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"You heard what the doctor said"

JichaelMackson

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I recently watched the film "the elephant man" by David Lynch from 1980. When Anthony Hopkins character invites the elephant man to his practice the nurse tells the patient him loudly "you heard what the doctor said"!

Now I immediately thought about MJ's "Morphine" he borrowed that line from this movie in the song. What significance does it have for MJ in the song?
 
JichaelMackson said:
I recently watched the film "the elephant man" by David Lynch from 1980. When Anthony Hopkins character invites the elephant man to his practice the nurse tells the patient him loudly "you heard what the doctor said"!

Now I immediately thought about MJ's "Morphine" he borrowed that line from this movie in the song. What significance does it have for MJ in the song?
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The entire song gives me the heebie-jeebies. It's probably the only MJ song that I truly, truly dislike. Good pick up, to discover this line is from The Elephant Man, but it's anyone's guess what significance it had for Michael in "Morphine". I don't even want to think about it, to be honest.

Isn't the nurse also saying something like, "Am I trying to seduce you?" (or similar) at another point in the song? The whole track is strange and had no business being on an album, in my opinion. Sigh.
 
‘Morphine’ was partly inspired by ‘The Elephant Man’ film, lyrically and musically.

The song also samples audio from that film.

Mikky Dee;4288868 said:
The whole track is strange and had no business being on an album, in my opinion. Sigh.
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I see nothing wrong or strange with the ‘Morphine’ song which is a very honest, autobiographical and dark song that narrates his addiction to drugs and his experience while he was in the rehab clinic in 1993.

Given the song's dark, autobiographical theme and its aggressive musical style, and also considering that it was almost finished during the ‘HIStory’ album recording sessions, the song would have fit even better the ‘HIStory’ album.

I dare say that he should have recorded it with the early, original lyrics which are even darker and even more honest.
 
I actually really like Morphine - it's a very different MJ song.

Of course - since MJ died the way he did - the song got an even darker theme after MJ's dead.

But the break-downs in the song - "This won't hurt you..." - and then the Ouui - and the music kicks in again. I like it a lot. - But I agree it's not a typical MJ song.
 
Morphine along with Is It Scary & In The Back(even in its unfinished state) are true masterpieces MJ did during the History sessions.
 
I find the song eerily good. Just like Morphine (I suppose), it can be addictive ;-) I agree with frenzy in that it is highly autobiographical and I think it was a good thing it got released.
Now about the line "You heard what the doctor said?" might be MJ telling us that it were the doctors who got him hooked in the first place?! And, if he has a doctor telling him it's ok, it then makes it ok...
 
Probably one of his most artistic songs and one I'm glad he released.
 
Musicwise I love the rock parts of this song. Great industrial rock ~ Nine Inch Nails type of sound.

"You heard what the doctor said" is that an actual audio sample from the film, or did he redo it?
I kind of remember it sounding like Michael.

I need to check the movie again. A David Lynch masterpiece for sure.
 
Electro said:
Musicwise I love the rock parts of this song. Great industrial rock ~ Nine Inch Nails type of sound.

"You heard what the doctor said" is that an actual audio sample from the film, or did he redo it?
I kind of remember it sounding like Michael.

I need to check the movie again. A David Lynch masterpiece for sure.
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It's not the film sample in the song.
The music of "Morphine" sounds a lot like the industrial scenes in the film but even more so of David Lynch' film "Eraserhead". I would say MJ was inspired by those 2 films for the song.
 
I was of the impression that this was a direct sample from the film.

Sounded like it to me when I watched the movie.

Also great song. But not a fan of the industrial sound. I'd have preferred real guitars.
 
ChrisC said:
I was of the impression that this was a direct sample from the film.

Sounded like it to me when I watched the movie.

Also great song. But not a fan of the industrial sound. I'd have preferred real guitars.
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Yeah I'm not sure to be honest, it's possible it is actually from the movie but to me it sounds different. Don't quote me on it though.
Perhaps earlier demo's were done with real guitars but I don't think that's what MJ was going for. Like I said in my previous post I think he liked the ambient sounds that were used in Eraserhead and The elephant Man. Clinging metal, smoke and hiss sounds, they are all in both films, especially in Eraserhead.
 
The creating process of writing the lyrics to Morphine, its evolution has always fascinated me.

Can anyone make out the erased lines on page one? I know it's barely readable.
Perhaps some filtering with photoshop would enhance them??



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It looks like it's writren "Ain't that a bitch" and "mental abuse baby"

edit : went too speedy into reading your post, thought it was about stripped words and didn't see it was about actual earsed words... maybe with photoshop we could get through some lines that weren't written over, no?
 
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I like this song because it's deep. but it's also sad because these are the drugs Michael was taking. they should of put him on a different drug if they could. :(
 
I love the song despite it's dark meaning. It's very powerful and shows the genius of MJ in many different ways. The composition is great, the (sudden) changes in the song always make me think of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody for some reason. It's one of my favorite songs on the very underappreciated BOTDF album together with Is It Scary (and some of the remixes)

Sent from my Titan using Tapatalk
 
Herrie said:
I love the song despite it's dark meaning. It's very powerful and shows the genius of MJ in many different ways. The composition is great, the (sudden) changes in the song always make me think of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody for some reason. It's one of my favorite songs on the very underappreciated BOTDF album together with Is It Scary (and some of the remixes)

Sent from my Titan using Tapatalk
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I really don't like the remixes... not a single one of them. - I have never understood the idea of a remix... - don't know if it was just a 90's-thing... but what a way to ruin great songs.

The 5 actual songs are great though - I absolutely love Is It Scary - one of his greatest songs. - so many layers to that song.

BOTDF, Superfly Sister, Is It Scary and Morphine are really underappreciated songs - maybe not BOTDF - but the rest.

I do not think any person outside the fanbase has ever heard Superfly Sister, Is It Scary or Morphine. - Which is a real shame.
 
Hess said:
I really don't like the remixes... not a single one of them. - I have never understood the idea of a remix... - don't know if it was just a 90's-thing... but what a way to ruin great songs.

The 5 actual songs are great though - I absolutely love Is It Scary - one of his greatest songs. - so many layers to that song.

BOTDF, Superfly Sister, Is It Scary and Morphine are really underappreciated songs - maybe not BOTDF - but the rest.

I do not think any person outside the fanbase has ever heard Superfly Sister, Is It Scary or Morphine. - Which is a real shame.
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BOTDF has some of my all time favorite MJ songs. Is it scary, BOTDF and Superfly Sister.
 
Blood on the dance floor is one of my least favorites MJ albums. it doesn't feel like a album at all. just a bunch of songs threw on there because Sony wanted Michael to do another album. it feels it's just there just to be there. that's probably why it so underrated.

the only song i like from that "album" is blood on the dance floor. everything else :no:.

i have no problem people remixing Michael music but we have way too many of thoses. we need something different.
 
I remember my first listen to this . I was in the local hospital preparing for my tonsils operation and that night i listened to this ,Morphine was the first track I listened to, I was curious , the whole album just been released ...Mixed kind of feelings with this song , (truly moving though) after the op doctorinformed me i couldn't get dismissed from the hospital if i didn't eat the breakfast. If i ate it id be dismissed promptly. The breakfast was dry , wholemeal toast.
Michael was in London , On his History tour and playing at Wembly that night. I had tickets :listeningtomusic I heard what the doctor said..
I ate the toast.
 
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