The King is dead

As the news about Michael Jackson's death sinks in, I find myself saddened in a way that I usually don't when a celebrity dies. There seems to exist a demarcation that determines how some people feel about this. People just a few years younger than me know him more for his extracurricular troubles than his extraordinary music.

I always felt like his situation had a tragic element. I wanted him to have another great song, another comeback, but nothing had really materialized in past years.

If there is good in this, it's that the circus of his life will not overshadow his excellence as an artist. His early death will no doubt give him the status of an Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe, for better or worse.

This is a nice retrospective on his career.