Like Elvis, Jackson was a King who died young
Michael Jackson didn't want to be just a superstar. Like the Beatles, he wanted to be the biggest, the king. He wanted to topple the reigning man with the crown, Elvis.
In life and in death, there was Elvis.
"It's just so weird. He even married Elvis' daughter," said author-music critic Greil Marcus, who wrote at length about Presley in his acclaimed cultural history, "Mystery Train."
Elvis Presley overdosed — in his bathroom — on prescription drugs in 1977 at 42, his bloated, glazed middle age a cautionary tale to rock stars and other celebrities. Jackson died Thursday at 50, rushed from his Los Angeles home and pronounced dead at the UCLA Medical Center.
The death shocked more than surprised. While endless fame seemed to inflate Elvis like helium, Jackson's fame seemed to scrub the flesh and wear into his bones until you could almost see him shiver.
Like Elvis, Jackson was once beautiful, outrageous, a revolutionary without politics who shook down the walls between black and white. He had the hits, the style, the ego, the talent. He was the King of Pop and he needed only to fill in the life: He married Elvis' daughter. He bought the rights to some of Elvis' songs. Elvis owned Graceland, its name a symbol for a deliverance the singer prayed for until the end of his life. Jackson had Neverland, a fantasy for a child-man for whom money meant the chance to live in a world of his own.
He did, and did not, want to be like Elvis.
In "Moon Walk," a memoir published in 1988, Jackson insisted Elvis was not important to him growing up and that he was unhappy to learn a song he recorded with his brothers, "Heartbreak Hotel," shared the name of Presley's first national hit.
"I swear that was a phrase that came out of my head and I wasn't thinking of any other song when I wrote it," he wrote. "The record company printed it on the cover as `This Place Hotel,' because of the Elvis Presley connection. As important as he was to music, black as well as white, he just wasn't an influence on me. I guess he was too early for me. Maybe it was timing more than anything else.
"By the time our song had come out, people thought that if I kept living in seclusion the way I was, I might die the way he did. The parallels aren't there as far as I'm concerned and I was never much for scare tactics. Still, the way Elvis destroyed himself interests me, because I don't ever want to walk those grounds myself."
51 st Grammy Awards 2009
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards will take place on February 8, 2009. It will be broadcast on CBS in the United States at 8PM EST. Nominations were announced on December 3, 2008. For the sixth year in a row, the ceremony will be held in the Staples Center. The nominations were announced on a special concert airing on CBS on December 3rd, 2008, and were posted on the official website afterwards.[1]
To be eligible for an award a recording must have been commercially released between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008. This is for all recordings released in the 2008 recording year. After the nominees are announced on December 4, 2008 final voting ballots will be sent to the academy members. This is when they will vote for one of the nominees to win the award. Each category has five nominees. More than five is the result of a tie in the nominating process. Members are allowed to vote in the General field and up to nine other fields on their final voting ballots. All ballots are tabulated by the independent accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. There are about 7,000 people who vote in the nominating and final voting process. These people are artists, producers, engineers, mixers and mastering engineers. Academy members are to vote based upon quality alone. They are not to be influenced by mass sales or personal friendships. The acceptance of gifts is prohibited and can result in termination of membership.
After the nominations are announced the recipients of all special awards such as lifetime achievement awards will be announced. In addition performers and presenters will be announced. Neil Diamond will be the recipient of the MusiCares Person of the Year award. Lil Wayne topped the nominations with eight, Coldplay garnered seven , and Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kanye West each earned six nods. Radiohead, Alison Krauss, John Mayer, Robert Plant, Jazmine Sullivan received five, and Jennifer Hudson, Adele, Danger Mouse, The Eagles, Lupe Fiasco, George Strait,Metallica and T.I. each received four nominations.
Confirmed Performers
- Adele
- Chris Brown
- Kenny Chesney
- Four Tops tribute featuring original member of the Four Tops Duke Fakir, Jamie Foxx, and Ne-Yo[2]
- Foo Fighters with Paul McCartney[3]
- Jennifer Hudson
- Jay-Z
- Jonas Brothers
- Kid Rock
- Lil Wayne
- Miley Cyrus & Taylor Swift[4]
- Katy Perry - On the January 30th episode of Chelsea Lately, Katy said she was going to descend from the ceiling during her performance.
- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
- Radiohead
- Rihanna
- T.I.
- Justin Timberlake
- Carrie Underwood
- U2[5]
- Estelle & Kanye West[6]