Days In Gloucestershire Thread

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Days In Gloucestershire

dig_zps0ce539b1.png

Thanks to moonball29 for the album art.



Leaked 4th Mars 2014, it was among the songs on the Sony server that were considered for the Michael album. Traders kept hold on ever since 2010.




Jackson 5 visit to Gloucestershire inspires unreleased Michael Jackson recording three decades later




The Michael Jackson Estate and Sony Music’s treasure chest of unreleased Michael Jackson material suffered a blow yesterday, with yet another one of the King of Pop’s unpublished work-in-progress recordings finding it’s way onto the internet.


The song, called “Days In Gloucestershire”, comes from collaborative sessions between Jackson, his long-time arranger/producer Brad Buxer, and trusted recording engineer Michael Prince. It is essentially the remedy to Jackson and Buxer’s previous track, “I Am A Loser”.


LEFT TO RIGHT: BUXER, JACKSON, PRINCE
michael-jackson-brad-buxer-michael-prince-e1378633236252.png


Those not familiar with the story behind “I Am A Loser” can read all about it here.

In a nutshell, Jackson and Buxer were staying in adjoining hotel rooms while working on music together in early 2003. Buxer, who was going through a breakup at the time, was awake late one night, pacing around his room repeating, “I’m a loser! I’m just a loser!”

Before long Jackson, who could hear Buxer through the wall, knocked on his door, came in and asked, “What’s the problem?”

“Oh I’m a loser… I’m just a loser!” answered Buxer, before explaining his situation.

“Let’s write a song about it,” suggested Jackson. And they did!

Fast forward to 2004; Jackson and Buxer were at it again – this time working together with Michael Prince at Neverland Ranch.

Although there was a state-of-the-art studio at Neverland, “Days In Gloucestershire” was recorded in one of the ranch’s bungalows.

Buxer had a little studio set up in a bungalow, Prince had one set up in a bungalow, and Jackson was staying in one of the bungalows with his three children.

Jackson began staying in the ranch’s bungalows with his children after his home, including his bedroom and private office, were raided by police on November 20, 2003 in relation to allegations of child molestation. Jackson was arrested, charged, and was awaiting trial at the time (at which he would later be found not guilty on all counts).

After writing a song about being a ‘loser’ Jackson and Buxer began talking about things that made them happy and lifted their spirits when feeling down.

Michael recalled that when he was in The Jackson Five he visited a beautiful place in England called Gloucestershire. Jackson, however, took creative license (as he often did) on the pronunciation of the South West county – pronouncing it as it reads, not as it really should be.


THE JACKSON 5

According to Jackson, the time he spent in Gloucestershire as a teenager three decades earlier while on tour with his brothers was still one of his fondest memories. And so, just like they did with “Loser”, Jackson and Buxer turned life into art.

Buxer did the music and Jackson wrote the lyrics, then Brad left to go home for a few days. Prince stayed at the ranch with Jackson and went on to record all the King of Pop’s vocals in a makeshift studio right there in the bungalow’s bathroom – not an uncommon thing for Jackson.

However unfortunately, as with the vast majority of material he was working on during the final years of his life, Jackson never got to bring the track to completion.

As it stands in its final version, the song has just one verse and a chorus which Jackson sings over and over again.

“He would do is go in and do the first verse, and the chorus, and he would not do a second verse,” says Teddy Riley of Jackson’s habits when writing or recording demos. “It’s just to get the idea down.”

This is the way Jackson worked in order to decipher which tracks he felt good about, and which he didn’t.

“What I do when I write is that I’ll do a raggedy, rough version just to hear the chorus, just to see how much I like the chorus,” explained Jackson. “If it works for me that way when it’s raggedy, then I’ll know it will just work … I do that same process with every song. It’s the melody. It’s the melody that’s most important. If the melody can sell me then I’ll go to the next step.”

“Days In Gloucestershire” is by no means complete, but judging by the positive reaction from Jackson’s loyal fans since it first appeared online yesterday, and to those who are simply looking at it as a piece of art, that lack of completion doesn’t seem to matter one bit.



Lyrics by me and SoCav. As always, I never claim they are 100% right, but this is what we agreed on in the end.


Hold me like you really used to before we met the fall
Back in the day when my youth was golden
We really had it all (all)

Hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire
We heal as children
We see them laughing
In their guidance

I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire
I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire
I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire, Again

Aaah, oooh
Da, da, ra da da

Hold me like you really used to before we met the fall
Back in the day when my youth was golden
We really had it all (All)

Hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire
We heal as children
We see them laughing
In their guidance

I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire
I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire, Again

Hold me like you really used to before we met the fall
Back in the day when my youth was golden
We really had it all, so

Hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire
We heal as children
We see them laughing
In their guidance

I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire
I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire
I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire (Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, Gloucesteshire)

Hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire
We heal as children
We see them laughing
In their guidance

I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire
I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire
I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire (Gloucestershire) again

My friend, so

Hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire

Hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire

Just hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire

Just hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire

Just hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire

Just hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire (laa, Gloucestershire)

Just hold me like you really used to
Our summers in Gloucestershire
 
I will start off by saying I am in love with this song. It puts me in a great mood and everything about it is great. Even how MJ repeats the same verse 3 times, I love it. I love the rawness of the demo, how you can hear talking and writing in the background.

Musically, I think it resembles The Lost Children a lot, obviously, and the whole sound of the song is something I think MJ was really going for during those years. How can you go wrong with BB, MP and MJ? THE ULTIMATE TEAM.
 
I will post a little short analysis about this one in a minute. so much to be said
 
Probably the best new song I've heard since the BAD 25 demos. Pretty disappointing, to be quite frank, that Michael never had the chance to finish it.
 
It's not bad. I think MJ was going a bit soft though, songs like DIG, I Am A Loser, Best of Joy... they're all of a similar ilk... all very pleasant, sweet melodies, but very MOR.
 
I think this is awful. Easily one of Michael's worst songs, I really do not see any potential in the track and haven't listened to it since it leaked. I get it's a demo but it just does not sound good.
 
The audio quality of the leaked file is awful, but I think the actual song (or skeleton of what would have been the song) is beautiful. The chorus is gorgeous.
 
thank you so much pentum for the lyrics and the article :) I like the song so much..I been playing daily on repeat :)
 
It's not bad. I think MJ was going a bit soft though, songs like DIG, I Am A Loser, Best of Joy... they're all of a similar ilk... all very pleasant, sweet melodies, but very MOR.

After Invincible, Michael was done with anti-tabloid songs. He wanted to go back to the sweet, relatable music he used to make with Off the Wall and Thriller. Not to mention that a good majority of the releasable songs from the last five or six years of Michael's life were mid-tempo songs. But you make a very good point nonetheless.
 
I like this kind of demos! You can see the way a song begins to be created :) Who knows how he would've completed it :)
 
When accepting it is a demo I started to like it a lot more.

I love the MJ feel good and save the planet songs! :lol: - HtW, MITM, Cry, Lost Children, WHE etc. - Some of the best MJ songs IMO. - great songs, with a message, morale and great melodyes. - Amazing songs!

I like how DiG and PotW seems to be magic in the making. - Lyrics are not finished, but he is getting there and he gets into the melody, learning it by heart so he can then finish it perfect. Great insight to how the songs evolved. - Those kind of demos of HtW and MITM would be amazing! To hear some of the first demoes of these songs (knowing the brilliant end result) and hear how they developed and evolved would be fantastic!
 
When accepting it is a demo I started to like it a lot more.

I love the MJ feel good and save the planet songs! :lol: - HtW, MITM, Cry, Lost Children, WHE etc. - Some of the best MJ songs IMO. - great songs, with a message, morale and great melodyes. - Amazing songs!

I like how DiG and PotW seems to be magic in the making. - Lyrics are not finished, but he is getting there and he gets into the melody, learning it by heart so he can then finish it perfect. Great insight to how the songs evolved. - Those kind of demos of HtW and MITM would be amazing! To hear some of the first demoes of these songs (knowing the brilliant end result) and hear how they developed and evolved would be fantastic!
I agree, would be great to get more demos of released songs. We can only hope the vault will open up one day and that various work-in-progress demos will get released. Remember btw that for MITM we have the earliest of early demos - the demo Siedah played for Quincy.

I love DIG. The intro and verse didn't really resonate with me on first listen, but once that chorus hit I was sold. Especially the second part ("I wish that we'll see.."). The way the strings build up to that part of the chorus is marvelous, as is the end of the chorus. And of course MJ's harmonies are tremendous as always. To me it also does not sound as incomplete as many people seem to feel.

Musically there are similarities to The Lost Children as many have mentioned, but it reminds me more of People of the World and in general, other MJ/Buxer tracks. I think the overall atmosphere of the song is more in line with tracks like Best of Joy, Beautiful Girl and I Am The Loser. Although these songs differ in topic matter, they all share a sense of introversion and quiet reflection (both vocally and musically), and have a kind of bittersweet feeling - quite a contrast with the more dramatic writing he did for many years prior to that. Even I Am The Loser, which is obviously a sad song, is not very dramatic but rather more reflective. I think that's also why it reminds me of some of his 70's songs (tracks like One Day In Your Life, You Are There, Farewell My Summer Love, Good Times, Blues Away, Dreamer, etc.), which share that. I really like all of these songs a lot.

Wish he could have completed it. Love the demo as it is!
 
I agree, would be great to get more demos of released songs. We can only hope the vault will open up one day and that various work-in-progress demos will get released.

I wish it would have been happened with the release of BAD25.
An additional disc with the Encino demos of the original (MJ-only written) album songs as well as their Westlake Work-In-Progress versions wouldn't have harmed the fans pleasure
 
Ah I accidentally erased my whole essay about this.. Oh well
It's funny that when i first heard snippets of People Of The World i expected it to be my favorite. I had heard about 7 seconds of Days In Gloucestershire and dismissed it, completely. What a technicality.

See this as a successor to A Place With No Name. With APWNN he is looking for that sacred and sumptuous place and, as narrated in days in Gloucestershire, this might have been the place he was looking for. Gloucestershire serves as a euphemism for innocence and purity. Remembering that forgotten place that you came from as a child when everything was pure and unaltered. "When my youth was golden, we really had it all."

The way he sings " I wish that we'll see Gloucestershire " with that vulnerable voice, it's a bit bittersweet. It's in complete synchronization with his backgrounds harmonies and sounds so great. All his life he was searching for that place and he never stopped looking.

One day we'll all see Gloucestershire :)
 
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