Published: June 30, 2009 11:33 pm      

DUVALL: He was certainly one of a kind

I’ve been thinking, like many people this week, about the life and death of Michael Jackson.

He was many things; the greatest entertainer and one of the greatest curiosities of our time. It’s likely that when I look back on life, he will have been one of the most famous people with whom I walked the earth. And for that reason and many others, it seems appropriate to spend a moment examining just who this strange man was and why he was so popular.

In talking about his death, people seem to be in two camps. The first would be those of us who first think of Michael the Entertainer. The man who moon-walked across a stage in every living room in America. The child prodigy whose inexplicably soulful 8-year-old voice taught us “ABC.”

And then there are those whose first impulse is to revile him as a pedophile and a freak.

A court exonerated him of the criminal charges, but the court of public opinion still holds that Jackson had a creepy fondness for young boys. All the plastic surgery, the “Neverland” ranch, the strange marriages and behavior. It’s a morbid tableau.

I can’t let go of the darker angels that manifested themselves in such bizarre ways, but neither can I use them to cast aside one of the few remaining cultural touchstones we have.

As comedian Chris Rock quipped upon Jackson’s child molestation trial after years of rumors, “We liked Michael so much we forgave him for the first kid.”

Last Thursday I had occasion to slip out of the office early for a happy hour drink with some friends. Michael’s death had just been confirmed. I listened on the radio as NPR aired a thoughtful obituary on the radio. And as I reached my destination, I walked into a bar full of people listening to his music and watching the coverage on closed-caption cable news.

I was struck by several things. First, after more than an hour of hearing his music, I realized just how much I like it. Of course there was his 1983 mega-hit album “Thriller.” But the songs kept coming, one after another. I knew all the words. Everyone knew all the words.

Our society doesn’t produce the likes of Beethoven or Mozart anymore. But for what we do create, Michael Jackson fits that mold. He stands alongside — perhaps even taller than — the likes of Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Frank Sinatra. He was that good.

Then I got to wondering, who was more famous than Michael Jackson? Put presidents past and present aside and give me a name more people know. Give me a face more recognizable. If he were a brandname, he’d be Coca-Cola. People the world over knew this man. There are but a handful of individuals who can list a couple billion references on their resume.

And then I got to thinking, who’s next? Who is our next popular culture icon? I drew a blank.

There may never be another person as famous. As our society becomes increasingly fragmented, it becomes more and more difficult for one person to achieve that kind of celebrity. The Michael Jacksons of the world have ceded ground to the YouTube flavor of the moment. Gone are the days of his famous performances at the Super Bowl and the Motown 25th anniversary — images so readily called from memory as to make them almost our own. In their place, we have the latest jackass to fall off a ladder changing a light bulb.

Like him or hate him, Michael Jackson was a cultural phenomenon. I sat and watched news footage of a spontaneous memorial that night in front of the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Hundreds of people gathered, singing old Jackson 5 tunes and dancing in the street. It was enough to make you cry — not for Michael Jackson, but for the celebration he enabled so many others, especially African-Americans, to have. For almost 50 years, he was a part of our lives, a soundtrack to our celebrations and a first-rate entertainer. Others have worn fame more gracefully, but few had as much of it as he did.

With all of that in mind, we can safely say there will never be another one like him.

And so it seems strangely appropriate that this most famous man’s life was best summed up in a line he sang when he was just a child. So true was it, when he sang, “Where there is love, I’ll be there.”

Though marred by tragedy, abuse and his own bad decisions, so too did Michael Jackson’s life make the world a better place. If only he’d looked at himself and made a change.

Managing Editor Eric DuVall’s column appears every Wednesday and Sunday. Contact him at 693-1000, ext. 112, or by e-mail to eric.duvall@tonawanda-news.com.