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PrintableI apologize if this has already been posted. Excellent and informative article!
Since Michael Jackson's untimely death in June of 2009, speculation has run rampant about the music he left behind. How much is there? How finished are the songs? What is the quality of the material? And how and when will it be released?
Over the course of writing and researching my forthcoming book, Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson (Sterling 2011), I was fortunate enough to take an in-depth look at Jackson's entire catalog--including the work he was engaged in during his final years. My sources worked closely with the King of Pop throughout his life and have been trustworthy and reliable throughout the five-year process of the book. In the controversy that tends to surround all things Michael Jackson, it can be difficult to ascertain truth from fiction. But I feel confident with what I have learned about the material poised to appear on his first posthumous album, Michael.
A notorious perfectionist, Jackson always over-recorded. There are at least one hundred songs over the course of his solo career that did not make it onto his major albums. Some of those have already appeared on special editions and collections; others have leaked online in various forms; and many others have never been heard.
At midnight on November 8th, MichaelJackson.com stream...icial song from the archives (excluding the early-Eighties demo, "This Is It," which was included as part of the companion album to the film of the same name). Even before its release, however, controversy surrounded "Breaking News" and the other so-called "Cascio tracks." The conversation has only intensified since then.
Predictably, little of that conversation has been about the content of the new track: the exceptionally ominous strings in the intro, its "Off the Wall"-esque chorus, or its signature Jackson indictment of a media that feeds on "breaking news" (read: scandals) with obsessive compulsion ("No matter what/ You just want to read it again"). Nor has much attention been given to the work of talented producer and longtime-Jackson friend, Teddy Riley, who gives the song a fresh but faithful sheen.
The irony, of course, is this is how Jackson's music has been received for decades, the substance overlooked in favor of sensationalism and distracting controversy. Yet part of it would no doubt bring a knowing smile to the man who once claimed he wanted to make his whole life "the greatest show on earth." Long before Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson was engaging artistically with both the monstrosity and allure of fame.
In "Breaking News," Jackson not only delivers his message, but anticipates the way it will be received. In one verse, he lashes out at those anxious to "write his obituary." In the chorus, he asks his listening audience, as he did throughout his career, who they project him to be: Is he the "boogieman" (a constructed monstrous figure) we're thinking of?
Certainly, by 2007 (the year in which "Breaking News" was recorded), he had learned how vicious and entrapping a lifetime in the spotlight could be. The previous two years he had been living as a vagabond, traveling from the Middle Eastern-island of Bahrain to the countryside of Ireland to a private chateau in Las Vegas. In the fall of 2007, he showed up with his children at the doorstep of his longtime friends, the Cascios, in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. Jackson had been close to the Cascio family for nearly twenty years. During that time, they never once betrayed him for tabloid money (in spite of many offers), but showed him loyalty and allowed him a sense of normalcy he couldn't often enjoy. In the program at Jackson's funeral they are referred to as "the First Family of Love."
Jackson stayed with the Cascios for nearly four months and, along with Frank Cascio, Eddie (Angel) Cascio, and singer James Porte (aka Bobby Ewing), engaged in some of his most sustained recording since before his 2005 trial. Three songs created during these sessions--"Breaking News," "Keep Your Head Up" and "Monster"--are expected to appear on Jackson's new album, all of which Jackson co-wrote. During his time in New Jersey, Jackson also recorded vocals for Thriller 25, which was released in 2008.
Beyond the Cascios, several people close to Jackson were familiar with his work in New Jersey. He mentioned to these people that he was "excited" about the work he and the Cascios had generated. According to Jackson's longtime friend and manager, Frank Dileo, Jackson planned to have recording equipment brought to London during his 02 concert series so he could finalize some of his latest music.
The first of the Cascio tracks to be heard--"Breaking News"--obviously isn't a perfect realization of Jackson's abilities. Receiving the most critical attention are Jackson's vocals, the veracity of which even some family and fans are questioning. There are understandable reasons for this. This certainly isn't a "typical" Jackson recording: there weren't extensive warm ups with longtime vocal coach Seth Riggs, no layering and polishing by Jackson himself, no Bruce Swedien and world-class studio technology to capture the original vocal. This was a guide demo, supplemented by the supporting vocals of James Porte (for which he is credited), and produced nearly four years later by Teddy Riley.
Riley, who first began working with Jackson in the early Nineties, found it emotionally difficult to complete the unfinished work of his late friend. To tap into his inspiration, Riley had photographer Harrison Funk surround him with pictures of the singer. "That was the only thing to keep me sane, and not go crazy while I'm working," said Riley. "Because, you know, it would come out on the music if you hear me banging on the keyboards with tears coming out of my eyes."
Riley said his fundamental motivation was to extend the legacy of a friend. He approached the tracks, therefore, not attempting to overly embellish, but simply to fill in the best he could. His guiding thought was: "What would Michael want?" He even brought sounds Jackson had him record from previous sessions. The final product, of course, is an approximation. But for Riley it was a labor of love.
It wasn't until Riley submitted his work, and three of the songs were accepted by Sony for the album, that the controversy began. Certain individuals--some with noble intentions, some less so--began expressing concerns about the authenticity of the vocals. These concerns were taken seriously by Jackson's Estate. Attorney Howard Weitzman was asked by estate co-executors John Branca and John McClain to conduct a thorough investigation of the authenticity of the Cascio tracks. The Estate, after all, had a lot to lose if the tracks were fraudulent.
Since Jackson's death, by all accounts, it had done a masterful job of preserving and enhancing the artist's legacy, including the release of the highest-grossing concert documentary film of all time (This Is It), a new music video collection (Michael Jackson's Vision), a Jackson-themed video game (Michael Jackson: The Experience), a groundbreaking show with Cirque du Soliel ("Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour"), and the biggest recording contract in popular music history. Perhaps just as important, the Estate had passed on numerous deals, selecting only a handful of projects it felt were worthy of Jackson's name. Risking the substantial credibility it had established amongst both fans and critics for a handful of questionable tracks would have been reckless at best (for Sony as well, who had invested over $200 million dollars on the singer's posthumous projects).
In spite of Jackson's close relationship with the Cascios, therefore, the Estate certainly didn't accept them on blind faith. The Estate invited four of Jackson's primary engineers over the past thirty years, three producers who had worked with Jackson (including Teddy Riley), and spoke to one of the musicians that had worked with Michael over the years and who had also contributed to one of the Cascio tracks. Each of them listened to the a cappella version of the vocals on the Cascio tracks without any musical accompaniment so that they could give an opinion as to whether or not the lead vocals on the Cascio tracks were sung by Jackson. To a person they all confirmed that the vocal was definitely Michael Jackson. These engineers, producers and musicians are all people Jackson trusted and whose names would be very familiar to Jackson's fans.
In addition, at the request of John Branca and John McClain, Howard Weitzman retained one of the best known forensic musicologists in the nation to listen to the a cappella vocals and compare them with a cappella vocals from previously known Jackson songs. This expert performed waveform analysis, an objective scientific procedure, and found that all of the vocals were the voice of Michael Jackson.
Sony Music conducted its own investigation by hiring a second well-respected forensic musicologist who also compared the raw vocals from the Cascio tracks against known vocals of Jackson's and found that it was Jackson's voice on both sets of the compared vocals.
It was also specifically verified that the vocals did not belong to well-known Jackson impersonator, Jason Malachi. The results of this exhaustive investigation confirmed Sony's belief that the songs submitted by the Estate all contained authentic Michael Jackson vocals. The decision was therefore made to include three of the Cascio tracks on Michael. Other tracks will likely be included on future albums of unreleased material.
While these are not perfectly realized tracks--as no posthumous material can be--there is certainly much to appreciate. The Cascio tracks represent, after all, some of the last work Jackson ever wrote and recorded. It wasn't ready to be released, but then, Jackson wasn't ready to die.
"Breaking News," "Monster," "Hold My Hand" and the rest of the tracks that comprise Michael are, similar to the This Is It documentary, fragments of an unfinished vision. They aren't all the polished, perfectionist-Michael Jackson people are accustomed to hearing, but they are him, and what some of his closest friends and collaborators felt his fans deserved to hear.
MJ L.O.V.E: https://www.facebook.com/...689&type=2 / YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/us...nderSilent | |
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Yeah it's like "oh you mocked me for liking him but now he's dead it's cool to play him again?" And then they look at you funny when you don't play him. -Timmy on after 6-25 fans | |
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Jesus Christ. Read a few pages back and see what we thought of that bullshit here. [Edited 11/10/10 10:13am] | |
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Heard 2 snips so far. Do You Know Where Your Children Are?: Defo MJ. Traditional 90s MJ. Average pop song with the usual catchy hook. Will be a good track for the album though. Much Too Soon: Defo MJ. Melodic instrumentation....which i enjoy when it's on strings so all good. Bad cheese on the melody of the vox, though. Average again. HOWEVER, the foundations of the track can not be heard on this particular song much in such a small clip, so this could all change. This Post is produced, arranged, composed and performed by WetDream | |
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Something to think about: "Breaking News" was put on MichaelJackson.com to see how fans would react and to decide if it and the other songs submitted by Cascio and Porte would be included
now, these other snippets of All I Need, Monster, and Carry On have leaked and they pretty much have the same reactions from fans
PLUS, They haven't issued the official tracklisting to the album "We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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I also think Sony put the record up to see if fans will know if it's MJ or not. It's possible that Sony had no clue on the vocals either | |
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It's informative Yet bullshit......what a pile of crap. MICHAEL JACKSON
R.I.P مايكل جاكسون للأبد 1958 | |
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So far from the unreleased tracks i have heard two would be hits.
"Another day" would be awesome on r&b and hip hop radio and "The Way you Love me" if they just added a more up to date sound with the great vocals its a hit. | |
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Ha that article says 'A notorious perfectionist, Jackson always over-recorded.'
Yeah, true... funny how this 'Breaking News' song only has THESE takes that you hear. NO extra outtakes, or ANYTHING of the sort. JUST THIS. No music program session files, no backups. JUST THIS.
This is a big fat hoax but we're just not sure who exactly has tried to pull it off apart from the imposter singer and The Cascios.
Why doesn't everyone realise this isn't MJ, yet we all agree that 'Much Too Soon' is, 'Do You Know Where Your Children Are', Hold My Hand', 'No Friend Of Mine'... Why are we not debating about those? Cause they're him, and this ain't. | |
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There's a story on perezhilton.com saying that an "insider" claims that the reason the vocals don't sound like MJ is because a large amount of them were sung into his phone and left as voice mails. WTF?! | |
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:faint:  Yeah it's like "oh you mocked me for liking him but now he's dead it's cool to play him again?" And then they look at you funny when you don't play him. -Timmy on after 6-25 fans | |
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I read that on another site and went [img:$uid]http://maryluvs.clicdev.com/f/html/emoticons/maryluvs_brow.gif[/img:$uid]. | |
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Getting comfortable, eh, Mike? | |
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"We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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my reaction:
[img:$uid]http://i34.tinypic.com/igi9nb.jpg[/img:$uid] "We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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Frank DiLeo must have deaf ears.
Then again I'm not surprised he would support that claim. | |
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Apparently he believes it's Mike too.
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The biggest tabloid over here described this picture as "the youngest Jackson´s daughter". Idiots.
"When Michael Jackson is just singing and dancing, you just think this is an astonishing talent. And he has had this astounding talent all his life, but we want him to be floored as well. We really don´t like the idea that he could have it all." | |
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I guess people who do tabloids got to have little to no brain cells. | |
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from Taj's twitter
"We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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[img:$uid]http://i790.photobucket.com/albums/yy190/duchap/MJ%20Gifs/10pam9y.gif[/img:$uid]
iCant.. | |
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Come on you polaroids! lol 
http://www.theoldcarpentersshop.com http://www.theoldcarpente...axminster/ http://www.theoldcarpente...arpenters/ | |
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your a very sick fan. His mother acknowlegdes he had issues, but what does she know, she is only his mother. MJ had issues, the only peeps that refuse to see that are his craze fans. You can't compare his mother with his children. Most children idolize their parents. But Katherine would be seen as stupid and insincere if she was still insisting he only had "2 nose jobs". And as for the drugs, anyone who thinks it's okay to take propofol due to insomia surely has ongoing drug issues, which were probably never really resolve. | |
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http://www.mj-777.com/?p=6295
Full transcript of Teddy's recent interview
What are your takes on this? "We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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http://mjstar.co.uk/?p=3760 This was a guide demo, supplemented by the supporting vocals of James Porte (for which he is credited). It was also specifically verified that the vocals did not belong to well-known Jackson impersonator, Jason Malachi. "We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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Yeah that was from the full length HuffingtonPost article posted a few pages back that everyone pretty much called bullshit on.
I think the more we dig the more we will find we are all right to some degree, lol.
Michael is on the track, and supporting vocals are others which is what I was trying to say yesterday with my breakdown. Again this was called bullshit.
Who knows. I don't know how this will be resolved.
If the estate comes out and says all the research and investigation proves its not MJ and apologise, then as I have always said I'll be here saying I was wrong.
But what if it comes out that Michael is on the track, and many people have written it off saying its not him. What will they do then? Admit their mistake too?
I truly think for all the controversy it has caused the questionable tracks should be removed until this is confirmed 100%.
I think in all honesty the Cascio's scrambled to finish a track Michael may have lost interest in or abandoned all together. And thus in fleshing it out they filled out the vocals etc etc. That doesn't mean Michael isn't on the track though.
I don't know. All I can say is what is my point of view and hope I am respected right or wrong.
If it comes out I am 100% wrong I personally won't mind, and would hope no one on here would attack me for it. Likewise if it comes out Michael is on the track, I wouldn't attack others for admitting they were wrong also.
That's all I'm gonna say on it - as I feel some of the comments coming back now are starting to move into personal attacks and none of us want that.
Swa "I'm not human I'm a dove, I'm ur conscience. I am love" | |
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I just finished listening to Teddy Riley's interview and I agree with him on these points
-He was a true friend to Michael. It's possible if these songs are in fact NOT Michael, the estate along with Teddy were duped and someone is to blame for that.
-It's important to keep the legacy going (which is why I'm still going to buy the album). Michael did too much good for for his family and the fans to let it go to waste. I see fans saying "If this album flops, the ATV catalog is going to be sold!" but then turn around and say "Boycott Sony and the album!" choose one side please.....
-This could very well be a smear campaign. IMO, all of this bickering, going to the tabloids, so called friends and associates talking about his children, his family doing interviews talking about the plastic surgery and medication, and just being divided in general isn't helping his legacy
-Although there was addiction problems in the past, Michael had VALID reasons for taking medication for his skin disorder and other health issues. I remember when he passed away and all those articles were citing FAKE autopsy reports saying they had found mophine, demorol, xanax, and every other form of medication/drug under the sun and that his nose was prosthetic and all that noise but then the real one came out and it pretty much said the opposite and those same people who wrote those articles were very quiet because it didn't fit with what they wanted.
I feels as if this man's legacy is in trouble and everyone from his family, estate, and fans are contributing to it "We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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at some point there going to run out of excuses because the song is just that bad and the vocal is just that obvious. Michael was a master pop songwriter and even though even the best have bad days, Michael would never sing some crap like that. I just hope good evidence is forced out because these morons are not going to be honest it's obvious. | |
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That makes sense. I admit I rushed to judgment on that particular article. But we now know who was applying the other vocals. | |
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