King of Pop may live on -- image remade

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By Andrea Billups

By the time it ended, he was viewed as an oddity by those who had followed his trajectory, a boy-man with a sculpted netherworldly face but with talent as extraterrestrial as his look.

At 50, despite his obvious creative genius, Michael Jackson seemed a bleached, wandering contradiction to some, a global icon and a drug-connected has-been, living with the pain -- and hubris -- of his largesse and in a creative abyss that forced him to perform himself out of debt.

Could he have known that in death he would be celebrated around the world with a soulful tribute a la Princess Diana, his career laid open in a wall-to-wall media spectacle with a $25,000 gold casket that held as much tragedy as it did joy?

Now some wonder, with the renewed interest in his life and his music, whether the image of Michael Jackson could be rehabilitated in death. Already, it seems, many are hell-bent on trying, even as a police investigation into his drug use continues and a custody battle over his three children looms.

Over the past week, music lovers, including younger fans, either unexposed or long over the sordid details of child molestation that torpedoed his credibility years back, have embraced his music with an apparent fervor. They downloaded hits including "Thriller" and "Bad" -- recorded before the advent of the MP3 -- with a frenzy.

While he hadn't had a hit in years, his records suddenly ascended the playlists as good will from long-quiet industry pals hit the airwaves, calling him legendary and perhaps misunderstood. In retrospect, they said solemnly, he was a man, not just a singer, worth remembering. Their tributes moved his story past the image of a haunted entertainer who doctor-shopped to feed his habits and moved his family restlessly from places as far-flung as Bahrain.

"Sure there were some sad times and maybe some questionable decisions on his part, but Michael Jackson accomplished everything he dreamed of," said Berry Gordy Jr., putting a coda on his death that acknowledged his struggles and his humanity.

Some at his memorial pushed back on the naysayers who had derided his look and lifestyle as a kook show. They defended his honor.

"I hope that the love that people have shown will make you know that he didn't live in vain," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, speaking directly to Mr. Jackson's family.

He added, in the service's most pointed moment: "I want his children to know, there wasn't nothin' strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with."