Post here if you worked on Michael Jackson's DANGEROUS album

[MichaelJoly]

wow. 989 people worked on that album!

[Sqye]

Originally Posted by MichaelJoly

wow. 989 people worked on that album!

.

Yeah, and they each only posted here once

Cheers, y'all!!

.

[drumdrumdrumdrum]

Originally Posted by MichaelJoly

wow. 989 people worked on that album!

I'm pretty sure that Robmix is just about the only guy on this thread that worked on History.

[vinyl]

@Robmix:

If you don't mind I'd like to ask again some questions regarding the HIStory recording sessions.


Last year, there're some handwritten lyric sheets auctioned; those were the following songs:

- Money
- Morphine
- D.S. (actually MJ wrote T.S.)
- The Innocent Man
- Michael McKellar



Were "The Innocent Man" and "Michael McKellar" also recorded during the HIStory sessions? If so, were they finished?

[smazza1]

HIStory


1 There is a site that says the Neverland HIStory finish party was on March 28 1995. Does this mean HIStory was finished by then rather than in April?

2 You said writing began on the Dangerous Tour and at Neverland with Brad Buxer. MJ was on tour June-December 1992 (leg1), and then August-November 1993 (leg2). It’s well known that in November and December of 1993 MJ had many personal troubles, and recording started just a month later in Jan 94. Does this mean that the writing at Neverland you mentioned was between the two tour legs January-August 1993?

Blood

1 Bryan Loren said Superfly Sister was recorded during the dangerous sessions. Are you aware if Superfly was worked on during the history or blood sessions, or finished during dangerous? If it’s any help the CD booklet says the studios used were record one and record plant in LA.

2 Any idea when the recording for Ghosts began?

3 Were ‘Is It Scary’ and ‘Morphine’ finished by the end of the HIStory sessions?

In the CD booklet it says the studios used for morphine were: hit factory where you said you first heard it, and record plant, Larrabee and ocean way in LA. Record Plant wasn’t used for HIStory so does this give a clue that Mophine was worked on after HIStory?

As for scary, the only studios used were Flyte Tyme and Larrabee. You said you first heard it towards the end of HIStory. As this was in LA, it makes sense that it was finished at Larrabee spring of 95?

4 You said Blood was started after HIStory. Any idea when this was? If it’s any help, the studios used were Soundtrack in NY, Montreux in Switzerland and Record Plant in LA.

Thanks so much for answering all these questions again Rob.

Mike

[djpeter85]

I have a question for either/or Mr Bottrell, Robomix or anyone who worked with Michael.

Having worked with Michael Jackson, did he ever discuss with you his relationship with God and how that connection influenced his music? Mr Bottrell, earlier you discussed lyrics and your guitar playing on Black or White and how a section had no lyrics. Did Michael always approach the writing/production process with no pressure to create rather, let inspiration come when it comes? If you gentleman could share any knowledge on this that would be greatly appreciated..

Thank you for your sharing your stories and talent for us to enjoy

Warm regards,
Peter

[visionaire]

Bump!

[Sqye]

.

Almost 300,000 views here. Can ya believe it?

OT - I'm reading Robmix's Christina Aguilera BV treatment thread now

OK, back to MJ.

.

[stephsmarti]

Can't Let Her Get Away is one of my favorite songs from the Dangerous Album. There is a rap that Michael does throughout the song but you just can't understand what he is saying. Did he do that on purpose? I feel like he is maybe telling a story on that track but what I do not know...anyone have any info about this song?

[jamjam]

As a MJ fan in my youth, the Murray case, This Is It movie and the physical and mental state of MJ raises this question in my mind which I have for a long time already:

During the 'BAD tour' all audio and video footages makes it pretty clear to me that MJ is singing live each and every song.

But video footages of the HIStory tour makes me really doubt, are all parts really live? I seem to hear MJ also when he is clearly not singing at all. On other songs on the tour (from his Jackson5 period), he is singing live again and you hear that his voice is not good at all at that time...

Seeing the This Is It video, you think WOW, looks healthy, sings nicely... But apparently that was not the truth picture of MJ at that time...

We need some honesty and truth here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq1ZdUJn3JE
(Munich)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpQIBSyXYEM
(Munich)
compare the first part with the last part (5.26) of the song

My conclusion, some parts are live, some parts are playback (not sure what kind of tricks they have 'these' days, to make it as real as possible)

(I basically answered my own question checking those youtube videos again , but discussion might be good.)

Showbizz, idolization brrr... People who worked with MJ shouldn't be too proud of themselves maybe ...

[pafc1]

Originally Posted by robmix

I listened on iTunes, and that's Much Too Soon for sure, but it's impossible to tell if that's the version we recorded during History. The version we worked on was not orchestrated to that degree. No accordian, no harmonica solo, and I don't recall a guitar solo either. But ours could have been the foundation for the released version, I just can't tell.

As for it being the same as the song 'Learned My Lesson' from the 80's, I have no idea.

Rob,

Not sure if your still following this thread. If you could answer these questions that would be great. If not can anyone else?

a. When/what week or month did Michael arrive at the Hit Factory in early 1994?

b. What studios did you work on the 'ghosts' track in 1996 apart from record one? credits say larrabee but this must have been early 95'?

c. at which studio was your work on 'ghosts' the track in the fall of 95?

d. was 'is it scary' finished at the end of HIStory or worked on during 1996?

e. was 'this time around' originally bruce/rene's track or dallas's?

if rob cant answer, anyone else who knows the answers is more than welcome to chime in!

hope to hear something from someone soon!

[daveway]

I mixed Superfly Sister and Morphine at Record Plant and I think I mixed Ghosts and Is It Scary, or at least one of them which was at Larrabee West.
These were all after History was out.

From what I remember, which isn't all that much, those songs had not been worked on since they were originally recorded. At least that was my impression.

These sessions were markedly different for me than the Dangerous album.
Dangerous was fun and upbeat with lots going on and lots of people in and out. Blood was comparatively quiet with basically just me, Michael and Matt Forger.

One thing I remember which I'll share...one night, after tweaking a mix with Michael over the phone he said, "Great, can you please put on Matt ?". Matt talked to him for a sec and then said to me " OK, I need that DAT player, a pair of Auratones and an amp". He then immediately left to catch the first flight out of LAX to some remote location where Michael was. Apparently this wasn't the first time he'd done that.

Once Michael heard it in person, the mix was approved and we printed.

Originally Posted by smazza1

HIStory


1 There is a site that says the Neverland HIStory finish party was on March 28 1995. Does this mean HIStory was finished by then rather than in April?

2 You said writing began on the Dangerous Tour and at Neverland with Brad Buxer. MJ was on tour June-December 1992 (leg1), and then August-November 1993 (leg2). It’s well known that in November and December of 1993 MJ had many personal troubles, and recording started just a month later in Jan 94. Does this mean that the writing at Neverland you mentioned was between the two tour legs January-August 1993?

Blood

1 Bryan Loren said Superfly Sister was recorded during the dangerous sessions. Are you aware if Superfly was worked on during the history or blood sessions, or finished during dangerous? If it’s any help the CD booklet says the studios used were record one and record plant in LA.

2 Any idea when the recording for Ghosts began?

3 Were ‘Is It Scary’ and ‘Morphine’ finished by the end of the HIStory sessions?

In the CD booklet it says the studios used for morphine were: hit factory where you said you first heard it, and record plant, Larrabee and ocean way in LA. Record Plant wasn’t used for HIStory so does this give a clue that Mophine was worked on after HIStory?

As for scary, the only studios used were Flyte Tyme and Larrabee. You said you first heard it towards the end of HIStory. As this was in LA, it makes sense that it was finished at Larrabee spring of 95?

4 You said Blood was started after HIStory. Any idea when this was? If it’s any help, the studios used were Soundtrack in NY, Montreux in Switzerland and Record Plant in LA.

Thanks so much for answering all these questions again Rob.

Mike

[smazza1]

Originally Posted by daveway

I mixed Superfly Sister and Morphine at Record Plant and I think I mixed Ghosts and Is It Scary, or at least one of them which was at Larrabee West.
These were all after History was out.

From what I remember, which isn't all that much, those songs had not been worked on since they were originally recorded. At least that was my impression.

These sessions were markedly different for me than the Dangerous album.
Dangerous was fun and upbeat with lots going on and lots of people in and out. Blood was comparatively quiet with basically just me, Michael and Matt Forger.

One thing I remember which I'll share...one night, after tweaking a mix with Michael over the phone he said, "Great, can you please put on Matt ?". Matt talked to him for a sec and then said to me " OK, I need that DAT player, a pair of Auratones and an amp". He then immediately left to catch the first flight out of LAX to some remote location where Michael was. Apparently this wasn't the first time he'd done that.

Once Michael heard it in person, the mix was approved and we printed.

Thanks for that Dave

Were you involved in the initial recording of superfly sister during the dangerous sessions?

The credits for Blood on the dancefloor say soundtrack studio in NYC, was this because that is where you and Teddy worked on it before the dangerous sessions?

You're not mentioned on the credits for 'Is It Scary' so it must have been 'Ghosts' that you mixed at Larrabee West.

The credits for 'Morphine' say Ocean Way was used in 96/97. What was done at this studio?

What month did you and Teddy arrive in 1990 for the dangerous project? Where is Teddy based now that Virginia Beach was damaged?

Is it true Heavy D recommended Teddy to Michael?

Were you there in NYC when HIStory began?

Thanks, I love these insights!

[daveway]

Superfly Sister was one of the many tracks that Bryan Loren had done before Teddy and I came to L.A. and I wasn't involved with the recording of those tracks.
Blood On The Dance Floor was an oddity.. Before we came to L.A. Teddy and I holed up at Soundtracks Studios for a couple of weeks where Teddy came up with a bunch of tracks to get things rolling. They were all live midi tracks running into the SSL where we added some more eq and compression from the console. These tracks were then recorded to DAT and not multitrack.
This DAT had the original writing tracks for In The Closet, Remember The Time and I think I Can't Let Her Get Away plus about 8 or 10 other ones. When we got to L.A., we sat down in the control room with Michael and played him these ideas. I'll never forget pushing play and the first track slamming out of the monitors at Record One's Neve room. It was a hard hitting, powerful groove that we thought was the best track from the Soundtracks sessions. They of course had no titles, maybe some working title. But after this first track was done, Michael said, " Wow, play it again!".
So we did, and we then went on to play the others, all of which seemed to get Michael excited. But that first track was always his favorite and he played this one a lot.

So Michael and Teddy picked out about 5 or 6 tracks to start with and we got to setting up Teddy's massive amounts of gear and putting them down on multitrack. We were now tracking through the vintage 8078 rather than the SSL G series. When Michael heard them again after they'd been multitracked, he commented that it wasn't as hard hitting as on the DAT. This was most likely because it was no longer coming thought the SSL with compressors on every channel and when I said so, his reaction was "Well, can we get one of those?". Of course we couldn't just "get" an SSL, we had to go to where there was one, and the only SSL rooms in L.A. that I'd worked in were at Larrabee. They'd just opened a new facility on Lankershim called Larrabee North which was literally down the road from the Universal Hilton where we were staying so within a few weeks, we moved everything over there and ended up being there for the remainder of the album, while Bill Botrell and Bryan Loren continued at Record One. In the meantime, Michael came up with melody and lyric ideas for other tracks including Remember The Time and In The Closet but the first song from the DAT never developed any further.

Cut to 5 or 6 years later when I'm mixing for Blood on The Dancefloor. Michael plays me some of the other tracks that were being worked on and he plays me the "title track". He pumps up the monitors and out comes that first track from the DAT we played him at Record One, but now with lyrics, vocals and some extra claps and synths. But the basic track, which was very developed and immediately obvious to me, was directly from that original DAT. Apparently, he was never satisfied with how the track sounded after being multitrack when compared to the original DAT and so they just transferred the DAT mix to multitrack and built on top of that.

To your other questions.. don't know about the recording of Morphine. Only know that we mixed it at Record Plant in 96 or 97.

We arrived in L.A. in Feb of '91. I remember only because at that time, I had recently started playing golf and I'd brought my clubs with me. I was thrilled that I could run down to the Par 3 Studio City golf course on Whitsett before heading to the studio in the middle of February.

Don't know about if Heavy D recommended Teddy but that might be true as we had a couple of hits with Heavy right about that time with "Now That We Found Love" and " Is It Good To You".

I was not involved with History at all though I had been working with Dallas Austin a lot before then. Dangerous was the last project I worked on with Teddy. While we were in L.A., he was building his studio in Virginia Beach. I thought hard about whether to follow him there or to stay in L.A. which I immediately loved. Also, there was a girl at Larrabee that caught my eye.

We now have two kids and still live in L.A. though I don't golf much these days.

[smazza1]

Originally Posted by daveway

Superfly Sister was one of the many tracks that Bryan Loren had done before Teddy and I came to L.A. and I wasn't involved with the recording of those tracks.
Blood On The Dance Floor was an oddity.. Before we came to L.A. Teddy and I holed up at Soundtracks Studios for a couple of weeks where Teddy came up with a bunch of tracks to get things rolling. They were all live midi tracks running into the SSL where we added some more eq and compression from the console. These tracks were then recorded to DAT and not multitrack.
This DAT had the original writing tracks for In The Closet, Remember The Time and I think I Can't Let Her Get Away plus about 8 or 10 other ones. When we got to L.A., we sat down in the control room with Michael and played him these ideas. I'll never forget pushing play and the first track slamming out of the monitors at Record One's Neve room. It was a hard hitting, powerful groove that we thought was the best track from the Soundtracks sessions. They of course had no titles, maybe some working title. But after this first track was done, Michael said, " Wow, play it again!".
So we did, and we then went on to play the others, all of which seemed to get Michael excited. But that first track was always his favorite and he played this one a lot.

So Michael and Teddy picked out about 5 or 6 tracks to start with and we got to setting up Teddy's massive amounts of gear and putting them down on multitrack. We were now tracking through the vintage 8078 rather than the SSL G series. When Michael heard them again after they'd been multitracked, he commented that it wasn't as hard hitting as on the DAT. This was most likely because it was no longer coming thought the SSL with compressors on every channel and when I said so, his reaction was "Well, can we get one of those?". Of course we couldn't just "get" an SSL, we had to go to where there was one, and the only SSL rooms in L.A. that I'd worked in were at Larrabee. They'd just opened a new facility on Lankershim called Larrabee North which was literally down the road from the Universal Hilton where we were staying so within a few weeks, we moved everything over there and ended up being there for the remainder of the album, while Bill Botrell and Bryan Loren continued at Record One. In the meantime, Michael came up with melody and lyric ideas for other tracks including Remember The Time and In The Closet but the first song from the DAT never developed any further.

Cut to 5 or 6 years later when I'm mixing for Blood on The Dancefloor. Michael plays me some of the other tracks that were being worked on and he plays me the "title track". He pumps up the monitors and out comes that first track from the DAT we played him at Record One, but now with lyrics, vocals and some extra claps and synths. But the basic track, which was very developed and immediately obvious to me, was directly from that original DAT. Apparently, he was never satisfied with how the track sounded after being multitrack when compared to the original DAT and so they just transferred the DAT mix to multitrack and built on top of that.

To your other questions.. don't know about the recording of Morphine. Only know that we mixed it at Record Plant in 96 or 97.

We arrived in L.A. in Feb of '91. I remember only because at that time, I had recently started playing golf and I'd brought my clubs with me. I was thrilled that I could run down to the Par 3 Studio City golf course on Whitsett before heading to the studio in the middle of February.

Don't know about if Heavy D recommended Teddy but that might be true as we had a couple of hits with Heavy right about that time with "Now That We Found Love" and " Is It Good To You".

I was not involved with History at all though I had been working with Dallas Austin a lot before then. Dangerous was the last project I worked on with Teddy. While we were in L.A., he was building his studio in Virginia Beach. I thought hard about whether to follow him there or to stay in L.A. which I immediately loved. Also, there was a girl at Larrabee that caught my eye.

We now have two kids and still live in L.A. though I don't golf much these days.

So through working with Michael at Larrabee you met somebody you're now married with kids! Great story.

Couple of last questions, the credits say the short film tracks 'ghosts' and 'is it scary' were finished in 1996, but Blood, morphine and superfly sister were finished in 1997. So michael must have worked on the short film and its tracks in 1996 with you guys, before releasing halloween 1996, and then when returning from tour in Hawaii in early january 1997, resumed and finished the other three tracks at record plant? so he cant have worked on any of those three in 1996? does this trigger any memories?

I'd love to ask Teddy Riley a couple of questions like I have yourself and Rob Hoffman, where is he hanging nowadays? I heard LA from somebody, and Atlanta from somebody else... He cant be in Virginia anymore because that was damaged in 08'...

Thanks Dave

[pafc1]

Originally Posted by daveway

Superfly Sister was one of the many tracks that Bryan Loren had done before Teddy and I came to L.A. and I wasn't involved with the recording of those tracks.
Blood On The Dance Floor was an oddity.. Before we came to L.A. Teddy and I holed up at Soundtracks Studios for a couple of weeks where Teddy came up with a bunch of tracks to get things rolling. They were all live midi tracks running into the SSL where we added some more eq and compression from the console. These tracks were then recorded to DAT and not multitrack.
This DAT had the original writing tracks for In The Closet, Remember The Time and I think I Can't Let Her Get Away plus about 8 or 10 other ones. When we got to L.A., we sat down in the control room with Michael and played him these ideas. I'll never forget pushing play and the first track slamming out of the monitors at Record One's Neve room. It was a hard hitting, powerful groove that we thought was the best track from the Soundtracks sessions. They of course had no titles, maybe some working title. But after this first track was done, Michael said, " Wow, play it again!".
So we did, and we then went on to play the others, all of which seemed to get Michael excited. But that first track was always his favorite and he played this one a lot.

So Michael and Teddy picked out about 5 or 6 tracks to start with and we got to setting up Teddy's massive amounts of gear and putting them down on multitrack. We were now tracking through the vintage 8078 rather than the SSL G series. When Michael heard them again after they'd been multitracked, he commented that it wasn't as hard hitting as on the DAT. This was most likely because it was no longer coming thought the SSL with compressors on every channel and when I said so, his reaction was "Well, can we get one of those?". Of course we couldn't just "get" an SSL, we had to go to where there was one, and the only SSL rooms in L.A. that I'd worked in were at Larrabee. They'd just opened a new facility on Lankershim called Larrabee North which was literally down the road from the Universal Hilton where we were staying so within a few weeks, we moved everything over there and ended up being there for the remainder of the album, while Bill Botrell and Bryan Loren continued at Record One. In the meantime, Michael came up with melody and lyric ideas for other tracks including Remember The Time and In The Closet but the first song from the DAT never developed any further.

Cut to 5 or 6 years later when I'm mixing for Blood on The Dancefloor. Michael plays me some of the other tracks that were being worked on and he plays me the "title track". He pumps up the monitors and out comes that first track from the DAT we played him at Record One, but now with lyrics, vocals and some extra claps and synths. But the basic track, which was very developed and immediately obvious to me, was directly from that original DAT. Apparently, he was never satisfied with how the track sounded after being multitrack when compared to the original DAT and so they just transferred the DAT mix to multitrack and built on top of that.

To your other questions.. don't know about the recording of Morphine. Only know that we mixed it at Record Plant in 96 or 97.

We arrived in L.A. in Feb of '91. I remember only because at that time, I had recently started playing golf and I'd brought my clubs with me. I was thrilled that I could run down to the Par 3 Studio City golf course on Whitsett before heading to the studio in the middle of February.

Don't know about if Heavy D recommended Teddy but that might be true as we had a couple of hits with Heavy right about that time with "Now That We Found Love" and " Is It Good To You".

I was not involved with History at all though I had been working with Dallas Austin a lot before then. Dangerous was the last project I worked on with Teddy. While we were in L.A., he was building his studio in Virginia Beach. I thought hard about whether to follow him there or to stay in L.A. which I immediately loved. Also, there was a girl at Larrabee that caught my eye.

We now have two kids and still live in L.A. though I don't golf much these days.

Hi Dave,

You said you arrived in LA in February 1991, and I read the following from Teddy Riley in MJ's opus:

Michael convinced me to rid the helicopter back to L.A where he had booked a room for me at the Universal Hiton. I didn't check out until a year and two months later</SPAN>

Did the call from Michael to Teddy come in the later summer/early fall of 1990 then? How much time elapsed between Teddy getting the call, and you guys working at Soundtrack before you actually arrived in LA in Feb 91?

Thanks</SPAN>

[DJP777]

To Daveway:


Thanks so much for your input so far. I'm curious.. did you ever get to hear the elusive "Men In Black" (which I believe was created by MJ and Loren in 1990)?

Regards.

[Sqye]

.

Thanks for your contribution here, Daveway - this is awesome!



.

[smazza1]

Originally Posted by daveway

Superfly Sister was one of the many tracks that Bryan Loren had done before Teddy and I came to L.A. and I wasn't involved with the recording of those tracks.
Blood On The Dance Floor was an oddity.. Before we came to L.A. Teddy and I holed up at Soundtracks Studios for a couple of weeks where Teddy came up with a bunch of tracks to get things rolling. They were all live midi tracks running into the SSL where we added some more eq and compression from the console. These tracks were then recorded to DAT and not multitrack.
This DAT had the original writing tracks for In The Closet, Remember The Time and I think I Can't Let Her Get Away plus about 8 or 10 other ones. When we got to L.A., we sat down in the control room with Michael and played him these ideas. I'll never forget pushing play and the first track slamming out of the monitors at Record One's Neve room. It was a hard hitting, powerful groove that we thought was the best track from the Soundtracks sessions. They of course had no titles, maybe some working title. But after this first track was done, Michael said, " Wow, play it again!".
So we did, and we then went on to play the others, all of which seemed to get Michael excited. But that first track was always his favorite and he played this one a lot.

So Michael and Teddy picked out about 5 or 6 tracks to start with and we got to setting up Teddy's massive amounts of gear and putting them down on multitrack. We were now tracking through the vintage 8078 rather than the SSL G series. When Michael heard them again after they'd been multitracked, he commented that it wasn't as hard hitting as on the DAT. This was most likely because it was no longer coming thought the SSL with compressors on every channel and when I said so, his reaction was "Well, can we get one of those?". Of course we couldn't just "get" an SSL, we had to go to where there was one, and the only SSL rooms in L.A. that I'd worked in were at Larrabee. They'd just opened a new facility on Lankershim called Larrabee North which was literally down the road from the Universal Hilton where we were staying so within a few weeks, we moved everything over there and ended up being there for the remainder of the album, while Bill Botrell and Bryan Loren continued at Record One. In the meantime, Michael came up with melody and lyric ideas for other tracks including Remember The Time and In The Closet but the first song from the DAT never developed any further.

Cut to 5 or 6 years later when I'm mixing for Blood on The Dancefloor. Michael plays me some of the other tracks that were being worked on and he plays me the "title track". He pumps up the monitors and out comes that first track from the DAT we played him at Record One, but now with lyrics, vocals and some extra claps and synths. But the basic track, which was very developed and immediately obvious to me, was directly from that original DAT. Apparently, he was never satisfied with how the track sounded after being multitrack when compared to the original DAT and so they just transferred the DAT mix to multitrack and built on top of that.

To your other questions.. don't know about the recording of Morphine. Only know that we mixed it at Record Plant in 96 or 97.

We arrived in L.A. in Feb of '91. I remember only because at that time, I had recently started playing golf and I'd brought my clubs with me. I was thrilled that I could run down to the Par 3 Studio City golf course on Whitsett before heading to the studio in the middle of February.

Don't know about if Heavy D recommended Teddy but that might be true as we had a couple of hits with Heavy right about that time with "Now That We Found Love" and " Is It Good To You".

I was not involved with History at all though I had been working with Dallas Austin a lot before then. Dangerous was the last project I worked on with Teddy. While we were in L.A., he was building his studio in Virginia Beach. I thought hard about whether to follow him there or to stay in L.A. which I immediately loved. Also, there was a girl at Larrabee that caught my eye.

We now have two kids and still live in L.A. though I don't golf much these days.

Hi Dave, (daveway)

I was wondering if you could answer these questions for me?

DANGEROUS

1: You said you arrived in LA in February 1991, and I read the following from Teddy Riley in MJ's opus:

"Michael convinced me to ride the helicopter back to L.A where he had booked a room for me at the Universal Hilton. I didn't check out until a year and two months later”.

The album was released in November 1991, so did if Teddy says he worked on the album for 14 months, did the call from Michael to Teddy come in the later summer/early fall of 1990 then? How much time elapsed between Teddy getting the call, and you guys working at Soundtrack before you actually arrived in LA in Feb 91?

2: How long do you think you were at Record One before moving to Larrabee? Any idea what month of 1991 you moved to Larrabee?

3: Of the Teddy Riley songs on Dangerous, which ones were on the original DAT brought from soundtrack? The ones that weren’t on the DAT, were they created in LA?

BLOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR

1: The credits say the short film tracks 'ghosts' and 'is it scary' were finished in 1996, but Blood, morphine and Superfly Sister were finished in 1997. So Michael must have worked on the short film and its tracks in 1996 with you guys, before releasing Halloween 1996, and then when returning from tour in Hawaii in early January 1997, resumed and finished the other three tracks at record plant? So he can’t have worked on any of those three in 1996? Does this trigger any memories?

2: Also, ‘Is It Scary’ did not feature in the original version of the ‘Ghosts’ short-film, but was added to the later version. Was this because it wasn’t finished in time?

Thanks Dave for your time!

[Cassy]

to DaveWay:

I hope you can answer this question.


"If You Don't Love Me", a song which was going to be released on the 2001 Dangerous special edition but eventually got canceled. Do you know who wrote this song? If so, was it recorded for Dangerous or was it an earlier recording of MJ. After it didn't make it onto Dangerous, did MJ put it out for HIStory again?

[Cassy]

to everyone who was involved on the Dangerous album

MJ's handwritten notes from the Dangerous recording sessions:
(these are going to be auctioned on Julien auctions soon)

Best of Joy
killer dance Teddy Riley approve
Teddy extra killer better than knowledge
Remember the Time
Who Is It
Dangerous finish lyrics do vocals
Call it off
Verdict BGs
Joy Joy
Black or White finish bridge
Monkey Business = Teddy do overdub
Ghost = Teddy do overdub get lyrics from writer
MA & MJ duet
Truth on Youth LL better rap tougher
Gone Too Soon
Serious Effect
Keep The Faith
Heal The World
Planet Earth
Teddy do overdubs --> Messin' Around
Give In to Me, 7 Digits -->

[continues on the back side]
ask Renea
They Don't Care 'bout Us
Deep In Night

on the notes MJ asks Teddy Riley to do a song better than "knowledge". Was MJ refering to Janet Jacksons song "Knowledge" (from her Rhythm Nation album)? Was was the title of that song?

Was "Monkey Business" as released on "The Ultimate Collection" in 2004 already finished during the Dangerous sessions?

Was "Planet Earth" going to be a song?

Was "Best Of Joy" demoed back then? If so, is there any difference compared to the posthumous release?

[Sqye]

.

Over 1,000 posts here. Holy moly.

Cheers to all of you!

.

[waldo]

Originally Posted by Cassy

to everyone who was involved on the Dangerous album

MJ's handwritten notes from the Dangerous recording sessions:
(these are going to be auctioned on Julien auctions soon)






on the notes MJ asks Teddy Riley to do a song better than "knowledge". Was MJ refering to Janet Jacksons song "Knowledge" (from her Rhythm Nation album)? Was was the title of that song?

Was "Monkey Business" as released on "The Ultimate Collection" in 2004 already finished during the Dangerous sessions?

Was "Planet Earth" going to be a song?

Was "Best Of Joy" demoed back then? If so, is there any difference compared to the posthumous release?

yes he is referring to Janet's song. he always said that song was his favourite Janet song.

Planet Earth was just a spoken word poem.

[infiniteloop]

I don't know if Robmix is still visiting this thread but I have just discovered a hidden message in MONEY which I've heard so many times but I guess I didn't listen properly to this day.

It's in the background towards the end when MJ starts to say..."earn it with dignity" followed by a whole lot of names.....which I'm not going to mention here.
Please watch the words on the screen --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a2azUwKBpo#t=4m48s

I know MJ was genius but the way it was mixed was so in the background with all the other stuff that was going on that it had to be pointed out to be noticeable. Subliminal or what

If my post is not appropriate for public view, I'll delete it.

[Sqye]

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Rob?



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[sonick909]

I hope you guys realize that the work you did on Michael's albums brought many of our sonic dreams to inception and beyond. Thriller was the first LP i purchased with my own money, though i had been listening to my dad's Beatles and Doors lp's for a couple years. I have that same LP right here, the very platter that made me ask to start piano and trumpet lessons. I love the whole album, Billie Jean to Human Nature to PYT to The Girl is Mine. A rare feat. The work done on those albums lifted all of us up. This is some amazing reading. Thanks!

[Sqye]

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Agreed, Sonic.

Thriller is an amazing album, no doubt - and truly inspiring. The energy is undeniable.

And yes, this is a great thread, indeed!


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[optofonik]

I just came upon this thread. I know it's a few years old now but I wanted to add my thanks to all who contributed anyway. I know it is about Mr. Jackson but I think it's also about those who helped him realize his vision.

These anecdotes are some of the the best examples I've found that illustrate how the long days and nights, the striving for perfection in the face difficult technical challenges, sacrifices in personal lives, and everything else that comes with rising to such occasions can be so rewarding at the end of the day. When I hear people complain about such challenges at work it can be discouraging and undermine one's focus. I really appreciate the insight offered here in this thread.

[Robertbeeton]

martinpaulsheeri can u send me some snippets of the jam mixes! i am die hard fan of the song jam and for years i have been trailing through the net trying to find rare versions and differnt mixes of jam. The only ones ive found are mix 43 and 42 and two remixes. plus the vocal mix as well. It be much appreciated!

[Cassy]

Originally Posted by robmix

we worked on about 40 tracks for History. 15 were released on that record, with three stragglers released on "Blood on the Dancefloor".

Just a few of the unreleased tracks on History could really be called close to finished. Many of the rest are just pieces of grooves, clicks with a few sounds, maybe some MJ vocalizing, and that's about it. Babyface worked on two tracks which you've heard on 3T. Dallas Austin did a few things that no one's heard, but I don't know how much involvement MJ actually had on those. Rene and Bruce created lots of tracks but MJ only worked on Too Bad. So 100+ ? Not on HIStory.

on the 3T album "Brotherhood" there're two tracks (Why & Words without meaning) on which Bruce Swedien is credited for engineering. I suppose Bruce worked on them during the HIStory sessions.

It is known that "Why" was originally a song considered for HIStory. Do you know if it was the same with "words without meaning"? (although the lyrics of the 3T song were written by Taryll - probably Michael had his own lyrics to the song)

Words Without Meaning
Acoustic Guitar – Dean Parks
Arranged By [Strings] – Jeremy Lubbock
Backing Vocals – 3T
Drums – Jonathan Moffett
Engineer [Strings] – Bruce Swedien
Lead Vocals – Taj Jackson
Mixed By – Dave Way
Producer – 3T, Michael Jackson
Recorded By – Fil Brown, Michael Vail Blum
Written-By – Taryll Jackson

Originally Posted by robmix

1. not really, Michael always seemed to have the entire arrangement in his head, though of course the actual sounds - drums, strings, etc. he played with depending on who the musicians were. The main thing we would have to edit or add was intro stuff, and bridges. Often a song might only be a string of verses and choruses, and the bridge or intro would come later. "They Don't Care" is a song that took many different forms in the bridge. A lot of musicians played on it, and in the end MJ and Eddie edited together what you actually hear. I think there were something like 300 tracks to sort through just in the bridge section. Also he might not have all the lyrics when he started singing, as in the case with Earth song, and he would just sort of vocalize through it.

2. Much Too Soon, not that I remember. It seemed to be dropped fairly quickly.

3. Not really, Michael always seemed pretty zen about the whole press thing. Again, I never saw him lose his temper, not once. When he sang, he knew how to turn it on.

Did Michael ever mentioned "THE JACKSONS - HUMANITY" album which was going to be released in late 1995? (Michael had to contribute 1 or 2 songs for it) Maybe "Much Too Soon" was Michaels choice for that.