Poignant and eloquent, surprisingly moving---that's what Michael Eric Dyson's summation of Michael Jackson was. He appeared during MSNBC's coverage of Michael Jackson's death yesterday, which Keith Olbermann hosted.

KEITH OLBERMANN, MSNBC HOST:

We`re joined now by Michael Eric Dyson, the Georgetown University professor, the author of "Know What I Mean," who met Michael Jackson at the funeral for Johnny Cochran and has been good enough to join us.

Thank you for your time tonight, sir.

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Thank you, Keith.

OLBERMANN: Give me your reaction. This is -- this is clearly -- I mean, we could be discussing just his music career and say he`s one of the -- one of the giants walking the Earth. We could discuss just his role in pop culture and say the same thing. His role in great trials and say just the same thing. This is -- this is a towering figure of our times.

DYSON: Well, there`s no question about that. I`ve listened to discussion in regard to Michael Jackson and comparing him, say, to the Beatles, an extraordinary group, Elvis Presley, an amazing icon. But he really did carve in the stratosphere of American popular culture and American music a unique niche, so to speak, because he was capable of joining so much of the vernacular traditions of African-American music with the most up-to-date technology to project ends of the world the forceful ambition and the edifying inspiration of African-American culture and music.

Think about it, at the age of six and seven, he already understands the genius of a Jackie Wilson. He articulates those dance movements into his own. He understands the genius of a James Brown.

But listen to this, Keith -- if you asked Michael Jackson in the late `60s, before he was even 10 years old, who his favorite group was, it was the Delfonics, out of Philadelphia -- especially the lead singer, William Hart. That`s a piece of arcania, so to speak, a piece of musical esoterica that is not usually known by people beyond the beltway of black music, and yet, this 10-year-old prodigy is already comprehending the genius of a William Hart and uses some of those, if you will, melodic and harmonic intensities and projects them to the world.

So, yes, he did that. And he was also capable of bridging the gulf between black and white and Latino. He brought together different dimensions of religion. He brought human beings together across the access of race and class and gender.

And he was extraordinary. Remember, he was the first black artist to be played on MTV. So, he broke the racial barrier in an interesting fashion by the sheer force of his music and the velocity and the intensity of his genius, coming at us from every dimension.

He brought Fred Astair and street movement together in his own dance steps. And he also projected the larger than life persona of Sammy Davis, Jr., widely recognized as the greatest entertainer of his generation, and took it to the next level.

OLBERMANN: So, Professor Dyson, what was it about Michael Jackson,  the person inside there, that led to the scenario in which dying at such a young age, draws that crowd that we`re looking at UCLA, at the medical center, when that would not have been the case -- with no offense to William Hart -- but that was not, those are two totally different career .

DYSON: Oh, absolutely.

OLBERMANN: . and life paths and other than circumstance and fate and all the rest of that. What was it in Michael Jackson that drove him -- what was it that brought him to this kind of life that concluded today?

DYSON: Well, obviously, it`s the kind of openness and vulnerability that Michael Jackson had: The very shimmering voice, the transition from a child prodigy into an adult superstar. And that doesn`t usually happen.

You`d have to go back into musical history and find somebody like Mozart who had four or five (ph), is composing extraordinary work, Chopin and analogue to a Michael who so early understood what his life would be about and then hew to that path and stood on it for nearly what, 50 years. I mean, certainly, 45 good years of his life are spent in devotion to his music.

So, I think people felt the will to creativity. We just saw Kobe Bryant bring his enormous will to bear in the NBA Finals. Think about the person with that kind of will and drive of a Michael Jordan, of a fierce determination to be the best.

It wasn`t simply the fact that was he had an innate genius that God gave him. It was also the ability to hone that genius. A genius who works hard at his or her craft is what Michael Jackson.  And he showed us what the evidence of that could be, but also the vulnerability.

After all, Keith, he endured enormous tragedy, both at home with his own family life. He endured it as he got older and his voice began to change and his skin began to change. And he went through enormous transitions in terms of his own physical self. But through it all, I think, the grace note, if you will, was the fact that here was a man who was hugely vulnerable to the influence around him, childlike in both the edifying and the destructive senses of that word, but also, who ultimately connected to an audience so much so that he spoke to their hearts directly.

I saw him in concert, for instance, when I was a graduate student at Princeton in the `80s. And he an extraordinary figure who was able to touch the hearts of the people who are listening and also make him feel that he was intimately involved with them, even as he had this great huge spectacle on stage -- and I think, is that vulnerability that drove people to him. Not the freakishness of what became his life in the latter part of these, you know, three or four or five, last 10 years nearly. But it was genius of the music and the resonance of their human vulnerability that, I think, ultimately, allowed him to touch hearts, and for that music to continue to be part of the landscape.

And let`s not forget, the music after all -- as you said earlier -- after 10 and 20 years, when people have long since forgotten some of the, if you will, the un-digestible elements that don`t often go with our superstars, how can we -- how can we, on the one hand, acknowledge their genius but also acknowledge their frailties and fallibles. That`s long since dismissed.

What will stand as a monument to his incredible genius will be the sheer diversity and the power of the music he made. His voice at the age of 10 was as a soulful conjuring of the ambitions of black people in America, and, indeed, human beings who suffered around the world as any might imagine. And then, as an adult, he was able to have a willed vulnerability that resonated with millions of people around the globe.

OLBERMANN: Georgetown University professor, Michael Eric Dyson, author of "Know What I Mean," who has been good enough to spend a few moments with us, trying to put the life of Michael Jackson in perspective - - Professor, thank you very much.

DYSON: Thanks for having me.