The King of Pop no match for the Queens of the Court
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Perhaps you heard: Michael Jackson died last week.
Yes, he was a talented entertainer, and his sudden passing was undeniably sad. But in the midst of the endless, breathless coverage – I heard an Ivy League professor gush that Jackson was an incredibly hard worker, a “musical genius,” and even a transcendent figure -- I began to think perhaps we’d crossed a line.
I wanted to hear an actual journalist point out that Jackson didn’t write most of his hits, and they wouldn’t have been hits in the first place if not for the real genius of his producer, Quincy Jones. Consider the lasting impact of Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong and Paul McCartney – who not only could write music, they could play it on a number of instruments – and you have to conclude we might be overestimating Jackson’s genius.
I heard hundreds of pundits make the claim, however, but precious few who seemed capable of remembering Jackson repeatedly praise the virtues of grown men sleeping with young boys. Instead, we in the media chose to abdicate our role as watchdogs to devote all our energy toward hagiography.
While we were busy promoting the Jacksons, we missed a much better story: Venus and Serena Williams played each other in the Wimbledon Finals.
Like the Jacksons, the Williams sisters owe much of their success to a hard driving father. But unlike the abusive Joe Jackson, Richard Williams raised his children not merely to be successful, but happy.
Williams, a former Louisiana sharecropper, brought up Venus and Serena in L.A.’s toughest neighborhood, Compton – about as far from Wimbledon as Gary, Indiana, is from Hollywood.
Every day, Richard Williams would take his two daughters and a shopping cart full of tennis balls down to their neighborhood’s cracked up tennis court. When gang members showed up to taunt them, warning there was no way any girls from Compton were going to make it in tennis, their dad shooed them away. When gunfire broke out, the girls kept playing.
Richard stuck to his unorthodox teaching methods – and they worked. The girls got good, and fast. When the stuffed shirts who run junior tennis caught wind of the Williams girls, they warned them that if they didn’t get professional coaching and joined their circuit, like all the other phenoms, there was no way any girls from Compton were going to make it.
Richard ignored them, too. He kept his daughters in school, sane, and safe from burning out – like so many Jennifer Capriatis. When he felt they were finally ready -- physically and emotionally -- he let them loose on the tennis world, and they quickly cleaned up.
They have now won 18 major singles titles between them, and 22 more in doubles. They are already the best of their generation, by a long shot. Their only real competition is each other. They both rank in the top ten all time, and they are far from done. No other family comes close, in any generation.
The sisters have achieved perhaps their greatest triumph off the court. Venus and Serena are happy and healthy, with full lives outside of tennis. They’re involved in acting, fashion and dating adults. And even for this, they’ve been criticized for treating tennis as a part-time pursuit.
If that’s part time, we should all be part timers.
Just a few hours after Serena beat Venus in the Wimbledon final, they teamed up to win another Wimbledon doubles title. Too bad we missed it.
Copyright © 2009, Michigan Radio
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnubacon
Dear Mr. Bacon,
I love listening to your comments each Friday morning on Michigan Radio. It is the highlight of my Friday morning commute.
But I found your comments today a wee bit hypocritical. You’ve called out the media for not being watch dogs but your story about the Williams sisters also completely glossed over the more controversial aspects of the Williams Sisterhood. There are plenty of cases where they have been accused of being Divas, bad losers & much more.
I was disappointed that you chose to favorably compare their personal lives to MJ’s but completely ignored this aspect.
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Dear Nikhil,
Much thanks for your kind words -- but perhaps that speaks more to the drudgery of our commutes! Seriously, though, thank you.
You raise several salient points, which I actually had included in my earlier drafts but chopped out as I worked my way down to the 500 or so word limit these commentaries require.
I couldn't expand there, but I can do so here, so if you'll indulge me, here goes:
Richard Williams has more than a few idiosyncrasies himself. Many of his comments over the years have been angry, defensive and simply nonsensical. His work as a stage dad has sometimes been over the top, too, and if memory serves he was asked not to attend his daughters' matches for some time. (He was back this weekend, however, and behaved appropriately.)
Likewise, the sisters have been divas at times, as you correctly point out, not to mention flaky and bad sports on several occasions. And when they play each other in a final, the ticket buyers rarely see two world class athletes knocking themselves out to win - the way they do in the semi-finals.
Given their amazing journey from Compton to Centre Court, however, I would expect a few such chinks in their armor. I still believe, as many of my tennis friends have told me, that the Williamses d not get the credit it deserves for this rather heroic climb -- especially by sticking to their beliefs and doing it their way. There is no Motown in professional tennis to protect you, and Quincy Jones can't help you at Centre Court. The Williams family, truly, was on its own.
All things considered, the daughters are rather well-adjusted, especially by the standards of professional tennis, and genuinely happy people -- no small feat, in my view.
And if I still believe the Williams sisters don't get enough credit, I believe Michael Jackson gets too much, for the reasons I describe, and his far more serious actions get too little attention.
While I don't admire Richard's random outbursts or his daughters' occasional bouts of poor sportsmanship, those are far cries from beating your kids or molesting someone else's -- which is a fair interpretation of Joe and Michael Jackson's conduct. Certainly, priests were not so readily forgiven -- and shouldn't have been. I admit that, learning recently that a high school hockey coach I knew had been arrested for similar crimes, this has been on my mind of late. It appalls me, and the damage done cannot be easily calculated.
So I believe you are surely right that the Williams father and sisters are far from perfect, and I did not do a good enough job spelling that out. But I admire them far more than I ever will the Jackson clan.
Again, thanks for your kind words, and taking the time to point out this omission. I hope the above fills in those blanks.
-JUB
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Dear John,
I'm flattered that you took time out to reply to my comments. I definitely cannot argue that the Williams family has achieved something quite remarkable & you are right to point that out.
You are also right that MJ's life has so much more downside, but perhaps he has more upside too, given the billions he has touched with his songs.
My commute isn't that bad with NPR for company. But Friday is special. Your story about Scotty Passnik & all others about Bo always inspire. Thank you for that.
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Dear Nikhil,
My pleasure. You raised good points that needed to be included in the equation. Glad we could rectify that.
And, as you point out, we actually agree on all this -- a happy circumstance whenever it occurs.
Thanks again for your kind words. There are great stories all around us -- we just have to dig a bit more to find the gems among the dirt.
-John
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Right On!
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Professor Bacon,
It has been a while since we've spoken, but I have been keeping up with you through your blog and sporadic Detroit News articles. First of all, thanks for the great reading material! This may be a late comment, but I couldn't help myself.
I am really glad that you brought this point up because it was completely forgotten by everyone in the media except for ESPN. Its been a few weeks now and we still see the MJ headlines, so thank you for saying what I believe people wanted/needed to hear.
However, one thing about the blog irked me. You state, "I wanted to hear an actual journalist point out that Jackson didn’t write most of his hits." I'm sorry, but this statement is incorrect. I was curious and did some research (I opened up all of my MJ albums). MJ is actually credited as the solo writer for most of his hit singles. There are a few that were written for him, but the overwhelming majority of singles after the "Off the Wall" album are credited to solely MJ. I agree that w/out Quincy Jones we probably would not have known who MJ was, so that credit must be given. However, I think that MJ should be given credit for writing hit singles that are still sung by all ages over two decades after their release. You can't deny MJ that.
Keep writing the good stuff! Until next time...Baked Potato, French Fries.
Shilpin Mehta
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(Oops! Thought I posted this one weeks ago, when I posted the reader's comment.)
Shilpin,
Great to hear from you, and thanks for your kind words.
Regarding your questioning my claim that Michael Jackson did not write most of his hits, however, I'll stick to my stats. (I looked them up on Allmichaeljackson.com prior to publishing the original piece.)
Here's the breakdown from his two biggest albums, by far, Off the Wall and Thriller, whose songs were written by:
Others 12
MJ 5
MJ and someone else 2.
Final score is 12 to 7 -- more than enough to say "most." (And, frankly, lesser authors often sell their credits to bigger stars.) Of course, this does not include his work with the Jackson Five, which sang other people's work almost entirely.
But I do agree with you, and the other writers here, that he was a phenomenal entertainer -- singer and dancer -- whose music will outlive us all. You're right: You can't deny MJ that.
Again, Shilpin, much thanks!
And a big Baked Potato to you!
-JUB
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