" ... and the three men I admire most, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast the day the music died."
Who hasn't heard this cult classic song by Don McLean, "American Pie." As the learned rock & roll fans know, "The day when the music died," which McLean sings about, refers to the accident that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper -- when their plane crashed out of a chilly and dark sky in 1959. Well, for now, and forever more, Monday, June 13th, 2005, will be known as "The day when the music lived."
Granted, we all felt an uncomfortable chill up our spine as Michael Jackson declared, breathtakingly casually, during that infamous 2002 Martin Bashir interview that: "The most loving thing to do is to share your bed with someone [talking about little boys]. It's a beautiful thing. It's very right. It's very loving." But to paraphrase Jackson's spiritual adviser, Jesse Jackson, who spoke on CNN on the night of the O.J.-esque verdict, we need to look at this statement within the context of Michael Jackson's mind. Okay, call it a case of the blind leading the blind, but Jesse's argument needs to be considered. Michael Jackson has, or hopefully had, a gravely disproportionate naive view of the world.
In his Peter Pan green glasses, he was enjoying a series of innocent sleepovers with the loving friends he never had growing up under Joe Jackson's stern rule. Bashir was entirely right to tell him, "But you are NOT Peter Pan; you are Michael Jackson." A grown man should know better. But should Michael have gone to jail for being strange?
I don't think so.
But it's undisputable that Michael Jackson needs to check himself and his actions seriously. As Jermaine Jackson told Larry King, his brother now needs to seriously think about who he lets into his life. Jermaine's fear, however, is that Michael will now become a recluse and close himself off from the world. As the King of Pop remains hidden behind the walls of Neverland, we wait and see if the music will indeed live again.
Jackson's lawyer, Thomas Mesereau, recently confirmed that Jackson will no longer hold sleepovers with boys at his ranch. “He’s not going to make himself vulnerable to this anymore,” Mesereau says. Likewise, Jesse Jackson has advised Michael to avoid any "appearance of impropriety."
Like it or not, Michael has to undergo yet another metamorphosis to reclaim not only his career but also his life. What remains to be seen is whether the world will once again listen when the music plays again. I have no doubt that Jackson will sing and dance again. He has to. It's in his genes. He may never again be the MJ of old during the Thriller heights, but I hope he keeps fighting for his musical legacy.
