The day the music died
If you thought you knew everything there was to know about Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, who left this world suddenly on Thursday, 25 June, then think again.
Michael’s tragically short life was the focus of more hype and nonsense than any person should endure – even if much of the “Wacko Jacko” image was self-inflicted or generated by those around him. There was, for example, his friendship with Bubbles; his incredible Neverland Ranch; the strangeness of his changing appearance over the years, the allegations of child molestation and, of course, the masks that hid his face but never his identity.
These were all distractions from what really mattered, which was the huge appeal of his music and of his incredible talent as a performer. For many, 25 June, 2009, will be “the day the music died” – to quote the memorable line from Don McLean’s chart-topping American Pie, which he wrote to commemorate the 1959 plane crash which killed Buddy Holly, Richard Valens and The Big Bopper (when Michael Jackson was just six months old).
There was a deeper, spiritual dimension to Michael Jackson’s life that has been largely overlooked by the global media. His spiritual quest took him in many directions and brought him into contact with the likes of Scientology, Islam, Rabbi Shmuley Boreach, Uri Geller and Deepak Chopra.
It is Chopra who has given the most moving insight into Michael’s personality and spiritual quest since his death.
Jackson on his Off The Wall album cover
Michael is also reported to have had a keen interest in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, and to have seen a flying saucer from the cockpit of an aircraft. A tribute to this aspect of Michael Jackson’s life was being aired on Coast to Coast AM (Sunday, 28 June, 02:30 Eastern Time, US) when Michael Luckman, author of Alien Rock: the Rock ‘ n’ Roll Extraterrestrial Connection will discuss, among other things, Michael’s desire to build a high tech landing pad in the Nevada Desert to welcome aliens to Earth … I promise you, I’m not making this up!
It is possible that Michael had a premonition of an early death. His first wife, Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis, certainly thinks so. On her MySpace blog headlined “He knew” she reveals that years ago they were having a deep conversation about life in general.
“He stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, ‘I am afraid that I am going to end up like [Elvis Presley], the way he did.’ I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.”
Elvis Presley’s death at the age of 42 was attributed to health problems and drug addiction. Autopsy reports on Michael will reveal if drugs also caused his death at the age of 50, as media reports are suggesting.
Interestingly, Deepak Chopra’s son Gotham – then 17-years-old – travelled with Jackson as a roadie on his “Dangerous tour”. During one of their conversations he told Gotham: “I don’t want to go out like Brando. I want to go out like Elvis.”
Was Michael Jackson born to be a pop legend? His mother, Katherine Jackson, has said: “I don’t believe in reincarnation but you know how babies are uncoordinated? He never moved that way. When he danced he was like an older person.”
Someone who does believe in reincarnation is Dr Walter Semkiw, who has made quite a name for himself as the author of books which identify the previous lives of famous people. Often, there seems to be a striking physical resemblance between the two.
Was this how Michael Jackson looked in a previous life?
According to Semkiw, Michael Jackson had previously lived as 15th century musician and singer Charles Dassoucy (pictured right), an associate of the French playwright Molliere. Dassoucy was dubbed “the Emperor of Entertainers”, just as Michael became the “King of Pop”. Semkiw believes the pop star had plastic surgery because he was trying to look like Dassoucy in this incarnation. And he says his interest in young boys was the result of a previous life, in the Crusades 1,000 years ago, when he was killed as a child soldier.
I’ll leave you to make your own minds up about those claims. What is undeniable is that Michael Jackson was a musical genius who deserved the adulation he received.
I’d like to think that we can now close the book on his troubled life and just enjoy his musical legacy. Sadly, that’s unlikely to happen. I’m sure it is just a matter of days before the tabloids tell us that some publicity-hungry or self-deluded medium is claiming to have made contact with Michael from beyond the grave (just as one Florida “medium” claims to channel Elvis Presley, Princess Diana and President John F. Kennedy).
I’ll let you know when it happens … and don’t expect me to be kind. I intend to name and shame!
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