laurarichardson said:

actually, its quincy jones who narrates the clips....and he is the one that explains that mj, randy and janet are playing all the instruments....

take that for what you may....

sosgemini said:

let it go sos...laurarichardson is just gonna keep throwing bs @ everyone..its no use

Having heard "those demos", I would definitely say that Mike has considerable musical talent, i dont however believe this extends to playing musical instruments. To perfect yourself at playing an instrument requires extreme discipline, the kind of which I dont think Mike would have time to give. Remember as a child he was constantly rehearsing, in the studio, travelling, i just cant see him having the time. If he does play, it wont be to a great standard.

That plus, we've never actually seen him play any instruments. we've seen photos of him sat at pianos / keyboards, there's the photo of him with a guitar when hes younger, and theres a clip of him playing the piano on the dangerous DVD - i wasn't convinced by this by the way, looked very fake to me.

I think mikes way of expressing himself musically comes out in singing dance and percussion.

I do however agree if he can play, he should do it on stage. Can anyone imaginge the mike that walked out of that courtroom the other week, wowing an audience of thousands with his dance moves, he's 48 for gods sake. He needs to add something new to his act, and i think that owuld be perfect.

MJ fans can criticise madonna all they like, but she's acknowledging the fact that shes older now, and cant do the physical aspect of performance as well as she used to. Shes trying to mix it up a bit and do something different, and why not. She may not be the best guitar player, but she's never been the ebst singer or dancer either, at least she tries.

BTW dont give me that mikes a perfectionist thing....did you hear Invincible.

I don't think MJ needs to play instruments onstage.That's not his thing.His thing is singing and dancing,and there's nothing wrong with that.Every artist needs to stick with what they do best,instead of trying to over-achieve.Why can't his fans just accept him as one of the greatest song-and-dance artists of his generation?

DavidEye said:

DAM RIght!!!!


I would even love to see mike just stand on stage one man and one mic, and sing Accapella, that would be a dream it self.. with a voice like his theres no need with hard BASS or loud tempos.

laurarichardson said:

Michael's 1975 album "Music and Me" shows Mike playing an acoustic guitar. Now, I've never seen Mike play anything in person, but, I don't doubt at all that Mike can play SOMETHING. Jermaine, Tito and especially Randy are all good musicians. Mike, growing up around and performing with a live band, and having instruments in the house, yeah, Mike can play something. At least well enough to write a song.

murph said:

Well put, murph.

Please...if he could play an instrument, he'd be called the 'greatest instrumentalist'. He's not exactly modest.

Ronny said:

playing and mastering an instrument are two totally different things...





i think the issue with mj and playing instruments is that folks try to discredit mj's genuis because he isnt a virtuose like prince....its a childish arguement and if one uses that type of tactic i would recommend re-reading murph's post....

who's michael jackson?

not to be a hata or anything, but I think some people are misinformed saying that MJ, Randy and Janet played all the instruments on the Off The Wall demos. On my copy of the Off The Wall expanded reissue that has those demos, the introductory clip says "assorted percussion by Michael Randy and Janet", the rest of the instruments are being played by session guys as far as I know.
[Edited 6/24/05 18:49pm]

MJ can't play! He dooodles with the Piano. That's it!

sosgemini said:

I play a ton of instruments.....I just don't play any of them well
And it's true as a Prince fan I think I try to expect too much out of other people but I honestly think that prince is the most musically talented person on the Earth literally.....but MJ is as bad as they come that dude can sing and dance like a master so much props to MJ doing his thing...

It seems he enjoyed playing the skin flute in 1993 as well.

haha electricblue

LittleBLUECorvette said:

exactly. actually, i think i would of preferred michael to produce off the wall by himself or with his brothers rather than quincy as i love the albums 'destiny' and 'triumph' MUCH MUCH more than 'off the wall'

blackguitaristz said:

-----
playing and mastering an instrument are two totally different things...

As sosgemeni said above big difference in playing and mastering. You guys are out to make Mike to be some master muscian and that is not the case. Mike is a great singer, dancer and entertainer but I guess at this point Mike fans are going to think what they want to think.

lol @ prince and mj fans going at it in 2005 just as they did in 1985.

it would be cool to see mike playing the piano and just singing one of his slow songs on stage, similar to prince with his guitar at the musicology tour. that would be more fascinating than wathcing him dance at this point. his singing voice is beautiful. it would be nice if janet flipped it a little too. her voice isn't as strong as mikes but she can sing. all that dancing makes it look like she is trying to keep up with the young girls. she has nothing to prove dance wise because we all know she has skills.

laurarichardson said:

who's trying to make him out to be a master musician?? i don't see that in ANY of the posts. all people are saying is that mj can either play or probably play something. and that if he can we think he should show it off a bit. Noone said he was a master @ that

What shines through with MJ fans is a desperation for him to be able to play instruments. There is an inherent desire for him to 'have the whole package' like Prince did, writing, playing, producing, signing, dancing. Its not enough that he does some of these better, in some roundabout way they can't accept there are things he cannot do that Prince can. That's why there are a disproportionate number of MJ threads on a fuckin Prince board.

That doesn't go for all of you btw

I don´t want MJ to be more than he already is. To me, he´s perfect genius already. Mike´s Mike, Prince´s Prince.

Of course MIke looked hella sexy playing piano in that Pepsi commercial and I´d love to see him piano again, but I don´t want him to be a multi-instrumentalist. Mike´s a dancer and a lot more. Prince´s an instrumentalist and a lot more and they are both perfect to me the way they are. I love both of them for what they are. i don´t want none of them to be more like the other. That would be boring. Life would be boring if we were all the same. Let´s keep the diversity.

I hears ya man, but take it from me, some people CAN'T accept it!

According 2 Teddy Riley (over 14 years ago), Mike can play piano & the guitar pretty well. He told him that when he gets 2 old 2 dance, he'll probably play instruments a little more.

sermwanderer said:

I hear you but it's much less complicated than you make it out to be. An nothing to do with Prince. Speaking for myself, it's more to do with my fave artist doing new things.

In fact it's Prince fans(not you) bringing up the whole MJ vs Prince topics and to try and trash Mike. Prince is very rarely mentioned on mj boards.

dag said:

WOW! I love that ad to death. I have said before on here that it brings real tears to my eyes. It is heartbreaking and so sad.

Na, Mike aint playing that piano. Someone on the org said that song was recorded around 1989 with a new version of "never can say goodbye" aswell. Some of u guys know how much I would love to the the adult "i'll be there" in full.

Na, MJ puts his raw shit into a dictaphone. Its as simple as that. He is so damn good at beatboxng and thats why. He beatboxes whole songs and has done for decades now. Then he'll try something maybe in a studio.

Thats why Mikes songwriting melodically (and lyrically at times) is so different to other peoples. Maybe rappers do shit into a dictaphone, but I dont know many artists who do that?

thesexofit said:

yea, his demos and acoustics are funny with all that beat boxing

laurarichardson said:

Yo homie...I think you have my words twisted...first and foremost I am a Prince fan (please look at my previous posts)...But like most Prince fans, I grew up digging Mike's early solo shit pre Bad. ..My real point, if you cared to actually skim through it, was that the constant snobbish behavior regarding musicians verses entertainers is getting kind of tired...For the most part there are "entertainers" that will never be in the class of Prince, Stevie, Sly Stone, Miles Davis, ect...But there are certain individuals who have reached such great heights without ever having to master an instrument...I stand by the names above...And by the way...pound for pound Prince was the best amongst his peers because he was blessed with the complete package (writing, producing, performing, singing) not just his mastery of instrumentation...That's what made the man great. The Mike fans on this site should never have to resort to trumping up his "musicianship"...as stated before, Mike was a great song and dance man, and there's no shame in that...
[Edited 6/27/05 20:05pm]

murph said:

i think youd all be surprised how well michael can play certain instruments
he cant read music but can imitate almost any instrument with his mouth he also imitates the feeling of the instrument
my minds brought back to 1993 michaels in drug rehab getting weened of drugs when one day during his treatment he sits at the piano and starts playing according to the eyewitness he said it sounded so good that he went up to him and ask what music is that from then michael said no i just came up with it now while fiddling around the witness said whatever your problems your a genius


these arent exact quotes from the witness word for word
i still have this on video and is a summary of what he said

dag said:

d-d-da-damn! i forgot how sexy that man was!!
anyone know if adult never can say goodbye is floating around?
[Edited 6/28/05 2:24am]