in 1984, i was a five year veteran of the police department and lucky enough to be asked to work security at comiskey park where michael jackson was performing three concerts in mid-october. the bulk of the security people were off duty chicago officers and most of them opted to 'work' the upper deck where the chances of a problem were almost non-existent. as a matter of fact, the night i worked there was ONE arrest out of the capacity crowd of 45,000 and that was for trying to sell a counterfeit ticket OUTSIDE the park. very tame.
after the senior guys grabbed the upper deck, i was asked by the director of security what my preference was regarding location of my post for the evening. after some discussion, i was assigned the third base dugout area and my assignment was to keep people from rushing the stage set up at second base. for the record, i was perfect in my assignment.
but the real thrill of the night was watching michael jackson perform from 125 feet away on a cold october evening. at that time, he was 26 years old and already had nine gold records as well as the largest selling album of all time, "Thriller," in 1982. sales on that disc have been verified at forty million but may be as high as 100 million. no one else has ever come close.
the best part was that i got paid to lean against the white sox dugout and watch jackson perform every hit from motown thru his pop years, 'ben' to billie jean' and 'beat it.' totally mesmerized for two hours. he was the best while he was on stage but you can't ignore the total package, which includes his personal life.
his personal life was a mess and long ago i felt that he should be in prison. but we don't live in a perfect world and money definitely talks (just ask robert blake or o.j. the first time). when you combine his pedophilia with the whitening of his skin. multiple nose jobs and weird interviews, there is only one conclusion. freak. a total disaster off stage.
but the spotlight of celebrity shined so bright that people dismissed his prior actions and accepted his foibles as part of his superstardom. his upcming london concerts would have grossed a half billion dollars. with a B. he was weird, strange, offbeat, freaky and just plain strange. but he was the greatest i ever saw in concert. i will miss his music.
2 comments:
Enough said....You have summed it up...Strange person, but an entertainer by the highest standard...
Probably the BEST onstage performer, ever. I doubt if we will ever see another musician take the entire globe by storm. Every concert you see today is influenced by Jackson in some way. He changed music for everyone...white, black, yellow...
BEST EVER
With that said, you hit the nail on the head...FREAK. You can be weird and get all the plastic surgery you want...Money makes people weird. We have seen it before. But you can not ignore the several families that he paid off with millions of dollars to keep their kids quiet.
After he got nabbed the first time and saw that he could pay a few million dollars (pocket change) to get out of it...It clicked...Why not invite groups of poor kids to Neverland and if he gets in trouble, money talks.
If I am not mistaking, every family he paid off NEEDED the money in someway.
Greatest performer ever. But he can now moonwalk in hell, because the harm he caused off stage far outweighs the good he did on stage. Unfortunately some choose to ignore.
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