Brian Monteith: Jacko was a thriller .. but he wasn't the best

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 09:18

AM I alone in believing there's an awful lot of garbage now being written about Michael Jackson? Readers may come to think this column is an example of it – fair enough – but I can't be the only one who tires of modern society's tendency to embrace dewy-eyed prose and sentimental exhibitionism when a public figure dies.

Myths often become facts and impressive achievements are elevated into the status of genius as a motley retinue of commentators rush to join the morbid fan club of the latest dead celebrity.

The first real sign of this contemporary behaviour to display one's emotions so openly was following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, when the near sanctification of her life became a public pastime, egged on by genuine supporters, republicans wishing to ditch the Windsors and those spying an opportunity to make a quick buck. Well, now in our globalised age, the whole world is having its own Diana moment – this time with Jackson's sad death.

I understand the newspapers turning over ten or more pages full of photos, facts and people's comments when someone so popular as Jackson dies. I expect the radio channels to submerge us in a wall of sound using Jackson's impressive back catalogue, and I can handle the TV channels providing the latest news on the autopsy, the speculation surrounding his death, the looming fights over his estate and the custody of his children.

There will be many readers, listeners and viewers that want to follow these story lines. I don't, however, thank the local supermarket for using Jackson muzak while I shop for my weekly supply of liver, baked beans or aubergines and the like. Nor do I want my politicians pretending how hip they are by wearing their heart on their Saville Row sleeves we've paid for. But what I especially find nauseous are the pundits that try to tell me Jackson was a genius up there with Mozart and Beethoven and that his Moonwalk was more important than Neil Armstrong's (honest, it has been argued).

Such easy exaggeration drives me nuts, revealing as it does the sheer ignorance of the achievements of Jackson's contemporaries – such as Chuck Berry and Marvin Gaye – never mind greats such as Bach and Wagner, all of whom changed the way music was written. Popularity does not define genius, developing unique forms of expression does that.

The current eulogising goes too far and considers him out of context and grants him achievements he never claimed for himself. For instance, the Moonwalk was invented in the fifties by tap dancer Bill Bailey and performed before Jackson by David Bowie – Jackson's real achievement was to popularise the routine. Similarly, Jackson was not the first black star to air on MTV, as is often claimed. Eddy Grant and Musical Youth were there before him – but his sheer commerciality drove MTV in a new direction.

Let me put my reaction to Jackson's death in context. With a couple of chums at Porty High School, I ran a mobile disco in the seventies and eighties playing a lot of Tamla Motown and other soul food. I was a big Michael Jackson fan and had most of his or the Jackson Five singles.

I followed his career and was delighted when he teamed up with the great Quincy Jones to produce what I rate as his seminal album, Off The Wall, followed later by Thriller. For me he was not just a great singer, but also an all-round entertainer. Unfortunately after his split with Quincy, I felt his creative star began to wane.

Readers might laugh at my take on Jackson but I view him as no more a genius or a unique contributor to the development of popular entertainment than, say, Harry Lauder or Al Jolson – and I choose those two stars intentionally.

Porty's own Sir Harry Lauder was, at his height, the highest paid entertainer in the world and was the first British singer to sell more than a million records – in the days before official pop charts you couldn't get bigger than that. He wrote most of his own songs, such as Keep Right on to the End of the Road – which followed the death of his only son in the Great War.

Al Jolson is generally remembered only for starring in the first talkie movie – The Jazz Singer – but in fact achieved huge fame before and after that with over 80 hit records. Jolson's dynamic style, the growth of the movies and his daring challenge of racial segregation brought new sounds to new audiences.

Both laid the foundations for Jackson who, being able to call upon the benefits of television, then video and eventually satellite communication, had the world at his nimble feet. Jackson is, of course, bigger than both Lauder and Jolson combined – but only because the market available to him was bigger.

I'm not trying to deny Jackson's success, I love so much of his music. I just look forward to the fantastic hype melting away so that we genuinely enjoy his music and dance just like we do today, with entertainers like Elvis and Sinatra.