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Gone Too Soon

In 1985 I got married, got my first job in a recording studio (Westlake Audio), and met one of the kindest young men I have ever known, Michael Jackson. Quite a year. To even attempt to sum up a nearly 20 year working relationship and friendship with Michael in one article is impossible, but let me try to give you a glimpse into the incredible world I was privileged to be a part of.

Michael was working on Captain Eo for Disneyland and Epcot Center. He was fresh off the Victory Tour, the Thriller album, his dominance of MTV, and he was back in the studio. I wish I could remember our first meeting, but it was likely just passing each other in the hallway. He was always warm, yet shy. Over time we would chat now and then, but it took time to build the trust.

Around that same time he did an often forgotten album, The ET Storybook. This was when I met Quincy Jones and Bruce Swedien. Early in 1986 the team moved into Westlake Studio D in Hollywood to record the BAD album, and welcomed me in. I worked other sessions during the day, but at night I was invited to sit in and learn. Eventually I worked my way up to technical director for the team, and the trust was solidified. It was during this time that Michael nicknamed me "Really Really Brad," a twist on the chorus, "Bad, Bad, Really Really Bad." Check the album credits, it's there.

Over the next ten years I worked with Michael doing tour prep for the BAD tour in 1988, then back in the studio for the Dangerous album in Los Angeles, followed by the HIStory album in New York. Toss in countless music videos, the HIStory tour, the Moonwalker project, Blood On The Dance Floor album, and various side projects, and I got to know him pretty well.

So who was Michael Jackson, and why did he have such a profound effect on my life? Not for a moment do I pretend to have been a close friend of his, or a confidant. Rather I worked for him and with him, and considered it an honor.

He was a consummate professional. If his vocals were scheduled for a noon downbeat, he was there at 10 am, with his vocal coach Seth, singing scales. Yes, scales. I would set up the mic, check the equipment, make coffee, and all the while he would sing scales for two hours.

He typically drove himself to the studio alone. For a while he drove a big Ford Bronco with dents and scrapes on it. He was not a great driver. More than once he called into the studio to say he would be late after being in a fender bender.

He was intensely curious about "normal life." He asked me about Christmas once, and couldn't understand how kids could wait until Christmas morning to open the gifts. You see, he was raised Jehovah's Witness, so Christmas was not celebrated in the Jackson family.

Since I was so close to this world, let me try to give you some insight. A "typical" MJ album would take between 10 and 16 months in the studio. His budget allowed for as many as 100 songs to be recorded for any given project. Some would be discarded early on, while others were fine tuned. Musicians would be brought in to add their textures and ideas, but in the center of it all was Michael. The team was remarkably small given the scope of the projects. Each project was slightly different, but typically there were less then eight of us working day to day, from the first day until the project was mastered. No entourage. No Elephant Man bones. No groupies. No drugs. Just music. And food.

During the BAD album, Fridays quickly became known as "family day." He would have his two chefs, affectionately known as the Slam Dunk Sisters, prepare a large dinner for the crew, musicians and any family members that might be around. Since I was working sometimes 80 hours a week, it was not uncommon for Deb to come have dinner with us. Michael loved these family get togethers. In later projects I would bring my girls, whom he loved and would play with. There is one moment in time in my head when Deb brought my daughter Amanda, who was just a baby at the time, into the studio for the afternoon. She set up a play mat and brought some toys, and Michael sat and played with her for a while. He looked at Deb and said, "This is her own little world, isn't it?

When you work in this environment, your sense of normal begins to shift. It was not uncommon for celebrities or VIPs to stop in. One day the Secret Service searched the building for a couple hours before Nancy Reagan came for a visit. Next it was Princess Stephanie from Monaco. (She has a cameo on the song "In The Closet.") The chimps were common guests in the studio, as was a giant snake, both of which I would wind up holding during MJ's vocals. Michael loved mixing fun and work, but work always came first.

I have watched him write many songs, and the process is amazing. I asked him where they came from, and he said they were gifts from God. He could hear the entire song in his head before we could get tape on the machines. He would sometimes sing the drums, bass, percussion, keyboards, etc., and we would later bring in musicians to replace his demo tracks.

His lounge would be decorated with Disney posters and old Hollywood memorabilia. He loved innocence, and displayed gentleness, humor and patience.

This driving work ethic also had to escape from time to time. There were many days we would show up at the studio, only to find he had flown to Europe or Japan for a few days, and neglected to tell us. This sometimes meant an unscheduled few days off for us, which was awesome.

There were however memories that he would sometimes share about the endless travel and work schedule when he was just a boy. I remember him telling me about grown women throwing themselves at him when he was just 9 or 10 years old. One story I will never forget was him telling of flying with his dad and brothers through a lightening storm at night. The plane was being tossed around, lightening was flashing, and he started crying in fear. His dad ignored him, embarrassed. A flight attendant sat with until the plane cleared the storm. Hearing him tell that story, with tears in his eyes, gave a glimpse into his life.

There are few people I have worked so closely with for so long than Michael Jackson. There were many months when I spent more time with him than I did my own wife. Somewhere around 1991 he asked me to visit a ranch he had purchased, and design a sound system for a carousel. The next thing I knew I was at Neverland Valley Ranch, in Santa Ynez, CA. There was construction everywhere, and the amusement park was in the early stages of installation. Over the next few years Michael asked me to build system after system, putting music on the bumper cars, in the petting zoo, on two trains, all around the amusement park, the boat lake, the train stations, and eventually inside the house, and inside his bedroom and bathroom. Deb loves to tell of the times Michael would call at 2 in the morning (his sleep schedule was never normal) to talk to me about a new attraction he had coming to Neverland, and if I would put music on it. I still have an old answering machine tape of him thanking me for one of the systems we had built.

^^ By the way, there's more to the story I posted above. Just click on the link at the top of my post**

great article, read it before, wonder why he and Mike couldn't agree the last time they met, must have been money.

BTW, I wonder when and if Spike Lee is still producing the Michael Jackson docu he said he was doing. It should be great, I actually like his docus better than any of his movies.

You know what makes me really sad about that article. At the end, when MJ went up to him, for the last time to get that thing installed and the man refused I wonder if that was just another kick in the balls for him. I mean...I know that the gentlemen telling the story was probably part of a long list of people who kind of abandoned him, the ONE time he probably really needed them. I appreciate him sharing this story with us, but damn that was just so tragic. Didn't he read it back to himself and think "Damn...I kinda sound like an asshole?"

People are all there when it's going good, but then when shit hits the fan they scatter like cockroaches.

On a different note, tonight, I was talking to a friend and they told me that they got to listen to some Jackson 5 demos one day with a friend who has access to the Motown catalog. He said that Michael had to learn about 3 songs a day @ Motown and was, constantly, recording demos, some of them included doing the different takes of the same song. He said that when you put the demos through ProTools and compare the lines of the vocal tracks (I can't remember what that's called, but if you have worked in any program where you had to edit audio you know what I mean) to each other from the different takes they are damn near identical. It reminded me of that story some dude shared on the gearslutz forum where he said that Michael seemed to have had a photographic memory, but for music. He gave one example where Michael would do a great amount of takes for a song and then remember exactly which takes were the best ones. Maybe some of you have heard this before, but I thought it was an awesome little story.

I have to say, even though a lot of people like Mike, it just saddens me to hear them trash his post-Thriller work. Example, I was at a book signing with Nelson George and he, basically, dissed his entire post-Thriller catalog minus You Are Not Alone, calling it a 'pretty good song.' He must have seen the "Oh no you didn't" look on my face, because he brushed me off and went to talk to someone else. I mean, can you really claim you like an artist if you can only stand 1-2 albums from them? Aren't you more of a fan of those albums rather than the artist themselves? I thought that this was going to be same thing with my friend, but he expressed that Michael's post-Thriller work was just as brilliant and it's a shame that when you read old music reviews that those albums were constantly being criticized for not being Thriller. Even when you read blurbs about MJ they will say that after Thriller his music sales fell & no one liked his music anymore, but what they fail to mention was that he was still one of the best selling musical acts out there. The sales of his small catalog of studio albums w/Epic & Sony is still able to compete with that of The Beatles and Elvis Presley. That doesn't sound like someone whose sales dropped so drastically that they fell of the face of the earth to me. =/

All in all, it was nice to encounter a music critic who didn't have his head up his ass. He had also mentioned that he wanted to work on a book that would take a deeper look into Michael's music in the future. He said that he also wants to dedicate more books to exploring black pop and r&b, because they get ignored a lot in the mainstream and are not taken as seriously. It's like if it's not rap, rock, or jazz, then forget it. It's not real music, nor is it significant.

dammit and I just bought a nelson george book after reading some excerpts!

Unholyalliance said:

You know what makes me really sad about that article. At the end, when MJ went up to him, for the last time to get that thing installed and the man refused I wonder if that was just another kick in the balls for him. I mean...I know that the gentlemen telling the story was probably part of a long list of people who kind of abandoned him, the ONE time he probably really needed them. I appreciate him sharing this story with us, but damn that was just so tragic. Didn't he read it back to himself and think "Damn...I kinda sound like an asshole?"

People are all there when it's going good, but then when shit hits the fan they scatter like cockroaches.

On a different note, tonight, I was talking to a friend and they told me that they got to listen to some Jackson 5 demos one day with a friend who has access to the Motown catalog. He said that Michael had to learn about 3 songs a day @ Motown and was, constantly, recording demos, some of them included doing the different takes of the same song. He said that when you put the demos through ProTools and compare the lines of the vocal tracks (I can't remember what that's called, but if you have worked in any program where you had to edit audio you know what I mean) to each other from the different takes they are damn near identical. It reminded me of that story some dude shared on the gearslutz forum where he said that Michael seemed to have had a photographic memory, but for music. He gave one example where Michael would do a great amount of takes for a song and then remember exactly which takes were the best ones. Maybe some of you have heard this before, but I thought it was an awesome little story.

I have to say, even though a lot of people like Mike, it just saddens me to hear them trash his post-Thriller work. Example, I was at a book signing with Nelson George and he, basically, dissed his entire post-Thriller catalog minus You Are Not Alone, calling it a 'pretty good song.' He must have seen the "Oh no you didn't" look on my face, because he brushed me off and went to talk to someone else. I mean, can you really claim you like an artist if you can only stand 1-2 albums from them? Aren't you more of a fan of those albums rather than the artist themselves? I thought that this was going to be same thing with my friend, but he expressed that Michael's post-Thriller work was just as brilliant and it's a shame that when you read old music reviews that those albums were constantly being criticized for not being Thriller. Even when you read blurbs about MJ they will say that after Thriller his music sales fell & no one liked his music anymore, but what they fail to mention was that he was still one of the best selling musical acts out there. The sales of his small catalog of studio albums w/Epic & Sony is still able to compete with that of The Beatles and Elvis Presley. That doesn't sound like someone whose sales dropped so drastically that they fell of the face of the earth to me. =/

All in all, it was nice to encounter a music critic who didn't have his head up his ass. He had also mentioned that he wanted to work on a book that would take a deeper look into Michael's music in the future. He said that he also wants to dedicate more books to exploring black pop and r&b, because they get ignored a lot in the mainstream and are not taken as seriously. It's like if it's not rap, rock, or jazz, then forget it. It's not real music, nor is it significant.

we spoke about Nelson's book before here, I came out of it with the impression that it was rushed, whether for money or what I don't know. He didn't seem to have all the facts but he also did some of his usual great writing in it. He could have done much better and i question where his heart is on Michael.

Unholyalliance said:

You know what makes me really sad about that article. At the end, when MJ went up to him, for the last time to get that thing installed and the man refused I wonder if that was just another kick in the balls for him. I mean...I know that the gentlemen telling the story was probably part of a long list of people who kind of abandoned him, the ONE time he probably really needed them. I appreciate him sharing this story with us, but damn that was just so tragic. Didn't he read it back to himself and think "Damn...I kinda sound like an asshole?"

People are all there when it's going good, but then when shit hits the fan they scatter like cockroaches.

I just got the impression that Mike and he just didn't agree on price, that's just business, doesn't sound personal from his point of view.

EmeraldSkies said:

Timmy84 said:

I don't know if he was suffering a cold or going through another vocal transition (I say it's possibly the latter) but he still sounded great here.

That was from the 1975 show in Mexico. I have it on DVD,and it!!

mozfonky said:

we spoke about Nelson's book before here, I came out of it with the impression that it was rushed, whether for money or what I don't know. He didn't seem to have all the facts but he also did some of his usual great writing in it. He could have done much better and i question where his heart is on Michael.

Well, during the book signing I went to, Mr. George got into a pretty heated argument with some woman who questioned his MJ fandom, but I do agree that the book was hella' rushed and had a crapload of mistakes in it. The only part of the book worth reading was when he went a little more in depth about the individual tracks on Thriller. Not only that, but I have a huge issue with the way in which the book was written. It seemed to be elementary school level writing. It wasn't even that long and it took me no time to finish it.

It just seems to me, that some people still have huge issues with his vitiligo and the fact that he had the plastic surgeries. (Mr. George seemed to have been plagued by this as illustrated in the book.) I was just speaking with an older black woman today who felt that he wasn't happy being black and therefore felt the need to adjust himself. I never felt that way. Ever. To me, he was always Michael Jackson. He was above merely being black, white, or whatever. This is probably why whatever he did with his face or life had no bearing on me, nor did I ever felt the need to judge him for it. I always took it as MJ just...being MJ.

To me, it seemed that MJ didn't want to be put inside of a mold or box. He wanted to be seen as human. There was this universality that he was trying to embrace and many seem to have rejected that. At least I think so, but I could be wrong.

Question for you guys though:

I saw in another thread here once that questioned whether or not MJ would have made it as big as he did had it not been for the plastic surgeries or vitiligo. My friend seemed to have agreed that while a lot of people criticized MJ's physical transformations, funny enough, it may have contributed to the fact that he was so accessible internationally. So what do you guys think? Do you think that his physical 'transformations' made a huge difference to his career or was it all just coincidence? Do you think that, for example, Jacksons era MJ would have hit it as big with Thriller and so on?

I just wonder, because it seems that when you see images of MJ across the world, they all seem to use various images of him from different time periods. Bad era MJ seems really popular in Asia, trial era MJ seems to be very popular amongst mainstream American media, HIStory era in Europe, Jackson 5 era MJ amongst black Americans, and etc. I'm not trying to generalize anyone or anything, but this it was a curious observation.

mimi07 said:

EmeraldSkies said:

That was from the 1975 show in Mexico. I have it on DVD,and it!!

i do too, i wish they're release stuff like this on dvd.

Me to.

Unholyalliance said:

mozfonky said:

we spoke about Nelson's book before here, I came out of it with the impression that it was rushed, whether for money or what I don't know. He didn't seem to have all the facts but he also did some of his usual great writing in it. He could have done much better and i question where his heart is on Michael.

Well, during the book signing I went to, Mr. George got into a pretty heated argument with some woman who questioned his MJ fandom, but I do agree that the book was hella' rushed and had a crapload of mistakes in it. The only part of the book worth reading was when he went a little more in depth about the individual tracks on Thriller. Not only that, but I have a huge issue with the way in which the book was written. It seemed to be elementary school level writing. It wasn't even that long and it took me no time to finish it.

It just seems to me, that some people still have huge issues with his vitiligo and the fact that he had the plastic surgeries. (Mr. George seemed to have been plagued by this as illustrated in the book.) I was just speaking with an older black woman today who felt that he wasn't happy being black and therefore felt the need to adjust himself. I never felt that way. Ever. To me, he was always Michael Jackson. He was above merely being black, white, or whatever. This is probably why whatever he did with his face or life had no bearing on me, nor did I ever felt the need to judge him for it. I always took it as MJ just...being MJ.

To me, it seemed that MJ didn't want to be put inside of a mold or box. He wanted to be seen as human. There was this universality that he was trying to embrace and many seem to have rejected that. At least I think so, but I could be wrong.

Question for you guys though:

I saw in another thread here once that questioned whether or not MJ would have made it as big as he did had it not been for the plastic surgeries or vitiligo. My friend seemed to have agreed that while a lot of people criticized MJ's physical transformations, funny enough, it may have contributed to the fact that he was so accessible internationally. So what do you guys think? Do you think that his physical 'transformations' made a huge difference to his career or was it all just coincidence? Do you think that, for example, Jacksons era MJ would have hit it as big with Thriller and so on?

I just wonder, because it seems that when you see images of MJ across the world, they all seem to use various images of him from different time periods. Bad era MJ seems really popular in Asia, trial era MJ seems to be very popular amongst mainstream American media, HIStory era in Europe, Jackson 5 era MJ amongst black Americans, and etc. I'm not trying to generalize anyone or anything, but this it was a curious observation.

whatsgoingon said:

Unholyalliance said:

Well, during the book signing I went to, Mr. George got into a pretty heated argument with some woman who questioned his MJ fandom, but I do agree that the book was hella' rushed and had a crapload of mistakes in it. The only part of the book worth reading was when he went a little more in depth about the individual tracks on Thriller. Not only that, but I have a huge issue with the way in which the book was written. It seemed to be elementary school level writing. It wasn't even that long and it took me no time to finish it.

It just seems to me, that some people still have huge issues with his vitiligo and the fact that he had the plastic surgeries. (Mr. George seemed to have been plagued by this as illustrated in the book.) I was just speaking with an older black woman today who felt that he wasn't happy being black and therefore felt the need to adjust himself. I never felt that way. Ever. To me, he was always Michael Jackson. He was above merely being black, white, or whatever. This is probably why whatever he did with his face or life had no bearing on me, nor did I ever felt the need to judge him for it. I always took it as MJ just...being MJ.

To me, it seemed that MJ didn't want to be put inside of a mold or box. He wanted to be seen as human. There was this universality that he was trying to embrace and many seem to have rejected that. At least I think so, but I could be wrong.

Question for you guys though:

I saw in another thread here once that questioned whether or not MJ would have made it as big as he did had it not been for the plastic surgeries or vitiligo. My friend seemed to have agreed that while a lot of people criticized MJ's physical transformations, funny enough, it may have contributed to the fact that he was so accessible internationally. So what do you guys think? Do you think that his physical 'transformations' made a huge difference to his career or was it all just coincidence? Do you think that, for example, Jacksons era MJ would have hit it as big with Thriller and so on?

I just wonder, because it seems that when you see images of MJ across the world, they all seem to use various images of him from different time periods. Bad era MJ seems really popular in Asia, trial era MJ seems to be very popular amongst mainstream American media, HIStory era in Europe, Jackson 5 era MJ amongst black Americans, and etc. I'm not trying to generalize anyone or anything, but this it was a curious observation.

I just notice since his death we are seeing alot more images of his youth. Even at the memorial, although there was many pictures of post-Thriller, I do believe there were just as much, if not more around the 1969 to 84 era. I personally like seeing him around the OTW/Triumph/Thriller era not only do I believe this was where he looked his best, I also believe this is when he was at his most creative musically.

I do believe those that became his fans post thriller probably prefer the more European looking MJ for various reasons. Having said that MJ was at his most popular during the Thriller era, where he still looked very much like a black man inspite of the nose jobs, therefore I don't think the transformation made him more popular, if anything it made him more notorious.

Unholyalliance said:

mozfonky said:

we spoke about Nelson's book before here, I came out of it with the impression that it was rushed, whether for money or what I don't know. He didn't seem to have all the facts but he also did some of his usual great writing in it. He could have done much better and i question where his heart is on Michael.

Well, during the book signing I went to, Mr. George got into a pretty heated argument with some woman who questioned his MJ fandom, but I do agree that the book was hella' rushed and had a crapload of mistakes in it. The only part of the book worth reading was when he went a little more in depth about the individual tracks on Thriller. Not only that, but I have a huge issue with the way in which the book was written. It seemed to be elementary school level writing. It wasn't even that long and it took me no time to finish it.

It just seems to me, that some people still have huge issues with his vitiligo and the fact that he had the plastic surgeries. (Mr. George seemed to have been plagued by this as illustrated in the book.) I was just speaking with an older black woman today who felt that he wasn't happy being black and therefore felt the need to adjust himself. I never felt that way. Ever. To me, he was always Michael Jackson. He was above merely being black, white, or whatever. This is probably why whatever he did with his face or life had no bearing on me, nor did I ever felt the need to judge him for it. I always took it as MJ just...being MJ.

To me, it seemed that MJ didn't want to be put inside of a mold or box. He wanted to be seen as human. There was this universality that he was trying to embrace and many seem to have rejected that. At least I think so, but I could be wrong.

Question for you guys though:

I saw in another thread here once that questioned whether or not MJ would have made it as big as he did had it not been for the plastic surgeries or vitiligo. My friend seemed to have agreed that while a lot of people criticized MJ's physical transformations, funny enough, it may have contributed to the fact that he was so accessible internationally. So what do you guys think? Do you think that his physical 'transformations' made a huge difference to his career or was it all just coincidence? Do you think that, for example, Jacksons era MJ would have hit it as big with Thriller and so on?

I just wonder, because it seems that when you see images of MJ across the world, they all seem to use various images of him from different time periods. Bad era MJ seems really popular in Asia, trial era MJ seems to be very popular amongst mainstream American media, HIStory era in Europe, Jackson 5 era MJ amongst black Americans, and etc. I'm not trying to generalize anyone or anything, but this it was a curious observation.

I'll just repost my small review of it here

You go to sleep and wake up to a never-ending thread.

This discussion needs some pictures.

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[Edited 8/26/10 2:29am]

great pics! And yeah, I woke up yesterday and it was filled with 6 new, overwhelming pages

Sadly little conversations about the music.

So i throw this out there....

What is everyone's take on Blood On The Dance Floor the album? Did you vibe on it when it came out? Do you vibe on it still? Do you count it as an album or remix cd / ep of new stuff.

Where do you place it in his solo work?

Swa

Swa said:

Sadly little conversations about the music.

So i throw this out there....

What is everyone's take on Blood On The Dance Floor the album? Did you vibe on it when it came out? Do you vibe on it still? Do you count it as an album or remix cd / ep of new stuff.

Where do you place it in his solo work?

Swa

Loved it right away when I got it of course but then didn't care much for it for awhile, then I did again, then not, and now I believe it's a masterpiece. Granted, I've always loved it, but I have to be in the mood for it. It sounded different from other music I liked when it came out so it was hard to play it alongside that.

This scene in the Jackson American Dream film

[Edited 8/26/10 6:32am]

Swa said:

Sadly little conversations about the music.

So i throw this out there....

What is everyone's take on Blood On The Dance Floor the album? Did you vibe on it when it came out? Do you vibe on it still? Do you count it as an album or remix cd / ep of new stuff.

Where do you place it in his solo work?

Swa

I'm listening to right now

I count it as both a new album and remix album

It's definitely one of his most experimental efforts

Blood On The Dancefloor- an outtake from the Dangerous sessions and going as far back as 1988. It has one of Michael's favorite subjects It follows the same subject as Heartbreak Hotel, Billie Jean, Dirty Diana, and Dangerous, but it's so......FUN. This is quite possibly my mother's favorite song by Michael I remember when it came out, there wasn't a big fuss about it..... I mean, it's US premiere was on VH1. Not MTV, not BET, not simultaneous premiere with those 2 channels, but it premiered in the US just on VH1

Listening to it today, it's hard to believe that was originally recorded in 1990-91

Interesting tidbit: An unreleased mix of the song features Michael singing the first verse of Sunset Driver at the beginning

Morphine-This was NOT my favorite song when I first heard it in February 1997, it wasn't until about 2 years ago when it finally grew on me. The lyrics are somewhat unfocused and incoherent....but the beauty of it is, they're not supposed to be. This was not a cry for help, it was actually a song where Michael PERSONIFIES the drug and is actually talking from it's point of view. It has an industrial-funk vibe to it and haunts you even after you're done listening to it. My favorite part is at the end when Michael is adlibbing with the chorus. I wonder how the reaction would've been if he had put it on HIStory (maybe putting it in DS's place?), because this song is......I can't explain it, but it's dark, scary, but fun and not in the way Thriller is, this is on a whole different level

Superfly Sister-another outtake from Dangerous, and one of the tracks he worked on with Bryan Loren (who's work didn't make the album in the end). This is one of Michael's absolute funkiest songs. The lyrics are full of metaphors and when you get passed the funk, you see the song is about promiscuity and thinking with the flesh instead of your brain

Ghost-this has become my least favorite of the 5 new tracks on the album, but that doesn't mean I don't like it. The lyrics are very reminiscent of Thriller but maybe a little more.....chilling. Many of the lyrics aren't really about an actual ghost, but the people who "haunt" Michael throughout his life

And who gave you the right to scare my family?
And who gave you the right to scare my baby, she needs me
And who gave you the right to shake my family tree?
And who gave you the right to take intrusion, to see me?
And who gave you the right to shake my family?
And who gave you the right to hurt my baby, she needs me
And who gave you the right to shake my family tree?
You put a knife in my back,
Shot an arrow in me!
Tell me are you the ghost of jealousy

Is It Scary- The thing about Michael's music, is it may seem superficial on the outside but there's more to it and you really have to LISTEN. Not hear it, but LISTEN. This song is one of those cases

I'm writing this and I can kinda feel small tears wanting to creep out because this song is so revealing. He's saying, I'm tired so if you want me to be the freak, so be it but it's not me who's the monster, it's you who keeps trying to destroy my life. You come to me to be entertained, so let the show go on

I'm gonna be
Exactly what you wanna see
It's you whose haunting me
Your warning me
To be the stranger
In your life

Am I amusing you
Or just confusing you
Am I the beast
You visualised
And if you wanna to see
Eccentrialities
I'll be grotesque
Before your eyes

Let them all materialise

I'm gonna be
Exactly what you gonna see
So did you come to me
To see your fantasies
Performed before your very eyes

A haunting ghostly treat
The foolish trickery
And spirits dancing
In the light

But if you came to see
The truth the purity
It's here inside
A lonely heart

Masquerade the heart
Is the height of haunting souls
Just not what you seek of me
Can the heart reveal the proof
Like a mirror reveals the truth
See the evil one is you

You see a monster, you see a freak, you see your personal toy to hurt, but I'm a good person and I'm a human being, but if that's how you see me, then so be it

You feel his heart. Not the hurt, but his heart

My rant: The man was such a beautiful soul, it's frustrating that the world refused and still refuses to see it

whatsgoingon said:

Having said that MJ was at his most popular during the Thriller era, where he still looked very much like a black man inspite of the nose jobs, therefore I don't think the transformation made him more popular, if anything it made him more notorious.

He became way more popular internationally around Bad era rather than the Thriller era. Thriller era MJ is mostly a US thing. This is why I asked that question.

Speaking of Blood on the Dancefloor, I will repeat that Morphine and Is It Scary are my favorite tracks on the album, with Morphine probably being in my top 5 favorite songs from his entire catalog.

Also, MJ was voted #1 on CNN's Music icons list:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/24/music.icon.gallery/

[Edited 8/26/10 8:35am]

[Edited 8/26/10 8:38am]

EmeraldSkies said:

Timmy84 said:

I don't know if he was suffering a cold or going through another vocal transition (I say it's possibly the latter) but he still sounded great here.

That was from the 1975 show in Mexico. I have it on DVD,and it!!

This made me sad, and made me cry...

Swa said:

Sadly little conversations about the music.

So i throw this out there....

What is everyone's take on Blood On The Dance Floor the album? Did you vibe on it when it came out? Do you vibe on it still? Do you count it as an album or remix cd / ep of new stuff.

Where do you place it in his solo work?

Swa

That was one album I didn't take a listen to but the new songs I thought were good. "Morphine" and "Is It Scary" in particular were some of his greatest songs.

Of the remixes, I liked the "HIStory" one.

@ the Gary folks mad he did do a show there or make an appearance there

Why do you like Michael Jackson?

I guess cuz he from Gary.....

bboy87 said:

@ the Gary folks mad he did do a show there or make an appearance there

Why do you like Michael Jackson?

I guess cuz he from Gary.....

I bet there were some kids in the '80s that would go to L.A. from Gary and say "I'm representing for my homeboy Michael Jackson, he came from Gary fool!"

bboy87 said:

Swa said:

Sadly little conversations about the music.

So i throw this out there....

What is everyone's take on Blood On The Dance Floor the album? Did you vibe on it when it came out? Do you vibe on it still? Do you count it as an album or remix cd / ep of new stuff.

Where do you place it in his solo work?

Swa

I'm listening to right now

I count it as both a new album and remix album

It's definitely one of his most experimental efforts

Blood On The Dancefloor- an outtake from the Dangerous sessions and going as far back as 1988. It has one of Michael's favorite subjects It follows the same subject as Heartbreak Hotel, Billie Jean, Dirty Diana, and Dangerous, but it's so......FUN. This is quite possibly my mother's favorite song by Michael I remember when it came out, there wasn't a big fuss about it..... I mean, it's US premiere was on VH1. Not MTV, not BET, not simultaneous premiere with those 2 channels, but it premiered in the US just on VH1

Listening to it today, it's hard to believe that was originally recorded in 1990-91

Interesting tidbit: An unreleased mix of the song features Michael singing the first verse of Sunset Driver at the beginning

Morphine-This was NOT my favorite song when I first heard it in February 1997, it wasn't until about 2 years ago when it finally grew on me. The lyrics are somewhat unfocused and incoherent....but the beauty of it is, they're not supposed to be. This was not a cry for help, it was actually a song where Michael PERSONIFIES the drug and is actually talking from it's point of view. It has an industrial-funk vibe to it and haunts you even after you're done listening to it. My favorite part is at the end when Michael is adlibbing with the chorus. I wonder how the reaction would've been if he had put it on HIStory (maybe putting it in DS's place?), because this song is......I can't explain it, but it's dark, scary, but fun and not in the way Thriller is, this is on a whole different level

Superfly Sister-another outtake from Dangerous, and one of the tracks he worked on with Bryan Loren (who's work didn't make the album in the end). This is one of Michael's absolute funkiest songs. The lyrics are full of metaphors and when you get passed the funk, you see the song is about promiscuity and thinking with the flesh instead of your brain

Ghost-this has become my least favorite of the 5 new tracks on the album, but that doesn't mean I don't like it. The lyrics are very reminiscent of Thriller but maybe a little more.....chilling. Many of the lyrics aren't really about an actual ghost, but the people who "haunt" Michael throughout his life

And who gave you the right to scare my family?
And who gave you the right to scare my baby, she needs me
And who gave you the right to shake my family tree?
And who gave you the right to take intrusion, to see me?
And who gave you the right to shake my family?
And who gave you the right to hurt my baby, she needs me
And who gave you the right to shake my family tree?
You put a knife in my back,
Shot an arrow in me!
Tell me are you the ghost of jealousy

Is It Scary- The thing about Michael's music, is it may seem superficial on the outside but there's more to it and you really have to LISTEN. Not hear it, but LISTEN. This song is one of those cases

I'm writing this and I can kinda feel small tears wanting to creep out because this song is so revealing. He's saying, I'm tired so if you want me to be the freak, so be it but it's not me who's the monster, it's you who keeps trying to destroy my life. You come to me to be entertained, so let the show go on

I'm gonna be
Exactly what you wanna see
It's you whose haunting me
Your warning me
To be the stranger
In your life

Am I amusing you
Or just confusing you
Am I the beast
You visualised
And if you wanna to see
Eccentrialities
I'll be grotesque
Before your eyes

Let them all materialise

I'm gonna be
Exactly what you gonna see
So did you come to me
To see your fantasies
Performed before your very eyes

A haunting ghostly treat
The foolish trickery
And spirits dancing
In the light

But if you came to see
The truth the purity
It's here inside
A lonely heart

Masquerade the heart
Is the height of haunting souls
Just not what you seek of me
Can the heart reveal the proof
Like a mirror reveals the truth
See the evil one is you

You see a monster, you see a freak, you see your personal toy to hurt, but I'm a good person and I'm a human being, but if that's how you see me, then so be it

You feel his heart. Not the hurt, but his heart

My rant: The man was such a beautiful soul, it's frustrating that the world refused and still refuses to see it

I miss those beautiful eyes.

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