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Michael Jackson · S8 E6
June 25, 2009
The day the music stopped
June 25, 2009, early afternoon, Los Angeles. A 911 call from a rented mansion on Carolwood Drive reports that a fifty-year-old man is not breathing, and within hours, every news network on earth is saying the same name.
Will You Be There, Michael Jackson (1991). Official music video. Michael reaches out to an audience he cannot see, asking them to hold him, carry him, never leave him. The video ends with a quiet spoken prayer. It was always a plea. Now it sounds like a farewell.
Will You Be There, Michael Jackson (1991)
Originally recorded for the Dangerous album, "Will You Be There" opens with a full orchestral introduction performed by the Cleveland Orchestra. The song was later featured in the 1993 film Free Willy, which introduced it to millions who had never bought a Michael Jackson album. The production builds from orchestral grandeur to a gospel choir featuring the Andraé Crouch Singers, with Michael's vocal gradually shedding layers of performance until the final spoken monologue, where he is simply talking to God. Listen for how the energy shifts from spectacle to raw intimacy as the song moves toward its close.
Sources
Dangerous album credits, Epic Records, 1991
Free Willy motion picture soundtrack, Epic Soundtrax, 1993
What Happened
Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael's personal physician hired by AEG at $150,000 per month, had been administering propofol to help Michael sleep. Propofol is a powerful surgical anesthetic not meant for use outside a hospital setting. On the morning of June 25, Murray administered the drug in Michael's bedroom at the Carolwood Drive mansion. When he discovered Michael had stopped breathing, he called 911, and paramedics found Michael in cardiac arrest.
Sources
People v. Conrad Murray, trial records, Los Angeles Superior Court, 2011
TAP TO REVEAL: What happened to the internet when the news broke?
The World Reacts
Michael is pronounced dead at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. His brother Jermaine delivers the announcement at a press conference. On July 7, a public memorial service at the Staples Center, the same venue where Michael had been rehearsing two weeks earlier, draws an estimated 31 million US television viewers. Over 1.6 million people applied for the 17,500 free public tickets, which were distributed by lottery.
Sources
UCLA Medical Center records, June 25, 2009
Nielsen television ratings, July 2009
Los Angeles Times, memorial ticket lottery reporting, July 2009
June 25, 2009
100 North Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles
The rented mansion where Michael Jackson spent his final months preparing for his comeback. He never owned the property. AEG was covering the $100,000 monthly rent as part of the This Is It deal.
Break of Dawn, Michael Jackson (2001)
A slow, tender R&B track about watching someone sleep and wanting the night to last forever. Michael sings about sunrise and the hours before dawn with a gentleness that borders on lullaby. He died because he could not sleep, because a doctor gave him a surgical anesthetic in his bedroom to force unconsciousness. A song about the beauty of sleeping next to someone you love becomes unbearable in that context.
Break of Dawn, Michael Jackson (2001)
The lyrics describe the hours between midnight and sunrise with someone Michael does not want to leave. The production by Michael Jackson and Dr. Freeze is warm and unhurried, with a soft drum machine and layered synths that evaporate into silence at the song's edges. It is one of the most intimate recordings on Invincible, and one of the few where Michael sounds genuinely at peace.
Where was the public memorial service for Michael Jackson held on July 7, 2009?
The man is gone, but the music remains. Next season, we stop telling Michael Jackson's story and start listening to his art: the voice, the beats, the grooves, the dances, and the vault of songs the world has never heard.
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