Bad - Why was it not performed with dancers?

wonderouzmj

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Does anyone know the reason why bad wasn't performed with dancers?

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Re: Bad

Does anyone know the reason why bad wasn't performed with dancers?

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Time constraints. After shooting the video he went straight to Japan to begin the tour. By the time it was released as a single he was probably just happy doing it straight as he'd been doing it to that point.

He also filmed the short film for Smooth Criminal whilest rehearsing for the tour. Thats why the 87 leg is pretty much The Victory Tour setlist.
 
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Re: Bad

Time constraints. After shooting the video he went straight to Japan to begin the tour. By the time it was released as a single he was probably just happy doing it straight as he'd been doing it to that point.

Uh, Bad was shot in November/December 1986, so it was 9 months before the Bad Tour.
 
Re: Bad

Uh, Bad was shot in November/December 1986, so it was 9 months before the Bad Tour.
But I thought they were shooting BAD, TWYMMF and Smooth Criminal AND finishing the album practically up to the minute he left for tour. He barely had time to hire the musicians and the dancers and the backup singers, rehearse what they already had before they left for Japan. They probably put the BAD tour together on off days-and then did the rehearsals when they hit the states.

I like the freestyle BAD. (although the BAD video is my favorite).
 
Excerpts from the book "Making Michael" (I have no clue how accurate or truthful these excerpts are):

In November 1986, Michael flew to New York to film a video for ‘Bad’. It was the first time he filmed a video while an album was still in production, keeping him out of the studio for many weeks. Movie director Martin Scorsese accepted Quincy’s invitation to direct the ‘Bad’ film, and hired screenwriter Richard Prince to write the script.

The dance scenes in the 18-minute video, which features a young Wesley Snipes, were mostly filmed in New York’s Hoyt–Schermerhorn subway station. The film reportedly cost over $2 million, breaking Michael’s own record for the most expensive video of all time, which was ‘Thriller’ at over $500,000. Engineer Craig Johnson said the song itself wasn’t even fully completed when filming began. “Bruce Swedien and I flew to New York to work on edits of the soundtrack for the film at the Hit Factory studio in Manhattan, and we would send them to Michael at the rehearsal space,” Johnson said. “It is safe to say things we were trying with the edits contributed to the final version of the song itself.”

Michael was hearing a very specific bass sound in his head for ‘Bad’, and finding it became challenging for musician Christopher Currell. “He was looking for a certain feel,” Currell said. “I tried many bass sounds. Michael liked them but there was always something missing. In the end, the solution was to mix all the sounds Michael liked into one bass sound. To accomplish this it took nine different bass sounds, which included synth sounds, organ bass pedal sounds as well as electric bass sounds.”

With the ‘Bad’ video complete and the Christmas break over, Michael and the A-Team resumed recording at Westlake in early January 1987. The record company had hoped to release the album sometime in 1986, and then either in January or February of 1987, but there was still a lot of production work to be done in the studio.

 
Continued....

In mid-February, Michael began shooting a video for ‘Smooth Criminal’ at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. But Quincy admitted he didn’t even want the song to be included on the album. “I gotta be honest, I was never a big fan of that song,” he said. But Michael stood his ground and insisted on its inclusion. “Michael loved it to pieces, man,” Quincy said.

As with ‘Bad’, shooting ‘Smooth Criminal’ kept Michael out of the studio for many days. “We got to shoot it for about two weeks; it was unheard of to be given this length of time to shoot a music video,” choreographer Vince Paterson said. Chilvers said Michael was able to take his time and make the video as perfect as possible, because he was paying for the project out of his own pocket.

In June, Michael took more time out from the studio to film a video for ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ in Skid Row, Los Angeles, which sees him chase model Tatiana Thumbtzen through the streets in an attempt to win her affection. Choreographer and director Vincent Paterson, who worked on seven of Michael’s videos across his career, said a moment on the set of ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ is one of his favourite memories. “When we shot that video, there was silence on the set while Mike walked up to Tatiana,” he said. “When he sang the first lyrics out loud, ‘You knock me off of my feet, now, baby’, then yelled out his ‘OOOOOH’, the entire crew freaked. It gave everyone goose bumps. His energy felt like it came from an outside alien source, it was so powerful.”

While the team worked on the album, there was also Michael’s first solo tour to think about. The tour, announced in late June 1987 by Frank DiLeo, was scheduled to kick off in Japan in September.

The delay in finishing Bad meant Michael had little time to rehearse for the tour. By the time he began rehearsals in August, the band, singers and dancers had already been working every day for a month, with a punishing schedule consisting of 6–10 hour days. Michael joined the rest of the team at a huge sound stage at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, where every element of the show came together. Although everything was rehearsed in separate parts, the team did not have time to do a full run-through of the show from A to Z.

Before the start of the tour, DiLeo said it would be Michael’s first and final solo tour, because he wanted to concentrate on making music and films. His arrival at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport on September 9, three days before the first concert at Korakuen Stadium, caused pandemonium. The airport had to be shut off as hundreds of fans and over 600 journalists and cameramen waited for his arrival. The tour equipment was flown in on a specially chartered Boeing 747 and totalled 22 truckloads. Michael’s considerable entourage included his pets Bubbles and Crusher the snake, which arrived on a flight that landed 30 minutes ahead of his plane. The pets travelled from the airport to the hotel on a bus with the band. “Bubbles was swinging around Tarzan style from all the poles and seats, creating his usual havoc,” Christopher Currell said. “But the band loved it and we laughed all the way to our hotel.”

When the tour began the set-list included just two songs from Bad, ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ and the title track. According to Michael, the other new songs were too ‘unfamiliar’ at this stage, as only those two had been released as singles. Michael also decided to perform ‘Thriller’ for the first time, having agreed not to sing it on the Victory Tour following pressure from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But Michael was now free to do as he wished, having left the group in 1987 in response to their disapproval of the ‘Smooth Criminal’ video. “They thought the song [‘Thriller’] was the devil’s work and that under no circumstances should Michael perform it live,” Christopher Currell said. “His intention was not evil. He said it was just kids’ stuff, like Halloween, and was not a serious thing. But pressure from the church was great so he caved in and agreed not to perform it. He still believed in the church’s basic teaching about being good and helping others, but he said he felt suppressed creatively, so decided to officially leave.” During the entire tour Michael sang his songs 30% faster and two keys lower than the originals to save his voice, as he was singing close to every number live.
 
Continued again .....

After fourteen hugely successful dates in Japan, where Michael received favourable press coverage, the tour moved to Australia for a further six concerts. The leg finished in Brisbane in November, and Michael flew back to Los Angeles as the tour took a three-month break.

On February 10, 1988 Michael arrived in the small city of Pensacola on Florida’s Gulf Coast, where he chose to base rehearsals ahead of the next leg of the tour, which was due to start in Kansas City two weeks later. The set-list would include five more songs from Bad than the previous leg, for a total of seven. Michael loved Christopher Currell’s tour version of ‘Smooth Criminal’ so much, that he told the musician they had to record the album version again with the Synclavier as soon as possible.

After only two concerts, Michael took a short break to rehearse for special performances of ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ and ‘Man in the Mirror’ at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on March 2. It was his first televised performance since Motown 25 five years earlier. Engineer Brad Sundberg said Michael wanted to do something special for his performance, so they decided to record a new slow intro for ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’. Michael’s background vocals for this intro were recorded in his hotel room in Pensacola, with engineers running microphone cables up to his room from a recording truck below. “We put it all together in the truck, and jumped in the Hit Factory studio in New York a few days before the Grammy show for some final touches to the mix,” Sundberg said. “The performance was amazing, and our little hotel studio worked like a charm.”

After his performance Michael took his seat in the front row, and waited for the winners to be announced. But despite being nominated in four categories, including Album of the Year, he failed to win a single award. He was devastated and humiliated, but had to pick himself up quickly as the Bad Tour’s three New York dates took place at Madison Square Garden in the days following the awards.

When the Bad Tour took a two-week break in May 1988 after a concert in Minneapolis, twenty-nine-year-old Michael finally moved out of Hayvenhurst to Sycamore Valley Ranch, his newly purchased estate near the small town of Los Olivos in Santa Barbara County, a two-and-a-half hour drive north of Los Angeles.

Michael may not have won Album of the Year at the Grammys, but he made history in July 1988 when Bad became the first album to have five number-one singles in America; ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’, ‘Bad’, ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, ‘Man in the Mirror’ and ‘Dirty Diana’. The record wasn’t equalled until 23 years later by Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream.

The Bad Tour ended with five concerts at the Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles in January 1989. The tour grossed $125 million at the box office, of which Michael reportedly netted $40 million, making it the largest grossing tour in history. It also had the largest audience in history, with 4.4 million people attending the 123 shows.


 
Tess66;4209215 said:
Continued again .....

After fourteen hugely successful dates in Japan, where Michael received favourable press coverage, the tour moved to Australia for a further six concerts. The leg finished in Brisbane in November, and Michael flew back to Los Angeles as the tour took a three-month break.

On February 10, 1988 Michael arrived in the small city of Pensacola on Florida’s Gulf Coast, where he chose to base rehearsals ahead of the next leg of the tour, which was due to start in Kansas City two weeks later. The set-list would include five more songs from Bad than the previous leg, for a total of seven. Michael loved Christopher Currell’s tour version of ‘Smooth Criminal’ so much, that he told the musician they had to record the album version again with the Synclavier as soon as possible.

After only two concerts, Michael took a short break to rehearse for special performances of ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ and ‘Man in the Mirror’ at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on March 2. It was his first televised performance since Motown 25 five years earlier. Engineer Brad Sundberg said Michael wanted to do something special for his performance, so they decided to record a new slow intro for ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’. Michael’s background vocals for this intro were recorded in his hotel room in Pensacola, with engineers running microphone cables up to his room from a recording truck below. “We put it all together in the truck, and jumped in the Hit Factory studio in New York a few days before the Grammy show for some final touches to the mix,” Sundberg said. “The performance was amazing, and our little hotel studio worked like a charm.”

After his performance Michael took his seat in the front row, and waited for the winners to be announced. But despite being nominated in four categories, including Album of the Year, he failed to win a single award. He was devastated and humiliated, but had to pick himself up quickly as the Bad Tour’s three New York dates took place at Madison Square Garden in the days following the awards.

When the Bad Tour took a two-week break in May 1988 after a concert in Minneapolis, twenty-nine-year-old Michael finally moved out of Hayvenhurst to Sycamore Valley Ranch, his newly purchased estate near the small town of Los Olivos in Santa Barbara County, a two-and-a-half hour drive north of Los Angeles.

Michael may not have won Album of the Year at the Grammys, but he made history in July 1988 when Bad became the first album to have five number-one singles in America; ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’, ‘Bad’, ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, ‘Man in the Mirror’ and ‘Dirty Diana’. The record wasn’t equalled until 23 years later by Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream.

The Bad Tour ended with five concerts at the Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles in January 1989. The tour grossed $125 million at the box office, of which Michael reportedly netted $40 million, making it the largest grossing tour in history. It also had the largest audience in history, with 4.4 million people attending the 123 shows.


I know you have alot of information but that still doesn't explain why after the 1st leg he didn't perform with dancers for that song or maybe i read it so fast to get to the answer of my question. Still thank you for this info. Could've sworn i read it on moonwalker but i haven't read that in about 4years

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To this day, I still can’t understand why Bad did not win any Grammys on that day. Leave Me Alone got a Grammy, but the Bad album deserved every Grammy that night!
 
Doggone;4209227 said:
To this day, I still can’t understand why Bad did not win any Grammys on that day. Leave Me Alone got a Grammy, but the Bad album deserved every Grammy that night!
& did he not go to the grammys to win it? Did they do a "michael couldnt be here to accept this award" kinda thing?

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Re: Bad

& did he not go to the grammys to win it? Did they do a "michael couldnt be here to accept this award" kinda thing?

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Leave Me Alone won for best short-form music video. They don't air that category on the televised program. He wouldn't have been been there regardless. I'm sure the director was there to pick it up.
 
Re: Bad

I actually like the moments when it is ONLY MJ on stage.

Human Nature and BAD are great examples - the songs are amazing, MJ has so much energy and he owns the stage.

It's nice when it's just MJ showing how to do it. - He does not need all the dancers, specials etc. - MJ was the magic.
 
Re: Bad

the dance part was filmed in 1987 no?
 
Re: Bad

the dance part was filmed in 1987 no?
No i think it was 86,i just saw an interview with wesley snipes & he said it took a month & a half to shoot it. But as Michael stated in his book, the video & the tour was already in motion while the album wasn't even done yet & thats why during the dance part is different from the album version from what jimmie & greg played

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Re: Bad

No i think it was 86,i just saw an interview with wesley snipes & he said it took a month & a half to shoot it. But as Michael stated in his book, the video & the tour was already in motion while the album wasn't even done yet & thats why during the dance part is different from the album version from what jimmie & greg played

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I see. But I think had the time to include the dance part during the second leg of the Tour. I think he chose to perform it without the dancers like he decided to not perform Remember the time in 92
 
Re: Bad

I see. But I think had the time to include the dance part during the second leg of the Tour. I think he chose to perform it without the dancers like he decided to not perform Remember the time in 92
I guess he didn't wanna change it up but i would love to see that but history is done now

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Re: Bad

I prefer solo numbers as the focus is on Michael only. He was flexible in the way he performed 'Bad'.

I liked how he went down into the audience, and climbed the netting during the first leg. Don't forget when Stevie Wonder joined him onstage to perform the song. Seeing the pictures, I'd always assumed it was 'Just Good Friends'. The audio makes me wish for the visual!

I also loved when he brought the children out to dance with him on the second leg. It was a loose and happy moment :)
 
Re: Bad

I prefer solo numbers as the focus is on Michael only. He was flexible in the way he performed 'Bad'.

I liked how he went down into the audience, and climbed the netting during the first leg. Don't forget when Stevie Wonder joined him onstage to perform the song. Seeing the pictures, I'd always assumed it was 'Just Good Friends'. The audio makes me wish for the visual!

I also loved when he brought the children out to dance with him on the second leg. It was a loose and happy moment :)

Totally agree! - More of that on stage - all relaxed - would have been great. - Like the Human Nature performance from Copenhagen 1992.
 
Re: Bad

I really like the fact that Bad was a solo number. It just added so much more to the show as a whole, especially the 87 version, Tokyo comes to mind.
He looks cool and happy, partly because there's no worries to do with the choreography. Plus don't forget by the time he performed Bad he had already been performing for at least 90 minutes, mentally and physically he would have been drained.

Personally I don't think it would have worked like Beat It, SC, TWYMMF, TDCAU and others did visually the routine was very fluid and helped the way in which it was shot. It would have had to be altered similar to Smooth Criminal in the Pensacola rehearsals in 88.
It would have been nice to see it once just to admire the genius though.

As much as I love choreographed numbers, I love the moments of seeing Michael alone on the stage. Just oozing magic from every pour.
 
Re: Bad

I prefer solo numbers as the focus is on Michael only. He was flexible in the way he performed 'Bad'.

I liked how he went down into the audience, and climbed the netting during the first leg. Don't forget when Stevie Wonder joined him onstage to perform the song. Seeing the pictures, I'd always assumed it was 'Just Good Friends'. The audio makes me wish for the visual!

I also loved when he brought the children out to dance with him on the second leg. It was a loose and happy moment :)

Oh yeah. And let's not forget he introduced the crew like Sheryl Crow, Greg Phillinganes, Jennifer Batten, Chris Currell, Don Boyette and Ricky Lawson (god bless his soul).
 
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Re: Bad

Oh yeah. And let's not forget he introduced the crew like Sheryl Crow, Greg Phillinganes, Jennifer Batten, Chris Currell, Don Boyette and Ricky Lawson (god bless his sould).
I didnt know ricky died. I knew about paul

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Re: Bad

Hey wonderouzmj - can you be a little more in your thread titles?? just 'Bad' can be like anything - cheers

I've edited it so you know the sort on thing we require.
 
Him performing it solo had little to nothing to do when it was filmed.. he had a lot of time between 87/89 to fit a choreographed version in.. We know set list and choreography changed between Leg 1 and Leg 2.. they could have incorporated it IF Michael felt the need.

Honestly as cool as some of the choreography is in the BAD video, Michaels performance solo was great..

My honest opinion aside from these reason of Leg 1 he used that time to intro everyone's name.. and the fact the best parts of the video where Michaels improvising and that's what he was able to do performing it solo..


Another reason I would guess is that on stage a BAD performance with the dancers would be fairly similar to The Way You Make Me Feel and Smooth Criminal.. Stay with me here for a second..

They Way You Make Me Feel already had had him hanging with the boys (as Bad would have as well), both within the choreography has that west side story kick.. the live version of smooth criminal had a lot of shuffle walking and coordinating walking in a line.. as the bad video is known for..

I think Michael does Bad solo was just taking what was best about the video and letting him at it without seeming too repetitive with pieces similar to other performances in the set list that were later incorporated..
 
sometimes simple is better/powerful. i actually prefer it solo. No one likes an overly choreographed show lol
 
Maybe he just wanted to do it solo rather than recreating the video?
 
ALSO - remember the rehearsals for Dangerous Tour - it was also a solo performance.

So I think MJ simply just wanted it that way. - Nothing to do with filming the video or anything.

Just MJ alone on stage doing what he did best.
 
Wasn't it also the first time he unveiled the sidewalk? He looked like he was literally being shifted on a moving platform!

'Beat It' was performed solo on the Victory tour. He would only do a small portion of the choreography, and later on Marlon would briefly join him. I think any of the numbers could have been tailored that way. It was for the best that we got some balance :)
 
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