Michael Jackson - The King is Dead, Long Love the King

My reaction was, "the king is dead" and then my heart grew heavy and my mind numb. There are lines from so many of his songs that have made an indelible impression on me. "Don't tell me you agree with me, when I saw you kicking dirt in my eye" from Black or White is a beauty (there is a Hindi equivalent to it). When the video of Black or White finishes and we see faces morph into each other against the background of "Its black, its white, Its tough for you, yea yea yea...", it creates in our minds a possibility of a colorblind society - one with perfect integration. It will be certainly considered heartless of me when I say that Michael Jackson started his life as a "normal" black kid but didn't end it that way. He "morphed" his appearance over the years, like the ending of his song, perhaps to hide a skin condition, perhaps to live closer to his vision of a colorblind society, or perhaps for more bizarre reasons. In any case, the song ending became his life. God gave him so much - sense of rhythm, musical talent, ability to dance, and above all the courage to collaborate with the likes of Quincy Jones and Paul McCartney. With one song, Beat It, I remember a generation (in India) begin to identify with him.

"I'm starting with the man in the mirror, I'm asking him to change his ways, and No message could have been any clearer, If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change" is another classic verse - in this verse, Michael is almost Gandhian [like Mahatma Gandhi], who asked us to "be the change you'd like to see in th world". The choir singing the words "man in the mirror" at the end of the song and Michael improvising is a surreal experience; on that you can live over and over again on your favorite home theater system. Alas, the soul of that song has passed on to another dimension. Away from sycophants, flatterers, yes-men (or yes-women), and so-called advisers, I hope Michael finds the peace that eluded him here. A peace so everlasting that he would not be compelled to sing, "For you are not alone, For I am here with you, Though we're far apart, You're always in my heart"; rather, we'd be compelled to sing that song in his remembrance.