Random thoughts on the death of "The King of Pop"

Met up with a friend for coffee on South Beach a few hours after the death of Michael Jackson was announced.

He immediately said what had been on my mind since hearing the news. And that was that it probably won't be long before the inevitable parallels start to be made between Jackson's passing the death of Elvis.

One of those comparisons is already starting to surface; that being Jackson's alleged abuse of prescription drugs. Elvis battled drug addiction most of his adult life.

Jackson's death is being mourned by fans who never met him. As was Elvis's.

And of course there's the fact that Jackson and Presley died young. Jackson was 50 and Presley was 42.

Later I took a quick tour of Ocean Drive at around 7:30pm and except for a few TV's tuned to news channels most bars had a baseball game on.

Finnegan's on Ocean Drive

Passed by the Clevelander and a Michael Jackson song was blasting at about 120 decibels. Further down the street the strains of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" drifted out to the street.

I never was that big of a fan of Jackson's although his music was catchy.

I'm a baby boomer and Elvis was and is still the King as far as I'm concerned.

But I'm sure the same superlatives that were used to describe Elvis in 1977 are alredy being used to describe the life and death of Michael Jackson.

And that's as it should be.