Quote:
Originally Posted by TwistedV  The performances are vocally identical across the entire tour.
As a big MJ fan I can vouch for the fact that the vocals are identical to the studio recordings. I have never seen a Billie Jean performance from the HIStory Tour where he wasn't miming to the original 1982 vocal. Same goes for Thriller and almost every song on the tour.
RE: concert prep vs the actual concerts... MJ sang every song live during the Dangerous rehearsals, but when he actually hit the road about half of them were lip-synched every night.
I'm a big MJ collector. I have at least four or five full HIStory concerts (pro-shot) on VHS or DVD and a handful of audience recordings as well. I can assure you that around 90% of the setlist was mimed every single night.
In fact, there were occasions when the audio tracks didn't kick in for whatsver reason and the difference was enormous. Even the first number, Scream, by which point MJ hadn't done everything - he sounded totally breathless.
The HIStory Tour is almost universally panned by fans for the reason that is is pretty much completely mimed. For some of the tracks the backing singers are miming to MJ's own backing vocals (Stranger In Moscow springs to mind). On other tracks MJ hasn't even taken the time to re-record, so there are two or three of his own vocal tracks playing at the same time and he doesn't know which one to mime to.
Here are a few HIStory Tour clips to illustrate: YouTube - Michael Jackson - Scream Live Munich 1997 YouTube - Michael Jackson - Billie Jean - HIStory Tour Munich
As I say, he even mimed ballads like Stranger In Moscow and You Are Not Alone: YouTube - Stranger In Moscow (Live) YouTube - Michael jackson - you are not alone (Live) History tour (1997) |
Ok. I think you've made your point. You win- he mimed. It doesn't take away from the fact that he could sing! He had a God given talent.
He wasn't syncing because he couldn't sing. He was almost 40 years old and was in constant pain from the injuries his body suffered after performing since the age of 5. He had arthritis in his back and fingers, he suffered pain from the burns on his head that never healed properly, he had bad knees, he had what is called "dancers feet" which is supposed to be extremely painful. This man gave his all when most would not even have gotten out of bed everyday.
I don't think there are many performers who could give a 2 1/2 hour show every night with all that dancing when they were young, let alone someone who was middle-aged and suffering.
You are supposed to be a fan. You should know all this. Give the man a break and have some sympathy for him. He was a man who had a work ethic like no other. That has been said over and over again here.