"Childhood". It's definitely not one of my favourites, but it's quite scary. There's something about "Speechless" too that crosses borders of how typical adults handle with their emotional life and how Michael personally deals with his. It just somehow defines Michael's emotional standpoint, and everybody knows damn well it's not a grown-up woman he's singing about on that one. Could be about his own children of course, but seriously, even if "Speechless" is a beautiful song, it creeps the hell out of me each time I've completed listening to it. And I for one listen to a lot of Brighter Death Now as well.
[Edited 1/9/06 3:20am]

Novabreaker said:

Oh yeah "speechless" is a song i barely ever played. It creeps me out a little too for some reason? It is a interesting song though. Sometimes i like mike doing those sorta songs, but sometimes i just want a whole album of dancey rnb (which HIStory part II was mainly lacking)....

thesexofit said:

fabulous typo!

Marrk said:

oh yeah, ha, the goons. Who was buz cohen? (or buzzy- he wrote the song?)

thesexofit said:

He didn't write that.

Ben.

Novabreaker said:

I gotta agree with you on this. I think I read in an interview he wrote that song after having a water balloon fight with some kids or something like that. It might even have been his own kids. Point being, some would probably love to believe that he wrote it about a woman. But I don't think so..It is kind of creepy to think what was going through his mind. Not that I think he is some child molester, but for some reason, this song does not sit well with me.

Now I have to go off and listen to Speechless...

damn! the lyrics messed up my favorite, and most saddest part of the song.




So sad mike.....so sad

It seeems to me like Michael just wants somebody to love him and accept him for who he is. That's pretty much what everybody wants...

Alasseon said:

I heard he wrote it in his "giving head tree".


Speechless (M. Jackson)


Your love is magical, that's how I feel
But I have not the words here to explain
Gone is the grace for expressions of passion
But there are worlds and worlds of ways to explain
To tell you how I feel
But I am speechless, speechless
That's how you make me feel
Though I'm with you I am far away and nothing is for real
When I'm with you I am lost for words, I don't know what to say
My head's spinning like a carousel, so silently I pray
Helpless and hopeless, that's how I feel inside
Nothing's real, but all is possible if God is on my side
When I'm with you I am in the light where I cannot be found
It's as though I am standing in the place called Hallowed Ground

Speechless, speechless, that's how you make me feel
Though I'm with you I am far away and nothing is for real
I'll go anywhere and do anything just to touch your face
There's no mountain high I cannot climb
I'm humbled in your grace
Speechless, speechless, that's how you make me feel
Though I'm with you I am lost for words and nothing is for real
Speechless, speechless, that's how you make me feel
Though I'm with you I am far away, and nothing is for real
Speechless, speechless, that's how you make me feel
Though I'm with you I am lost for words and nothing is for real
Speechless
Your love is magical, that's how I feel
But in your presence I am lost for words
Words like, "I love you."

Stranger In Moscow
Bless His Soul
Style Of Life
Morphine
[Edited 1/9/06 10:24am]

I think that Michael is also good at releasing anger.

SHOUT
Ignorance of people purchasing diamonds and necklaces,
And barely able to keep the payments up on their lessons,

And enrolled in a class and don?t know who the professor is,
How low people go for the dough and make a mess of things,
Kids are murdering other kids for the fun of it,
Instead of using their mind or their fist, they put a gun in it
Wanna be a part of a clique, don?t know who?s running it,
Tragedy on top of tragedy you know it?s killing me.
So many people in agony, this shouldn?t have to be,
Too busy focusing on ourselves and not His Majesty,
There has to be some type of change for this day and age,
We gotta rearrange and flip the page,
Living encaged like animals and cannibals,
Eating each other alive just to survive the nine to five,
Every single day is trouble while we struggle and strive
Peace of mind?s so hard to find.

Chorus
I wanna shout, throw my hands up and shout
What?s this madness all about
All this makes me wanna shout
You know it makes me wanna shout,
Throw my hands up and shout
What?s this madness all about
All this makes me wanna shout, c?mon now

Verse 2
Problems, complications and accusations
Dividing the nations and races of empty faces
A war is taking place.
No substitution for restitution, the only solution for peace
Is increasing the height of your spirituality.
Masses of minds are shrouded, clouded visions
Deceptions and indecision, no faith or religion, how we?re living.
The clock is ticking, the end is coming, there?ll be no warning,
But we live to see the dawn.

Bridge
How can we preach, when all we make this world to be
Is a living hell torturing our minds.
We all must unite, to turn darkness to light,
And the love in our hearts will shine.

Verse 3
We?re disconnected from love, we?re disrespecting each other
Whatever happened to protecting each other
Poisoned your body and your soul for a minute of pleasure,
But the damage that you?ve done is gonna last forever.
Babies being born in the world already drug addicted and afflicted,
Family values are contradicted.
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, the pressure is building and I?ve had enough.



ANd I also feel him in this one.

Escape
Open up 6
He's gone!

Every where I turn no matter where I look
The systems in control its all ran by the book
I gotta get away so I can free my mind
Escape is
What I need
(lectric') lectric eyes

No matter where I am I see my face around
They pin lies on my name and put them town to town
Don't have a place to run but there's no need to hide
I got ta
Find a place
So I can
Hide away

Escape/
Gotta get away from the system, rules and the world today
Escape/
The pressure that I feel from relationships had to go away/
Escape/
The man with the pen that writes the lies that has no ink/
Escape/
I do what I wanna cuz I gotta be nobody but me

Sometimes I feel like....I've gotta get away

I tried to share my life with someone I could love
But games and money is all she ever thought of
How could that be my fault when she gambled and lost?
I'm tired of
Silly games
Time to
Make a change
Why is it I cant do whatever want to?
When in my personal life freind i dont live for you(you!)
So don't you try to (don't you try it) tell me what is right for me
To be con, cerned about you
I cant do
What I want to

Escape/(I got ta)
Gotta get away from the system, rules and the world today (I gotta get away)
Escape/
The pressure that I feel from relationships had to go away (don't you know that
baby)
Escape/
The man with the pen that writes the lies that has no ink (I gotta get away)
Escape/
I do what I wanna cuz I gotta be nobody but me (Get away!)

Escape/
Gotta get away (don't you try it) from the system, rules and the world today
(escape…)
Escape/
The pressure that I feel (pressure that I'm feelin everyday) from relationships
had to go away/
Escape/
The man with the pen that writes the lies that has no ink (come
on now)
Escape/
I do (come on now) what I wanna cuz I gotta be nobody but me
When I go
Oh, now
This problem world won't brother me
This problem world (this problem world)
Won't worry me (worry me!) no more
Escape/
Gotta get away from the system, rules and the world today (I can find a way!)
Escape/
The pressure that I feel from relationships had to go away (pressure that I'm
feelin)
Escape/
The man with the pen that writes the lies that has no ink (writing all those
lies)
I do what I wanna cuz I gotta be nobody but me (escape and then I do just what
I wanna)
Escape/ (bay bay)
I gotta get away from the system, rules and the world today
Escape/
The pressure that i feel from relationships had to go away (See,
I've gotta get away, baby)
Escape/
The man with the pen that writes the lies that has no ink (The man that writes
the lies)
I do (hoo) what I wanna cuz I gotta be nobody but me
Escape/
gotta get away- (hoah, tell my mother….I gotta get away)
Escape/
The pressure that I feel- (Take it no more!)
Escape/
The man with the pen- (I can't take this kinda shit no mooooore!)
Escape/
I do what I wanna cuz I gotta be nobody but me

Escape…
Sometimes you just wanna escape, you wanna escape

Gotta get outta here!
Ah,
Escapegotta get away
Escape
You want me, come and get me
The pressure that I feel- Escape
The man with the pen -get away….
I do what I wanna-
I do what I wanna cuz I gotta be nobody (hee hee hee)
But me
Do what I wanna!


And how about this one?
PRivacy
Ain’t the pictures enough, why do you go through so much
To get the story you need, so you can bury me
You’ve got the people confused, you tell the stories you choose
You try to get me to lose the man I really am
You keep on stalking me, invading my privacy
won’t you just let me be
‘cause you cameras can’t control, the minds of those who know
That you’ll even sell your soul just to get a story sold
[CHORUS]
I need my privacy, I need my privacy
So paparazzi, get away from me
Some of you still wonder why, one of my friends had to die
To get a message across, that yet you haven’t heard
My friend was chased and confused, like many others I knew
But on that cold winter night, my pride was snatched away
Now she get no second chance, she just ridiculed and harassed
Please tell my why
No there’s a lesson to learn, respect’s not given, it’s earned
Stop maliciously attacking my integrity
[CHORUS]
Now there’s a lesson to learn, stories are twisted and turned
Stop maliciously attacking my integrity
[Edited 1/9/06 10:26am]

You know what? Speechless is clearly dedicated to a platonic or "higher" love. After just checking out the lyric sheet, there's nothing there that really crosses a line, other than the things MJ has already told us on the Bashir documentary.

dag said:

dag said:

I agree with all of your examples

And add "Jam" to that list along with most of "HIStory (Disc 2)."
[Edited 1/9/06 10:48am]

'Is It Scary', if you reed between the lyrics it's very revealing and highly personal:


There's a ghost out in the hall
Theirs a goul beneath the bed
Now it's coming through the walls
Now it's coming down the stairs

Then there's screaming in the dark
Hear the beating of his heart
Can you feel it in the air
Ghosts be hiding everywhere

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 want to see
Eccentrialities
I'll be grotesque
Before your eyes

Let them all materialise!

Is that scary for you baby
Am I scary for you oh
Is it scary for you baby
Is it scary for you

You know the stranger is you
Is it scary for you baby

There's a creak beneath the floor
There's a creak behind the door
There's a rocking in the chair
But nobody sitting there
Their's a ghostly smell around
But nobody to be found
And a coughin' and a yawnin'
Where restless soul's spoke

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

So let the performance start!

Is that scary for you baby
Am I scary for you oh
Am I scary for you baby
Am I scary for you
So tell me is it scary for you baby
So tell me is it crazy for you baby
Am I scary for you

You know the stranger is you
Am I scary for ya

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

Is that scary for you baby
Am I scary for you oh
Am I scary for you baby
Is it scary for you
So tell me am I scary for you baby
Am I scary for ya baby
Is is scary for ya baby
Am I scary for you
(I don't wanna talk about it)

Am I scary for you baby
Am I scary for you
I'm tired of being abused
You know you're scaring me too
I see the evil is you
Is it scary for you baby

In The Closet

Oh yeah, I forgot about Is It Scary.

jasonstar said:

Exactly, AND Invincible... which is why I never play those records.

Cinnie said:

One of the worst things he's ever done.

Michael looks scared as hell.

Cinnie said:

And that is why I always play those records!

Michael has said himself that SIM and Childhood r the most true to himself.
I've always thought That's what u get for being polite was very "him"

I don't know his recent stuff well enough but my guess is that damn Childhood song (where he fake cries/whimpers @ the end give it up Mike, it only worked on She's Out Of My Life! )...

And the "Muscles" shit is cracking me the fuck UP!

jasonstar said:

EDIT: I don't really play "Invincible" all that much.

jasonstar said:

aaaaa caughtcha!

Cinnie said:

I know, and I agree. But I just don't think anyone has ever written as passionate song about something that is supposed to be just platonic love. I don't think it's a valid question whether there is any innuendo or not, as it's just a piece of art/pop music - and I don't think Michael would be dumb enough to include any type of "hidden messages" about child molestation in his lyrics. But I personally find it a bit creepy that he is so "humbled" by this experience.

And that's why it's one of his most personal songs, because you can clearly see how his concept of "higher love" has replaced any experience of "standard love", and how our desires are potentially to be fulfilled in real life experiences. He thoroughly transcends his "love" into something magical and attempts to live in his own concoction. Strangely enough, the impossibility of it can easily be drawn out of even the lyrics themselves and also from the way he delivers the vocals. He needs that "magic" to justify his views on life, it's structured in his own thinking over the years. This type of "love" is something that is not morally responsible to anyone or anything, because it is in essence out of the boundaries of such thinking. For it is an ethical ideal of itself, it cannot be judged. He thinks he has reached some sort of more true, platonic as you said, stance of emotional life.

But I think there lies also a very intelligent human being underneath all the traumas and the eccentricity. He knows very well there is no magic as such, I sometimes question even his faith in God when he attempts to speak of his personal beliefs. Actually to me he sounds like an individual who has completely lost his faith on a very fundamental level, so he turns into impossibilities and contradictions instead (not to mention clichés). There he can easily live between the harsh reality and the fantasies, because from the outset he is not responsible to anyone of his chosen lifestyle. On "Speechless" he openly acknowledges its contradictory structure but chooses to live it anyway, because it's justified by a higher cause and in the end is delivered only through aesthetic means. So it doesn't even produce a proper intellectual dilemma for him.

... whoah.