This is it

So last night, I went to see This is it, expecting it to be a nice overview of what had happened during the rehearsals of the shows Michael Jackson was supposed to do in London last summer.
And what I got... was exactly that. For once, no disapointment, just the man himself rehearsing what he wanted to be his big come back and final farewell to the fans.

What I hadn't known is that some people misunderstood the publicity stunt of the producers and thought that the documentary was going to be some kind of tribute to the myth and was going to talk about the impact of the man's death on our society.

But no. No pretty images, just the raw footage of a fifty year old veteran performer who thought he could still make a difference in the world.
His megalomania was sometimes laughable, sometimes honorable, and even sometimes a bit impressive. But most of all, it was quite cool to see the guy trying to have his old songs come back from the ashes, especially the ones that we hadn't heard 12 548 times since his death.

As I type this, I'm listening to Dangerous. Something I haven't done in about 15 years. All of a sudden, so many pictures of my teen years rush through my mind and make me realise how much I've missed these songs... Give it to me... In the closet... Who is it... Damn... I love this album.

Huh hum, sorry. Sweet old memories over.
Back to This is it...

So yeah, we all knew Michael had a very debatable taste in clothing and these images were the confirmation that it never got better over the years...
We also knew all his shows as "Michael Jackson" were 60% lip-synched (if not more) and the producers didn't have any problem showing it in the documentary. I'm pretty sure any regular spectator wouldn't even notice but when you're a fan and you know the songs by heart, you realize quite easily when 50 year-old Michael does an incredibly perfect impression of his 30 year-old recorded song version...
I mean, ok if it's all about the show and dance... who cares if he sings live or not? But the part where he apparently lets himself go and starts improvising on The way you make me feel and later tells the staff he shouldn't have done that because he needs to keep his voice intact till the real shows... come on, Michael... You probably would have sung 5 songs out of the 20 on the setlist that night. Can't you try and rehearse them all properly, for god's sake?

The most revealing and actually most interesting part of the whole film was when Michael admitted he never wore earpieces ever before and was disturbed because "he was used to hearing the instruments live"... (I guess he was talking about the era when he was 8 and his voice had actually a lower pitch...) Then we heard producer Kenny Ortega asking what kind of mix he wanted to hear in his earpieces - something any musician, used to performing live, would have been a pain in the ass with - and Michael's answer was the most naive and unprofessional of all... "I don't know... Not so loud"...

I smiled and thought to myself, it was so cool and at the same time so weird that a guy that innocent had succeded in making it so big in music history.

Anyway whatever we say about him, he'll always be the guy who wrote the song Man in the Mirror in 1988. A song which lyrics could have been Al Gore or Nicolas Hulot's anthem 20 years later without any problem.

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself,
And Then Make A Change

This is all there is to say.
The King is dead.
This is it.