Jump to content

Report: Michael Jackson has died


Recommended Posts

This could get even more interesting, if that's possible. With the early reports/speculation today of an OD on Demerol, the police are looking for his personal physician (Thome Thome) who's nowhere to be found. They towed his BMW from Jackson's home yesterday.

And Liza Minnelli apparently just said "I'm sure when the autopsy comes, all hell's going to break loose. So thank God we're celebrating him now". I'd suspect as close a friend as she was, she knows something.

Wow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 218
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Spinning Off The Wall now. He sure got creepy, but this album is great. RIP.

Absolutely. No single artist, not even Elvis himself, spanned such extremes as did Michael Jackson. Jackson's highs were brilliant. His lows were abysmal. Listening to "Off the Wall" right now, myself. To me, this album represents one of the great missed opportunities in music history (great as it is): One of the tracks, "I Can't Help It," was written by Stevie Wonder. Can you imagine what a Stevie written and produced Michael Jackson album would have sounded like?

Another one of the great missed opportunities also involves Michael: The song "Bad" was originally conceived as a duet for Michael and Prince. They wound up not doing it (Prince claims because they couldn't agree who would sing the line, "Your butt is mine...") and I think it's tragic that they didn't. A Michael Jackson and Prince collaboration...the mind reels.

Tragic? WTF? Oh well, they never collaborated. Big fucking deal.

Tragic is what that POS did to little boys.

Thanks for bringing that up again and again

We know he was a major mess

I've mentioned it twice and the second time was only due to a truly appalling misuse of the word "tragic". "Tragic" is what his father did to him. "Tragic" is what he did to little boys (and what his father did to him in no way excuses it). "Tragic" isn't a missed chance to record with someone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spinning Off The Wall now. He sure got creepy, but this album is great. RIP.

Absolutely. No single artist, not even Elvis himself, spanned such extremes as did Michael Jackson. Jackson's highs were brilliant. His lows were abysmal. Listening to "Off the Wall" right now, myself. To me, this album represents one of the great missed opportunities in music history (great as it is): One of the tracks, "I Can't Help It," was written by Stevie Wonder. Can you imagine what a Stevie written and produced Michael Jackson album would have sounded like?

Another one of the great missed opportunities also involves Michael: The song "Bad" was originally conceived as a duet for Michael and Prince. They wound up not doing it (Prince claims because they couldn't agree who would sing the line, "Your butt is mine...") and I think it's tragic that they didn't. A Michael Jackson and Prince collaboration...the mind reels.

Tragic? WTF? Oh well, they never collaborated. Big fucking deal.

Tragic is what that POS did to little boys.

Thanks for bringing that up again and again

We know he was a major mess

I've mentioned it twice and the second time was only due to a truly appalling misuse of the word "tragic". "Tragic" is what his father did to him. "Tragic" is what he did to little boys (and what his father did to him in no way excuses it). "Tragic" isn't a missed chance to record with someone.

Thank you, Doctor Dictionary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm 31. And Thriller is the first album I ever fell in love with. Regardless of whatever your personal feelings are about the man, the fact is that his music touched millions, myself included. I'm sad to hear that he died. RIP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You wouldn't call, for example, the missed opportunity for Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke to record together tragic?

No, I wouldn't. Do you have a worse adjective than "tragic" for what he did to children? Or do you just see degrees of tragedy - he didn't record with Prince, he sexually abused children. Its all oh so unfortunate, huh?

As Mark suggests, you might want to take a look at the big picture before you throw around words like "tragic", Alex.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Jackson still shared half ownerhip of the Beatles catalog w/ Sony. Am I wrong?

I think it was a bigger catalog than just the Beatles, actually. And while I think he effectively "re-financed" the property, there was still a lot of equity in his ownership stake. Assuming you find someone to pay what its worth, there ought to be a lot of money still for the kids and his siblings, etc. Can the income stream from the licensing fees be distributed to the estate in perpetuity? I'd think its got to be an asset that has to be liquidated at some point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does MJ still own any of the Beatles catalog?

I think he sold part of it to pay off his debts

If not I doubt the man had $10 million to his name at his death

I hope he left something for his 3 kids

$500 million in debt is what the Wall St. J is reporting. The numbers mentioned in various articles contradict each other. Money from the planned tour range from $50 million to $400 million.

Regarding the Beatles deal, this is how the WSJ reports it:

"In 1985, Mr. Jackson paid $47.5 million for ATV Music Publishing, the owner of copyrights to the words and music of 251 Beatles songs, among other compositions.

That proved a shrewd move. In 1995, Mr. Jackson sold half of ATV to Sony Corp. for $150 million, creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. The partnership's value grew explosively and likely exceeds $1 billion today.

As his singing career wound down, Mr. Jackson borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars against Sony/ATV and Neverland, his 2,600-acre estate near Santa Barbara, Calif. The loans were passed around among banks and Wall Street firms as Mr. Jackson repeatedly verged on default, only to refinance at even more onerous terms.

One loan, backed by a company that owns the copyrights to songs Mr. Jackson wrote, carried a 16.5% interest rate, according to people with knowledge of the loan."

He was supposedly making $19 million a year at the time of his death. $12 from album sales, 7 from the Sony/ATV deal. But that wasn't enough with the debts he was facing.

The WSJ article ends with this:

"The stake in Sony/ATV is held in a trust that was designed to protect the singer from creditors. The degree to which Mr. Jackson's assets still exceed his towering liabilities, if at all, could take months to determine, according to people familiar with the situation."

Hence Chuck's comment earlier. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

“The world of entertainment has suffered a great loss, the biggest since the death of Elvis Presley. It hurts me to think that one of the world's great entertainers has passed. I wish that he had been here a lot longer.”

Umm, a guy named John Lennon fits in there somewhere. No dis to Michael to note that Lennon's legacy was larger in both scope and volume. Let's not undervalue Quincy Jones contribution to Jackson's adult period. But make no mistake, a great and tortured soul has passed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Peter Abraham, Yankee beat writer, got it right:

The airport televisions all have CNN on and there is nothing but Michael Jackson coverage. Carlos Diaz, who apparently is an entertainment reporter, just told Larry King that, “the world is waking up to the enormity of this tragedy. None of us will ever be the same again.”

OK, Carlos, calm down. This is not Sept. 11. Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly died and we managed to figure it out. These things happen.

Carlos Diaz, on the other hand, hasn't a clue in his celebrity-obsessed head.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Peter Abraham, Yankee beat writer, got it right:

The airport televisions all have CNN on and there is nothing but Michael Jackson coverage. Carlos Diaz, who apparently is an entertainment reporter, just told Larry King that, "the world is waking up to the enormity of this tragedy. None of us will ever be the same again."

OK, Carlos, calm down. This is not Sept. 11. Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly died and we managed to figure it out. These things happen.

Carlos Diaz, on the other hand, hasn't a clue in his celebrity-obsessed head.

I can hardly stand to turn on the news....these guys are all over the place! The same talking heads that trashed the guy for years are now praising him...sad.

m

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Peter Abraham, Yankee beat writer, got it right:

The airport televisions all have CNN on and there is nothing but Michael Jackson coverage. Carlos Diaz, who apparently is an entertainment reporter, just told Larry King that, “the world is waking up to the enormity of this tragedy. None of us will ever be the same again.”

OK, Carlos, calm down. This is not Sept. 11. Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly died and we managed to figure it out. These things happen.

Carlos Diaz, on the other hand, hasn't a clue in his celebrity-obsessed head.

No one here has made more of this than it is, other than one tragic misuse of the word "tragic". It seems to me that you're the only one getting overly dramatic with your moral majority stance.

Btw, I'm a New Yorker and a baseball fan. Who the hell is Peter Abraham?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Peter Abraham, Yankee beat writer, got it right:

The airport televisions all have CNN on and there is nothing but Michael Jackson coverage. Carlos Diaz, who apparently is an entertainment reporter, just told Larry King that, "the world is waking up to the enormity of this tragedy. None of us will ever be the same again."

OK, Carlos, calm down. This is not Sept. 11. Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly died and we managed to figure it out. These things happen.

Carlos Diaz, on the other hand, hasn't a clue in his celebrity-obsessed head.

No one here has made more of this than it is, other than one tragic misuse of the word "tragic". It seems to me that you're the only one getting overly dramatic with your moral majority stance.

Btw, I'm a New Yorker and a baseball fan. Who the hell is Peter Abraham?

...that's because you're a Jetman....not a Yankman. He's a Journal News beat writer for the yanks....has a blog as well (I believe).

Edited by sheldonm
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...