"The Lost Children"


People hate this song something proper LOL. I can see why, its so characteristic of sappy, corny Mike and so easy to laugh at, but I find this simple, sing songy song quite bizarre and charming in its own way. Its almost new age progressive in its rather lovely production values. Certainly nothing else like it in his catalogue melody wise....

The song also has a somewhat timeless appeal, like the song is 100's of years old or something. It certainly has not dated thats for sure. Mikes vocals on the middle 8 are sublime. You really feel Mike loves singing this sorta stuff. Its passionate. Its also quite haunting aswell. Beautiful, but haunting. The outro is kind of creepy, and proves furthermore how eccentric Mike could be if you let him LOL.

This is the sort of song I wanted more from Mike. He has his rnb and pop cuts and we love them, but I wanted his left field, idiosyncratic slushy MOR, childlike songs like "the lost children", which probably has my fav production on any track off "invincible". It's very telling that Mike wrote, arranged and produced it himself. You also feel songs like this were his real labour of love. Prince Jackson is also on the track LOL. And it was nice to see Tom Bahler back doing the choir aswell.

Gotta fuck the haters on this one LOL. Always did like it, but its seriously gone up even more in my estimation since I've been hearing it again. If i could of said anything to Mike, it would be I loved this song LOL. I know critics and fans ripped this songs heart out, and thats fair enough, but I love it LOL.

Anyone else find this song charming?
[Edited 7/15/09 17:49pm]

blah my least favorite song from Invincible

when i think about underrated MJ songs i think about this

I was just listening to this song in the car and it really got to me at my core. It's really beautiful and I thought the same thing about it being timeless. It's sappy but pure and just really well done. Stronger than Heal the World I think or some of his other tunes of this sort. I also like that his voice has a little depth to it. It's moved up a few notches on my favorite MJ songs.

InsatiableCream said:

That is some BANGER

Mine would me,,,,



And its self-pinned if I'm not mistaken.

No, this is:

Timmy84 said:

i adore that song.

JackieBlue said:

Iam glad I ain't the only one anymore . It does feel more sincere then "heal the world" and definately more sincere then "we are the world", but at the same time, whilst the song is catchy, it doesn't feel as contrived as "heal the world". I like "HTW", but I much prefer "the lost children".

I think this might of been a late single off "invincible" if Sony wouldn't have stopped promotion. Well, that was the rumour anyway. Cant see it being a hit, but who knows?

Oh, I think one of the most underrated is...

thesexofit said:

This song is alright. But there's only so many times you want to hear this theme repeated in his music, especially after child molestation allegations.

It's like... enough already. We got it the last 8 times you sang this under a different title.

JackieBlue said:

yes

thesexofit said:

I totally agree about its sincerity. I felt like it could have been a theme for something big. I wish more people knew it existed along with Whatever Happens.

errant said:

Michael will never stop releasing those kind of songs ,its part of him, there are still unreleased songs of that type:

People of the world -Written and composed by MJ ( given to japanese band called Jfriends but Mj's version do exist)

Children's Hoilday -Written and composed BY MJ ( given to japanese band called Jfriends but Mj's version do exist)

Children's Hour- Written and composed By MJ

and many more.....LOL.

So thesexofit, you will still hear new songs of that type by Mj even after his death.

errant said:

I know what you mean about the subject matter. Its very familiar no question (though at least its not a "heal the world" message again). The lyrics are nice and all, and I truly feel he cares about such things, but its mainly about the melody and production for me. The production is quite beautiful, whilst the song itself does not seem to of been written as being a "hit" in mind, which is very refreshing for a Michael song. Its not very commerical (by Mikes standards) thats for sure.

Songs like "the lost children", written and produced alone by Jackson, makes me think how much more interesting and left field he could of gone. It also shows how good a producer he was.

Overshadowed by the other tracks on Thriller:

seeingvoices12 said:

I remember hearing about the first 2 songs LOL. We all know Mike loves this subject matter, but "TLC" has always stuck with me more for some reason. Again, as I told Errant, its more about the rather odd, but lush production with contrast to the simplistic, yet quite original chorus that do it for me. You also dont hear much acoustic guitar in any of Michaels songs, so thats refreshing. Its not some big ass anthemic song for once either. Its quiet and surprisenly understated than the usual bombastic approach Jackson has to producing.
[Edited 7/15/09 18:24pm]

trueiopian said:

LOVE "THE LOST CHILDREN", "SUPERFLY SISTER", "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR BEING POLITE" and "BABY BE MINE", MJ didn't have a lot of filler material IMHO.

JackieBlue said:

This is one of the MAIN reasons, why I pick "Off The Wall" album, over "Thriller" every time. This track is straight up NASTY!! Louis Johnson's bass lines are NUTS!!

thesexofit said:

I don't find anything "left field" about it at all. It's pretty standard adult contemporary pop. I think it's a fine song in its own right and better than some of the previous ones (even on that album) in the vein.

But I thought it in 2001 and I'm even more sure of it now: this is the kind of stuff that he needed to leave OFF his albums in order to tighten them up. When I think about Invincible, or HIStory even, I think it's such a shame. There is a great album's worth of material in there. And by album I mean, say, a 40-50 minute one. One in there that shows of his vocal abilities, his songrwiting abilities, his production abilities.

He was always so desperate to repeat the success of Thriller. But I think if he'd gone back and LISTENED to Thriller, or Off The Wall or even Bad he would have seen that there weren't a plethora of save the world/children or angry/violent poor me/evil media tracks on them. there weren't any. and the running times kept them from being repetitive and wearing out their welcome. but it isn't just MJ, everyone had this same problem for awhile. MJ just kind of kept it going into the new millenium when everyone else had gone back to shorter, more satisfying album lengths.

Anyway, I went off on a tangent there. But he kind of shot himself in the foot with his last few albums by including so many of those kinds of tracks that 1) nobody can relate to (the angry fame ones) and 2) nobody wants to hear - they're all like solo versions of the celebrity cause sing-along that We Are The World Was - but the sun had long set on anyone's interest in that type of song by 2001.

Ditto for

"PUSH ME AWAY"
"GET ON THE FLOOR"
"BURN THIS DISCO OUT"... in many ways, MJ was a 'disco' survivor,
his "OFF THE WALL" album (along with Donna Summer's "Bad Girls") were
(IMHO) the last statements on the 'disco' era, but of course as we all know,
MJ took it one step further and brought R&B and SOUL back into the mainstream.

Anyway, add to that 'underrated' list...

"DESTINY"
"TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE"
"BE NOT ALWAYS"

shorttrini said:

Isn't it sick?! And when those horns come in after the break forget it. OTW is just tight tight tight. Love MJs vocal performance as well.

Forever my shit!

trueiopian said:

my ex and I used to go around singing this as "Spider Biter" that time he came to court on crutches (or didn't show up at all - can't remember) because he supposedly got bitten by a spider.


love this track, though.

errant said:

Yeah, i see your points and I agree mainly on all of them. The angry media tracks for example, is a subject matter that even the most hardcore MJ fan got sick of. And whilst I understand your point about "TLC" being merely Adult contemporary pop, I think it has enough odd touches (the outro/narration), aswell as I previously said, sounding almost like something from a new agey Jon Anderson album melodically, that makes it much more interesting then your average MOR pop track. Its also got a sweet vocal from him, devoid of any annoyig hiccups that almost ruin songs like "who is it?".

He does do retreads of songs bigtime. But whilst the subject matter is familar as we know, I cant find hardly any songs that sound like it either production or melody wise in his catalogue. Alot of Michaels stuff to me has always been about production. I think this actually has a great chorus aswell. Its probably a song for his kids, but I find it charming and unusual for him.

My pic for most underrated:

AlexdeParis said:

Not a fan really. Nice they dumped it on the "ultimate collection", but its too long.

thesexofit said:

I was going to say that too. I much prefer "Can't Get Outta the Rain" because because I really like part 2 of YCW, and not so much part 1

thesexofit said:

I don't think it's long enough. I'm not a big fan of the original version, but I love the single mix with the rerecorded vocals. BTW, you know the single had parts 1 & 2 split, right? Part 2 was then re-rerecorded as "Can't Get Outta the Rain."

As far as "The Lost Children" goes, I think it's probably his worst song ever as a solo artist. It's not as terrible as I used to think, but it's not good either. I love "Heal the World," but I can't defend "The Lost Children" or (to a lesser extent) "Childhood."

AlexdeParis said:

I love "childhood", and the video to that really is quite sweet and underated. Whilst its obvious the tone of the video would be sad, the flying boats thing was a nice idea. Particually when you see the boy on the ground near the end of the video getting lifted up with Mike just sitting there. Its really quite nice.

As for the track, anyone who likes it (like I do), would love Streisand. Even the way he sings it is like her. Maybe David Foster, who produced it along with Jackson, told him to sing it like her (Foster had worked with Streisand a couple of times by prior to "childhood").

The way he sings "Have" or (Hhhhave" I should say) on the "have you seen my childhood" line is just like her for example. Its hard to descibe it without actually singing it to you LOL.



The video is quite easily one of the least seen out of all his videos. Shame really as I like it alot. Its quite unique.

I also liked this montage WMA did in 2000. Odd choice of track, but it works well.