troubleman84
Proud Member
In fact I kinda compare it to Tina Turner a little. She went through hellacious moments with Ike Turner as her ruler and yet she went on that stage with bruises, being forced out pregnant, bleeding, black-eyed (she had to wear glasses sometimes when she was on TV during the sixties) and yet she eventually left his control and found peace of mind. Michael's situation is quite different since Joe was his father and it's obviously hard to just blame Joe.
We have a little young kid who begged his father to let him perform and he had to be turned down because he was too little. In fact, when the Jackson 5 first started, he and Marlon played percussionists but Joe told the both of them that they were too young to sing and dance. Michael eventually got in around the time he was seven as at least a co-lead and Michael provided the missing spark from the group so Joe pushed him the hardest.
It wasn't really so much the abuse (or hard-ass discipline) that traumatized Michael, it was Joe's reaction to his and his brothers' performances. He never knew how to show love for his children or appreciation for their performances. Michael also suffered the effects of being a Jehovah's Witness in the brisk of a rising career as an entertainer at the age of 11, being told by PR to shorten his age so he can look cuter and dealing with off-stage antics that his brothers and father got into because they were now rock stars. Michael faced a lot of dilemma and went into so much bull, no wonder you can say by the time he was 18 that he still felt like he was 11 because Michael was scared to "grow up" because he felt that growing up meant you had no heart and he surrounded himself with children for that reason.
The problem with that was even if it was nice that Michael seem to win kids' hearts, it was still wrong by societal standards. In the early years of his burgeoning solo fame, Michael had a good team of people keeping him from being too open about it, by "Thriller", Michael felt that he should share his love for things that traditionally kids under 18 were into like Disney and stuff. But he also felt like an old man on stage, people used to tell him in the sixties that he was like a "40-year-old midget" and I guess a part of Michael felt 40 years older than he really was, so here's a young man going through a dilemma. That could also explain why some of his friends were very YOUNG (Emmanuel Lewis, Macaulay Culkin, Brett Barnes, etc.) and very OLD (Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck, Katharine Hepburn, etc.)
And that's what made "Living with Michael Jackson" a sad documentary because while it obviously had good moments like him showcasing his playful side and sharing the time with underprivileged kids from the inner city (not the ones Mike Epps referred to in his comedy special) it showed a man who was tormented by a lot of people, used by a lot of people and having so many demons that it was so hard for him to explain to an idiot like Martin Bash-His-Face why he does what he does. And that was definitely something of a set-up because it brought him to the stupid trial that came with him and that "boy" that he "saved from cancer". And the saddest of it all was that Michael shouldn't even have to answer back when people were criticizing him for the LWMJ docu that he went on and did TWO more specials to say "look I'm not crazy". I would think he have a "I don't give a damn" attitude during the first docu but it was obvious Michael was trying to tell people "look you don't know me".
And to tell you the truth, that documentary still didn't really tell me who Michael Jackson is (I think the Home Movies did tho) because Bash-It chose to twist Michael into weird directions. To this day, I still question why the hell Michael Joe Jackson, Sr. had to do that stupid interview. If he had went to ED BRADLEY in the first go-round, I don't even think we'd be mentioning "trial" and "Michael Jackson" in the same sentence.
It's even sadder that such a f***ed-up documentary as Bash-It's was made some of y'all younger members FANS in the first place of his music when you could've learned about him earlier but then again I understand.
We have a little young kid who begged his father to let him perform and he had to be turned down because he was too little. In fact, when the Jackson 5 first started, he and Marlon played percussionists but Joe told the both of them that they were too young to sing and dance. Michael eventually got in around the time he was seven as at least a co-lead and Michael provided the missing spark from the group so Joe pushed him the hardest.
It wasn't really so much the abuse (or hard-ass discipline) that traumatized Michael, it was Joe's reaction to his and his brothers' performances. He never knew how to show love for his children or appreciation for their performances. Michael also suffered the effects of being a Jehovah's Witness in the brisk of a rising career as an entertainer at the age of 11, being told by PR to shorten his age so he can look cuter and dealing with off-stage antics that his brothers and father got into because they were now rock stars. Michael faced a lot of dilemma and went into so much bull, no wonder you can say by the time he was 18 that he still felt like he was 11 because Michael was scared to "grow up" because he felt that growing up meant you had no heart and he surrounded himself with children for that reason.
The problem with that was even if it was nice that Michael seem to win kids' hearts, it was still wrong by societal standards. In the early years of his burgeoning solo fame, Michael had a good team of people keeping him from being too open about it, by "Thriller", Michael felt that he should share his love for things that traditionally kids under 18 were into like Disney and stuff. But he also felt like an old man on stage, people used to tell him in the sixties that he was like a "40-year-old midget" and I guess a part of Michael felt 40 years older than he really was, so here's a young man going through a dilemma. That could also explain why some of his friends were very YOUNG (Emmanuel Lewis, Macaulay Culkin, Brett Barnes, etc.) and very OLD (Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck, Katharine Hepburn, etc.)
And that's what made "Living with Michael Jackson" a sad documentary because while it obviously had good moments like him showcasing his playful side and sharing the time with underprivileged kids from the inner city (not the ones Mike Epps referred to in his comedy special) it showed a man who was tormented by a lot of people, used by a lot of people and having so many demons that it was so hard for him to explain to an idiot like Martin Bash-His-Face why he does what he does. And that was definitely something of a set-up because it brought him to the stupid trial that came with him and that "boy" that he "saved from cancer". And the saddest of it all was that Michael shouldn't even have to answer back when people were criticizing him for the LWMJ docu that he went on and did TWO more specials to say "look I'm not crazy". I would think he have a "I don't give a damn" attitude during the first docu but it was obvious Michael was trying to tell people "look you don't know me".
And to tell you the truth, that documentary still didn't really tell me who Michael Jackson is (I think the Home Movies did tho) because Bash-It chose to twist Michael into weird directions. To this day, I still question why the hell Michael Joe Jackson, Sr. had to do that stupid interview. If he had went to ED BRADLEY in the first go-round, I don't even think we'd be mentioning "trial" and "Michael Jackson" in the same sentence.
It's even sadder that such a f***ed-up documentary as Bash-It's was made some of y'all younger members FANS in the first place of his music when you could've learned about him earlier but then again I understand.
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