Denise Lee Porter

faith,hope, affiliate & network marketing & anything else that’s on my mind

10 Things They Aren’t Saying About Michael Jackson

26 June 2009 12 Comments

Michael Jackson and I were exposed to America in the same year 1969. The Jackson 5 landed their first megahit “I Want You Back” and I landed in New York City. Michael Jackson with (and without) his brothers provided the soundtrack of my life - and a beautiful and memorable soundtrack it is.

I remember house parties in Brooklyn apartments from Ebbets Field to Vanderveer where the kids entertained the adults by mimicking the choreography of “I Want You Back”, “ABC”, and “The Love You Save”. I wasn’t in love with Michael, my heart belonged to Sigmund Esco Jackson the older brother with whom I created an inner fantasy life (if you have never listened to his album, you should run out and get it right now). Michael’s songs “Ben”, “Got To Be There”, and “I Wanna Be Where You Are” took me from puberty into my teenage years.

My 2 oldest children watched “Thriller” every day, over and over and over, we wore the tape out. I think the fact that my son Khalil is a professional dancer and choreographer today is due in large part to Michael and Thriller. My youngest Jalen loved Moonwalker, we wore that tape out too and moved on to the Ones DVD.

So it just makes me want to “Scream” that the foucs right now is on how strange Michael was, and whether or not he molested children, and his many surgeries etc etc.. I had a real honest to God childhood, Michael didn’t as evidenced in this song

Have you seen my Childhood?
I’m searching for the world that I come from
‘Cause I’ve been looking around
In the lost and found of my heart…
No one understands me
They view it as such strange eccentricities…
‘Cause I keep kidding around
Like a child, but pardon me…

I learned how to interact with people as I grew older, I don’t think Michael ever learned how to trust adults, or handle money or any of that normal stuff. At the end of the day (I believe) he was a good human being, who left us with some wonderful music - his and the music of those he inspired (Usher, Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown, Neo, Ginuwine, Beyonce and on and on).

Here are just a few things I admire about Michael Jackson:

He made the Guinness Book of World records for basically being the superstar who gave to the highest number of charities in 2000
He gave anonymously to parents who lost their children to gang violence so that they could bury said children
He donated 300 million dollars to various charities
It was reported that he bought Little Richards catalog (which little Richard did not own, story for another day) and gave it back to him so that Little Richard could benefit from his own royalties - this brought Little Richard to tears
Neverland was not just a private amusement park for him, it was also a part of his charitable giving
He didn’t steal the Beatles catalog - it was available, he bid on it and won, Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono were not interested initially.
He was guilty of random and anonymous acts of kindness
He donated money from his tours to orphanages and hospitals all over the world
He can beatbox and he legally patented his patented smooth criminal lean (http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/06/25/michael-jacksons-pat.html) (thank u Chris)

Feel free to leave a comment and add to my list,

I am declaring this a MJ no bash zone - there are plenty of other blogs where you can go talk bad about Michael, this isn’t one of them.

RIP Michael Joseph Jackson - thanks for the memories.

12 Comments »

edythemighty's status on Saturday, 27-Jun-09 03:42:17 UTC - Identi.ca said:

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# 26 June 2009 at 10:42 pm

Rahsheen said:

I’m assuming you meant for us to add the last 2?

# 26 June 2009 at 10:49 pm

Denise Lee (author) said:

Yes please do, P90x made my brain freeze

# 26 June 2009 at 10:56 pm

Bec Rowe said:

Awesome post, Denise. It really brought me to tears. I knew he was quite the philanthropist, but I had no idea!

# 26 June 2009 at 11:18 pm

Chris said:

9. he can beatbox. and he legally patented his patented smooth criminal lean (http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/06/25/michael-jacksons-pat.html)

# 26 June 2009 at 11:26 pm

Woody said:

“Beat It” was the FIRST video to have ALL of the participants’ dancing choreographed.

# 27 June 2009 at 9:12 am

Lucy Lopez said:

What a great post Denise. I believe that Michael Jackson shaped our world and mostly for the better…

# 27 June 2009 at 10:10 am

Diane said:

Paul McCartney was never *not* interested in getting back the Beatles catalogue. The prob was he couldn’t strike a deal w/Yoko, who’d said they could get it back for less than what it was being asked.

The prob w/Neverland is it took such a lot money to maintain. Since he wasn’t a legal “registered charity,” none of the money for its maintenance was tax deductable. Perhaps it could’ve been structured so that it was. I believe this put a huge strain on his finances that helped mire him in debt. Giving to charity is always good, but if you can’t do it w/i yr means, then it ends up backfiring on you, and you can’t keep giving. I don’t think he had a good grip on his business. For ex, once buying the Beatles catalogue, and then merging it w/Sony, just that alone would give you a very nice income to live on for the rest of yr life (and that’s assuming you do nothing to promote the catalogue, an that’s not counting $$ from other sources, like his own records, merch, etc). Yet he had to sell half of his interest to Sony as he needed the money.

The focus on all the stories/TV shows I’ve seen is on MJ’s music and dance. Don’t know what you’re looking at. Of course, I don’t have cable, and I don’t read everything on the internet. I never read, for ex, that he “stole” the Beatles catalogue anywhere.

# 27 June 2009 at 10:43 am

Denise Lee (author) said:

Hi Diane, I did try to do my due diligence before writing anything. I believe that at first Sir Paul thought the catalog was too expensive, then he thought to try to get Yoko interested. And unfortunately I do have cable, heavy focus on what was wrong w/MJ .

# 27 June 2009 at 11:26 am

laura said:

i too was supposed to have married michael…i’m so grateful that we (those of us old enough to appreciate the early years) were around then… his music for me represents the transition from childhood innocence to becoming a grown-up.

denise — thank you for doing your research — i had no idea (but i’m not surprised).

i went to a dance class yesterday… they’re supposed to play salsa and merengue …. but yesterday they played thriller for the last 10 minutes. i never knew the choreography before. i danced, smiled and laughed. everyone in the class was all smiles. i walked away from the class sooooo happy — that’s what michael’s music was about. genuine, pure joy. Marvin was about passion, Bob was righteous consciousness and Michael was just about fun. Each one of them helped shape my formative years — i am thankful that I had them, though only briefly.

# 28 June 2009 at 7:48 am

Denise Lee (author) said:

My husband asked me last night if I thought Bob Marley or Michael Jackson was the biggest musical icon. I’ll tell him what you said, makes perfect sense. Funny you mention Marvin, I am still mad at his father to this day, I guess I hold a grudge pretty good. Or maybe i don’t like anything to stop the music.

# 28 June 2009 at 8:24 am