They Don't Care About Us

Elton-Cetera

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Do any of you have the original release of the History album on CD or Cassette, before the controversy about that one line in They Don't Care About Us, which forced Michael Jackson to go back in the studio and redo it? If I remember correctly, Jackson had all remaining unsold copies of the History album pulled out of record stores everywhere and returned to the supplier, and then the History album got re-released with an edited They Don't Care About Us.

What do you think? Do you think Michael Jackson should have stood his ground, kept the song and album as is, and maintained that it wasn't racist, and that he was talking about himself as the victim, as he told Diane Sawyer? Legally, he didn't have to do anything. There is fredom of speech. The album would have still been in stores the way it is and selling. They could have put a parental advisory sticker on it I think.

Would it have effected the rest of his career if he had not made the changes?


 
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In can imagine that also Sony played a role in pulling the original version.

There are rumours / speculations that David Geffen leaked the back then unreleased lyrics of the song to the NY Times, which kicked-off the little outrage prior to album release.
 
In can imagine that also Sony played a role in pulling the original version.

There are rumours / speculations that David Geffen leaked the back then unreleased lyrics of the song to the NY Times, which kicked-off the little outrage prior to album release.

Oh! I could have sworn the album was already released as is, and then it had to be re-released with the changes. I guess I'm mis-remembering.
 
Oh! I could have sworn the album was already released as is, and then it had to be re-released with the changes.
The first pressing had the unedited version. I don't think the album was pulled, just the later pressings had the k word bleeped out. It wasn't resung or anything.
 
Do any of you have the original release of the History album on CD or Cassette, before the controversy about that one line in They Don't Care About Us, which forced Michael Jackson to go back in the studio and redo it? If I remember correctly, Jackson had all remaining unsold copies of the History album pulled out of record stores everywhere and returned to the supplier, and then the History album got re-released with an edited They Don't Care About Us.

What do you think? Do you think Michael Jackson should have stood his ground, kept the song and album as is, and maintained that it wasn't racist, and that he was talking about himself as the victim, as he told Diane Sawyer? Legally, he didn't have to do anything. There is fredom of speech. The album would have still been in stores the way it is and selling. They could have put a parental advisory sticker on it I think.

Would it have effected the rest of his career if he had not made the changes?

I have the original pressing of History. I think at the time Michael did the right thing by changing the song. If it was to be released now I would say leave it as is.
 
Bad choice to remove it, even if it was nowadays. People need to stop being so sensitive about words.

"It's the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness."
 
Oh! I could have sworn the album was already released as is, and then it had to be re-released with the changes. I guess I'm mis-remembering.

Yes, the first batch of CDs, Vinyl, Cassettes, MiniDiscs had the uncensored version.
I don't remember the exact timing, but that little scandal was shortly before the album release, so things were already manufactured and shipped out.

I also don't think anything was pulled from stores (at least not in Europe (no scandal about it here)). Probably just the next manufactured batches had the new versions on.
 
clean

Bad choice to remove it, even if it was nowadays.
What about rap albums, which have long had a dirty version and a separate clean version sold at stores like Wal-Mart? They do not sell albums with parental advisory stickers. The clean version is also the one that gets radio airplay. In a lot of cases they record 2 versions of the album and it's not just bleeped out words like They Don't Care About Us.
 
I know I got the uncensored version. Since I clearly remember getting that album before all the controversy took place about it. And I was 15 years old back then when I had gotten the album. The controversy didn't bother me at all. Since here in the U.S. the American media always makes the biggest issues out of nothing when it came Michael Jackson. It never bother me then. And it most certainly doesn't bother me now. Because just like I did back then I try to mostly ignore it. But I do remember the summer of 1996. When Michael was making the video for that song. I was seriously laughing at the American media. For having such a field day at what he was doing. And I was thinking they can not be serious about it. Yet it was ok for other singers and rappers to do something like that in their music. But when it came to MJ it isn't ok. Because the way I saw it he had every single right to make an album like that. That album should have never been censored. Most especially the song TDCAU. I am so glad he made a song like that.
 
The censoring of TDCAU was not the only change to HIStory in the later pressings, am I right?
 
I like the sound effects, the hits sound cool. But the lyrics to anyone with a brain are absolutely not racist or anti Semite and it is just as confusing then as it is now that people interpret it that way.
 
The first pressing had the unedited version. I don't think the album was pulled, just the later pressings had the k word bleeped out. It wasn't resung or anything.

I have the unedited version, which I bought on the release date, before the "controversy".
You're definitely right....nothing was pulled from stores; there was just a change to later editions.
 
The censoring of TDCAU was not the only change to HIStory in the later pressings, am I right?

The classical music piece in the intro of the song HIStory was replaced by another because of copyright issues. Though i remember vaguely that this happend several years later. (?)

I havn't checked this in ages.... were there more changes?







Btw, for the trainspotters...
alien.gif

the censoring in TDCAU was also done in two different ways...

First a poorly done edit (probably by Sony, before Michael had it done properly with sound effects), were the words "sue me" and "kick me" are repeated in place of the bad words. A copy & paste job done without multitracks, so the music underneath repeats as well. This was released as "LP edit" (4:10) aka "Radio Edit" (4:10) on several Single CDs, Vinyl, MC etc.

"Sue me, sue me"
"Kick me, kick me"


And then the one with sound effects, that also appear in the video versions. On Single releases this was included as: "Single Version" (4:45) aka "Single Edit" (4:43)

"*** me, sue me"
"Kick me, *** me"

The real trainspotting / collectors fun starts when you realize that several of the official remixes where censored one way on some CDs and the other way on others. :D


Some Single CDs that came with lyric transcripts, had those sections rewritten to:

"Chew Me, Sue me"
"Kick Me, Hike Me"




I think the first "fix" was actually just done by adding stickers to the uncensored pressing. I can't verify it at the moment, because I don't have a MiniDisc player anymore, but I bought this the day it was released (the MiniDisc came out with a little delay, a few weeks after CD).

20190919-061050.jpg
 
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The classical music piece in the intro of the song HIStory was replaced by another because of copyright issues. Though i remember vaguely that this happend several years later. (?)


I was vaguely aware of this but now I'm curious to know what the original intro was. Does anyone have a link to the original classical music piece?

P.S. Wow, ok so I just went back and listened to the song on my album and realized that it wasn't "The Great Gates of Kieve" :eek:mg: ..mindblown. They sound so similar that I had to go back and forth a few times to pick out where exactly the changes occurred. Not sure which version I prefer to be honest as I've always heard the original version in concert but I'm used to hearing the later version when listening to the album. But somehow my mind never differentiated even though they're recognizably different. Fascinating..
 
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The original ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’ classical piece of music (from Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’), played at the beginning of the ‘HIStory’ song, is included on early copies of the ‘HIStory’ album.

But, it was replaced in subsequent copies of the ‘HIStory’ album by an improvised-style orchestra piece (based on the original, of course).

Michael Jackson decided to keep the original intro of the ‘HIStory’ song while he was performing that song during the HIStory Tour.

The comparison between those two intros of the ‘HIStory’ song:

[video=youtube;lM1Q-znzIXw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM1Q-znzIXw[/video]

Also, the unedited version of ‘They Don't Care About Us’ was being played while Michael Jackson was shooting that music video in Rio de Janeiro.

This was confirmed by some of the children, security and crew staff who were present at that shooting.

The fact that Michael Jackson was rehearsing and shooting that music video with the unedited version of the song (that was blasting out of the huge speakers) fueled even more at that time the controversy surrounding those lyrics.

Michael Jackson never gave an explanation why he rehearsed and shot the music video while the unedited version of the song was being played.
 
Thanks for posting that apology sticker! Never seen that before!
 
Michael should have never apologized or censore the song. Some people need to learn how to stop being offended about the most smallest things. In my opinion, how should have been attacking the media for what kind of hypocrites they are. Michael was taking shots with everyone with this album, so he could have dissed them once again.
 
mj_frenzy;4269499 said:
But, it was replaced in subsequent copies of the ‘HIStory’ album by an improvised-style orchestra piece (based on the original, of course).

What's the source for that info? (That it's original music made for this song, not another sample.)



mj_frenzy;4269499 said:
Michael Jackson decided to keep the original intro of the ‘HIStory’ song while he was performing that song during the HIStory Tour.

First time I heard the new version, was when the silver CDs came out (instead of gold), which, as far as I remember, was at some point after the tour ended.

He used a bit of the Mussorgsky piece also in the MSG 2001 show.

But just playing it on shows falls under performance rights, which usually does not require permission, just fees. (Hence artists can't do anything against Trump playing their songs at his idiotic rallies.) (In contrary to mechanical rights for releasing things on CD etc).



mj_frenzy;4269499 said:
Michael Jackson never gave an explanation why he rehearsed and shot the music video while the unedited version of the song was being played.

I wish we had more precise dates when which edits were put out.

It's still possible that the final sound-effects-edit was not made before the TDCAU single was released and that the only "fix" prior to that was the disclaimer sticker.

It would explain why the first wave of TDCAU single releases had that poorly done copy&paste censor edit (that I described earlier). (The second wave of TDCAU releases with more remixes had the sound-effects edit on the original.)

Meaning that at the time of the video shoot, Michael or who ever was responsible for the audio at the shoot possibly just had no censored version available and probably didn't think it would matter in that context anyway. Just thinking...
 
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I feel it was right for him to edit it out. was it the k word? yeah. he had a right because that was offending i think people who are jewish? yeah. Michael did the right thing. i think the original shouldn't be erase though. it was a part of history no pun indeed. Michael said he was sorry and that he loves his jewish friends and fans. we all make mistakes but i don't think he mean it that way. you know when it's Michael they always gonna make a big fuss about it.
 
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Wow. that means Michael been writing this song for years. which not really a surprise because he did the samething to smooth criminal and liberian girl. those two songs was suppose to came out earlier but came out later because he change his mind on how he wanted both short films to be like. i believe all Michael songs he did in the early 80's came out in the late 80's-early 90's and all his songs from the early 90's came out in late 90's-early 2000's. i could be wrong but i thinking i'm right. that would make all his songs from early 90's really 80's songs. samething goes for the thriller album. the late ending disco era. that would make billie jean actually suppose to came out the late 70's. wow.
 
MoeJack;4269889 said:
:laughing:

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