Saturday, July 18, 2009

For Michael

OK, this is a late hit, but the thought has only gradually formed itself over the last week or so.

Who would have imagined that the end of Michael Jackson's life would most resemble a Pink Floyd song?

O.K., just a little pinprick
there'll be no more
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH
but you may feel a little sick

Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working, good.
That'll keep you going for the show.
Come on, it's time to go...

- Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb

4 comments:

...tom... said...

...

Ooooh.

That is a brilliant connection/association. One I have not seen elsewhere. (Of course, I have been trying to avoid all the 'mj' crap being forced down our throats...)


But please ...do not let the sycophant comment go to your head.

...:minism:...


...tom...
.

D.B. Echo said...

I can remember where I was the first time I encountered the word "sycophant". It was in "Mission to Moulokin" by Alan Dean Foster. I was at my Grandmother's house, now my house. It was a Sunday, I think, in early 1981.

I was just thinking that it would have been interesting to see The Wall remade with Michael Jackson in the role of Pink. He wouldn't even have had to starve himself or shave his eyebrows or any of the other stuff Bob Geldof did. Maybe through the magic of computer jiggery-pogery someone can make this happen someday.

hedera said...

That is an EXTREMELY weird video. It may not be strange in category, but I don't watch as many music videos as you do...

I don't think the association with MJ is valid. This video is about someone who had given up. I never had the impression that MJ had given up; I thought he was desperately trying to keep going. They said he was rehearsing for the concert series with pleasure - but his time ran out.

D.B. Echo said...

hedera, that video is actually a clip from the 1982 movie The Wall, by Pink Floyd. That's Bob Geldof as Pink, and Bob Hoskins as his manager. The movie, which IS admittedly very strange, is about the not-so-gradual mental collapse of a popular musician in response to the pressures and cruelties of the world, the British school system, and the people who exploit him at every turn, andd is based in part on Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett's descent into madness. It's not a perfect matchh for what happened to Michael Jackson, but in the end I think his death will be attributed to a combination of his own madness - at the very least, an overwhelming desire to reclaim past fame at any price and vastly overextend himself for his fans - , the willingness of others to exploit him for their own ends, and his growing dependency on drugs to "keep him going for the show." He was driving himself too hard, and there were others who were perfectly willing to keep him driving himself as hard as he could. I guess none of them were familiar with what happens to any mechanism when you red-line it too long.