|
The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation |  | Author: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $5.99
as of 3/16/2010 09:40 CDT details
You Save: $19.96 (77%)
New (5) Used (4) from $5.98
Seller: pbnbooks
Rating:  204 reviews
Sales Rank: 23483
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42166092
ASIN: B003156AXC
Publication Date: September 25, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Product Description
In 2000-2001, Michael Jackson sat down with his close friend and spiritual guide, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, to record what turned out to be the most intimate and revealing conversations of his life. It was Michael's wish to bare his soul and unburden himself to a public that he knew was deeply suspicious of him. The resulting thirty hours are the basis of The Michael Jackson Tapes. There has never been, and never will be, anything like them.
Book Description
In 2000–2001, Michael Jackson sat down with his close friend and spiritual guide, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, to record what turned out to be the most intimate and revealing conversations of his life. It was Michael’s wish to bare his soul and unburden himself to a public that he knew was deeply suspicious of him. The resulting thirty hours are the basis of The Michael Jackson Tapes. There has never been, and never will be, anything like them. In these searingly honest conversations, Michael exposes his emotional pain and profound loneliness, his longing to be loved, and the emptiness of his fame. You discover why he was suspicious of women and how only children provided the innocence for which he so desperately longed. In his own words, he takes us into the jarring moments of his childhood and speaks of the measures he took to try and heal. He divulges how he came to be alienated from his strong religious anchor and describes his views on the nature of faith. Michael brings us into his tortured yet loving relationship with his siblings. He opens up about his father and his yearning for a time when they might finally reconcile. He talks about his most personal friendships and shares with us his terror of growing old. Despite his unprecedented fame and recent death, there remain unanswered questions about his life. The answers, presented here in The Michael Jackson Tapes, will both intrigue and move you. You will be surprised, riveted, and troubled as you peer into the soul of a tragic icon whose life is an American morality tale and whose flame was extinguished much too early.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 204
 love the book, not shmuleys comments October 3, 2009
Gloria (virginia beach va)
33 out of 50 found this review helpful
I love this book reading how Michael felt in his own words was refreshing,if you are a fan read the book, the type of women he liked and didnt like, religion, everything,on how singing in those clubs when he was young and seeing what he saw shaped the type of women he liked and why he wasnt sleeping with everyone he met and he could have, if he did they would of talk about him for that instead of praising him for keeping his virginty they made fun of him, shmuleys contradicted himself quite a bit in this book, when asking Micheal if he thought God gave him the gift of healing and Michael said yes childern follow me whereever I go,when i visit the sick they feel better, then Shmuley says he has the Messia syndrum, Michael didnt say yes I am God He sd answered the question yes I think God gave me a gift which he did, Michael was always praising and thanking God for the gifts that were giving to him he didnt take advantage, Michael was a people pleaser and that came from trying to please his father who didnt know how to show love, yes Michael wanted to be the biggest star ever and he was he asked for love not for all the women and men falling out, crying screaming he didnt ask for that it just happen and Shmuley once again turn everything around stating Michael wanted idolatry the man just wanted to be loved and wanted to give love back and help anyone who needed it, and it was the very people who he tried to help that broke his spirit, Shmuley stated Michael gave up his will to live I disagree totally, yes Michael might of needed the money that is why he was going to do the this is it concert but if you watch the preview he was smiling and so happy that he was doing what he loved to do and that we his fans still loved him that is why tickets sold out so quickly, Shmuley being a Rabbi should know better than anyone when someone is addicted to anything they have to be the ones to want help they can not do it for anyone else not there kids,family no one but themselves, Shmuley also said Michael wanted to died totally untrue, if you can read the book and take it for what it is and why you bought the book to begin with Michaels thoughts then this is a excellent book if you can not take what Shmuley says with a grain of salt then its not for you, Shmuley is very judgemental concerning Michael in this book it didnt sound like he was trying to help Michael but to do as i say or I cant be your friend anymore...and that is a shame,Shmuley you will be judge in the end for being so judgemental....
great history, but an unfortunately bully pulpit for a right wing thinker December 13, 2009
Anne B. (Tarrytown, NY United States)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
** may contain spoilers **
This book has historical significance and is definitely a must read for any MJ fans. This is why I have given it a high rating. On the other hand, unfortunately, the author has tried to use MJ's life as a justification for the author's religious and cultural beliefs in a manner that is totally irrational and wholly disappointing.
The first and most important issue that needs to be raised is the good Rabbi's total ignorance of how addiction needs to be treated. He seems to believe that he can cure MJ of addiction - a hopeless condition of mind and body - simply by telling him to stop. What sort of training do they give rabbis anyway?
The first and still most popular cure for addiction is to be found the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous. ("BB"). BB makes clear that the cure for addiction is spiritual, as the Rabbi seems to intuit, in particular that the addict needs to experience a "vital spiritual experience," in order to be freed of his addiction. But what the Rabbi fails to appreciate is that this experience must be with the God of the addict's understanding, not the God of the person who is trying to treat the addict.
MJ tells the Rabbi that his most important spiritual experiences were when performing, that he went into a trance where he felt connected both with God and with the audience, that he could measure the strength of this spiritual connection by looking at the audience's reaction. In fact, MJ publicly stated that he thought he was an instrument of nature and that the audience's reaction was a manifestation of love - one that he found supernatural.
The Rabbi dismisses this as "being a celebrity" or having some kind of Messiah complex and apparently tried to pressure MJ to go back to the Jehovah's Witness church that tried to suppress MJ's art.
Michael's impression that he was uniquely positioned to bring unity to the world through song and dance was not delusional or non-spiritual. He was the greatest celebrity who has ever existed. He made audiences all over the world sing and dance to the same music. Anyone who doubts the significance of this should watch the Estonian movie "The Singing Revolution." This movie clearly shows the power that music has to unite and to divide peoples. The world is in desperate need of music that all people can sing together - and MJ was positioned to give us that.
The Rabbi, as the spiritual adviser in MJ's life at that time, by denying MJ's experience, significantly reduced the chances that MJ could have the vital spiritual experience that might have cured him of his addiction. It is sad that, given this opportunity to help MJ, instead the Rabbi seems to have bumblingly made things worse.
The Rabbi also seems disappointingly ignorant of gay people. This is surprising, given that he states that his own brother is gay. MJ tells the Rabbi that he is straight, and the Rabbi sees no reason to question that, even though he quotes MJ extensively as being phobic of women's sexual advances and preferring the company of men - and even seemingly becoming a bit overly attached to the Rabbi himself. It never seems to occur to the Rabbi that MJ could be lying to himself. Unfortunately, again as explained in BB, an addict cannot hope to be cured of his addiction unless he is 100% rigorously honest. If MJ was lying to himself about his sexual orientation, this could have been partially responsible for his worsening addiction - and the Rabbi seems determined to enable MJ to keep up any dangerous self-deception..
Instead, the Rabbi chooses to beat his own bully pulpit about how Michael's early exposure to sexually explicit material led to his sexual dysfunction. But Michael's brother Marlon, who was only a year or two older, was in those same bars performing, and he is now a happily married heterosexual. If being in the bars caused Michael to be afraid of sex, why would it not have had the same effect on his brothers?
The Rabbi attributes MJ's decline largely to celebrity, rather than to addiction. Again, this is the Rabbi's personal bias, rather than factual. Addiction does not respect class or celebrity. The poor people in MJ's original neighborhood of Gary, Indiana were every bit as susceptible to addiction as MJ was as a celebrity, but they were not celebrities and they were not isolated in Neverland..
Indeed, MJ's famously brutal and obsessive father hoped that getting his kids out of Gary, by beating them into commercial success, would allow him to protect them from drugs. This was unfortunately false. The BB also explains that there is no such thing as a geographical cure for addiction. Addiction does not come from outside the addict and it cannot be cured by changing external circumstances.
The Rabbi decries MJ using an intermediary to tell the Rabbi that he is not normal, as being another aspect of Michael's showmanship and desire to be a celebrity. The Rabbi seems to believe, as so many neurotypical people do, that a non-neurotypical person can simply be pushed or bullied into becoming "normal." MJ's savant-like genius, which allowed him - for instance -- to learn complex dances after seeing them only once, when other professional dancers needed to rehearse them for days or weeks, was a clear indication that he was not neurotypical -- along with his reluctance to make eye contact with most people (other than children). When MJ was unable to tell the Rabbi this himself, this was not an indication of some nefarious manipulativeness, but merely the truth. Anyone who thinks, like the Rabbi, that the way to deal with geniuses is to make them normal should read "An Anthropologist from Mars," especially the chapter about the savant twins who had an extraordinary ability to recite prime numbers, which they lost after well-meaning psychologists meddled to try to make them "normal." They became more normal, but were slightly retarded.
One thing I find curious, rather than disappointing was the Rabbi's statements about how Michael's children should have been a motivating factor in making him want to live. To me, especially reading what Michael had to say about his feelings about children and aging, it seems more likely that the older children's impending puberty was likely very frightening to him. He could no longer be with other people's children. He states that he is unable to tolerate watching other people age. His own were likely the last children he would really be able to commune with. Once they grew up, what would he do? He has already stated he does not want to live if he cannot be with children. Can you imagine what would have happened the day Prince Michael decided he was too old to have a water balloon fight? It is, naturally, very painful for children to lose a parent; but, in this case, is it not better for them to be raised by someone who has raised teenagers before, rather than be left with someone who is not going to be able to accept them other than as children?
In his haste to justify his own conservative religious beliefs, the Rabbi rushes to condemn celebrity as the cause of Michael's decline, while attributing his earlier success as being due to his conservative religious upbringing. In fact, the pattern of being successful into the mid-thirties and then falling apart is characteristic for people who were abused as children. It seems more likely that the same abuse that propelled Michael to the phenomenal level of training that he achieved was the cause of his downfall - the seeds of his destruction.
While the Rabbi is certainly correct that an addict must forgive his father in order to recover - that cannot be imposed from outside with a rabbi writing a speech for him. That must come from inside.
The Rabbi's whole thesis seems to be that if only he could somehow have gotten MJ to follow his instructions MJ would have been healthy. The Rabbi should join Al-anon to learn more how to deal with addicts.
The purpose of this book seems to be, in the author's mind, a vehicle to capitalize on Michael's celebrity to create a vehicle through which the Rabbi and express his personal beliefs about family and religion.
Read slowly and grieve. November 28, 2009
E. Melchiondo (new hope, pa)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I first read this book very quickly when it was just released. I was so shocked and sad when MJ die, that I needed some insight in his personal thoughts to get some kind of comfort. I have read this book a second time and I can actually remember more and now I am in the grieving process. I am at the anger stage. Angry that the world misjudged him and created such unnessecary hell for him to bear. No one could live through his reality and Rabbi Schmuley did try to help him but unfortunatley, he tried to put a square peg into a round hole and misjudged MJ's reality; be it fantasy or denial.
The Rabbi is right, even though his thoughts unwanted by many February 23, 2010
Mi-tey
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
I read this book and found it to be extremely interesting. While most of the reviews say that the Rabbi's opinions are unwanted, its hard to argue that he is off the mark. I too am a big fan of Michael, but he should've listened to some truly good people around him like the Rabbi and he could be alive today. The Rabbi is right on target in his view of celebrity in general and that we live in a society where celebrity seems to be the ultimate goal. We see it everywhere we look with kids, from youth sports, to baby pageants, to young people being trained to be dancers, actors, etc. Instead of just being raised as kids, many parents see their kids as a future ballplayer, or whatever. He is also on the mark by stating that Michael was the first and best ever REALITY TV star. As for the transcripts of MJ himself, he is the man. We know who he was, but don't be too dismissive of the Rabbis comments. He freely admits multiple times that he was as wrapped up in MJ's celebrity as anyone else. I found his writing to be very genuine.
Worth It October 6, 2009
cocobear (st. louis, mo)
14 out of 28 found this review helpful
I was skeptical about this book after reading many of the low-rated reviews so far posted. However, I wanted to know about who Michael Jackson was as a person. So despite the warnings and low ratings, I ordered the book. I realized Rabbi Shmuley was on Michael's hit list, and that is somewhat disturbing because I didn't want to buy a book contributing to that scenario. But it seemed to be one of the few ways to learn about Michael as a person and he DID at one point plan to make all this public. And despite everything else, it IS stuff straight from Michael's mouth. It was not something someone made up. The truth speaks.
SO, I have given this book five stars because it is definitely in the words of Michael. It is heartbreaking in places and uplifting in places and confusing in places. The bottom line for me is that if you read this book, you have to be aware of a few things. As much as you might love Michael, the truth is that he had dysfunction in areas of his life and that for the most part, it was delivered upon him before he could even be aware of it or do anything about it. Also, the truth is that Michael turned to drugs to dull his pain, and as anyone who has come up against any kind of dysfunction, be it alcohol, drugs or anything else, knows, it can be very difficult to curb that behavior, whether it is a person trying to shake things himself or friends or family trying to influence behavior. The last thing to be aware of is that Rabbi Shmuley is a religious personage and you have to remember that his job is to counsel and lead.
The book is a wonderful insight into Michael's brain and it begins to form a picture of Michael as a person. He comes across as very intelligent, very kind and caring, yet at times it seems as if he did not quite know himself, as when he said he would like to go out with Katie Couric. To the rest of the world, I am guessing this seems like a poor match. My belief is that Michael may not have had enough experience with women to understand what was best for him or what he really wanted. So there are those moments. There is some dysfunction apparent. But I am not sure it is of the magnitude that would impact anyone much other than himself.
I would like to address some of the comments about Rabbi Shmuley. He DOES spend pages somewhat analyzing stuff but he is a Rabbi and that is what he does. I did not feel he was being arrogant but i DID feel that you have to take some of that with a grain of salt. He is a religious personage and to me it was classic rhetoric. I did not feel he was attacking Michael. Rather, I felt that he was speaking only of the dysfunction he saw, which was the truth. It was there. I have a feeling that if a person has not perhaps experienced a lot of life or has not dealt with personal dysfunction, what the Rabbi is saying in places may have seemed as if it was arrogant or an attack and this is why I think some of the ratings are low. If a person HAS experienced dysfunction, then I believe it will be more apparent that the Rabbi is coming to the only conclusions that one can come to a lot of times in the face of dysfunction.
Parts of this book are very heartbreaking and sad, and if you can't take that, don't buy it. But probably the majority of it is a fascinating insight into who Michael Jackson was as a person, as much as he could be truthful. There were times that I wasn't sure he was completely truthful, but I'm not sure this was conscious. Mainly, there seemed to be a disconnect between some of the things Michael was believing in and his ability to apply those beliefs and values to himself in order to straighten his life out.
I only hope Rabbi Shmuley gives us all of the transcripts. The kindness and caring and love that Michael believed in are lessons to be learned for everyone. The sad story is that despite that, he couldn't save himself. But the rest of us can learn from this gentle man and this comes across throughout the book. Michael's ability to perform is completely disconcerting because the private Michael, as much as we are allowed to see, is at complete odds with that. He comes across as a very sensitive, caring, loving person, with a dysfunction that perhaps would have been no more severe than that many Americans are walking around with, except for the fact that he had enough money to isolate himself and was not forced to take many steps to heal himself. He did not seem like the freak he has been portrayed as. I believe Lisa Marie said it best in Randy Taraborelli's book where she said, and I am paraphrasing here, that it was too bad Michael didn't let the world see him because he was so normal and then people wouldn't think she was such a freak for being into him. That he drank, that he cussed, that he sat on the couch and was normal.
The Rabbi explains their parting as his inability to help Michael anymore and I found it completely plausible. If you are part of dysfunction then you will be destroyed along with it if you don't withdraw and I believe this was behind Michael's divorce from Lisa Marie as well. Anyone who has been involved in a dysfunction will tell you that. He seems mystified about why she agreed to have children and then once they were married she went back on her word. My guess would be that Lisa Marie did not go back on her word. She came to see the dysfunction in Michael and made a conscious decision that she did not want to bring children into that life when she realized she could not save him and that they would have to part. Michael even said in the book that he would not be easy to live with.
In the book, he talks about women, Lisa, their marriage, Madonna, children, his love of play, the perfect woman, and much philosophy of life. One thing I would like to point out is that the Rabbi was of the belief that Michael had a Messiah complex at times. I did not see it that way; I believe Michael believed in the power of love and that that is what was operational, not that he was a be all and end all messiah come to save humanity. I think he truly believed that love was strength and power and that that power was tremendous. How could he not think that? That is what he never had as a child and as an adult, it was at the forefront of his existence. He talks about innocence, his children and lots of stuff.
So, if you can read the book and be aware of these things, then you will get a lot from it. If you cannot see the structure of Rabbi Shmuley's approach, then you will believe he is attacking at times when he is merely pointing out the truth of Michael's dysfunction. If you accept that Michael was not perfect and was a HUMAN BEING then I think you will love this book as much as I did.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 204
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
| |
