Imaginings of Live Songs we never got

Tony R

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Inspired by the ITC live thread, I know for many it was frustrating we never got a lot of fan favourites live e.g. only 4 songs from Dangerous on DWT (until the title track was added much later).

So this is what would you like & how do you imagine it?

I'll start with the obvious - Who Is It

For me, ‘Who Is It’ live would begin out of nowhere. The stage is silent & dark.

A mic stand is slightly illuminated with a soft spotlight.

You know something is about to happen, sort of like the beginning of Billie Jean.

Michael walks into it. Silence for 20 seconds.

He begins beat-boxing the intro.

He does this for as long as needed before the audience calms down, up to 45-60 seconds.

Then the band strike up, playing that incredible bassline totally live.

The intro including the beatboxing would last at least 90 seconds.

There’s no major theatrics. Right up until he ‘breakdowns’ in the middle he’s just at the mic, his dancing is limited to posturing, similar to Dirty Diana.

By the way, he’s wearing a suit, same as the video, hair tied back.

During the breakdown, he takes the mic off the stand, he’s exaggerating his sorrow (SOOML style), walking around, head in hands.

Before the crescendo, he walks back to the stand, but this time the part of the stage he is standing on slowly rises and moves forward, bringing him 10 foot or more in the air and towards the crowd; so when the ad-libs begin (over the backing singers who are singing the repeated chorus, rather than MJ playback).

He performs the ad-libs, similar to MITM ad-lib style, he’s spinning, going crazy. The ad-libs go on as long as the demo version. When the ending breaks down to the more stripped back bit ‘Can’t you really feel I’m lonely?’ that’s done with a long spin & fall to the knees.

For the last part he’s back at the mic stand, no ad-libs for a few seconds as he gets his breath. He’s just stood whilst the backing singers are singing, but his arms are outstretched clicking fingers (beginning of MITM), then he joins in the ending for the final ad-libs and ‘I can’t take it cos I’m lonely’ as the stage lowers & returns to normal.

Then as the music starts again (as the demo version) he disappears into the darkness just as he appeared, similar to the ending of Human Nature, DWT.

Obviously totally live.
 
I'm going to bend the rules slightly and suggest an imagining of something we didn't get. You know what I would've loved to see? Michael Jackson perform with a hologram of his child self (okay well peppers ghost projection).

Pretend that he was doing a performance or something in 2014, so he chose a Jackson 5 classic or something. Can you imagine how cool it would be for Michael Jackson to just walk out, and the stage is set up very simple which is unusual given what we saw with the TII shows. Michael sits down at Piano and starts playing I'll Be There. Sings the first verse and chorus by himself then suddenly he stops and looks up at the audience, directly into the camera... silence fills the air before this gorgeous youthful acapella fills the arena.

Let me fill your heart with joy and laughter!

Suddenly, from stage left out walks a young, saturated-dressed 12 YEAR OLD MICHAEL JACKSON to THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE! Michael keeps playing the piano as he looks nostalgically upon his younger digital self, who sits on top of the piano. Right after Whenever You Need Me, real Michael joins in for the background I'll Be Theeeerrreeeeee! and boom. 56 year old Michael Jackson is dueting with his 12 year old self on stage. Once again, the King makes HIStory.

When we get to, If You Should Ever Find Someone Newwww, BOOM! The two Michael's stop, look and point at each other before continuing "I know he better be good to you" before Michael kicks in with the piano again. Hell, it'd have made a great 50th Anniversary show!
 
I think Give in To Me could have easily replaced Dirty Diana (I love both songs). I imagine some very cool blue lights and an epic guitar solo (from Slash himself would have been great).
He really should have added Give In To Me and Who Is It.
 
The one song in particular that I think would have been outstanding (at least for TII) has to be Leave Me Alone. With all that he had planned for the concerts, I could see him brining the music video to life on the stage, letting it serve as a big FU for all of the negative stuff he had been though over the last few years. Literally ride the rocket from the video onto the stage, have his backup dancers create the carnival atmosphere, have the film crew serve as paparazzi, etc. and literally dispel all of the rumors right there on the stage. I wouldn't be mad at him even lip-syncing it, but close the performance with all his actual voice doing ad-libs and just getting the frustrations out. I feel like it would have spoke volumes, and in my opinion it's such an under-rated song with such an infectious groove.
 
Tony R;4198687 said:
Inspired by the ITC live thread, I know for many it was frustrating we never got a lot of fan favourites live e.g. only 4 songs from Dangerous on DWT (until the title track was added much later).

So this is what would you like & how do you imagine it?

I'll start with the obvious - Who Is It

For me, ‘Who Is It’ live would begin out of nowhere. The stage is silent & dark.

A mic stand is slightly illuminated with a soft spotlight.

You know something is about to happen, sort of like the beginning of Billie Jean.

Michael walks into it. Silence for 20 seconds.

He begins beat-boxing the intro.

He does this for as long as needed before the audience calms down, up to 45-60 seconds.

Then the band strike up, playing that incredible bassline totally live.

The intro including the beatboxing would last at least 90 seconds.

There’s no major theatrics. Right up until he ‘breakdowns’ in the middle he’s just at the mic, his dancing is limited to posturing, similar to Dirty Diana.

By the way, he’s wearing a suit, same as the video, hair tied back.

During the breakdown, he takes the mic off the stand, he’s exaggerating his sorrow (SOOML style), walking around, head in hands.

Before the crescendo, he walks back to the stand, but this time the part of the stage he is standing on slowly rises and moves forward, bringing him 10 foot or more in the air and towards the crowd; so when the ad-libs begin (over the backing singers who are singing the repeated chorus, rather than MJ playback).

He performs the ad-libs, similar to MITM ad-lib style, he’s spinning, going crazy. The ad-libs go on as long as the demo version. When the ending breaks down to the more stripped back bit ‘Can’t you really feel I’m lonely?’ that’s done with a long spin & fall to the knees.

For the last part he’s back at the mic stand, no ad-libs for a few seconds as he gets his breath. He’s just stood whilst the backing singers are singing, but his arms are outstretched clicking fingers (beginning of MITM), then he joins in the ending for the final ad-libs and ‘I can’t take it cos I’m lonely’ as the stage lowers & returns to normal.

Then as the music starts again (as the demo version) he disappears into the darkness just as he appeared, similar to the ending of Human Nature, DWT.

Obviously totally live.

HIStoric;4198691 said:
I'm going to bend the rules slightly and suggest an imagining of something we didn't get. You know what I would've loved to see? Michael Jackson perform with a hologram of his child self (okay well peppers ghost projection).

Pretend that he was doing a performance or something in 2014, so he chose a Jackson 5 classic or something. Can you imagine how cool it would be for Michael Jackson to just walk out, and the stage is set up very simple which is unusual given what we saw with the TII shows. Michael sits down at Piano and starts playing I'll Be There. Sings the first verse and chorus by himself then suddenly he stops and looks up at the audience, directly into the camera... silence fills the air before this gorgeous youthful acapella fills the arena.

Let me fill your heart with joy and laughter!

Suddenly, from stage left out walks a young, saturated-dressed 12 YEAR OLD MICHAEL JACKSON to THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE! Michael keeps playing the piano as he looks nostalgically upon his younger digital self, who sits on top of the piano. Right after Whenever You Need Me, real Michael joins in for the background I'll Be Theeeerrreeeeee! and boom. 56 year old Michael Jackson is dueting with his 12 year old self on stage. Once again, the King makes HIStory.

When we get to, If You Should Ever Find Someone Newwww, BOOM! The two Michael's stop, look and point at each other before continuing "I know he better be good to you" before Michael kicks in with the piano again. Hell, it'd have made a great 50th Anniversary show!

Wow, I love the detail put into these Ideas. I can totally visualize every moment. Thanks for sharing!
 
*Waits for someone to do PYT because I don't feel like typing it all myself right now *
For real tho, PYT deserved a live performance.
He could've got the crowd into it and everything.
 
*Waits for someone to do PYT because I don't feel like typing it all myself right now *
For real tho, PYT deserved a live performance.
He could've got the crowd into it and everything.

I would've love to see PYT live, if I was MJ, as we get to the "PYT's, repeat after me!" section, I'd cut out the band. So it's just MJ on the vocals, "PYTs, repeat after me! Say NAH NAH NAH!!" then he points his microphone towards the crowd and they answer back! Maybe he freestyles it a bit, extends the calls and changes it up too!
 
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