The other thread locked itself ............

Please use this thread to discuss everything and anything MJ. And for crying out loud please adher to the rules, it ain't hard ya know.

Any created threads will automatically get the and be directed to this sticky.

NOTE: DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS, REPORT THEM - Trolling will NOT be tolerated on the org

And please........... if some folks are getting wonky on this thread, report them

Michael Jackson's Off The Wall to Be Reissued With Spike Lee Documentary

http://pitchfork.com/news/62778-michael-jacksons-off-the-wall-to-be-reissued-with-spike-lee-documentary/

The documentary features interviews with the Weeknd, Pharrell, Kobe Bryant, Questlove, Lee Daniels, Misty Copeland, Mark Ronson, John Legend, L.A. Reid, and Jackson's parents, Katherine and Joe. It will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, and air on Showtime on February 5.

Over the last few years, Spike Lee has been working on a documentary about Michael Jackson's Off The Wall. The finished product, Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall, has been given a release date: February 26, where it'll be bundled with a copy of the LP.

THIS is the secret behind Michael Jackson's anti-gravity dance moves

IndiaToday.in

March 3, 2016 | Posted by: Somya Abrol | UPDATED 15:29 IST

A +A -

We've all grown up trying to imitate Michael Jackson's dance moves--be it the oh-so-smooth moon-walk or the EPIC forward-lean. Whether we nailed the moves or not is a whole other discussion.

But what if we told you that as talented as MJ was, those dance moves--the forward-lean especially--were not purely talent.

That's right-the legendary Michael Jackson kept the trick behind his sought-after dance move a secret from fans all through his 38-year-long career.

The secret behind his iconic 45-degree lean, the one he first orchestrated for the video of Smooth Criminal, has finally been revealed.

When the video first came out, it was thought that the pop legend used wires to master the slow forward-lean. MJ, however, wanted to recreate the same gravity-defying feat live on stage.

According to The Mirror, Michael and his team created a one-off shoe with an extending slot at the bottom of the heel.

The slots could then extend at any given time and connect to a peg in the stage, keeping the shoe secure as Michael leaned forward--supporting his own body as he did it.

A sketch from the inception of MJ's shoe. Picture courtesy: Tumblr

The 'magic' shoe

These shoes were patented in 1992 under the names of Michael Jackson and Dennis Tompkins, MJ's outfit designer.

Though the special shoes almost always worked perfectly, a 'slip' was reported during one of MJ's live concerts in Moscow in September 1996, when one of the heels came loose from its peg.

Michael went flying, but luckily managed to avoid serious injury--and the design was reportedly later reworked to avoid it happening again, reports The Mirror.

That shoe is now in the Moscow branch of the Hard Rock Cafe, after being auctioned off following Jackson's death for USD 600,000.

The documentary sold out all ready! It was amazing!

what a shocker lollll

mjscarousal said:

The documentary sold out all ready! It was amazing!

Is it really? That's incredible! I have a friend who went to Walmart last week to get it and she told me they were out! I got mine from Amazon, loved it--it was great! Full of some great rare footage.

And speaking of rare footage....

NaughtyKitty said:

mjscarousal said:

The documentary sold out all ready! It was amazing!

Is it really? That's incredible! I have a friend who went to Walmart last week to get it and she told me they were out! I got mine from Amazon, loved it--it was great! Full of some great rare footage.

And speaking of rare footage....

Is that really him? Or do I have amnesia?

NaughtyKitty said:

Let's all pray for The Jackson family...

Asymphony5 said:

NaughtyKitty said:

Is it really? That's incredible! I have a friend who went to Walmart last week to get it and she told me they were out! I got mine from Amazon, loved it--it was great! Full of some great rare footage.

And speaking of rare footage....

Wow... Usually I can tell who MJ is based on the movement and body type but I'm having trouble with this one. The first person seems a little short to be Mike but he looks like him and the second one seems to have a different body type than MJ😓 anyone care to explain the details on this video?

I agree, I felt he looked a bit short too, but towards the end when the 2nd guy is dancing Michael is standing on the side watching and kind of cheering him on--it sounded like MJ to me. I would like more details on this video too.

NaughtyKitty said:

mjscarousal said:

The documentary sold out all ready! It was amazing!

Is it really? That's incredible! I have a friend who went to Walmart last week to get it and she told me they were out! I got mine from Amazon, loved it--it was great! Full of some great rare footage.

And speaking of rare footage....

I know I am so mad! I still have to get it!

That doesnt look like MJ in that footage. He is too short and the movements are a bit off.

NaughtyKitty said:

Asymphony5 said:

NaughtyKitty said: Wow... Usually I can tell who MJ is based on the movement and body type but I'm having trouble with this one. The first person seems a little short to be Mike but he looks like him and the second one seems to have a different body type than MJ😓 anyone care to explain the details on this video?

I agree, I felt he looked a bit short too, but towards the end when the 2nd guy is dancing Michael is standing on the side watching and kind of cheering him on--it sounded like MJ to me. I would like more details on this video too.

.

That is ENTIRELY Michael Jackson in the footage...unless you think Jeffrey Daniel (the other guy dancing) would have the audacity to manufacture a Michael Jackson double.

(This video is originally from Jeffrey Daniels YouTube channel, it's genuine in other words).

MJ is just hardly practicing...some of y'all expect 'bells and whistles' every damn time...

funkyandy said:

NaughtyKitty said:

I agree, I felt he looked a bit short too, but towards the end when the 2nd guy is dancing Michael is standing on the side watching and kind of cheering him on--it sounded like MJ to me. I would like more details on this video too.

.

That is ENTIRELY Michael Jackson in the footage...unless you think Jeffrey Daniel (the other guy dancing) would have the audacity to manufacture a Michael Jackson double.

(This video is originally from Jeffrey Daniels YouTube channel, it's genuine in other words).

MJ is just hardly practicing...some of y'all expect 'bells and whistles' every damn time...

Um, nobody here is expecting any 'bells and whistles' from a rarely seen video showing Michael Jackson dancing. All I said was he looked a bit short...but it sounded like Mike when he was standing watching the other guy dance. There's nothing wrong with wanting a bit more information on the video like when it was shot, where it took place...people are naturally gonna have questions when they see something like this that's never been shown before. But it's great to get rare never before seen footage--thanks for the info on Jeffrey Daniel, I didnt know that was him in the video and that this originally came from him too.

Review: Spike Lee Honors Michael Jackson's Drive, Music

• 
  COURTESY SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

Around the midway point in Spike Lee’s entertaining new documentary about Michael Jackson’s transformation from child wonder to adult superstar, one of the talking heads reads an astonishing letter that Jackson wrote to himself, quoting: “MJ will be my new name. No more Michael Jackson. I want a whole new character, a whole new look. I should be a totally different person. People should never think of me as the kid who sang ‘ABC,’ ‘I Want You Back.’ I should be a new, incredible actor, singer, dancer that will shock the world. I will do no interviews. I will be magic. I will be a perfectionist, a researcher, a trainer, a masterer. I will be better than every great actor roped in one. I must have the most incredible training system, to dig and dig and dig until I find.”

Lee’s documentary is called Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown To Off The Wall, but for Jackson, it’s apparent that it was more a quest than a journey. The 90-minute movie illustrates the singular drive that led Michael Jackson down the road from bubblegum soul to Studio 54 and beyond.

.

The movie spends little time on the early Jackson 5 recordings, and although Jackson’s parents Joe and Katherine Jackson appear on camera, there are no mentions of the whippings that Michael claimed his father would give to him and his brothers when they didn’t hit their performance marks. It goes largely unsaid in the film, but that desire to emerge from the shadow of his family and become his own man was one of the driving forces behind Michael’s creativity. That and the burgeoning disco scene that developed out of producer/songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International records. After the Jackson 5 left Motown for Epic Records and became The Jacksons, the group released two albums produced by Gamble & Huff that largely fizzled. Self-producing for the first time, the Jacksons’ smash album Destiny (1978) featured the singles “Blame It on the Boogie” and “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground),” the latter co-written by Michael and brother Randy, and a monster hit.

.

That same year, Michael met Quincy Jones on the set of Sidney Lumet’s film of The Wiz. Jones recalls in Lee’s film how Michael would bring his "A" game to each take, even after a day of waiting on set. He could see there was something special, a drive to succeed, that was unlike anyone he had ever met.

In 1979, over Epic Records’ initial objections, Michael hired Quincy Jones to produce Off The Wall, and as Questlove exclaims during Lee’s film, that opening “whooooah!” heard at the beginning of “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” is both Michael’s “free at last” moment and the beginning of the superstar’s signature sound. Lee’s film goes track by track, dissecting the hits, from the proto-“Thriller” cut “Off The Wall” to the silky smooth late-night jam “I Can’t Help It.” Tom Bahler recalls writing “She’s Out Of My Life” from experience, and Rosie Perez remembers asking her girlfriends who it was that made Michael cry on that same song, the album’s lone ballad. Off The Wall holds together as a fantastic R&B/disco album yet doesn’t sound dated. As one musician points out in Lee’s documentary, there are no cheesy hand claps or signature disco sounds, just a crackerjack band in the studio “playing the sh*t out of” the greatest dance songs they could write and find.

.

I was about 18 months behind the curve in discovering Michael and his brothers when I was growing up, and never heard Off The Wall until after Thriller. My entry into the music of The Jacksons was facilitated by a music video from a later album that was naturally visualized by Michael. Inspired by epic special effects extravaganzas like Star Wars, the video for “Can You Feel It” from the 1981 albumTriumph, features the brothers as over-the-top demi-gods showering a city with happiness and falling stars. The video featured extensive use of computer animation, and I remember being transfixed by it at age seven, watching American Bandstand after school. I excitedly asked kids the next day if they had seen the same thing. In less than two years, my friend David Hardisty was wearing the red zippered "Beat It" jacket to school, and we were all trying it on and attempting to moonwalk. With Thriller’s genre-bending songs a new era in popular music had begun. But its roots were laid down on the dance floor with Off The Wall in 1979. Perhaps fittingly, the final song on the album is titled “Burn This Disco Out.” What heat!

The New Release

This new reissue comes with a stick of chalk and a specially treated package that fans can write on.

.

CREDIT NATHAN CONE / TPR

Off The Wall was first reissued in 2001 with two homemade demo recordings from Michael Jackson. Those are sadly missing here, because they reveal just how clearly he saw the final arrangements of “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” and “Working Day And Night.” This new release includes Off The Wall on CD plus Spike Lee’s full documentary, Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown To Off The Wall, so if you already have the album, the DVD is the main selling point. The film is a terrific treasure trove of rare footage, but much of it is seen in fleeting glimpses. How wonderful it would have been to include more performance footage as the full-length music videos for songs like “Blame It On the Boogie” and the sensual “Rock With You,” where Michael stands alone in a sparkly outfit, framed by a laser halo, stares into the camera and sells it. Sure you can find the clips on MJ’s YouTube channel, but I’d love to see these videos on my TV screen. It's a missed opportunity for the fans.

Below: an insane production, and memories of American Bandstand.

[Edited 3/11/16 18:05pm]

Scorp said:

Real funny how that letter came out of nowhere after all these years And this stuff is always popping out of undisclosed locations and always wind up in the hands of people who were not pqrt of the actual experience when it happened in real time [Edited 3/11/16 18:28pm]

I'm not being sarcastic when I say this (really) but what do you mean by that, it sounds like you have some interesting thoughts about it

dm3857 said:

Scorp said:

Real funny how that letter came out of nowhere after all these years And this stuff is always popping out of undisclosed locations and always wind up in the hands of people who were not pqrt of the actual experience when it happened in real time [Edited 3/11/16 18:28pm]

I'm not being sarcastic when I say this (really) but what do you mean by that, it sounds like you have some interesting thoughts about it

what I'm saying.....MJ's whole life and career, the way both were designed, you have to scratch your head, and dig deep to determine truth from fiction.......when it comes to stuff like this, it's hard to say if it's concrete or not

perfect example...........that footage that popped out of the sky the day after 6/25/2009 when after 25 years, we see this footage of the Pepsi Burn........

nobody had even seen, this footage until it was shown on cable news, who proclaimed the burn is what caused dependence on demerol, then they said he suffered burns to his entire head and his face.....but the truth is that he did suffer bad burns, and it was a scary situation, but they were on the back of his head where they applie the skin grafts to, MJ recovered in a relatively quick period of time and he didn't miss one show of the Victory Tour, and attended the Grammy Awards as if the accident was a bump on the road

below is a picture of him during his time of recovery, and his surgeon said MJ did not want to use any type of painkilling substance to aid him during that period

where are the burns to the face and top of his head......I sure don't see any

now this letter that was read on this OTW documentary, I'm not saying MJ didn't set goals for himself because I'm sure he did

but that particular letter, it seems contrived according to how his career evolved and what we saw from it

like the part where it was said that he wrote he will never be remembered again as the kid who sang ABC, but then ever single tour that he did as a group performance or a solo artist, he performed all the J-5 medleys, including ABC

and peep this, on the very top of this letter, it reads THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THRILLER

this letter was written in 1979 supposedly before OTW, so if that's the case, MJ didn't even know that his debut album was gonna be called OTW, much less know what his future follow up to that album was going to be called THRILLER, especially when it was originally supposed to have been called STARLIGHT

we have to read between the lines to read between the lines

I do not believe he wrote that, because if he did, then someone in his own family would have had possession of it if he did not himself

Scorp said:

it seems contrived according to how his career evolved and what we saw from it

like the part where it was said that he wrote he will never be remembered again as the kid who sang ABC, but then ever single tour that he did as a group performance or a solo artist, he performed all the J-5 medleys, including ABC

Not knowing what letter you're talking about, I have to mention that he didn't perform ABC on This is it, didn't perform it on the HIStory tour, didn't perform it on the Dangerous tour, didn't perform it on the Bad tour and also didn't perform it on the Victory tour. But don't let reality get in the way of your story.

PatrickS77 said:

Scorp said:

it seems contrived according to how his career evolved and what we saw from it

like the part where it was said that he wrote he will never be remembered again as the kid who sang ABC, but then ever single tour that he did as a group performance or a solo artist, he performed all the J-5 medleys, including ABC

Not knowing what letter you're talking about, I have to mention that he didn't perform ABC on This is it, didn't perform it on the HIStory tour, didn't perform it on the Dangerous tour, didn't perform it on the Bad tour and also didn't perform it on the Victory tour. But don't let reality get in the way of your story.

reality? lollllll

Asymphony5 said:

^ Thanks for the clarification about the video. Some funny thing to share. I was shopping for some shoes today when Shake your body down to the ground was played and I swear everyone in the place was jamming. then, I went to another store and they played The love you save. I couldn't stop myself from grinning. I'm such a fan but little things like that do make me happy.

Yeah. Yesterday I was in two shops back to back and in the one they where playing Rock with you, as I was leaving and in the other they played The girl is mine, when I was entering. I loved that too.

It doesn't matter anymore, but in a way this makes me sad:



Sony Buys Michael Jackson Stake in Music Venture for $750 Million

Sony Corp. has reached an agreement with the estate of Michael Jackson to acquire the late music star’s interest in their joint music business for $750 million.


Terms of the deal call for Sony to pay $733 million for Jackson’s 50% stake in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, as well as previously announced distributions, with payments totaling $750 million.


Sony/ATV Music Publishing, established in 1995 as a joint venture between Sony and Jackson, touts itself as the world’s leading music publisher. Together with EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV owns or administers more than 3 million copyrights; it also controls “New York, New York,” “All You Need Is Love,” “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Moon River,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “The Mission Impossible Theme,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Over the Rainbow,” “Stand by Me” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”


“The entertainment businesses have long been a core part of Sony and are a key driver of our future growth,” said Kazuo Hirai, Sony president and CEO. “This agreement further demonstrates Sony’s commitment to the entertainment businesses and our firm belief that these businesses will continue to contribute to our success for years to come.”


The companies said in a joint release Monday that the sale is the culmination of a process that began in September when Sony exercised its right to purchase the other partner’s interest — a right that has existed since the joint venture was formed by Jackson and Sony in 1995.


The parties expect to reach a definitive agreement by March 31, and the closing is subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approvals.


Sony said the transaction will have no material impact on its consolidated results forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31. It also said the impact on Sony’s results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, is currently being evaluated.


The estate said the transaction will not affect its continuing interests in other music assets, including all of Jackson’s master recordings as well as Mijac Music, the publishing company that owns all of the songs written by Jackson as well as songs by some of his favorite songwriters and artists that were acquired during his life. The estate will also retain its ownership interest in EMI Music Publishing.


“This transaction further allows us to continue our efforts of maximizing the value of Michael’s Estate for the benefit of his children,” said co-executors John Branca and John McClain. “It also further validates Michael’s foresight and genius in investing in music publishing. His ATV catalog, purchased in 1985 for a net acquisition cost of $41.5 million, was the cornerstone of the joint venture and, as evidenced by the value of this transaction, is considered one of the smartest investments in music history.”


Sony/ATV Music represents the copyrights of the Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Carole King, Kraftwerk, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Queen, the Rolling Stones, Richie Sambora, Sting, the Supremes, Wyclef Jean, Hank Williams and Stevie Wonder. Current artists include Akon, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, P!nk, Shakira, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams.


“When Sony first partnered with Michael Jackson 21 years ago to create Sony/ATV Music Publishing, we knew that this company had the ability to reach great heights,” said Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Entertainment Inc. “This acquisition will enable Sony to more quickly adapt to changes in the music publishing business, while at the same time continuing to be an unparalleled leader in the industry and a treasured home for artists and writers.”


http://variety.com/2016/d...201729859/

[Edited 3/14/16 18:26pm]

I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pissed off. Discussing it on another forum.