Lin Ferguson: TV Review Michael Jackson

LOS ANGELES - 1980: Pop singer Michael Jackson performs onstage in 1980 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images)

It's still a fascinating watch following the young earnest musical genius that was Michael Jackson go from Motown to cutting his extraordinary solo album Off The Wall.

The 2106 documentary ashown again last Sunday on Prime was a welcome detour from the ever-churned out repeat Christmas/New Year movie fodder.

This doco focused on Jackson's determination and grit to break with his bros. Not because he's had enough of family but because he knew his own music had to be done.

He talked about how when he went to bed, woke, walked around ... everything he did was orchestrated by a continuous beat, song lyrics and getting into the recording studio for hours and releasing his personal musical genius.

It was also exciting watching him determined to play the role of scarecrow in the all-black musical The Wiz on Broadway. The way he finally wore everyone down to get the role and took that stage and played the most magnificent scarecrow ever.

Jackson's singing voice for me is like a bell, a true musicality where every note is pure and unsullied.

In the doco we're told how Michael eventually broke away from his family but there was nothing about the fact that he was physically abused by his father, which might have led to Michael wanting to work solo.

Which I suppose isn't a bad thing but this doco also had some stuff I didn't appreciate.

I found it sad when some rapper dude (don't know who) talked about how the first time he heard She's Out Of My Life was when Eddie Murphy was making fun of Jackson in his show Delirious.

This left me feeling a bit twisted because Jackson's delicate and beautiful rendition of this song for me simply wasn't up to be made fun off.

But they continued cutting back and forth between Michael Jackson's emotional performance to Eddie Murphy's parody and it angered me.

Like that old British saying, "it wasn't cricket" in any shape or form.

During the doco I was reminded as young Jackson sang and danced going from strength to strength of an old saying from my Granny. "Love many, trust few and always paddle your own canoe.''

Which is exactly what young Jackson did in his career.

For me his memory remains illustrious. He was a musical genius personified.
Fabulous to see this 2106 documentary again, great New Year tele.