Tagged As: Britney Spears, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, summer cocnert, Elton John, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Tour

When it was announced that Elton John and Billy Joel would be touring again it was heralded as a second chance to see the two greatest piano men of the last four decades play unbelievable duets. When Britney Spears announced her return it was questioned for its resemblance to a desperate plea for attention (It’s called The Circus Starring: Britney Spears for goodness sake). So where does Michael Jackson’s recently announced tour fall on a scale that goes from epically great to historically pathetic?

Well, let’s look at the tour itself. It is not so much of a tour as a stage show taking residence at O2 Arena in London. Right now there are 10 shows scheduled, but the final concert count will depend on the interest shelled out from fans bank accounts.

The scale begins to seriously slide down toward desperate when you consider that the tour is not leaving the O2 stage. He is asking the fans to come to him in an economy that makes traveling a major expense. So why is Jackson keeping his farewell performances in one spot?

I am sure in the next few days bloggers will theorize that he does not want to come back to the States where he might actually face some sort of protest and criticism. It has been well documented that the British love American R&B and pop stars like we adore the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

I witness this love of American pop music (especially for Jacko) every summer when the Irish descend upon Chicago and I have to listen to Beat It every half hour at the bars each weekend. I like Thriller and everything but the repeat plays are as annoying as listening to college freshmen thinking they are the only ones who have re-discovered the Jackson 5.

I am also sure that somebody working for him will be putting out a press release stating that he is playing a residency to keep his children’s lives as normal as possible.

I do not know what the truth is, but the doubters’ points are looking more and more valid. It has already been broken that Jackson has hours on end of unreleased material that only his children get to hear. Does he want to chastise fans and just collect their money to pay off his rumored millions of dollars of debt?

It just might be bad timing, but the announcement came after the reminder that Jackson’s possessions were being auctioned off. An interesting side note is that he just sued to stop the auction.

Is there any doubt that the music legend that built an empire in the 1980s is seeing it all crumble beneath his feet and he is trying to save it all with one last gasp? He has already fled the Neverland Ranch. If there is not a more appropriate symbolic end to the end of his dream I do not know it.

Will Michael’s tour receive as much goodwill and acclaim as Eric Clapton’s tour with Steve Winwood or Leonard Cohen’s return to the United States? I do not know, but Michael Jackson will have to work very hard to create the same sort of sincerity that has everyone (including me) believing that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band actually like their fans.

The reality is that this concert series will earn more than enough to cover his debt, but whether it will change the legacy of his last few years is in serious doubt. Perhaps staying in one spot will inspire Michael Jackson to put on the unbelievable performances that once made him the true King of Pop.