of Pop" was never my cup of tea as I may have been the only person in my elementary school class to not own or enjoy "Thriller." This did not spare me from having to see the endless making of video at more than one birthday party, but it did mean I never donned a single glove or a rhinestone covered shirt.

After his early run of hits, Jackson slowly faded into artistic irrelevancy. He released increasingly more ridiculous albums and became even weirder adopting pseudo-military garb while turning his skin white and his hair straight. For many years, Jackson was more famous as weirdo than as a singer, but all that was seemingly forgotten when he dropped dead suddenly.

It's one thing to appreciate the man's music, but quite another to not even acknowledge his failures as a man. It would be like writing Phil Spector biography and not mentioning the last couple years or doing a documentary on Bernie Madoff and leaving out the whole Ponzi scheme thing.

I never loved Jackson's music and honestly like it even less now as most of his songs have aged badly. Like an episode of "I Love Lucy," or "The Carol Burnett Show," Jackson's once cutting edge material now seems dated and stale. "Thriller" was never a good song and the list of cheesy Jackson songs far exceeds the list of classics.

Still, if you love his music, pay tribute to the songs, not the man who created them. I don't remember Michael Jackson as a moonwalking hitmaker. I remember him as a sheltered weirdo who probably molested kids.

Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. When he is not writing Kline serves as general manager of Time Machine Hobby New England's largest hobby and toy store, www.timemachinehobby.com. He can be reached at [e-mail] or you can see his archive at dbkline.com or befriend him at facebook.com/dankline.

[John]

You knew Michael Jackson from a buffer- from the media- you did not know him neither did I. Why he would want to look lame, I mean white, I have no idea. His musical talent was great even if he did not suit your taste.

He was supposedly abused by his father and many others- and exploited from there on. He lived it seems a life of fantasy- a shame very much like Elvis.

But evil - no- he was no Dick Cheney or Rumsfield or major Capitalist, he was an entertainer and therefore a servant of the people like lawyers, doctors, mail men, sanitation men, teachers, Architects, and so on.

A troubled human being yes but not evil as Dick Cheney et, al.

[Daniel B. Kline]

Why does everything have to be ideological? Does every argument relate back to Republicans are evil? The only people against capitalism are those who are not good at it.