[Marxism] Michael Jackson's Business (was: Traffic spike)

[Lüko Willms]

Louis Proyect (lnp3 at panix.com) wrote on 2009-07-01 at 08:44:48 in  about 
[Marxism] Traffic spike:
> 
> 
> Elvis was fortunate enough to have a shrewd manager in Colonel Tom 
> Parker who invested the singers income wisely even as he squandered his 
> natural talents as a singer.
> 
> But Michael Jackson was not so fortunate. 

  on the contrary. Elvis Presley sold off the rights to his songs for small 
change, while Michael Jackson did the opposite: he bought the rights to an 
big chunk of today's pop music, a large part of The Beatles' songs among 
them. This is now owned by the company SonyATV, which is (was) owned to 
50% by Michael Jackson. Owning the rights to some artistic production is 
today more important than being able to press a CD or disk. The fight to get 
hold of this asset will produce some nasty scenes in the time ahead, I fear. 

  The problem of Michael Jackson was only that he overspent his income, 
trying to recreate a youth as a child which he never had, instead of leaving it 
behind and becoming an adult person. 

  There is his song "My Childhood" - "have you seen my childhood", a song 
which he himself termed as being autobiographical:
> The video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVJscGa5vbc>
   
   And two verses of the text:

---------- cut ----------
> Have you seen my Childhood?
> I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
> Like pirates and adventurous dreams,
> Of conquest and kings on the throne...
> 
> Before you judge me, try hard to love me,
> Look within your heart then ask,
> Have you seen my Childhood?
> People say I'm strange that way
> 'Cause I love such elementary things,
> It's been my fate to compensate,
> For the Childhood I've never known...
>
------------ off ---------------

  (Was Jackson a secret supporter of the Pirates Party?). 

  I also found an opinion piece of the New York Times of 2003-11-22
> 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/22/opinion/the-childhood-of-michael-jack
son.html>
  saying among others:
"A case could be made, though not a legal one, that Mr. 
Jackson's prolonged innocence -- if the better word isn't infantilism 
-- is for him a refuge from a career that both deprived him of his 
childhood and gave him the means to try to reclaim it."

   I heard Jackson saying "yes" in in interview when he was asked if his 
father had beaten him, but then in another show somebody else saying that 
Michael J. effectively stopped his father's beating by threatening that he 
would stop singing -- and Michael Jackson was the soul of the "Jackson 
Five", who would falter if little Michael stopped performing. 

  Michael Jackson learned in early years that he could have power over other 
people. 


Comradely yours, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
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