Thread by @JuliaBerkowitz1

Rock and pop music is FULL of songs glorifying pedophilia and sex with underage people. Most of those artists aren't blacklisted, the media is not crucifying them. Some examples... THREAD

https://twitter.com/MrTroy_/status/1124892227115802624

Iggy Pop - Look Away

"I slept wlth Sable when she was 13
Her parents were too rich to do anything
She rocked her way around L.A
'Til a New York doll carried her away"

The song is about a real life groupie called Sable Starr ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sable_Sta… ). Rumor has it that several big name rock stars in the 1970s slept with her while she was underage. Iggy Pop admitted to that on his part, in this song.

Ted Nugent - Jailbait

Well, I don't care if you're just thirteen
You look too good to be true
I just know that you're probably clean
There's one little thing I got do to you

Jailbait you look so good to me
Jailbait won't you set me free
Jailbait you look fine, fine, fine

KISS - Christeen Sixteen

The irony of Gene Simmons being a frequent basher of MJ when he wrote this song.

"I don't usually say things like this to girls your age,
but when I saw you coming out of school that day,
I knew, I've got to have you! I've got to have you!"

The Rolling Stones - Stray Cat Blues

"I can see that you're fifteen years old
No I don't want your I.D
And I can see that you're so far from home

But it's no hanging matter
It's no capital crime

(...)

I bet, bet your mama don't know you scream like that"

Aerosmith - Jailbait

"Take it, leave it, roll the dice
She’s hot as hell, I’m cold as ice oh jailbait
Tell your daddy how you do me
Put the woodshed, do it to me jailbait
Whatcha see in daddy’s eyes
Check the voice, no surprise oh jailbait
Ooooh…"

Alex Chilton - Jailbait (there are a number of songs with this title, aren't there?)

"That young thing is such a tease
Of course, its my main squeeze
Jailbait!
Jailbait!
Ewwww Jailbait!
Uh-huh-huh Jailbait!
Everybody in the neighborhood
knows that I’m up to no good"

Elton John - All the girls love Alice

All the young girls love Alice
“Tender, young Alice”, they say
Come over and see me
Come over and please me
Alice, it’s my turn today
(...)
And what do you expect from a sixteen year old yo-yo"

Jethro Tull - Aqualung

"Sitting on the park bench
Eyeing little girls with bad intent
Yeah-eah
Ah"

Beach Boys – Hey Little Tomboy (1/2)

Hey, little tomboy, sit here on my lap
I got things that I gotta tell you
No more skateboards, put away your baseball mitt.
Your rough livin’ days are through

Beach Boys – Hey Little Tomboy (2/2)

Hey, little tomboy, I’ve had my eyes on you
Thinkin’ what a girl you could be
Mmm, I smell perfume, let’s try some cut-off jeans
(...)
I’m gonna teach you to kiss
You’re gonna feel just like this
They’re doin’ it all over the world

Beastie Boys – The New Style

In this song, the group takes a “dig” at Zeppelin and their well known penchant for underage girls.

"If I played guitar I’d be Jimmy Page
The girlie’s I like are underage Check it!"

Eric Clapton – Jailbait (another one with this title!)

"You see her walking down the road.
Man, that little girl is fine.
I’d like to take her for a ride.
I’d like to make her mine, all mine."

Eric Clapton – Jailbait (2/2)

"And do her mom and daddy know
She gets all the boys so wound?
She can’t be more than sixteen.
Man, that little girl is sound."

ZZ Top - Francine

"My Francine just turned thirteen
She’s my angelic teenage queen
And I love her, she’s all that I want
And I need her, she’s all that I need"

Led Zeppelin - Sick Again

"From the window of your rented limousine,
I saw your pretty blue eyes
One day soon you’re gonna reach sixteen,
Painted lady in the city of lies.
Oh, do you know my name?
Do I look the same"

Motorhead – Jailbait (again!)

"Love that young stuff
Cherry baby, you know, you look so fine
Send shivers up and down my spine
I don’t care about our different ages
I’m an open book with well thumbed pages
Jailbait and I and i aint too late"

Ringo Starr – You’re Sixteen and you’re mine

"You’re my baby, you’re my pet,
We fell in love on the night we met.
You touched my hand, my heart went pop,
Ooh, when we kissed, i could not stop.
(...)
You’re sixteen, you’re beautiful, and you’re mine."

R. Kelly famously wrote a song titled "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number" for Aaliyah, a girl he married when she was only 15 (and the song was recorded by her when she was only 14).

R. Kelly - "I Like Crotch on You"

"Only if you're old enough, baby
18 and over or 16 and under
Oh, but how I wonder, I wonder"

R. Kelly -"I Admit"

"I admit I fuck with all the ladies (Ladies)
That's both older and young ladies (Yeah)
But tell me how they call it pedophile because of that
Shit, that's crazy (Crazy)"

Artists usually can't help but give themselves away in their art. At the very least their way of thinking about certain thinks will shine through their lyrics even if they don't straight up admit to things.

In Michael Jackson's case, however, his lyrics tell the story of a man who was (unlike many pop and rock stars) was very concerned for children who were exploited - and that includes sexual exploitation.

In the unreleased song "Do You Know Where Your Children Are" he sings about a 12 year old girl:

"She wrote that she is tired of step daddy using her
Saying that he'll buy her things, while sexually abusing her"

This song was written in the late 1980s, exactly around the time when Safechuck claims his abuse happened. While a song like this isn't ultimate proof of anyone's innocence, but it is in direct contrast with the Michael Jackson portrayed in #LeavingNerverland.

Dan Reed claimed in an interview that MJ maintained his innocence through the years so convincingly because he didn't consider sex with minors wrong. Now this is the direct rebuttal of that theory.

Based on this song, it is clear that Michael Jackson did not consider sex with minors "loving" or "romantic". He knew it was wrong and he was outraged at kids having to go through that.

I am sure people who want to believe the #LeavingNerverland accusers will try to find a way to say MJ is posing in this song or something, but he didn't really have a reason to pose in a song. It was written before the 1993 allegations, any allegations against him.

Like with many artists you can actually learn a lot about MJ through his lyrics. He has certain pet topics, concerns etc. He is a very honest artist in his lyrics. And as you have seen most artist give themselves away in their lyrics.

What Michael Jackson gave away is a concern for abused children and not the POV of an abuser (like so many songs by other artists do, as you have seen), but the POV of someone who is genuinely concerned for abused children.

Another song where the topic of the sexual exploitation of young people comes up is "Hollywood Tonight". The demo was recorded in 1999 and also unreleased during Jackson’s lifetime. In it the dark side of young girls chasing Hollywood success is exposed.

"She’s giving hot tricks to men
Just to get in
When she was taught that that’s not clean
Because she’s only fifteen"

While tons of other artists have songs where they lust after 15-16 girls (or younger), Michael Jackson actually is concerned for the girl who prostitutes herself at the age of 15 for success.

This is one of the most tragic aspects of these allegations: MJ is probably one of the most innocent people around Hollywood,the celebrity world when it comes to children. Yet, he's turned into this poster child of Hollywood pedophilia while real abusers get away under the radar.

And it also exposes the media's hypocrisy. Calls for "mute MJ" because of a one-sided film, but no calls to mute the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Iggy Pop, the Beach Boys etc. - even though they admit their lust for underage people in songs.

The same magazines who ran cover stories in support of LN, will they also run campaigns against the above mentioned artists (and a lot more, because a lot more have such songs)? Or are they too white and too privileged for that?

Besides these two songs by MJ directly addressing the sexual exploitation of children, he also had a number of songs where he passionately defended his innocence. Unlike R. Kelly, he did not admit anything in lyrics. He didn't have anything to admit.

Instead we see a genuine, raw anger about the allegations on his HIStory album, the first album he released after the 1993 allegations.

It's the closest that comes to a concept album in MJ's catalog and the "concept" is all about telling his side of the story the best way an artist knows: in song.

Michael Jackson should have been a clinical case of split personality to be able to express himself this way constantly, over a period of time like this in his art, all the while doing the exact opposite in his bedroom.

I have seen #LeavingNerverland supporters say in the past weeks that they find the accusers in the film credible. They find Safechuck, who basically smirks his way through the description of heinous sexual acts and his mother who literally laughs out loud "credible".

They find Robson's robotic, rehearsed description of heinous sex acts - down to him claiming that at 7 he anticipated sex with an adult man, "credible". And him saying at Dan Reed's direction that he was MJ's "lover" at the age of 7 (and not victim?).

The tears of the Robson family at the end? Well, if Wade is lying to them as well (which I believe is the case) then that's understandable. His own tears were a lot less convincing to me, but each to their own.

If someone goes by simply how credibly someone expresses an emotion over these allegations, you simply cannot overlook the way MJ expressed his emotions. Which to me was a million times more authentic than anything we have seen by these two accusers.

Like when he addressed the Chandler allegations in December 1993.

An indeed his emotions expressed on the HIStory album are very authentic to me. Someone who just luckily got away with a crime would be happy, not angry.

Remember when OJ was acquitted? He threw a party right away. And then wrote a book called "If I Did It". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Did_…

Michael, on the other hand, after the 1993 case wrote songs like Money, Tabloid Junkie, This Time Around, D.S., Stranger in Moscow, Is It Scary etc. - all maintaining his innocence with the righteous indignation of a falsely accused man.

That is what was in him, what he had to get out of his system at the time. Not an "If I Did It" (OJ Simpson) or an "I Admit" (R. Kelly).

And in 2005 after his acquittal he went to the hospital. He was not in the mood for parties. Emotionally and physically he was completely drained by being falsely accused and having to listen to those horrible false allegations against him for months. This is what I call trauma: