If you knew that a rose would scream, would you still pluck it?
Child abuse is one of my psychological buttons. I suppose my reaction to someone who is accused of doing any such thing is along the lines of religiously crazed Iranians when told that Salman Rushdie has committed blasphemy.
My gut reaction is to throw due process to the winds and join the rampaging masses in screaming for castration, or worse, of the offender. The facts of cases are relegated to the background.
Bad luck for the defendant if he happens to be innocent.
But back to the rose …
It was James Bond in Ian Fleming’s Moonraker who first introduced me to the idea of the scream of the rose. The theory is that plants register emotion and that a rose screams when plucked.
Primordial sounds. Friend Roger was mentioning these above the buzz of mosquitoes at a farm near Hartebeespoort Dam early last month.
“Did you know,” he said, “that composers make use of some sounds that are embedded in our subconscious?
“Like Beethoven’s Fifth, ‘dah-dah-dah-dum’ — is the musical sound of a child calling ‘ma-ma’?”
I could think of other examples. Like John Williams haunting score from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and his mantra chanted by hundreds of saffron-robed monks on an Indian hillside: “Ah-yah-veh-ah-yah”.
Coincidentally, that was a Steven Spielberg production, and Spielberg happens to be one of the closest friends and supporters of Michael Jackson.
But I was talking about child abuse … Jackson was accused of child abuse not so long ago. The case was settled out of court, presumably for a large sum of money.
Jackson has never really escaped the stigma associated with the case and has been largely ostracised ever since.
The media have never forgotten to remind the public of the fact that those claims of child abuse were once made. At a personal level, I judged on what I had read, found him wanting, and shut him out of my mind.
Two weeks after the conversation with Roger, I swung a borrowed car into a snowed-under hotel parking lot in freezing Nottingham, England.
The weather was dismal. Robin Hood and his Merry Men were nuts to live in a place like this, I decided. I was reluctantly contemplating climbing out of the car and staggering back to the hotel.
And then I discovered the CD player. I randomly punched a button and six speakers of German engineering wrapped me in strings, pipes and birdsong. A wondrous nine-note piano sequence filled the frozen landscape. And he sang:
“Aaaaaaaaaaah. Ooooooooooh.”
I was filled with a marvellous sense of well being. Peace, tranquillity. And then he screamed:
“Aaaaaaaaaaah. Ooooooooooh.”
Six minutes later, I found myself calling South Africa on the car phone with tears streaming down my cheeks. Kate noticed the tremor in my voice and wanted to know what was wrong.
“This is,” I said playing the song back again. “It’s Michael Jackson. It’s called Earth Song. And I don’t believe in my gut that anyone who could produce something so beautiful could be evil.”
“So I’m wondering how many other things I believe are wrong?”
I’ve been thinking a lot about this since then, especially about the scream of the rose. Can something beautiful be only born of trauma? Is it not possible for us to experience happiness without pain? Is this why we sometimes intentionally hurt those we love?
British writer Alan Moore once wrote:
“The black soil is rich in foul decay, yet glorious life springs from it. But however dazzling the flourishes of life, in the end all decays to the same black humus.
“Perhaps evil is the humus formed by virtue’s decay, and perhaps it is from that dark sinister loam that virtue grows strongest? I do not know … “
So I bought the album and took it back home. Aura, my two-and-a-half year old daughter heard the beginning, climbed onto Kate’s lap, and hugged her close while listening, wide eyes glistening with tears.
When the song ended, she looked at me with the innocence of a child. “He’s going to sing again, hey?”
I really hope so.
Footnote: This piece was written on February 24 1996. Aura is now 16 and still loves Michael Jackson. So do I.
What a brilliant article Kanthan- thank you! Beauty is indeed a paradox and sometimes difficult to comprehend.
Michael Jackson contributed his musical genius to society and broke through many barriers in society and just like John Lennon was hated by many in society. Even here on thoughtleader, its easy to see who the “haters” are. The controversy surrounding the allegations of abuse is more a reflection of the ugliness of human nature that surrounded him and his naive attempts at trying to understand this part of human nature.
Irregardless of his shortcomings, he has left a mark on humankind that will fortunately remain with us for a long time to come. His music transcends generations, nationalities, gender and most of all – stirs the soul.
Great piece.
Strange how, way before the likes of Al Gore thought it worth their while to care for our planet and the Nobel prizes such concern brings, Michael sang the Earth Song(inter alia).
He is beyond compare, his only competition being himself…
Nice one bro, nice one…
Musa, Al Gore first testified in front of congress about greenhouse gases in 1979. Michael Jackson relesead his earth day song in 1995.
Michael Jackson probably had one of the largest carboon footprints of anyone on the planet!
He was – truly – the greatest musician that ever lived.
I am haunted by the screams of Chinese fans attending a Michael Jackson Concert in China and visions of like-minded people in various parts of the world where Jackson set foot.
These are captured perfectly in the Michael Jackson DVD – History (I think) – I watched at your house a while ago – with its intro captured by the distinct melody of Carmina Burana’s O Fortuna.
Brilliant!
Greatness personified! Thank you!
JR, yep and testifying in front of congress in 1979 did a whole lot of good, didn’t it?
The entire world heard the Earth Song, not just congress. Thats how you get to the hearts and minds of the people and make a difference.
JR – in 1979 Al Gore was still the tobacco lobby’s main politician and if he was so environmentally PC back then why in the 2000′s is he and his family still using +- 20 times more energy than the average US household.
Should make decent people think
Brent
I feel a deep sense of loss at the sudden departure of this hugely successful artist who was hugely unsuccessful in conforming to the norms of our world.
@Musa, yep the earth song did a whole lot of good didn’t it. At the time that MJ sang that song he was living at Neverland ranch, a 2800 acre spread with many mansions, private rollercoaster and a menagerie of wild animals that he saw fit to domesticate. Not much of an enironmentalist in my opinion. And as for the whole world hearing his song, that is not true, most of the world lives in povery and has no access to MJ’s CDs. Maybe he could have spent a little more of his money on sustainable housing rather than the neverland ranch.
@Brent, I have no particular like or dislike of MJ or Al Gore. MJ as a great musician but the was an environmental disaster. Merely poining out the facts as they are.
The fact that Kanthan Pillay gives a piece such as this to Thoughtleader (gratis) is an indictment on the calibre of ‘scouts’ for brilliant writing on our landscape.
I should be reading this in a quality newspaper. Smack bang in the middle of the editorial section. Thanks for nothing editors.
A special thanks Kanthan. Michael Jackson was better than we deserved.
Oh, and JR, call Deborah Patta. I hear she’s hiring on ’3rd Degree’.
[Morgan Tsvangirai for Pope!]
@Ndumiso, I do not know you and I am not familiar with Deborah Pratt or ’3rd Degree’. I guess your response to me was intended as some sort of insult or mechanism to humiliate me. Maybe that is how you roll. Either way, I will remind you to play the ball and not the man. Don’t shoot the messenger and all the other applicable cliches.
As for defending MJ, stick to the facts. Maybe you would care to address his innapropriate behaviour with boys. Please don’t respond with the normal ‘it was all media hype’ or nothing was proven stuff please. Or take Kanthan approach in denying guilt in court as he did settle with several victims in civil cases.
I have to disagree with you when you say MJ was better than we deserved. If that is true, we as a world have set our standards awfully low.