Chicago 1945

Fuzball

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Anyone here who heard Chicago 1945 at Brad Sundbergs seminar a couple years back?
 
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I've been to one. Think it was 2017 or 2018. It wasn't played as far as I remember.
 
I've been to one. Think it was 2017 or 2018. It wasn't played as far as I remember.

Chicago 1945 was played once in 2014 when Steve Porcaro attended the L.A. seminar.
 
I wasn't there but I remember someone on this forum speaking about the song and they said they loved it. They found it hard to compare it to any other song but they said it was most like Behind The Mask

They said they couldn't stop humming "never to be found again, never to be found again" or something like that, which was the hook of the song and really catchy. It had a thunderous back beat and Michael towards the end of the track was almost only adlibbing Chicago, Chicago, Chicago. They said it sounded like a hit

I also recall them saying something like, it was lyrically and vocally complete and only left off Xscape because the Estate needed Steve Porcaro's permission to remix it and he didn't want it remixing.
 
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From Damien Shields:

The song “Chicago 1945″, on the other hand, makes a number of significant Chicago-related citations. The World’s Fair (which visited Chicago), The Chicago Tribune (local newspaper), Al Capone (of ‘The Chicago Outfit’ fame), and so on. While making these citations it tells the story of a mysterious disappearance in the area. “Three girls disappeared on a cold windy night, never to be found again, never to be found again!” sings Jackson in the first verse. “Who solved the mystery late Chicago night? Ya can’t hide the truth so won’t ya turn on the light,” he continues in the choruses, before launching into a flurry of high-pitched “hoo-hoo” and “hee-hee” ad libs. The track finishes with Jackson chanting “Chicago! Chicago!” over and over in his trademark, gritty (slightly angry) vocal-style. The track was constantly on Jackson’s mind over the course of his career, and was worked on during the ‘Invincible’ sessions and again at Neverland in 2004.

From morinen, a fan who attended the Brad Sundberg seminar where the song was played:

After the Thriller album came out, during the Victory tour (or maybe right before it) Porcaro submitted a few grooves to Michael. Sometime later MJ called Steve and told him that he wanted to do something with one of them. Apparently, he had gone to the library and read on Chicago of the 1930s-40s, and that’s how he came up with an idea for the song. He and Porcaro met and recorded nine straight vocal takes for what would become “Chicago 1945.”

Of course, it’s impossible to describe music in text, but here are five things you need to know about “Chicago 1945”:
— The song is completed musically an vocally and perfectly releasable as is;
— It has no connection to “Al Capone” or “Smooth Criminal” (another myth) – a completely different and separate song;
— The lyrics tell a story about (three?) girls who went out at night and disappeared;
— It’s a catchy song. Not the level of greatness of “Billie Jean” or “Beat It,” but a solid groove. The hook (“Never to be found again… never to be found again”) was stuck in my head for 3 days after we had heard it;
— As the song was playing, I was trying to find another MJ song to compare it to. The closest I could come up with was “Behind the Mask” – the song is in the same tempo, and even the composition seemed somewhat similar to me. Although I think “Chicago 1945” is sung in a lower key – Michael’s voice is not as resonant as in “BTM.”

The sad thing is that everybody could have heard it by now if only the record label had been willing to do right by it. Porcaro was approached about the song for Xscape album, but he didn’t give his permission to use it. “It seems songs are going straight to remix these days,” he told us. It was obvious this approach didn’t sit well with him.
 
This and throwing your life away he only songs left that were completed :-(

Throwing Your Life Away is not a 100% finished song. But It has a great potential, the song sounds "complete" under the instrumental points, but there are only scratch vocals on there.
 
Throwing Your Life Away is not a 100% finished song. But It has a great potential, the song sounds "complete" under the instrumental points, but there are only scratch vocals on there.
Wait. What? Are you sure? I always thought that one is vocally 100% done and was considered for a release
 
Wait. What? Are you sure? I always thought that one is vocally 100% done and was considered for a release

The song has full lyrics and instruments recorded on there. It's an amazing one compared to the other incomplete songs, but it has early - scratch vocals on there. Probably there are several different version, but the "recognized" one has early vocals on it.
But it's still a great song.
 
This is curious, because a number of seminar attendees (and Damien Shields) have said the song is finished.

I'm not saying it's an incomplete song like Deep In The Night or Man In Black without lead vocals on it, it has a great potential as i said, but speaking about the vocals it's still 30% incompleted to me.
 
The song has full lyrics and instruments recorded on there. It's an amazing one compared to the other incomplete songs, but it has early - scratch vocals on there. Probably there are several different version, but the "recognized" one has early vocals on it.
But it's still a great song.

The version with scratch vocals comes from Brad Sundberg, right?
 
The version with scratch vocals comes from Brad Sundberg, right?

Yes. That one, and probably it's one of the "approved" version to me but i'm not sure, cause the instruments and few parts sounds amazing complete.

I can maybe understand the reason why they haven't released that in the Xscape project, But it would have been a great idea releasing that in the BAD 25th 2nd disc.
 
Yes. That one, and probably it's one of the "approved" version to me but i'm not sure, cause the instruments and few parts sounds amazing complete.

I can maybe understand the reason why they haven't released that in the Xscape project, But it would have been a great idea releasing that in the BAD 25th 2nd disc.

If you have to rank TYLA along with BAD25s 6 'new' demos in terms of vocal completeness, where would you put tyla?
 
If you have to rank TYLA along with BAD25s 6 'new' demos in terms of vocal completeness, where would you put tyla?

Tbh i'm listening rn the BAD25 demos and maybe i can recognize you the "similiar" vocal completeness in the Don't Be Messin' 'Round scratch vocals shared some time ago by Korgnex, because all the 6 demos in the disc are a waaay more complete than TLYA to me.
 
Stefano MJS;4293731 said:
Tbh i'm listening rn the BAD25 demos and maybe i can recognize you the "similiar" vocal completeness in the Don't Be Messin' 'Round scratch vocals shared some time ago by Korgnex, because all the 6 demos in the disc are a waaay more complete than TLYA to me.
Oh that’s so sad. I had high hopes for that song based on the short snippets available. It really seems that the vault is empty and only a handful songs are releasable (for example CGYWOOM).
 
(for example CGYWOOM).

For example, that one, Get Your Weight Of Off Me sounds nice too, but it's just too repetitive at some points i can understand why they cutted out that one too but is a good one, there are also other stuffs not in the hands of the Estate since they're in the producers hands.

Chicago 1945 and TYLA sound like great songs, or demos.

The Bad outtakes really are something else.

Definetely, Bad outtakes are magical to me.
 
Alright so TYLA is another song to scratch of the complete list. The vaults are starting to look like a desert to me. The best thing they could do is release already known songs like streetwalker, we've had enough or hot street etc on 1 disc and call it a new album. At least it's better than to have them all scattered across compilations and special editions.
 
Yeah, I’m getting nervous now.

None of the RedOne songs are apparently complete enough to be released. Will.i.am won’t release any of his stuff. There’s almost certainly a number of songs withheld by people who won’t cooperate with the Estate. And day by day it seems like more and more titles are being torn from the “releasable” pile.

I wish we could get someone like Michael Prince, Brad Buxer, or Matt Forger in here for a Q&A session so we could find out, once and for all.
 
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