Latest on MJJC

New Netflix 'We Are the World' documentary!!

Andymachine said:
As much as i adore MJ a lot of what he did in front of the cameras was simply for that. MJ's voice was quite different when not in front of the camera most times and according to many others he could curse a blue streak. MJ also loved a drink , loved Jack Daniels , wine . Yet the "propoganda" was to show him as a vegetarian ( which he was not) and someone that was was perfection personified. He was incredible yes but human at the same time.
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Is not what we all do?... for example, only one, working in a public relation, our voice will be ,,different,, , i mean the tone, and our behavior. We will not use bad words, it's our social ,,mask,,. Back home with the ones who are close to us we are free to say sometimes sheisse or wtf, and to speak in whatever tone we feel like. And dress with what we like.
MJ,s so called different voice can be heard in the end of Bad tour for example, or anytime if we really listen. The tone was different, softer. He was a vegetarian, but he stopped, bc of his crazy energetic shows. He start to enjoy drinking after he quit JW ..but wasn't an alcoholic.
This is not propaganda. He was very aware of himself and his overall image bc he was in the business since fresh age.
 
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Andymachine said:
As much as i adore MJ a lot of what he did in front of the cameras was simply for that. MJ's voice was quite different when not in front of the camera most times and according to many others he could curse a blue streak. MJ also loved a drink , loved Jack Daniels , wine . Yet the "propoganda" was to show him as a vegetarian ( which he was not) and someone that was was perfection personified. He was incredible yes but human at the same time.
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During the We Are The World session itself, there's some photos of Mike holding a can of Budweiser. There's another photo of Mike with some guys wearing blue shirts and Mike is doing a Crip gang sign with his hand. I think this was taken during video shoot for The Way You Make Me Feel.
 
these comments about michael swearing, drinking alcohol and having a secret deep speaking voice are not relevant to the early to mid eighties. which is the time period that this originally occurred, and which i acknowledge.

in fact, is was his family, friends, work colleagues and close associates who were around him when the cameras were off who described him that way.

jane fonda was the one who first suggested that michael play Peter Pan in a movie. he was so emotional that he broke down in tears because he related to the character so much. stephen spielberg was set to direct it. he said if e.t didn’t come to elliot’s house, he would have came to michael’s. he described michael as the last of the living innocents.

john landis described michael as a gifted child when working with him on ‘thriller’. michael was 25 at the time..

michael had his own personal chef both at home, and on the road, who would prepare his vegan meals. this was confirmed by his mother katherine, and quincy jones. quincy was so concerned by michael’s weight loss during the ‘victory’ tour that he had dairy free ice cream flown out to him by helicopter on various stops. michael’s favourite drink at the time was carrot juice. he didn’t even drink pepsi let alone alcohol. he was health conscious and fasted every sunday as he spent the day dancing.

engineer bruce swedien said that he had been trying to get michael to curse for years, but he wouldn’t because he was a gentleman. michael even imposed a swear jar in the studio at one point (janet did the same when she first began working with jimmy jam and terry lewis). he even refused to use the word ‘funky’ (‘beat it’ notwithstanding), and opted to use ‘smelly’ instead - which is how he earned that nickname from quincy.

even in this latest netflix documentary, lionel imitated michael’s high soft voice when confirming that he had animal friends and was afraid of driving (on freeways in particular).

I could go on, and I already have.. the point is that it has nothing to do with being perfect. no one is. this is just simply who he was at that time (the early to mid eighties). there are clean living people all over the world. they/we may be in the minority these days, and they/we may not be looked at as ‘normal’, but they/we do exist. in michael’s case, it’s wrong to sully his good name by rewriting history.
 
83magic said:
he even refused to use the word ‘funky’ (‘beat it’ notwithstanding), and opted to use ‘smelly’ instead - which is how he earned that nickname from quincy.
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Bruuuuuuuhhhhhh where tf do you get your sources from? How do you explain the demo to beat it that was PRESENTED to Quincy from Michael? How would he refuse to say something he wrote? He said funky so much in the 70s especially in the variety show & calling janet his funky little sister. & you really believe that Quincy was that concerned that he flew out ice cream to different shows in multiple cities??? "COME ON SKIP" & how can you say he didn't drink mid early 80s?🤣 MAAAAAAAAN Stop with the false information.
 
I don't know how this became a debate over Elvis but his legacy isn't going anywhere. Just like MJs.

Watched the doc last night. Enjoyed it. I dont own that DVD so most of the footage/info was new to me. I'm glad it was Lionel telling the story. Someone who actually knew MJ personally. The snake story was hilarious lol. (Didnt Freddie Mercury see the snake also? lol).
Well done and pleasantly surprised.
 
Back to the doc, how was Bruce Swedien not involved? Without looking, I assume he was busy working on another project??
 
Derek1984 said:
Back to the doc, how was Bruce Swedien not involved? Without looking, I assume he was busy working on another project??
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Good question, I was thinking the same while watching it.
 
To be more specific, Humberto Gatica was on the project when that was usually Bruce Swedien's role with Quincy Jones. So why wasn't Bruce involved? Maybe Bruce had other obligations?
 
Humberto worked with Michael Jackson on 3 albums and on “We are the world”. Thinking back on his relationship with the “King of Pop”, Humberto said that it all started one day “they tell me: we have to finish the Michael Jackson album, it was Thriller. The plane landed, I left the airport and went straight to the studio. The first song that was given to me to work with was “Billie Jean.”
 
The documentary was great. I don’t really care for the song all that much but was very interesting seeing how it was put together and obviously for a great cause.

Random question though - would Lionel/Bruce be paid for taking part in this documentary?
 
Review from lophx65

{I just finished watching the "Greatest Night in Pop" documentary on Netflix and to get as straight to the point as possible, that sh!t blew me TF away. It was so informative. Emotionally stirring. FUNNY. Heart warning. But most of all it was such deeply nostalgic experience that im sure any and all viewers born even in years after the 80s will FEEL it in their soul.

I could keep going on and on about it because that's how good it was but there are 12 things I took away from the Doc that either shocked me or made me bust TF out laughing my ass off.

1. Harry Belafonte came up with the idea for assembling superstars to do a charity project for Africa. He wanted to do a concert and through various talks it turned into the one song concept. But all throughout he was known as the mind behind the project. Honestly, he is not talked about ENOUGH when it comes to Civil Rights. He even spoke at MLK JR I have a dream speech. Learned that from the doc. Shameful. But I love this dude. He always stood on business.

2. Stevie Wonder was supposed to be the songwriter of the song but he never got back lol. Throughout the 80s and pretty much most of his career, he was known for doing this. So they waited at least three weeks for him to get back. But in the MEANTIME, because Quincy was already picked to be the main producer of the song, he used his relationships to get two other artists in the industry that had already begun making their mark as legendary song writers: Lionel Richie.....and THE ..ONE and ONLY MICHAEL JACKSON.

3. They wrote the song without Stevie ever coming through once. Lionel and Richie built a cute and hillarious friendship during this time cuz they did at it MJ house over the course of weeks. At one point a snake bust out the cut when they were writing the song and Lionel Richie started going CRAZY. And MJ was just like "it's okay Lion- el (how he pronounced his name), he just came out to listen to the song cuz he likes our voices". michael had lost the snake and it was loose the whole time in the house lmaoo

4. Michael is a musical genius. Honestly , this is another one of those millions of docs that highlight this. When Lionel Richie got to his house he found tapes of MJ humming and beat boxing out his songs. He Learned that because he didn't play instruments, this was how he created concepts for his songs. He says the songs had hundreds of vicals layered on top of each other. Basically MJ was Brandy before Brandy ...and another takeaway on MJ brillance is his vocal performance during the outtakes of WATW, and actual recording session they had

5. Michael could SING SING. There's audio clips of them laying the foundation down for the song at his house. And his voice is just so clear and resonant. His range was impeccable. At the recording, it's the same. He did like ONE or TWO takes and they were like "thanks Mike" and he just walked away casually like "cool" and stayed in the background basically the whole rest of the night lol listening to everybody struggle with their parts.....which plays a part in the notorious Huey Lewis and Cyndi Lauper viral social media clip lol

6. I learned that Prince is a beautiful complicated asshole lmaoooo...yup. they tried to recruit him too. They actually wanted him to be on as early as when they got MJ and Lionel...like a songwriter...but he was NOT having that sh!t...he was way too involved in his rivalry with MJ to do so...honestly, this is an understated fact but that sh!t was real. I don't think it was bad blood but they couldn't STAND each other..but they also liked each other???....sh!t was weird lol. Prince never said a complete no though. At one point during the actual recording night, they tried to get him for the last time and he was like .... I'll do a guitar solo for y'all.....guitar solo??? Lmaoooo what bih"

6. I learned that the recording was done in one night. After the mega popular AMA awards that Lionel Richie was hosting that night. This shows how simplistic and chill the 80s was. Like some people went there straight from the AMA's that night Sheila E, Prince, Kenny Logins etc. but others came from random other plaves. MJ had been at the stu hours before everyone, Bruce Springsteen came fresh from his tour, Bob Dylan who came from God knows where.. But on that night they all assembled together like the avengers and greatness happened.

7. before that greatness happened, I learned that they were STRUGGLING though. Watch and see if for yourself. But the song was written in a high ass range so some people were facing mad challenges, especially some of the male singers. You gotta watch to feel the tension that was building up in the room because of this. ALSO, at several points during these struggles, people were adding input trying to CHANGE the lyrics lmaoooo.. because of all this the song went through three changes in one single night.

8. This brings us back to Stevie Wonder lmaooo...Omagoodness at one point........after they are already struggling with the song, Stevie just randomly busts out singing the lyrics in Swahili.....And everybody's like WHAT THE FAWK? .........mind you this is the guy who never bothered to show his face while they were writing the song....the guy they waited 3 weeks to get back to them lmaooo

9. I learned that the Black women were black womaning that night. TINA is was TINA. But Dionne Warwick absolutely killed her part too. First of all Sis is already an underrated 60s beauty but her voice is up there with Aretha Franklin. And honestly so is THEE Diana Ross who also absolutely crushed her solo. There's no other way to describe their tones than just "quintessential soul singing". They were one of the only singers who didn't have to do multiple takes lol and their presence had actual superstars shook.

10. This butt hurt white boy who apparently is a big star in Country music walked out after Stevie randomly tried to add Swahili to the song.........he was like "good old boys dont sing no African"......I won't say his name cuz honestly I think he was on some racist sh!t..but at the same time I understand his point. Stevie was wilding lmaoo

11. The Cyndi Lauper viral clip happened EXACTLY how it looks like it happened. I didn't think it can get any funnier. But it's even MORE funny than what the clip portrays. MJ was very unimpressed by them is all imma say. But he didn't say much because Lionel was the extroverted guy who was trying to keep the ship afloat. You gotta watch it in context to see.

12. Speaking of white folks. Its like after that dude walked out and that Cyndi Lauper situation, all of them was like "hell nah now we gotta show out and redeem ourselves" with all these black legends in the room. And They went TF in. I know everybody heard the song. But in context, you get to see the emotions, struggle, tension that led to their parts. All I gotta say is I didn't know Bruce SPRINGSTEEN was like that. Bob Dylan is and will forever be that GUY. Kenny Loggins is underrated. And STEVE TF PERRY. ....whew STEVE PERRY......them white boys ascended....This is something even Quincy verbally acknowledged lol

If there's spoilers here. Sorry but I just had to come and express my thoughts on this amazing piece of work. If you ain't seen it yet, you're missing out.
 
83magic said:
standards of decency in mainstream entertainment have dropped severely. that doesn’t mean that mine have to. it’s personal. just because the things you listed are happening, doesn’t make them right.

besides, a lot of streaming sites have parental codes to protect children from inappropriate content. the content itself is usually rated. the minimal age requirement to join social media platforms is usually age 13. radio stations usually edit out profanity from their songs.

parents who care will find ways to be active in their children’s lives, and instil values.

this situation is even worse than ‘thriller 40’. ‘we are the world’ was (in part) about the children. michael cared deeply about them. they were a large portion of the audience that he gained during the success of ‘thriller’. parents approved of michael as a role model for them, and it was one that he took serious pride in. he wouldn’t want them to be subjected to such foulness. he himself was known for not swearing during that time period.

it’s not just about children; there are clean living people of all ages. as I stated before, profanity was absent from the previous releases. there’s no reason for it to be present here. these posthumous releases are not honouring michael’s message.
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Jeez, what HAPPENED in the documentary? Did someone cuss the hell out of Michael? 🤨
USA for Africa was produced with lots of love from all the artists. It is palpable in the video of the song alone.

What are CLEAN LIVING PEOPLE?

Sorry, but I am not from the US and English is not my first language.

Well, if you are underaged, why don´t you ask your parents if they recommend watching the documentary?
 
I think why the reason this was so good is that it was light hearted - Lionel was the perfect lead for this, and it was enjoyable every step of the way. Seeing Smokey question the sha-ling-gay was hilarious, that's NOT on the DVD. But Huey Lewis getting a nice little arc in the story really made it too.

I also love that the only real part of the documentary that contained any ego was to do with Prince, which showed that everyone was better off that he wasn't involved. It would have been great, but I wouldnt change WATW for a second.
 
I feel so sorry for Huey Lewis, he is an excellent vocalist. As is Cindy Lauper. All singers know that
it is normal to not always be perfect like a machine. Especially if you might be a bit nervous (that can be one of the reasons).

 
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Mister_Jay_Tee said:
I dont love people dunking on Prince. He was different then. He matured later.
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💯And he didn't roll like that at the time. From a narrow view, he could come across as a jerk but in reality, it was way out of his comfort zone (at the time). He grew out of it later, it was right person, wrong time. It wasn't like it was just for this song either, Prince barely allowed his own engineers and bandmates to hear him lay down vocals for his own songs especially when recording very "moving" songs. This choice had nothing to do with Michael or the other artists, he knew the cause was important and still contributed in his own way. People tend to forget that Prince still recorded a song for the album, I'm tired of that same old narrative.
 
. Stevie Wonder was supposed to be the songwriter of the song but he never got back lol. Throughout the 80s and pretty much most of his career, he was known for doing this.
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Damn stevie why you gotta play everyone like that 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
 
You know, I’ve always wondered why they have never released this song with a different mix? There are so many different takes from each artist that they can use and it would keep it fresh with a new twist.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
You know, I’ve always wondered why they have never released this song with a different mix? There are so many different takes from each artist that they can use and it would keep it fresh with a new twist.
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Lmao I definitely understand why
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
You know, I’ve always wondered why they have never released this song with a different mix? There are so many different takes from each artist that they can use and it would keep it fresh with a new twist.
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They would rather get whole new talent.
 
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