Why am I crying at Michael Jackson's memorial service? I mean, apart from the obvious - the death of an extraordinary man, a family's loss, the fact that one of my cats just scratched me...
I thought I was above - opposed to - these public outpourings of grief. When Princess Diana died, I was the guy reminding people that she was actually a bit of a slut who needed her hair sorting out. When Our Jade died, I was the guy pointing out that she was at best a moron, at worst a racist (but I didn't mention her hair). Yes, I was that guy.
But this is different. For one thing, Michael Jackson actually did something. There's no point me adding to the column inches/bandwidth by going over that again... but one of my earliest memories is of sitting in the dining room with my family and listening to Thriller and Off The Wall. Again and again and again.
Wrap up a lifetime of moments like that in a funeral service with a song from Stevie Wonder and a eulogy from Magic Johnson and you get me right now - a wreck. And no amount of Mariah Carey or on-screen messages telling me the Great British Foreign Holiday will be on some other time, or Paul Gambaccini saying things like "Usher has caressed the mother", can change that.
I hope you get to read this post before one of the hard, unsentimental bastards who also make up Manflet delete it (or me, when I come to my senses).
RIP MJ xoxo
3 comments:
I AGREE! RIP MJ!!!
Great post dude. It's all too easy just to remember Wacko Jacko and forget how amazing he was.
I think it was poor by the London Lite to have a feature on the funeral, but on the opposite page have a picture a drugged up man dangling a baby out of a window.
I think that was a tribute - one only marginally more tasteless than Usher's.
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