Won't you please let me back in your heart? Photograph: PA
The Observer Review desk is torn. Michael Jackson is on trial for some serious crimes. If he is guilty - which we hasten to add he must be assumed not to be until proven otherwise - what are we to do with our original vinyl copies of Off The Wall? One London radio station, Heart, has already suspended Jacko from its daytime playlist. Seems a bit harsh, given, as we say, that he hasn't yet been convicted of anything.
In fact, the Jacko case came up in leader conference on Friday. After a brief discussion that meandered through the issues of whether or not the King of Pop is fit to stand trial, whether or not the trial itself sends a good signal that the rich and famous are not above the law, whether or not Thriller was his last decent album, we decided to park the issue pending a verdict or some other development worthy of comment.
Meanwhile, back on Review, the question arises: are we slightly put off Jacko's music anyway? We put it to the masses in the form of the weekly Big Question online poll, but the results so far are inconclusive. But then, online polls always are because they are self-selecting and the results are always skewed towards people who feel strongly enough one way or another to vote obsessively over and over again. A more alarming flaw in our online polls is that the percentage results never add up to 100. We have looked at the machinery and tried tinkering with it, but the Observer poll-o-tron just seems to yield results in per99ths instead of percents.
As far as the blog is concerned, 'I Want You Back' is still the finest pop record in history and it will be denying us the ability to control our feet on the dancefloor regardless of what happens in Santa Maria.
Observer plug-o-tron lights up - meaning an opportunity to plug something has been missed.
There is going to be a big Jackson-related feature in the coming weekend's edition of Observer Music Monthly.
