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.
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.