This, so far, is the best tribute I’ve read about Michael Jackson. It appeared in The Huffington Post
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When I was in my second year of college living on campus (at Columbia in NYC) with 4 suite mates, every time the phone rang, there was a race to answer it. Everyone wanted to be the guy to hear the “hello” on the other side just in case it was my friend Michael Jackson calling.
Most of those days, Michael was holed up on top of the Four Seasons, roughly 60 blocks away from where I lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan just near Harlem. I’d happily drift downtown, gain clearance from security downstairs who knew I was allowed free access to Michael’s suite, take the elevator all the way up and start ordering room service and watch movies on Mike’s tab.
Eventually, Michael and I would get down to work. He was working on a new album and asked me to help him write lyrics for songs. It was an informal relationship – I’d wander downtown with a backpack full of dictionaries, and thesauri, and rhyming books. Michael would hum songs and talk about what he wanted to say with the song and we’d try and marry our skillsets and come up with something. We came up with great stuff. Michael swore me to secrecy those days. I happily complied.
After we were done with those sessions – they’d usually go until about 2 AM or so – Michael would wander into the bathroom and come out with a sack he’d pulled out from under the toilet. In it, he kept several thousands of dollars. He’d ask me how much I wanted. I just sort of shrugged and he’d hand me a couple of thousand dollars. Soon, I’d be packing my dictionaries and thesauri and rhyming books in my backpack, calling my friends and telling them to meet me downtown. Within an hour, we’d be at Flashdancers “making it rain.”
Michael was always envious when I told him about my adventures with my friends. More than a few times, he’d get dressed up – dawning some sort of quasi-disguise – preparing to go with me, only to back down at the last minute or be held back by his security who would shake their heads and plainly say no to his misguided ambitions. Instead, he’d pour himself a tall glass of orange juice and settle in for the night to watch an old movie on TV, telling me to spend a few extra bucks for him. I happily complied.
My friendship with Michael was very special to me, and I like to think it was the same for him. Over the last few years, it always felt awkward to explain the origins of our friendship – that I met him initially when I was fifteen-years-old and that we instantly hit it off. I’d spend days at his Neverland Ranch, my sister, cousins, or other friends joining us in fantastical stretches filled with candy, arcade rides, late night movies and the absolute best chocolate chip cookies of all times. Likewise he’d visit our house in Massachusetts (he was very close to my father as well) where he’d sleep in the guest room. My mom got a great kick out of the fact that every morning Michael stayed, he’d try to make the bed (very badly) and offer to cook breakfast (very badly). Then when I was about 17, Michael invited me on the road with him – he was heading out to Europe on the biggest rock concert at the time (Dangerous tour) and wanted company. I begged and pleaded with my parents to let me go and they eventually said yes. Not a bad way to spend your summer vacation between junior and senior year of High School.
Over the years, as Michael faced his scandals, I often reflected on my own experiences with him as a teenager. People would ask me if I had endured anything strange or awkward with him. I’d answer truthfully that in all of my years with him, in every single moment, Michael was nothing but dignified and appropriate, never once doing anything that would be deemed scandalous with me. It was really that simple.
Check that. Back to those college days. One night he did call me in a panic. He had just gotten married to Lisa Marie Presley and needed advice – sex advice. He was incredibly nervous and said that he wanted to make sure that Lisa was impressed with his “moves.” He asked me if I had any advice. I answered with one word: “foreplay.”
“Really?” He answered. “Girls really like that?”
Over the last few years, Michael’s and my relationship evolved and matured greatly too. We both became fathers and that was the centerpiece of our most recent conversations the last few months. Returning the favor from my days as his “lyrical advisor,” he’s the one who monikered my half-Indian, half-Chinese son “The Chindian” which little Krishu Chen Xing Hua Chopra will now forever go by. We’d talk about how great it would be for our kids to grow up together, become as good friends as us, and set the world on fire. Michael admired the fact that I was able to find a wife, keep a wife, and gain her trust. I’d joke it was all about the foreplay! When his daughter Paris befell an accident a few years ago, he called my wife Candice (a physician) pleading for us to come to his house to check her out.
We did – Paris had fallen from a tree and cut herself deeply beneath the eye. Michael was devastated and confessed to me that he felt like the world’s worst father. I calmed him as Candice helped Paris get up from the bed where she lay so we could take her to the Emergency room to get some simple stitches. When I advised Michael of the plan, he pulled me into the bathroom, pulled a sack filled with thousands of dollars from beneath the toilet and asked me how much I needed for the Emergency room.
I shook my head: “this one’s on me.”
RIP in peace my friend.
Aha, so that’s why he brings his guests to the toilet. Those malicious minded Pinoy assistants who testified against him may have mistaken those acts as those of a pedo.
The way I look at him, and from the way his friends and co-workers speak highly of his professionalism, his demeanor, his sweetness, I guess its just that the little kid in Michael had refused to grow up, he is Peter Pan in Neverland, all because his father had denied him his childhod by pushing him to go onstage at a very young age. He was a fragile young child who never had a life of his own until his last moment.
He, his music, has touched many lives, mine not an exemption. There will never be another one like him. Ever.
BTW, Charise Pempengco would have been performing with Michael in his final tour. Michael chose her personally. Sayang.
OT:
Ellen, have you heard about Oplan August Moon? Will you be writing about it?
Syanga talaga siya. Those people/lawyer that sued him about child molestation are obviously after his money… It’s shame that his would be concert in UK this year was to suppose to propel him back to awesome status, it’s sad that he didn’t get to entertain the world one last time…
King of Pop, forever!
Tongue, so many rumors. we have to sift info.
This one is from the inspirational writer, Deepak Chopra, father of Gotham Chopra.
A Tribute to My Friend, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson will be remembered, most likely, as a shattered icon, a pop genius who wound up a mutant of fame. That’s not who I will remember, however. His mixture of mystery, isolation, indulgence, overwhelming global fame, and personal loneliness was intimately known to me. For twenty years I observed every aspect, and as easy as it was to love Michael — and to want to protect him — his sudden death yesterday seemed almost fated.
Two days previously he had called me in an upbeat, excited mood. The voice message said, “I’ve got some really good news to share with you.” He was writing a song about the environment, and he wanted me to help informally with the lyrics, as we had done several times before. When I tried to return his call, however, the number was disconnected. (Terminally spooked by his treatment in the press, he changed his phone number often.) So I never got to talk to him, and the music demo he sent me lies on my bedside table as a poignant symbol of an unfinished life.
Click here for the complete article.
Off topic: Akala ko something is going on. Binasa ko uli:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/28/honduras.president.arrested/index.html
Natawa ako… read on… me mapapansin kau.
I’ll set aside his being weirdo yet, there is no question, Michael Jackson is the undeniable King of Pop. I will never understand why he lived his life the way he did, during his last few years, but like millions of all of us, I will always remember him because of the music he created.
Yes, his music will live on. One of the most memorable song for me was – “We are the world”. This song was produced by Quincy Jones for the United Support Of Artists For Africa and would sell for a staggering 800,000 copies. I love the rest of his music but it was this song that continues to make my eyes misty when played. It’s not just the song, it’s not just Michael, it’s not just the great music, there’s something else, something very very important.
It’s a flawless music, it combined some great talents, very diverse and different musical personalities. But Quincy Jones was able to arrange and bring out the best, such that one beautiful music would come out of that group despite their utter differences.
This was also the reason why I have that such high of a respect to Quincy Jones.
And this was the other story of this great music by Michael Jackson.
One great teamwork.
“We are the world”.
Gotham should have testified for Michael when he was sued for molesting that Filipino boy. I am pretty sure the parents of the boy got all the money they had ever wanted.
Michael’s childhood was cut short when he started singing “Ben”. He was made to rake all the money for his family. It was a form of “slavery”.
I saw one of his interviews where he said that he always envied the normal kids. He could not get out of his box. He had to always “sing and perform”. No wonder he lived in a fantasy world bringing joy to countless kids.
He lived a very troubled life. Now, may he rest in peace…
My heart goes out for Michael Jackson. So gifted, yet so lonely.
MJ’s passing is a tremendous loss to the music world. He touched my life and his songs were part of my life’s soundtrack. RIP MJ.
Parang kuwento ni Elvis Presley; he retreated into a world of drugs. I suspect OD (overdose) ang ikinamatay. Sayang.
Many geniuses are cut down too young. You are left wondering what more they could have achieved had they lived longer. Kasama na diyan ang idol ni Tongue (I think), si Duane Allman – the lead guitarist bar none. Sa taste ko lang ha, patawarin ako ng mga disipulo ni Jimi Hendrix.
Despite the plaudits of the upbeat songs, I tended to go for the mellow songs of the Jackson 5 – One More Chance (catch that on youtube you who are too young to remember)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxPbu-AF6Ko
Got To Be There and I’ll Be There. MJ’s version is definitely better than the Mariah Carey version na ire nang ire, parang manok na nangingitlog. That is why, though I am proud as a Filipino, I don’t like Pempengco’s style – puro birit, puro ire. Sayang ang boses. Imagine that voice na hindi bumibirit; singing a la Natalie Cole.
By the way, if you think Pempengco is good, try this church choir girl’s (Tracy Sarmiento) version of Tanging Yaman. Reminds me of the masses in UP. Nasaan na kaya yung lead singer noong 1989?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvCJOAMjPNQ
The only act that did justice to MJ’s song was the Boyz II Men with Got To Be There
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkbIkARjFSM
and Toots Thielemans with a harmonica version of Ben (sorry wala sa youtube).
RIP MJ. Nawa’y sundan ka ng tiyanak at ng baboy.
Michael Jackson was rumored to have been molested as a child that is why he is acting in a weird way. If indeed he was molested is he justified to molest any child? If it was your child that was molested will the scars remain on him until he grows up or he will grow up just a normal human being. I think all these adjulation about a prodigy should now be studied and watched that nothing out of the ordinary will happen that their fame does not go to their heads. It seems that fame is almost a recipe for disaster.
Ah, saxnviolins. How come all the best musicians hit the bucket too early. You still remembered Duane, “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”. I would listen to all 38 mins of it over and over again. Or “Layla” with Eric Clapton. Just as I would listen to Jimi’s “Hey Joe”. There’s Janis Joplin, yes, Elvis, John Lennon, Luther Vandross, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Kurt Cobain, Dimebag Darrel, Bob Marley, Sid Vicious, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, – all dead and young.
Why not instead those over-blinged foul-mouth rappers who can’t even carry a tune? Or those bitches whose only claim to fame are their silicon stuffing in their racks and booties?
Sax n violins,
Galing mo humirit a: “RIP MJ. Nawa’y sundan ka ng tiyanak at ng baboy.”
All about MJ’s music. Sa dulo, political statement. Okay yun.
People in the show business die early because of abuses to their bodies, self-inflicted and otherwise.
At least, Jackson’s problem is over. Now, he can rest in peace, especially with even his former critics now saying he was one of the great musicians who had lived on this earth.
Meanwhile, why don’t the producers of Jackson’s scheduled tours go on with the project and call it a memorial tour? They may call on all those friends of his to pitch in to give a posthumous show that will show off the incredible talent of this star.
Sikat na sikat noon ang Jackson 5. Sila ang nagpakilala sa mundo ng mellow pop music. Walang hindi humanga sa kanila lalo sa mga rendition ni MJ ng Ben, I’ll Be There, Got to Be There, at maraming pang iba.
Sa Pilipinas naman, sikat ang Jackson Pigs sa pangunguna ng mag-asawang mike at gloria Jackson arroyo, iggy Jackson arroyo at magkapatid na mikey at dato.
Sikat sila sa mga kawalanghiyaan, kasinungalingan at nakasusulasok na kababuyan!
Some people call him wacko jacko or whatever but no one can deny that when it comes to music Michael Jackson is a genius.
Spent all afternoon yesterday listening to his greatest hits album and watched his 30th anniversary concert (on tv) with my 18 year old daughter who also adores him.
Rest In Peace Michael J. Your music will live on forever.
Elvis is the king, Michael is the king of pop. Both were celebrated for their art. Other things are immaterial to their art.
Noong buhay pa si MJ, habang kinakanta niya ang kanyang mga hits, ang buong mundo ay ay nakikisaliw at nagsasaya sa kanyang musika.
Itong si MPidal kapag umaatungal ng kasinungalingang parang kinakapong baboy, ang mga kampon nilang mga asal buwaya, limatik at buwitre ay parang mga malignong nagkakatuwaan sa pagpapasasa sa bunga ng kanilang mga kabulukan.
Kahit kailan, sa kabutihan o kaningningan ng accomplishments ng iba ay maikukumpara ang mga kawalanghiyaan ng mga ganid na namamahay sa malakanyang.
Bakit kaya hindi pa sila kunin ng kanilang panginoong si Lucifer para kumpleto na sila impiyerno?
Autopsy found Michael Jackson bald and weighing just 50kg. Read the rest of the story here
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25706262-5001021,00.html