Lack of songs from the BAD album at the 1987 shows

analogue

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I've always wondered why only 2 songs from the BAD album were performed at the 1987 shows of the BAD Tour. I get that maybe Michael didn't have the dance choreography worked out for songs like Smooth Criminal, but more spontaneous songs like Another Part Of Me and/or Dirty Diana could have been included. Maybe at that time Michael wasn't 100% happy with the way the songs from the album was sounding live?
 
Well, the Asian tour started in September and the Bad album had only been out 3 weeks or so. He did perform the two singles that had been released in fairness.

As for working the choreography out, he had recorded the Smooth Criminal video in February, March and April of 1987...A year and a half before it was put out as a single so he had all the dancing and moves done for some, if not all these songs worked out.

Perhaps it was a mix of laziness/perfectionism/insecurity. That he wanted to play safe for a few gigs as this was his first solo tour.
He did also say he started the tour in Asia because they didn't get to see the previous two Jackson tours so maybe keeping the setlist like that was a way of presenting what they had missed out previously?
 
Not that this really explains much, but The Jacksons Victory tour had no songs from the Victory album performed. This may have informed MJ’s decision somewhat.
 
Snek;4290870 said:
Not that this really explains much, but The Jacksons Victory tour had no songs from the Victory album performed. This may have informed MJ’s decision somewhat.

Or the fact that it was/should have been Michael's Thriller tour but, Joe and Co. decided to piggy back on it once again.

That tour and the dealings behind it really annoy me.
 
analogue;4290865 said:
I've always wondered why only 2 songs from the BAD album were performed at the 1987 shows of the BAD Tour. I get that maybe Michael didn't have the dance choreography worked out for songs like Smooth Criminal, but more spontaneous songs like Another Part Of Me and/or Dirty Diana could have been included. Maybe at that time Michael wasn't 100% happy with the way the songs from the album was sounding live?

Just my personal speculation: the reason could be that they didn’t want to perform songs live before they were released as singles. Fans of course owned the whole album, but back in the 80’s there was a large market for single releases where people would just choose to buy that one song they liked on the radio.
 
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The Bad tour was literally the Victory tour with "Thriller," "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," and "Bad" tacked on.

But as others have said, it might've been due to the close proximity of the tour and the album release. Only one music video had been shot by the time the tour began, and choreography presumably hadn't been finalized/created by the time he hit the road. It was probably a case of, "Let's work with what we have for the time being and change things later."
 
Probably due to the fact that MJ didn't have much time to rehearse, so he decided to keep the same familiar formula of the Victory Tour with the addition of Thriller, I Just Can't Stop Loving You & Bad.
 
I think it was because of the fact that the album was so new at the time and the asian public probably didn't know all of the new songs.

Only one music video had been shot by the time the tour began, and choreography presumably hadn't been finalized/created by the time he hit the road.

I think what you meant was that Michael had released only one video by the time the tour began, because Smooth Criminal, Bad and The Way You Make Me Feel were all shot before the tour began.
 
Had the album even been released in Asia at the time? The singles definitely were and they were played.
The album only came out in the US and Europe 3 weeks prior to the first Asian gig and I do know that movie and some music releases are later than other markets
 
According to Christopher Currell who worked on the BAD album & BAD World Tour.

"Michael decided to wait until the Bad album was released to do a lot of those songs on the tour so instead, we would do a lot of older material and then later, add the new songs."

So pretty much Michael waited until the BAD album was out for a bit before performing all the major hits, they didn't rehearse songs like "Speed Demon", "Smooth Criminal", & "The Way You Make Me Feel" until after the Christmas 1987 break, during their band rehearsals in January 1988.
 
Not many artists would have the guts to put an album's worth of songs, into a live set, when the album is only out for a short period of time. That's no disrespect to Michael, it's just a fact.

The only artist I can think of who done such a thing was U2. They released an album in November 1991 and the opening night of their tour in February 1992, they opened their show with 9 straight songs from that album

Plus, a setlist has to flow and reach peaks and lows. Perhaps Michael hadn't quite figured out how to work the new songs into the set. But, once he did, it was great.

It's why I'm critical of his tours following Bad. Setlists just seemed to be thrown together, along with the miming.

Bad was THE tour!
 
ScreenOrigami;4290876 said:
Just my personal speculation: the reason could be that they didn’t want to perform songs live before they were released as singles. Fans of course owned the whole album, but back in the 80’s there was a large market for single releases where people would just choose to buy that one song they liked on the radio.

It has been confirmed that this was the reason by his tour collaborators.
 
According to Christopher Currell who worked on the BAD album & BAD World Tour.

"Michael decided to wait until the Bad album was released to do a lot of those songs on the tour so instead, we would do a lot of older material and then later, add the new songs."

So pretty much Michael waited until the BAD album was out for a bit before performing all the major hits, they didn't rehearse songs like "Speed Demon", "Smooth Criminal", & "The Way You Make Me Feel" until after the Christmas 1987 break, during their band rehearsals in January 1988.

Hold the phone. Speed Demon was rehearsed? If that's true then I hope there's footage
 
What I find interesting is that Bad Tour started just a couple of weeks after the release of Bad. In contrast, Dangerous Tour started seven months after the release of Dangerous. History Tour didn't start until September 1996, which was like fifteen months after the release of History.

Maybe, in his later tours, Michael wanted more time to rehearse the new songs, as the early start of the Bad Tour most likely prevented him from performing more Bad songs in 1987.
 
dethorro;4290906 said:
Yeah. Christopher Currell confirmed it in his blog.

Yup, "Speed Demon" was confirmed to have been rehearsed at least twice, with the second time being part of a pitch to Michael to get the song into the setlist. Michael loved the sound of it, but unfortunately let it go because he "didn’t have any choreography to go along with it."
 
Seldervi;4290908 said:
Yup, "Speed Demon" was confirmed to have been rehearsed at least twice, with the second time being part of a pitch to Michael to get the song into the setlist. Michael loved the sound of it, but unfortunately let it go because he "didn’t have any choreography to go along with it."

Such a travesty.. It's absolutely mind boggling that Liberian Girl was not performed. Just replace Liberian Girl with She's out of my life. You can have the same beats (Can I come down there?) on Liberian Girl.
'
 
Not having choreo for it is just an excuse. He didn't have any for BOTDF or Another part of me either. He even didn't know what to do for Billie Jean in Motown 25.
If you're such a natural dancer it doesn't matter if you have choreo or not.
 
Not having choreo for it is just an excuse. He didn't have any for BOTDF or Another part of me either. He even didn't know what to do for Billie Jean in Motown 25.
If you're such a natural dancer it doesn't matter if you have choreo or not.

The thing is that he already had Another Part Of Me in the set list...which was a pretty spontaneous number. Speed Demon would have looked too much like Another Part Of Me without a choreography, in my opinion.
 
Seldervi;4290908 said:
Yup, "Speed Demon" was confirmed to have been rehearsed at least twice, with the second time being part of a pitch to Michael to get the song into the setlist. Michael loved the sound of it, but unfortunately let it go because he "didn’t have any choreography to go along with it."

A live performance of Speed Demon would have been a disaster for Mike. Just imagine, "Spike" stealing the show.:D
 
I think what you meant was that Michael had released only one video by the time the tour began, because Smooth Criminal, Bad and The Way You Make Me Feel were all shot before the tour began.

"The Way You Make Me Feel" was indeed filmed pre-tour, but I could swear "Smooth Criminal" wasn't filmed until January-February. I may be wrong there, so I'll have to do some more reading.

My mistake though! Thanks for the correction:)
 
"The Way You Make Me Feel" was indeed filmed pre-tour, but I could swear "Smooth Criminal" wasn't filmed until January-February. I may be wrong there, so I'll have to do some more reading.

My mistake though! Thanks for the correction:)


No problem! :)

Smooth Criminal was shot in February/March/April 1987. I believe that Leave Me Alone, Speed Demon, Come Together and Dirty Diana (?) were shot in January/February 1988 (Dirty Diana may have been shot around the time of the TWYMMF short film).
 
This is why I have a love-hate relationship with the 87 leg of the Bad Tour. He sung live more, a lot more, and energy was great, but there were hardly any songs from the Bad album. It’s frustrating!
 
Rocketeer;4290927 said:
This is why I have a love-hate relationship with the 87 leg of the Bad Tour. He sung live more, a lot more, and energy was great, but there were hardly any songs from the Bad album. It’s frustrating!

Just see it the positive way. The '87 leg was basicly the VICTORY tour without his brothers.
 
Some of you MJ fans love to hate on the brothers. SMH!

Yes I don't get it, I love every single show he did with his brothers more than any of his solo tours. He seemed more in his element when they were on stage together. They were very talented as well, many people don't want to acknowledge that.
 
Seldervi;4290908 said:
Yup, "Speed Demon" was confirmed to have been rehearsed at least twice, with the second time being part of a pitch to Michael to get the song into the setlist. Michael loved the sound of it, but unfortunately let it go because he "didn’t have any choreography to go along with it."

I don't buy the "no choreography" reason. There were few of his uptempo songs that didn't have any choreography during live performances, such as WBSS, Black or White, Bad (song that actually has a dance sequence during the music video). So, MJ didn't have to do Speed Demon live with a choreography.
 
Yes I don't get it, I love every single show he did with his brothers more than any of his solo tours. He seemed more in his element when they were on stage together. They were very talented as well, many people don't want to acknowledge that.

Many feel that brothers were holding him back, which is a ridiculous thing to say.
 
I don't buy the "no choreography" reason. There were few of his uptempo songs that didn't have any choreography during live performances, such as WBSS, Black or White, Bad (song that actually has a dance sequence during the music video). So, MJ didn't have to do Speed Demon live with a choreography.
True, but it probably would have been too similar to the performance of Bad (same outfit, structure of the song, etc.). I can even see him do the same poses he does in Bad. Only addition would probably be to have a body double, like the ones on Thriller in Dangerous and HIStory Tour, dress up as Spike and "challenge" Michael to a dance off on stage at the end. I actually lowkey would want to see how that would play out on stage, despite how silly it may appear. Heck, they could even bring out a motorcycle on stage if they wanted to! But, for Michael's safety, maybe not really activate it? :)
 
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