I've just seen this for the first time and I must say it's a lot better than the official version that MJ put out. Shame it has never made it on to any video compilations of his.

Anyone else seen it and what did you think?

Cloudbuster said:

I really like that video, it's cool and like you I prefer it to the other version. However I doubt he would made that kind of video these days

Serious said:

Yeah, let's not go there.

I'm surprised the media hasn't picked up on this video yet. After all, it does feature Mike as an actual prisoner in a prison. I thought it would be right up there alley.

It is a cool video. Spike Lee directed it if you didn't know.
[This message was edited Tue Apr 6 19:13:36 2004 by WildStyle]

It's one of MJ's very best short films (thanks to Spike Lee).

Cloudbuster said:

Umm i can see you're busy...ill just leave now



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[This message was edited Wed Apr 7 1:43:02 2004 by Christopher]

I actually liked that son but never saw either videp. They really stopped promoting "History" after "You Are Not Alone", I think.

VinnyM27 said:

There were six singles in all:

Scream
You Are Not Alone
Earth Song
They Don't Care About Us
Stranger In Moscow
History (although it was issued along with the remix from Blood On The Dancefloor and it was that which recieved the most airplay).

All made the top 5 in the UK and had healthy chart runs. Sadly Sony pretty much killed the album in the US after the second single.

Money, 2 Bad & Smile were scheduled for release, too. But they were cancelled.

I like that video, typically Spike lee as the video has a message (that can be interpretated different to the song ie "They don'y care about us" lyric could be implied to prisoners in general)!

I like the way he looks in the video, better then the awful girly haircut I saw in "You are not alone", but after both videos were finished, he went back to his more traditional (and very predictable) long hair!

I like both versions, but yeah the prison one is VERY RARELY seen and now proberly never will be (for ironic reasons)!

The prison version is surprisenly (though not surprising for Spike Lee) quite powerful though, with the clips of rodney king beating etc..., Michaels most political video for sure (and only one too)!

Spike Lee also did a 'message' job on Princes "Money don't matter tonight", showing a very poor Black family with various old imagry of money etc..., good video aswell, but MTV often played the version with Prince and NPG at piano instead (thats the version on the "D and P video collection" too) which only shows some scenes of the black family! The intro to video is powerful just like MJ's prison version is too!

Spike is good all round really!

Cloudbuster said:

The more I think about it, MTV and maybe VH1 and BET slightly pushed "Earth Song", which is probably my favorite song on the album but I don't think it did very well at all. But the major push was over after YANA, which is strange since it was a number one and thus probably bigger than "Scream" (which only hit number five).

VinnyM27 said:

Earth Song was never released commercially in the US. But yeah, it did get heavy rotation on the music channels. For some reason Sony didn't see fit to issue it even as a radio track!! It hit no.1 in the UK and spent six weeks at the top, one week more in Germany. It's actually one of his biggest selling singles.


m edit.
[This message was edited Wed Apr 7 15:02:04 2004 by Cloudbuster]

Cloudbuster said:

Oh stupid record companies....what are we going to do with you!

VinnyM27 said:

Referrring 2 Earth Song, when I was in europe (think '97) it was played constantly as a vid. It was very popular across europe and not just Germany. Ppl really dug it.

WildStyle said:

WOW HE DID!? This video was TIGHT and i dont know where 2 get that version now! I bought the HIStory DVD thinkin it was going to be on there, but the South American version was on there instead! . Them men was cute in that video though

Yeah I've never seen this video. Is there anywhere I can get it from please? I'd love to see it all, I've only ever seen clips.

Although it's never been officially released it is available on file sharing sites like Kazaa if that's any help.

Thanks cloudbuster
But I don't have Kazaa or anything like that. Those damn programs fuck with my computer too much.

Well let's just hope that it's included on a video compilation sometime in the future.

Sawah,

The only place I know it's available is on http://mjvideo.oyvindeid.com but it's not online at the moment.
The video is in their database so if you really wish to see it just go and vote for it.

And yeah, it's a cool video.