Peter Pan of Pop

Since I’ve recently been looking at all things Peter Pan, I thought I’d take a glance at the Peter Pan of Pop. Not Cliff Richard, the other one.

This month, Michael Jackson has celebrated the 25 years since his record-breaking album Thriller was released, by releasing it again.

As his star wanes, Jackson continues to be something of an enigma.

Like his namesake, Michael Llewellyn Davies, Jackson is (was?) extremely creative, something of a poet and had a strong affinity with the character Peter Pan.

Jackson’s mantra in his later interviews had been, “I am Peter Pan.”

His other mantra “I never had a childhood” is somewhat paradoxical. Rather than a boy who wouldn’t grow up, it implies a person that has never been a child in the first place.

We have the photographs and the video footage to prove that Jackson was indeed once a child and wasn’t beamed down onto the Planet Earth as a fully formed adult.

But obviously he is referring to the fact that he spent his formative years working long hours in (some unsuitable) places whilst growing up in the public eye. He may also be alluding to the idea that he never had a childhood because his innocence was tampered with.

Whatever the case may be, Jackson grew up a very long time ago.

Those who know him well have said that in private, he has a deeper more masculine voice. The gentle softly-spoken childlike voice is used when addressing the public, the media, the worshipping fans and their parents.

The Peter Pan persona is like a figurative version of the literal mask he sometimes wears when he is out in public.

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