Beat it...just beat it
I have been thinking a lot about that recent Michael Jackson documentary. Blimey, it was bleak and dark and the allegations, if true, are absolutely horrendous. How could anyone do those things to kids?
I see that the Simpsons have withdrawn the episode featuring M.J. from their back catalogue and a number of radio stations have removed his songs from their playlists. I’m not sure how I feel about that. One of the people in the documentary said something like this, “as a musician, he was a genius; as a man he was a monster.”
The question is….to what degree can you separate the art and the artist? Can we enjoy the genius without validating the monster? It seems…not.
There are some high profile recent examples of the modern-day approach of disassociation….can you ever imagine singing a Gary Glitter song at a karaoke bar or saying, “I know Jimmy Saville had his problems, but he was good on Top of the Pops”? No. What they did is so terrible that it’s almost better to wipe them from history.
But, how far does it go? Did you know, for example, that:
• J. D. Salinger, the writer of The Catcher in the Rye, supposedly had a relationship with a 14 year old girl when he was 40. David Bowie purportedly had a relationship with a 14 year old girl when he was in his 30s. Even the King, Elvis himself, got into a relationship with a 14 year old girl, Priscilla, when he was 24. He went on to marry her but still…
• Caravaggio, the renaissance painter, murdered someone.
• Miles Davis, the famous jazz trumpeter, used to hit his wife (apparently). As did John Lennon (his first wife, not Yoko) (allegedly) and even wrote a couple of songs about it.
• JM Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, and Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, were reputed to have an unhealthy obsession with children.
And what about the tax dodgers? Or those that play gigs for dictators? Or those that are anti-Semitic or racist or misogynistic?
Is there a line? Where is it? Does it keep on moving? Can we condemn those that we don’t like and forgive / forget those we do?
Take cycling…Lance Armstrong has been wiped from the history books. Marco Pantani, another confirmed drugs cheat, is feted as a hero. Why?
There is no child in the world who wants to grow up to be a sprinter like Oscar Pistorius…but there is a generation of youngsters who might want to be Mike Tyson.
I'll leave you with a quote by Jackson Pollock: "Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is."
I see that the Simpsons have withdrawn the episode featuring M.J. from their back catalogue and a number of radio stations have removed his songs from their playlists. I’m not sure how I feel about that. One of the people in the documentary said something like this, “as a musician, he was a genius; as a man he was a monster.”
The question is….to what degree can you separate the art and the artist? Can we enjoy the genius without validating the monster? It seems…not.
There are some high profile recent examples of the modern-day approach of disassociation….can you ever imagine singing a Gary Glitter song at a karaoke bar or saying, “I know Jimmy Saville had his problems, but he was good on Top of the Pops”? No. What they did is so terrible that it’s almost better to wipe them from history.
But, how far does it go? Did you know, for example, that:
• J. D. Salinger, the writer of The Catcher in the Rye, supposedly had a relationship with a 14 year old girl when he was 40. David Bowie purportedly had a relationship with a 14 year old girl when he was in his 30s. Even the King, Elvis himself, got into a relationship with a 14 year old girl, Priscilla, when he was 24. He went on to marry her but still…
• Caravaggio, the renaissance painter, murdered someone.
• Miles Davis, the famous jazz trumpeter, used to hit his wife (apparently). As did John Lennon (his first wife, not Yoko) (allegedly) and even wrote a couple of songs about it.
• JM Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, and Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, were reputed to have an unhealthy obsession with children.
And what about the tax dodgers? Or those that play gigs for dictators? Or those that are anti-Semitic or racist or misogynistic?
Is there a line? Where is it? Does it keep on moving? Can we condemn those that we don’t like and forgive / forget those we do?
Take cycling…Lance Armstrong has been wiped from the history books. Marco Pantani, another confirmed drugs cheat, is feted as a hero. Why?
There is no child in the world who wants to grow up to be a sprinter like Oscar Pistorius…but there is a generation of youngsters who might want to be Mike Tyson.
I'll leave you with a quote by Jackson Pollock: "Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is."
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