Michael Jackson dies at 50

Jon

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/25/michael.jackson/index.html

Entertainer Michael Jackson has died after being taken to a hospital on Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest, according to multiple reports including the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press. CNN has not confirmed his death.
A Los Angeles fire official told CNN that paramedics arrived at Michael Jackson's home after a 911 call.

A Los Angeles fire official told CNN that paramedics arrived at Michael Jackson's home after a 911 call.
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Jackson, 50, had been in a coma at the hospital, sources told CNN.

Brian Oxman, a Jackson family attorney, said he was told by brother Randy Jackson that Michael Jackson collapsed at his home in west Los Angeles Thursday morning.

Family members were told of the situation and were either at the hospital or en route, Oxman said.

Fire Capt. Steve Ruda told CNN a 911 call came in from a west Los Angeles residence at 12:21 p.m.

Ruda said Jackson was treated and transferred to the UCLA Medical Center.

Asked specifics of the patient's condition, he said he could not discuss them because of federal privacy laws.

The music icon from Gary, Indiana, is known as the "King of Pop."

Jackson is the seventh of nine children in a well-known musical family.

At the medical center, every entrance to the emergency room was blocked by security guards. Even hospital staffers were not permitted to enter. A few people stood inside the waiting area, some of them crying.

Rest in peace, Michael Jackson: King of Pop.

solo

He was a talented performer, too bad his off stage antics defined him.

I remember my very first video tape I ever owned was Thriller, those were great days.

R.I.P MJ

david_h

Very sad. Great talent. Sad life. I was never a big fan, but I liked the early J5 stuff when I was a kid. BUt as Pete said, he'll pretty much be defined by the wack-ness that took over. His going out is a lot like Elvis' in a way. I rememnber that day as clear as a bell as well.

Another sad note. . .

.

THis poster adorned the wall of every guy's bedroom and every girl's hairstyle of my senior class in HS. I was again, not a big fan--Charlie's Angels was cheesy and silly, but you couldn't doubt FF's impact. She actually went on to be pretty good actress. Check out "The Apostle" with Robert Duvall.

So Long Farrah.

solo

Oh yeah, Farrah Fawcett also passed today, after a long cancer struggle, I too have fond memories of her Charlies angels days. That poster, oh heck that brings back some memories, memories I care not to share

R.I.P FF.

Alan Fraser

Very sad; two icons in one day.

Mike Lucey

Yeah, they were most definitely one offs. What saddened me last night as I was watching the CNN (I think) news abut MJ was that they showed the 'baby over the railing' video quite a lot, not good but again most news stations and media prefer to shock rather than inform.

I now imagine that MJ's affairs will lead to a long drawn out circus just like his latter life had been.

BTW, Alan, is that a tsunami in the background of your Avatar?

Vercors

I couldn't beleave it when I heard it.
I always have to think...
Who will replace those legends?
Elvis - 1.485.000.000 sold copies.
MJ - 450.000.000
Both still rising, especially MJ now.
Or which band now could ever sell nearly a fourth as much as MJ with "Thriller"?
The only one who even came near that after 2000 were?
The Beatles... With the Album "1" with 31.000.000 copies

Frederik

R.I.P. MJ...
I will definitely remember him for his GREAT talent as a musician...!
Truely sad that the world have lost such a performer...!

tomsdesk

I'm afraid I was just old enough never to have liked the music of his rise to fame, though I was quite impressed by his talent. My distaste for him started with the crotch grabbing which turned to a deep disgust with his self-mutilating makeovers and said child endangerment. But what really turned my stomach was the fan's and media's disregard of his pedophilia and ongoing child abuse. He will not be missed in my world.

Daniel

Notwithstanding the pedophilia charges, which were not proven, Michael Jackson did appear to have troubling phsycological problems. Hopefully he will now find the peace that seemed to elude him in later life.

Likewise, I am sure Farrah Fawcett has now found the peace she so rightfully deserved, after her long, painful battle with cancer.

david_h

MJ's troubles I think started out with a great insecurity and self-loathing. He never really did have a "normal" childhood, so he tried to make one up in his later life.

And even though he sang *"it doesn't matter if you're black or white . .. "*apparently it mattered big time to him and he ended up looking like some kind of vampire who would shrivel up and die in a single ray of sunshine. Pretty messed up guy.

Stinkie

@unknownuser said:

I think his music will clense his reputation over time.

Hmm ... dunno 'bout that. Over the course of the years, Jackson surely produced an enormous heap of cr*p. There's gems in there, but they are rare. IMO. That said, I feel sorry for him. What a sad and tormented life he led. Poor sod.

Worse news: Willy DeVille has cancer. Damn shame.

Stinkie

You're kidding me right? With all due respect - nil nisi bene and all that - there was a great soul singer hidden inside of Michael Jackson, but the man has produced heaps and heaps of sugary, somewhat distasteful and downright ugly work. Surely he's never achieved the same artistic heights (far from it!) as, say, Prince did at the peak of his career. Face it, he was no Prince, Paul Weller, Brian Wilson, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Nick Drake, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, Al Green, John/Paul/George, Harry Nilsson or Robert Pollard.

He was a Britney. A talented Britney, but a Britney nontheless. In the Tower of Song, Hank Williams is coughing about a thousand floors above him.

Edit: I forgot Ray Davies! Oh, the shame! Jackson was no Ray Davies. Never wrote a "Waterloo Sunset". There.

Stinkie

@unknownuser said:

Just pulling your leg stinkie

You better be, Bruce, you better be. gently polishes baseball bat

Seriously though, I do feel sorry for Jackson (not you, Barkess). Talk about a life gone bad. Geez. Ol' Joe did a fine job of messing up his kids (LaToya, anyone?).

solo

Last night there was a feature on almost every broadcast channel regarding MJ, my youngest kid was watching (he is 10 yrs old) and they showed some footage of MJ when he was a kid with the Jackson five, at first he could not understand the relevence of the footage until my wife explained that the small kid in the middle was Michael. He got one of the blank looks of confusion then asked "Is Michael Jackson black?", at that point his wise ass older brother (13 yrs) said " yea, he was born a black male and died as a white female"

Todays youth!! tsk, tsk.

linea

@unknownuser said:

Hmm ... dunno 'bout that. Over the course of the years, Jackson surely produced an enormous heap of cr*p. There's gems in there, but they are rare.

You have to be joking?! If you like it or not Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 have had a massive positive influence on many styles of music.

I think it is terribly sad that the price for being such an extraordinarily talented man was having to live isolated from reality, in what became a sad pseudo-fantasy world that eventually lead to accusations of child abuse. But famous or not, 50 is a very young age to die.

david_h

I think when the Gods of Music Criticism tally up the body of Jacko's work, they are of course going to mention Thriller..yada yada. . .but his real genius was as a performer. ..dancer, singer and ACTOR would be Captain EO. Now there's A Performance. BTW Anybody know what happened to his little Alien Buddy in that? sorry

cornel

A new ‘page’ of history...

Michael Jackson was famous, but apart from others and even from himself! He wasn’t a happy guy...
His celebrity was an enormous burden for him and the 'industry' around him didn’t take care of it...!?!
Great talent as person, a megastar for ‘industry’ and an idol for others, Michael Jackson reminds me about James 4:13-15:

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that’.”

Cornel

Stinkie

Could you give the relentless Bible quoting a rest already? It's starting to become somewhat annoying.

cornel

Yeaaa, sir...
If a person is 'sensible'...