Michael Jackson Is 50
Posted Fri 29 Aug 2008 3:13PM BST by Johnny Famethrowa in Touching The Void
Michael Jackson, indisputably one of the most famous and infamous stars of all pop'n'roll history, today turns 50. It would be an understatement to say he has squeezed in an awful lot in that half century. Considering his teflon way with the highest seats of power and self-designed affinity with The Big Man upstairs, not to mention that oxygen chamber, one wonders if he might make it to 100? Who knows. As it stands, Jacko has become the third pop culture figure of real enormity to chalk up five decades on Earth in 2008, alongside Madonna and Prince.In truth, it's difficult to see straight at the spectre of Michael Jackson nowadays, so inescapable, implausible and strange has his story been. On BBC radio this morning, Nicky Campbell interrogated one of his apostles, who mused on the still amazing reaction he gets from children. "Do they run away?", the host mischievously dead-panned. Meanwhile, completely unfunny funnyman Lenny Henry was somehow employed this week by The Independent to put together a personal birthday greeting within their pages. Both were born on August 29, 1958, but that's where the similarities end from a man who seems to have secured a lifetime contract with the BBC because he can imitate a wild animal.
Anyway, now is not the time for a Famethrowa hatchet job. Anyone looking for one of those should check-out Jacques Peretti's Channel 4 doc. Instead, let's celebrate the good, the bad and the ugly in the form of five video clips, one for each decade of his life, to encapsulate a celebrity who has done more than any other to enact a pop legacy and done more than any other to then rip it down. As for the man himself, he told ‘Good Morning America' today he is marking the occasion "having a wonderful time, just relaxing" and will spend the day eating cake with his children, watching cartoons. Clearly, we will not see the like of Michael Jackson again.
Jackson 5 "I Want You Back" and "ABC" medley
Michael Jackson "Thriller"
The Moonwalk, Mowtown 25 1983
The Brits 1996
"South Park" Mr Jefferson sketch
ROCK ON THE MICHAEL!WE ARE BOTH HALF A CENTURY NOW.
THANK YOU LORD,THANK YOU JESUS.
HENRY.