Continuing Michael Jackson coverage

His talent was often overshadowed by charges of child molestation and his eccentricities.

By JOHN BENSON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

The King of Pop has died.

In respect to Michael Jackson’s career, such a declaration came decades ago, long before Lisa Marie Presley, pedophile charges, eccentricity and obscurity marred the greatest recording artist of the last quarter of a century. To put it in perspective, at the height of Madonna’s fame, she never came near Jackson’s orbit.

Those folks lucky enough to have witnessed The Jackson Five singer-turned-mega-star on stage, the experience lived up to the hype. Personally, that moment came on the evening of Oct. 20, 1984, when The Jackson’s “Victory Tour” appeared at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

The ticket stub I still possess reads Sec 32, Row L, Seat 16, but for all I know it says “You were there!” And at what a cost. The ticket price was a jaw-dropping $40, which I believe was the highest ticket charge up to that point.

What stands out from that evening is Jackson’s amazing dance skills and the oversized Muppet-like creatures that paraded around the stage just before the show started. The monsters surrounded a knight in shining armor. Lasers and special effects turned the massive stage into a sci-fi Broadway show before Jackson emerged from his knight costume and kicked-off the concert with “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin.’ ”

While the siblings’ set did include material from The Jackson Five, as well as all of the brothers’ solo careers, it was ostensibly Michael’s show with hits, including “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.” Even though the title track from his 1982 multi-platinum album “Thriller” wasn’t played, the concert was something to remember. The star power of Jackson was palpable. In fact, the only other artist I was lucky enough to see in action who possessed the same quality was James Brown.

Sure, Jackson’s legacy is tarnished and his character will forever remain in question — a “Thriller” turned “Smooth Criminal” — but for a moment there in the ‘80s he lived up to his self-coined title of King of Pop (which he unabashedly gave himself in 1991).

Good night, Michael. Thank you for letting us “Rock With You.”

As news spread about Michael Jackson’s death, one person who witnessed his appeal at the height of his “Thriller” success in the mid-’80s was former WMMS-FM 100.7 Program Director and current Radio Consultant John Gorman. It was the legendary Cleveland radio station that was responsible for bringing The Jackson’s “Victory Tour” to Northeast Ohio for shows on Oct. 19 and 20, 1984, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

“The radio station put up the money to bring The Jacksons into town,” Gorman said. “It was a very bizarre set-up. The Sullivan family, who owned the New England Patriots at the time, actually put the football team as collateral to sponsor the tour. The Jacksons didn’t do tours the way most people did. What they tried to do is to get sponsorship and have people pay up front. So in other words, when they go on tour they had already been paid and that money is earning interest.

“When they announced the tour, they weren’t going to play Cleveland. We did inquire, and we said we’d put the money up to front the concert coming to Cleveland. It was a risk and it ended up costing [the radio station] roughly $250,000 to do it, but I never regretted doing it or playing Michael Jackson because it was part of popular culture at the time. You couldn’t ignore his talent.”

The Vindicator was there too, covering the first show Oct. 19.

For those too young to remember Michael Jackson-mania, a good example of his star power was based on crossover appeal. Specifically, WMMS, a rock station to the core, was spinning songs from the ubiquitous and multi-platinum “Thriller.”

“There was no way you could afford not to play Michael Jackson,” Gorman said. “We were WMMS, we were a rock station, but we were also a popular culture station. So it was something that we could not ignore.”

The Vindicator was there again on Sept. 26, 1988, for the second American leg of Jackson’s “Bad” Tour, kicked off with a two-and-a-quarter hour show at Pittsburgh’s Civic (now Mellon) Arena. Lasers, fireworks, disappearing stunts and Jackson’s trademark dance moves were the highlights.

Jackson said little to the 17,000 fans in the arena — “I love you Pittsburgh” and “It’s great to be back in Pittsburgh.”

The fans didn’t care. They were there to see the dance moves, and the songs: “Bad,” “Beat It,” “Thriller,” Billie Jean,” “She’s Out of My Life” and a Motown medley that included “I’ll Be There.”

Tickets for what was billed as Jackson’s final solo tour of America cost a then-whopping $25 and the musicians included backup singer Sheryl Crow. It was quite a spectacle and the forerunner of the stage extravaganzas that became pop concerts.

That said, there wasn’t one spontaneous moment. But the moonwalking? Probably worth the price of admission all by itself.

“Before Michael Jackson crossed over and a rock audience accepted him, he had Eddie Van Halen [play on ‘Beat It’],” Gorman said. So you had rock ‘n’ roll people who believed in him. And that was unusual. So he did have a unique ability and an amazing musical style. Obviously he really attracted people from all genres of music. The problem that Michael Jackson had was just in his personal life.”

Those problems were off-putting, said Karen Profera Rimar, who was at the Cleveland concert. The Vindicator talked to her then: “I didn’t expect it to go on so long,” she’d said. “It was a very nice surprise.”

Rimar, formerly of Warren and now a resident of Garfield Heights, said Thursday that she and her sister took a bus to the concert with tickets they’d won from radio station WHOT.

Her sister was seven months’ pregnant. “My niece is 23 now.”

And the seats were high — but she had binoculars.

“The concert was awesome,” she said. “I enjoyed watching him perform.”

She listened to his music through the years “and I still enjoy it,” though bad publicity cooled her enthusiasm for him, she said.

“You lose a little bit of interest,” she said. “But if one of his songs came on the radio, I wouldn’t change it.”

From brilliant musician and moon-walking dancer to eccentric millionaire and alleged pedophile, the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum inductee (with The Jackson Five in 1997 and his solo career in 2001) won’t soon be forgotten.

“He’s sort of a tragic figure,” Gorman said. “The way I look at it, he was a tremendous talent and a lot of people who have that kind of talent, you almost have to look at it like the scales of justice.

When you have that much talent on one hand, you may be deficient of social skills on the other.”

That was Michael Jackson’s problem. He was a person who had tremendous talent, but did not have the social skills. I think he’s a man who never stopped being a child.”

CONTRIBUTORS: Staff writers Jeanne Starmack, Tom Williams and Correspondent Virginia Ross Shank.