Here's what i watched and what made me feel the difference:
Public service, Augusta 2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRCmDvX5 ... re=related
MJ arriving, live coverage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TROZ_U2MIxA
Rev. Al Sharpton, MJ, JB' daughter Deanna Brown speech
This is not actual JB funeral, here's the real funeral church service, as i guess:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnAeV4jr ... re=related
when i heard YANA playing there... my heart jumped
However, i think the major OFF thing in MJ's funeral was the filming part. To this day I still cannot understand why to hire a Hollywood production company to film it and spend a fortune instead allowing CNN or any other TV company do it free of charge for the family... And I thought... for the record, for the history perhaps. Same feeling I have for this picture:

Looks like a picture for the record.... record of 'death' or record of 'hoax'?... I tried to imagine these guys in years to come telling their kids: 'Look, Jimmy, it's me on MJ's funeral, that was fun!' and i cannot picture that!
I agree with those of you who say James Brown lived a long and complete life, had a health conditiong for quite some time before he passed and was an aged man with grown children.... So I too feel that MJ's sudden 'death' at the age 50 and 3 young children left behind would be emotionally far more devastating to accept... And I think that keeping the funeral 'private' (closed casket, no viewing, no public mourning at the event, no ntional flags for the coffin) means a lot more. If it was public it would be TOO REAL. People would CRY, and apparently that wasn't the plan. JMHO