Many performers can impress or delight, but only a few can astonish. Michael Jackson did it twice. The first time was October 1969, when the hit single "I Want You Back" introduced a cherubic 11-year-old boy who sang with unbelievable maturity, soulfulness and swing. The second was March 1983, when the prodigy -- now grown tall, thin and angular – moon walked through an electrifying "Billie Jean," leaving a national television audience slack-jawed at how effortlessly he defied the laws of physics. 
Jackson's personal trajectory, though, was excruciating to watch. I've never put much stock in the idea that genius always devours those whom it favors. Jackson had flaws and weaknesses, to put it mildly, but so do we all. Money and celebrity make it possible for the rich and famous to succumb to their worst instincts. The blood-sucking parasites who surrounded Jackson all his life made that surrender not just possible but inevitable.
From the beginning -- from the moment when Joe and Katherine Jackson decided to mold their children not into a family but into an act -- Michael was the meal ticket. No offense to Jackie, Marlon, Tito and Jermaine, but if they had auditioned for Motown's Berry Gordy Jr. as the "Jackson 4," he'd have sent them back to Gary, Ind., on the next bus. Michael was the star.
Jackson once said his father used to beat him, perhaps because he was the "golden child." Joe Jackson has always denied being physically abusive, but in a sense it doesn't matter. It seems to me that attaching oneself to one's young son like a leech and denying that boy any semblance of a childhood qualifies as abuse.
From the beginning -- from the moment when Joe and Katherine Jackson decided to mold their children not into a family but into an act -- Michael was the meal ticket. No offense to Jackie, Marlon, Tito and Jermaine, but if they had auditioned for Motown's Berry Gordy Jr. as the "Jackson 4," he'd have sent them back to Gary, Ind., on the next bus. Michael was the star.
Jackson once said his father used to beat him, perhaps because he was the "golden child." Joe Jackson has always denied being physically abusive, but in a sense it doesn't matter. It seems to me that attaching oneself to one's young son like a leech and denying that boy any semblance of a childhood qualifies as abuse.
Jackson once spoke in an interview of working late into the night in a studio across the street from a playground -- and crying because he wanted to be playing on the swings and the slide, not singing the same song into a microphone again and again.On the road, Michael didn't spend time with boys his age. He bunked with his older brothers, who were past puberty -- and who, quite naturally, had a keen interest in the groupies who would accost them backstage and ask to come up to the room. It's not a stretch to imagine that Michael might emerge with some confused ideas and feelings about human sexuality.
When Michael set out on his own, he was able to make his own decisions for the first time. But he had had no practice in making decisions, and while the career choices he made were superb -- the albums he made at the beginning of his collaboration with uber-producer Quincy Jones, "Off the Wall" and "Thriller," are towering classics -- his personal choices were incompetent, unwise and increasingly bizarre.
Jackson, who grew up in a troubled and abusive home, first gained fame as the youngest member of the Jackson 5, comprised of him and his siblings and managed by his father. During their carreer, the group would have numerous hits to their credit, not least of all Never Can Say Goodbye, I'll Be There, and ABC. Jackson would leave, pursuing a solo carreer in 1975.While his first album Off the Wall produced his first solo hit, Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, his rocket to iconic status was cemented with the release of Thriller. The video to the title song would become legendary, and the album itself was a plethora of hits. It moved by some estimates 109 million units, and has been called the best selling album of all time. Not to mention the fact that one song from the album, Billie Jean, inspired a historic moment in television history.Jackson followed this success with continued recordings, none of them achieving quite the level of success of Thriller but selling well nonetheless. He married Lisa Marie Presley in 1993, but would divorce two years later. The timing of the wedding was under a cloud of suspicion, as he was accused of having sexual assaulted a 13-year-old boy, prompting a lengthy and ultimately very expensive lawsuit. Eccentric behavior and multiple plastic surgeries made Jackson the butt of many jokes, and his finances began to fall apart, prompting the auctioning of much of his property and the sale of his famed Neverland Ranch.At the time of his death, Jackson was preparing for a 50-show run in the UK. Despite his lesser moments, Jackson also did give tirelessly to charity, and his songwriting ability is without question. His influence on pop music will last for years to come.
