Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (33 page)

In an interview on ABC, McCartney said, "Michael's the kind of guy who
picks brains. When we worked together, I don't even think he'd had the cosmetic surgery. I've got photos of him and me at our house, and he looks quite
different. He's had a lot of facial surgery since then. He actually told me he
was going to a religious retreat and I believed him. But he came out of that
religious retreat with a new nose. The power of prayer, I guess."

Branca seemed to understand McCartney's position and why the exBeatle was sad. "Whether Paul likes it or not," Branca reportedly said, "he has
to pay Michael every time he performs a song he himself wrote between 1964
and 1971. Of course, he's pissed. But that's the law."

Under his so-called "slave manifesto," McCartney was to face more disappointment, especially when a trio of "old favorites" from The Beatles were
turned into commercials. "Revolution," for example, was used to promote
Nike.

In a long, handwritten letter to Michael, the ex-Beatle complained that
"my good name, the reputation of The Beatles themselves, is being blown on
rubber soles." He pleaded with Michael to respect their music and "my wishes" and stop exploiting the catalogue he'd acquired. McCartney never
received an answer from Michael.

When Michael was confronted with charges of exploiting The Beatles, he
looked surprised. "Why, I don't understand what Paul is belly-aching about.
After all, he taught me everything I know about acquiring copyrights."

"I heard that Michael had told Branca to turn a deaf ear to Paul's protests,"
a music executive claimed. "Apparently, Michael told Branca to `let Paul rage,
kick, and scream. Paul had his chance to buy the records. He was too cheap to
part with $20 million of his $560 million fortune. He let that chance fly by. To hell with him. Exploit the catalogue! Make more money for me to add to the
millions I already have."' Branca did as he was told.

Michael continued to sell Beatles' songs to commercial concerns, with
"All You Need Is Love" going to Panasonic. "Good Day Sunshine" went to
Sunshine Bakeries. On hearing this, McCartney lamented, "My God, he's
turning the song into an ode to an Oreo cookie-real cheeky of him."

"Jackson has trashed the reputation of The Beatles," McCartney charged.
"He seemed so nice and polite when I met him. But he has a heart of gold, and
I don't mean that as a compliment."

He also is reported to have said, "I'm in a shit deal and can't get out of it.
Each day with Michael Jackson in charge, I take another bite from the shit
sandwich he offers me."

Yoko Ono seemed comfortable with Michael's ownership of the catalogue, since it was generating millions for her, but not the potential millions
she could have made with co-ownership with McCartney. She once was quoted as saying, "If I owned the catalogue, the press would say, `the dragon lady
strikes again. "'

McCartney, or so it was rumored, felt greatly betrayed by Yoko when she
allowed her son, Sean, then 12 years of age, to appear as one of the "lost boys"
saved by Michael in his 1988 film, Moonwalker. The video closed with a rendition of "Come Together" from The Beatles.

Even though losing on the deal, McCartney also revealed that he would
go to court to prevent what he viewed as unfair use of his legacy. He did win
a court order barring sales of three bootleg Beatles movies. He also denied the
Beastie Boys the right to use The Beatles song, "I'm Down." The group wanted to add new lyrics to the song, which McCartney found "too salacious."

In spite of the bitterness that McCartney still felt over Michael's purchase
of The Beatles' songs and his use of them, McCartney spoke kindly of
Michael when he first faced child molestation charges in the early 90s.
Speaking to the Clarin, a newspaper in Buenos Aires, McCartney claimed,
"Michael is not that kind of person."

When asked about Michael's drug dependency, McCartney said, "It's all
very L.A.-I mean, Judy Garland and Elizabeth Taylor-these are people who
became stars at a very young age. We, The Beatles, we were ordinary guys.
When fame arrived, we went a bit crazy, but even so we had our feet on the
ground. We had roots. We knew about life. Michael, instead ...Ah, well!"

As the years went by, McCartney became less reserved about Michael. In
2001, on The Howard Stern Show, McCartney claimed that Michael "won't
even answer my letters, so we haven't talked and we don't have that great a
relationship."

In a statement made in April of 2003, McCartney expressed greater reser vations about Michael, calling him "an unusual guy" and questioning his parenting skills. The interview was broadcast over the BBC. He claimed he felt
sorry for Michael's children "being brought up under those veils."

That remark seriously angered Michael, who shot back: "I like some of
Paul's songs. But he's a lousy performer. I can pack a stadium. He can't."

Songs by the Beatles were not, by any means, the first that Michael
acquired. Long before his purchase of the ATV catalogue, Michael had
ordered Branca to buy the rights to recordings by Sly & the Family Stone, a
group that began in San Francisco in 1969 and eventually achieved worldwide
fame before they disbanded in 1975. The band is credited with a critical role
in the development of soul music, funk, and psychedelia.

The group's fourth album, Stand!, had been a runaway success, selling
more than three million copies and giving birth to one hit single, "Everyday
People." The Jackson 5 had performed a number from Sly's album during
their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

The success of Sly & the Family Stone peaked in the summer of 1969.
Sly's intense drug abuse began to affect his career but not before he became
celebrated as the "J.D. Salinger of pop music."

Michael also acquired the rights to some of the recordings of Dion & The
Belmonts (named after Dion's neighborhood in New York City's northern
Bronx). Dion's most memorable song, released in 1968, was "Abraham,
Martin & John." Two of Dion's biggest hits, "The Wanderer" and "Runaround
Sue," were also purchased by Branca for Michael, as was Len Barry's "1-23" and the Soul Survivors' "Expressway to Your Heart."

At Encino, in the wake of his massive purchases, Michael could be heard
listening to some of his new acquisitions. He played "He's So Shy" several
times, a recording made by the Pointer Sisters. An R&B group from Oakland,
California, they were a big hit
in the 70s and 80s. Michael had
something in common with
them, as both he and the sisters
had come from archly conservative religious backgrounds
and had been taught that rock
'n' roll was "the devil's music."

Dion & The Belmonts

The ATV catalogue also
contained some of the greatest
hits of Little Richard, the selfproclaimed "Queen of Rock 'n'
Roll." With a public persona
marked by bisexual ambiguity, he would make his mark with such suggestive hits as "Tutti Frutti" and "Great
Balls of Fire." He was voted the eighth greatest Rock 'n' Roll artist of all time
by Rolling Stone, and The New York Times called this Georgia-born entertainer "the original wild man of rock 'n' roll."

Some critics claimed that both Michael and Elvis Presley "stole Fort
Knox" from Little Richard's music and on-stage persona. When an interviewer once asked Michael what he thought of Little Richard, and if he were influenced by him, Michael delivered another one of his enigmatic responses:
"Awop-bob-a-loo-mop-alop-bam-boom."

Although Michael surely has had conflicting feelings about Little
Richard, Michael once said: "Without Little Richard's blueprint to follow,
Elvis wouldn't have had a kingdom or been a king of anything."

When he acquired "Tutti Fruitti," Michael learned that the original lyrics
contained this line: "Good goddamn, Tutti Frutti, good booty, if it don't fit,
don't force it, you can grease it, make it easy." And all this from a Seventh
Day Adventist minister "who devotes all my life to God."

The flamboyant Little Richard once told Michael, and the public in general, that "Rock 'n' roll is evil, because rock 'n' roll makes you take drugs, and
drugs turn you into a homosexual." Aware of homophobia among his black
fans, he renounced his own homosexuality, but since has back-pedaled in his
anti-gay proclamations. Like Michael, he once was a Jehovah's Witness but
only briefly. Like Michael's friend, Elizabeth Taylor, Little Richard also
embraced Judaism.

On certain occasions, Little Richard and Michael ran into each other at
social gatherings, but no great friendship ever seemed to develop between the
two performers, often viewed as rivals. Little Richard could not have been
happy when he heard the news that Michael had acquired the rights to some
of his biggest hits and could exploit them any way he wished.

As Michael's career zoomed skyward, he faced family dilemmas. Once
again, on August 19, 1982,
Katherine quietly filed for a
divorce from her errant husband, the man of many mistresses. She told Michael, "I
can't take it any more." She
was particularly infuriated that
Joe was siphoning money from
their joint funds to pay for his
girlfriends.

The Pointer Sisters

During the divorce proceedings, Joe refused to move out of the Encino house. Michael accurately predicted that his mother would never escape her marriage.
And so she didn't, the legal maneuvering over a
divorce eventually sputtering, unresolved, to an end.
Joe continued on the same path he'd traveled
before-that is, to other women.

Little Richard

At the same time, Marlon, who was a year
older than Michael, was also filing for divorce from
Carol, his wife of seven years. "I still love my husband... desperately" she testified. Michael believed
that, unlike Joe and Katherine, Marlon and Carol
had a chance to work out their marital difficulties.

Michael was right. Marlon and Carol managed to iron out their problems and are still married
today, making him the only one of the Jackson
brothers to avoid the divorce courts.

After the "Victory" tour, Marlon grew disillusioned about performing with his brothers, especially Michael. On the last Jackson album, 2300 Jackson Street, he, like
Michael, did not join in. Through a deal with Capitol Records, Marlon
released his one and only solo album, Baby Tonight. It bombed, but in time he
became a successful real estate agent in Southern California and a part owner
of the Black Family Channel, a cable TV network.

Family problems were all but forgotten by Michael on one hot, muggy and
overcast morning in Los Angeles when he was driven to Westlake Studios.
The date was August 29, 1979.

Michael had once again teamed up with Quincy Jones to record an album.
Only Michael seemed convinced at the time that they were going to make
music industry history. From a stockpile of 600 songs, they narrowed the field
to nine. At a cost of $850,000-perhaps a lot more when the final bills came
in-they produced an album called Thriller.

Before he'd recorded the album's first song, Michael told Quincy and Rod
Temperton, who was working with them, that "I want Thriller to not only do
better in sales than Off the Wall, but to become the biggest selling album of all
time." Both Quincy and Temperton smiled indulgently. Temperton, in the
words of Quincy, was the only man in Hollywood whose body contained "not
one drop of bullshit." But this breakthrough album Michael was demanding
sounded like bullshit to him.