Robmix said that they came up with 40 tracks during the HIStory sessions. 13 were from the 1994-95 sessions, Come Together, which still sounds out of place on the album, was from 1985-86, and Earth Song was from the Dangerous sessions. Then there was Morphine, the unreleased Christmas song, Why..... so there's probably a couple of tracks from those sessions lying around
Although I don't think the well is by no means dry (we're STILL finding out songs) it kinda tells you that his recording process after 1992 changed. There's definitely a trove from 1976-1990 but any material from 1994-2009 probably varies from completely finished, to half done, to just demo form with him simply fleshing out ideas, but then again....they probably sound more finished than the average singer's demos
I read that the estate was still doing inventory on unreleased songs when they were gearing up for the release of Michael. I guess we're gonna have to see in the next couple of years for what the estate releases and of course, what leaks among fans. "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'm tellin' you, we're gonna be surprised by some leaks in he next couple of years. Hot Fever and Tomboy are circulating among some fans and some other songs are to. I still say he left more than we think... "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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After hearing the snippets (thank you kindly) I go back to how I was hoping Michael would turn out.
I'm fine with producers coming in to "finish" the songs if they worked on them with MJ. But why not release a double disc with the actual demoes on the second disc.
That way Sony still have "finished" product to release as singles, and the fans get to hear the songs as they were left in their raw form by MJ.
It would be win/win and I bet you half the issues people have with the Estate and Sony over the release of Michael would be done with. "I'm not human I'm a dove, I'm ur conscience. I am love" | |
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I agree 100%. | |
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I agree! Hopefully we can at least get snippets of Hot Fever and Tomboy! | |
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Posting this just in case the mods close down the post HAPPYPERSON posted about Bobby Taylor discovering the J5 and how his role got forgotten about for the next 30 years:
[img:$uid]http://i55.tinypic.com/246qety.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i51.tinypic.com/2ivbgpu.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i52.tinypic.com/2r3w5j4.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i55.tinypic.com/df7xi0.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i56.tinypic.com/2r3clzr.jpg[/img:$uid] | |
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Anyone have the 1 second snippet (or longer!!!) of Days in Gloucestershire? Please orgnote me would love to hear it thanks Come on you polaroids! lol
http://www.theoldcarpentersshop.com http://www.theoldcarpente...axminster/ http://www.theoldcarpente...arpenters/ | |
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Don't be surprised if Tomboy turns out to be a really good song. No, I haven't heard it. But I am making an "educated guess". Hot Fever and Pyramid Girl were demos. Not sure how much they sound like the TWYMMF and Liberian Girl. They could just be really raw cuts. I'm surprised after all of these years Men In Black hasn't been leaked. On the subject of cuts from BAD, there was a song called What You Do To Me. Another song I have a feeling could be quite good. My guesses at the best stuff in the vault: I'm Dreamin' The Future Men In Black Tomboy You Told Me Your Lovin Remember This Night Buffalo Bill | |
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I feel a little lost. Does that Quentin Tarintino script have anything to do with Michael? YOU DON'T NEED A BUS PASS FOR ME TO BUS YOUR ASS,NIGGA ! | |
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Mike being entertained.
I absolutely adore this song. [Edited 5/13/11 12:17pm] "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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Nope Quentin Tarantino script nothing to do with MJ lol Just fresh new script finished coupla weeks ago, though it might interest some people on here as you are all an elightenend bunch Come on you polaroids! lol
http://www.theoldcarpentersshop.com http://www.theoldcarpente...axminster/ http://www.theoldcarpente...arpenters/ | |
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if you got it, please orgnote me.. MICHAEL JACKSON
R.I.P مايكل جاكسون للأبد 1958 | |
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Me too please... | |
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Oh okay,thanks! YOU DON'T NEED A BUS PASS FOR ME TO BUS YOUR ASS,NIGGA ! | |
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Bobby Taylor's role I always felt was clarified back in 1987. The whole Diana deal was smart marketing. Michael and the family never forgot what Bobby did for them. "I'm not human I'm a dove, I'm ur conscience. I am love" | |
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Bobby probably meant personally thanking him, which he said none of them did. | |
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^ I've got some links... I'll hook you guys up. | |
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Yep.
I just remember someone asking Rob how many outtakes did they have from HIStory and Rob said what we hear on HIStory is all they really worked on (and he called Morphine, Blood on the Dance Floor and Superfly Sista "stragglers" from the HIStory session) and the rest were just grooves and click tracks | |
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Has anybody seen this yet? http://youtu.be/1KFi-s2ad1A | |
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Michael worked on HIStory in LA and NYC and I think Rob was there for the NYC sessions.... I wonder what else was done.. I just need titles! I only know of "Cry", "Why", "Face", "Fear" and "Bassouille"
I know some of these selfish bitches called fans got some rough cut tapes and ain't sharing.....
grabs house robbing equipment
"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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They asked Rob about "Bassouille" and he mentioned how all the songs went through his hands at some point in time but that title didn't ring a bell to him .. it's obvious MJ worked on songs without everyone being in the studio all the time ..
FUCK those punk ass fans! Yeah, I said it...FUCK EM! | |
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Or this... Nice pics from bad tour backstage http://www.youtube.com/wa...re=related Come on you polaroids! lol
http://www.theoldcarpentersshop.com http://www.theoldcarpente...axminster/ http://www.theoldcarpente...arpenters/ | |
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That 1 second of Days in Gloucestershire is really worthless ...I thought it was a snippet from In the closet MICHAEL JACKSON
R.I.P مايكل جاكسون للأبد 1958 | |
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I love this song, i'm suprised it wasn't released earlier. "we make our heroes in America only to destroy them" | |
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I think you'll find more and more of this kind of stuff - with fans desperate for kudos leaking their own "snippets" of other tracks. It's just the natural progression of some fans who want to either show they have an "in" or are better than others - "omg I fooled them".
I haven't heard the snipped of DIG, but at one second long I wouldn't bother, lol.
Let the snippet games begin. "I'm not human I'm a dove, I'm ur conscience. I am love" | |
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And now back to the music...
HiStory
A lot had changed for Michael Jackson when HiStory was released. No longer was he seen as the creative genius, but rather as at best a target of tabloid journalists and at worst a potential child abuser. But whilst the years leading up to the release of HiStory were traumatic and filled with a lot of unanswered questions, Michael did what Michael knew best to do and that was break the media silence with an album that for the most part was his point of view on what most people took as fact and as the title suggested offered His side of the Story – the best way Michael knew how, through music.
Whilst packaging the album as a double cd filled with greatest hits and new music was a smart marketing tool and way to reintroduce Michael to a weary public, what the fans longed to hear was the new material. We didn’t need to be convinced of his legacy. What we wanted to hear was where he was going to take us next.
For many of the press there was speculation as to whether he would actually address what had transpired in the previous years, or would Michael retreat into a fantasy world of imagery and safe pop. Thankfully, Michael didn’t hide and instead delivered his most personal album of his career.
With the industrial distorted introduction of Scream blasting through the speakers it was almost like Michael was rebooting for a new chapter in his life. And for those who though Michael might tread lightly the first verse showed he was instead going to tackle things head on. With a hard hitting beat grounding the track Michael and sister Janet trade verses in a unified attack at the injustice, frustration, and pressure that being in the public light delivers. As if saying you want the truth you got it, lyrically it contains some of Michael’s most direct and confronting utterances. In both an attack, and plea for relief, the song throws down hard and doesn’t let up. This is Michael mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore. Scream still pumps hard and has become a favourite for many a fan wanting Michael to step up.
They Don’t Care About Us continues with the anger. Its pulsing rhythmic shunt lays a bare bone foundation for Michael to spit out his lyrics that for the first time dismisses the idea of being universally loved, and hits hard with reality that he might be hated by some, yet he challenges them to truly see what it is they are hating and what they base their hatred on – stories fed to them by someone “in a suit, on the news” where people are chewed up and spat out like “dog food” and everyone has an “allegation”. It’s almost like Michael is welcoming the aggression knowing that ultimately the truth will be his savour. And perhaps in the only moment that Michael truly addresses the labels people were now willing to sling in his direction he counters with “I’m tired of being the victim of shame, you’re throwing me in a class with a bad name”. Where this song could have easily drifted heavily into a hostile rant, Michael manages to salvage it with vocals that at times attack but in equal measures draw you in.
After the aural assault of the opening two tracks, Michael shifts gears with one his all time greatest tracks, the hauntingly beautiful Stranger in Moscow. Again he wears his heart on his sleave, but rather than play the victim he lets us into his experience of his “swift and sudden fall from grace” and how it feels to be “abandoned in my fame”. He opens himself up with honesty that let’s us feel his pain without him asking for us to pity him. Musically the track features some beautiful melodies that both underscore the sadness of the situation but yet still offers a moment of hope that “sunny days will drown the pain”. But rather than fully arrive at a happy ending, Michael stays with the reality of feeling alone and makes the song more powerful for it.
While the previous songs perhaps looked at the previous years with a focus on the media in general, This Time Around hit’s squarely at those accusing him. He unfurls their plans to “control him” and “get him” and “falsely accuse”. And with a tone of lesson learned, he also seems to deliver the lyrics as if having the last laugh. Once again Michael’s ability to draw you in with a vocal melody is present and it’s often not until you actually listen to the lyrics do you realise how harsh and attacking the song is.
Earth Song, whilst originally written for inclusion on Dangerous seems better suited here. As a moment of reprieve from his personal world, Michael turns his attention to the world at large and the plight we are leaving this earth in. With an epic arrangement that starts soft and simple and builds with every passing bar to a raucous gospel tinged plea for action, Earth Song has a truth to it that was lacking in a song like Heal The World. Rich and lush productions means that almost every time you listen to it you hear something new, it might be the trickling strings, it might be the weeping guitar, of the bed of vocal harmonies that surround you. Bombastic? Maybe. But there is a sense of urgency and power to the song that can’t be denied and makes it one of Michael’s most gifted musical arrangements.
D.S. is a curious song for a few reasons. One because of its subject matter; a thinly veiled attack on Tom Sneddon. And two, because it is potentially the weakest track on the album. Maybe it was a cathartic move for Michael to include it, and perhaps the music sample of “Owner of Lonely Heart” by YES was another jab. I remember listening to it and thinking Michael was playing with fire (and history might suggest he was) but more I kept wanting the song to take me somewhere, instead it just seems to follow the one attacking path with almost 2 minutes of continuous rants that “Tom Sneddon is a cold man”.
Thankfully Money brings the focus back on track, and is the soundtrack to all the people willing to make a quick buck and sell another out. No one escapes the wrath of Michael here, from those who use him for the money, those you preach one thing then do the other, to insurance companies that force settlements, to those who will betray you for a dime, or sell you out, and swear on a lie. Of course, Michael makes it all so irresistible with one of the catchiest chorus on the album especially in the way he teases out “money” and even tells those making a quick buck on his dime to actually go out an earn an honest living like people like “Trump, Morgan, Rockefeller, Getty”. For me, this was standout track on the album and should have been a single. It remains to this day a must have on any compilation.
Come Together was another odd inclusion of new material as it had already been featured in MoonWalker, featured as a bonus track on Jam (and in some countries on Remember the Time). So to see it here on HiStory was a little perplexing. There was a bit of sadness in it no longer being a rare collectible b-side. And whilst it is my favourite Beatles song it did feel out of place on the album for a long time. But as a cover version goes it’s pretty cool.
Despite You Are Not Alone going down in the history books as being the first single ever to debut at number 1, it was a song that just never really grabbed it. For some reason it seemed to be an R&B ballad done by the numbers and never really felt like an MJ song until he takes control of it during the last few minutes.
Following up You Are Not Alone with Childhood probably wasn’t the best sequencing of tracks. Part Broadway musical, part saccharine Disney ballad it just felt too soppy to really be taken seriously. Though over time the song has grown on me, it doesn’t captivate me in ways I hoped it would. What does wow me though, is that the vocal performance we hear is (minus a pickup line) a one take recording done whilst the orchestra played, which makes you appreciate Michael’s vocals even more.
Just when I felt like HiStory was fading at the mid point Tabloid Junkie came in to save the day. Once again Michael is in the role of media victim, but this time he is standing up against the machine. Starting with a role call of the weird stories that became synonymous with his celebrity, the song shifts into a hard hitting, vocal spitting groove that mixes anger in the lead vocals with an alluring softness in the harmonies of the backing vocals. And once again showing his prowess in being able to meld a catchy pop melody with an attacking vocal the chorus lands its message of fact versus fiction where “just because you read in a magazine or see it on a TV screen don’t make factual”. Michael also cleverly layers in various pieces of gossip through the song around the typical speculation over him being homosexual, to a news report about Bubbles getting married. Again, this is a song that deserved to be a single, not just for it’s sure chart success but because it was convincing response to the media madness that revolved around him.
With a powerful 1-2 punch 2BAD kicks off with a Run DMC sample from King of Rock before launching into a blistering groove complete with bass and horn blast attacks. Once again Michael goes on the attack, targeting all those who scramble to get a piece of his fame and money and those who “tried to bring me to my knees”. One of the songs greatest features is the way Michael uses the backing vocals mixing both high notes with brooding low ones. This is perhaps the one song that has the most amount of backing vocals in all of Michael’s recordings, with them evening accompanying most verses. The only downside to the track is once the frenetic breakdown hits we have Shaq doing a rap, which sadly doesn’t have the bite that Michael’s own lyrics have. The one saving grace in the rap is the way in which the live horns are treated and manipulated to have a sharper edge. Musically this song has so many elements in the mix that you need to listen to it over and over (and with headphones on) to truly appreciate the intricate layers in it.
With a symphonic introduction you just know that HiStory is going to verge on being overproduced, but somehow it holds under the weight of its ambition. Using samples from through out great moments in history (including his own “I don’t sing it if I don’t mean it” grab from an early Jackson 5 interview) the track acts in total duality mixing the hard and ready verses with almost Disneyesque sappy tendencies in the sing-along style chorus. This mix of hard with oh so soft, makes History a song that has many loving and hating it simultaneously. Though once heard it is hard to get the hook of the chorus out of your head. And it’s only in the final few minutes do I normally give up wanting it to be harder and just go with the beautiful melody that is woven throughout it. Here Michael uses his own struggles to try and inspire while still pushing a focus on the struggles of the world. With it’s bombastic crescendo and historic moment role call it’s almost as if HiStory closes out the album.
The joyous climax of HiStory is undercut with the more sombre Little Susie which in composition borrows heavily from Sunrise Sunset yet has Michael reworking this beautiful arrangement to punctuate the sadness of tale contained in the lyrics. A brethren to Childhood in its musical production for me Little Susie is more listenable as I am more drawn into the story unfolding and enjoy seeing the way Michael sings continuously as lead vocal and without the reliance of chorus refrain in the true sense of the word.
Like Little Susie, Smile feels a little like an afterthought on the whole concept of the album, as if they might have worked better as hidden or bonus tracks. That sad, his take on the Charlie Chaplin penned song is beautiful and even more impressive when you learn it is (for the most part) a one take recording, done live with orchestra present. It seemed fitting at the time for Michael to record this, as if to say in the face of all the world has thrown at me I am still going to smile and get on with things. Of course nowadays, it has become a song that many a fan finds comfort in, whilst others feel it strikes too strong a chord with his passing. But just hearing Michael whistle and laugh as the song closes makes me feel like the lyrics of the song have served their purpose.
On a whole HiStory was the album Michael needed to make. He couldn’t hide from what had been going on around him for fear that critics (and fans) would have claimed he was retreating more into a musical fantasy world. Of course, many feel this is Michael’s “angry” album, but I welcome it. The writing is honest and personal and in many instances more relatable than his bigger flashier hits. It is, for the most part, a cohesive and consistently great album packed with killer songs and the one or two filler tracks, and reminded us all of the genius Michael has when he enters the recording studio.
To this day HiStory remains a solid favourite album of mine.
"I'm not human I'm a dove, I'm ur conscience. I am love" | |
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I went back several pages and didn't see this story. If it's been posted already, please forgive me, I just found it very interesting.
http://www.clickondetroit...etail.html
Wouldn't it be absolutely something, if in his own special way, Michael Jackson led to freeing the world of our oil dependency? I knew from the start that I loved you with all my heart. | |
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Considering The Jacksons helped usher in the Jheri Curl Generation, it would be ironic "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 know...that you know...you ain't even right for that! I knew from the start that I loved you with all my heart. | |
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