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Behind the Mask - Official Discussion Thread

I absolutely love this song, Michael's vocals sound very seventy-ish. I instantly become very happy when I hear this song. It's amazing. This is original Michael Jackson at his best.
 
I think this song is absolutely amazing, MJ at his best. I was wondering does anyone know if the sounds of the crowd cheering are taken from a real concert MJ performed or whether they were just added in?
 
^^ both.....the crowd noise is from Bucharest, Dangerous tour..:)
 
VCBabyMJfan said:
I was wondering if anyone can hear this sound also:
I just LOVE this particular sound ( best hearable with headphones)
It goes like:

toink titatoinktoink toing toing toing toingtikitoingtong

from 0.44 minutes till 0.58 minutes( here the sound transforms)
also in the saxsolo

LOVE IT!!
BTW: Is it Michael who makes this sound?
I hope someone knows what i mean
Click to expand...

Do you mean the "tapping" sound? LOL- I was just going to post about that. To me, it sounds like the tapping of the staff of a musical staff by a muscial director. You know, like at the beginning of a classical concert- the majestro tapps his staff and everyone holds and starts. That's what I hear.

Btw- I also adore this song. At first the inclusion of the live part was startling and I still do not fully understand the purpose of it (or the sax- which I love)- other than to draw attention and makes us talk (hey, look, it works..). The song is wonderful, and I will join the string of posters who would love to see it released as a single.
 
be4mj said:
Do you mean the "tapping" sound? LOL- I was just going to post about that. To me, it sounds like the tapping of the staff of a musical staff by a muscial director. You know, like at the beginning of a classical concert- the majestro tapps his staff and everyone holds and starts. That's what I hear.

Btw- I also adore this song. At first the inclusion of the live part was startling and I still do not fully understand the purpose of it (or the sax- which I love)- other than to draw attention and makes us talk (hey, look, it works..). The song is wonderful, and I will join the string of posters who would love to see it released as a single.
Click to expand...

I was skipping radio stations the other day and someone played the song. They included the whole intro with concert sounds starting it off and edited out version of the talking bit. It was awesome. The energy level was fabulous! I'd obviously heard it plenty times before and I was excited when I heard it then. I think it would be a superb choice for the next single!
 
The song is such a precious gift. The intro is just to die for!!! Michael was all about live audiences. I absolutely love that part, it takes you back!!!
 
mehdiblanket said:
Is there a chance to have original version without screaming from bucharest?
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there is but i dont know why noone of the audio mixers is trying to do that :O

you just need the same live audience which is from dangerous tour bucharest beginning of jam.. and eliminate it from the original track :agree:
 
Having Behind The Mask as a single is a huge risk taker because it sounds nothing like anything that's being played in the mainstream music scene right now. The fact that Behind The Mask is a huge risk taker is the one of the main reasons why i think it should be a single. No one takes risks with music now a day. Everyone just plays it safe and no one dares to make them selves stand out from what's in the top 20 charts right now.

Behind The Mask could be that song that dared to be different. A song that wasn't afraid to stand out and not be tied down to the ''rules'' that the mainstream music scene has set up for artists today.
 
wow this is a fantastic song it reminds me of off the wall. brilliant also ya can hear at first like from the concert how ya doing hope they release this has a single.
 
analogue said:
Having Behind The Mask as a single is a huge risk taker because it sounds nothing like anything that's being played in the mainstream music scene right now. The fact that Behind The Mask is a huge risk taker is the one of the main reasons why i think it should be a single. No one takes risks with music now a day. Everyone just plays it safe and no one dares to make them selves stand out from what's in the top 20 charts right now.

Behind The Mask could be that song that dared to be different. A song that wasn't afraid to stand out and not be tied down to the ''rules'' that the mainstream music scene has set up for artists today.
Click to expand...

Agreed. :) When I think of some of the crap I hear on the radio nowadays, Behind the Mask would be like a breath of fresh air. If I could decide between hearing Behind the Mask or Time (Dirty Bit), I'd choose BTM without hesitation.
 
The Story of Behind The Mask



Oh, the lyrical lunacy of Chris Mosdell,
He opened his mind and out the words fell.
With a laugh and a wink and an untamed moan,
The words grew legs and teeth and a plan of their own.
They clambered up music notes, bloomed into song,
And a long list of musicians sang right along.
The words stretched toward the sky at such a pace
That everyone assumed they'd shot into space.
Until one day last month, they fell from the sky.
(One fame-drop even hit Mozz in the eye.)
Oh, the lunical lyricist laughed, with a start,
At how words, when they're free, can come back with a heart,
And, with Michael Jackson, trump the music chart.

That's how the tale of Chris Mosdell's lyrical celebrity might look, if it were crafted into a poem, inspired by his own Shel Silverstein-style of recently released children's books.
In that case, Mosdell would probably draw a black and white stick figure self-portrait, like he did to illustrate his books (which sport titles like "In Search of the Holy Whale"). But a mystical stick figure. Any big-time poet's got an enigmatic reputation to uphold, you know.
Mosdell, who also goes by simply "Mozz," was born in England, but he lives in Boulder and Tokyo. He has an eclectic résumé spanning all kinds of writing, from the children's books to lyrics for popular Japanese anime soundtracks.
And then there's the one particular song that Mosdell says has a life of its own: "Behind the Mask."
The evolution of the song, from its oft-disputed roots to immortality granted by the King of Pop, is a mysterious saga, Mosdell says. One whose climax is Michael Jackson recording the song for his "Thriller" album -- and the falling action is the song being omitted at the last minute for copyright issues; and surprising dénouement is Mosdell hearing from an acquaintance on the street that the song had finally surfaced on Jackson's posthumous album.
The album, titled "Michael," released Dec. 14, was a top-seller around the world and hit No. 3 in the United States. It contains a collection of unfinished songs, including the original 1982 recording of "Behind the Mask."
The song is now back "with a vengeance," Mosdell says.

The story of the song
Here is a glimpse inside Chris Mosdell's poetic mind (from the poem "Aorta Avenue," published in one of his many books).
See, it is I who rides blindsaddled with the scribes/
I am jacked up on void noise, eel fevers, stupor juice, drunken rumbas and birth glows.

Compare that with the lyrics on the "Michael" CD:
All along I knew you were
A phony girl.
You sit behind the mask
And you control your world.

It's no leap to imagine this isn't the tone of Mosdell's original version of the song. In fact, he says, he wrote the lyrics of "Behind the Mask" based on the imagery of a Japanese traditional Noh mask, combined with a poem by Irish poet W.B. Yeats called, "The Mask."
"I was talking about a very impersonal, socially controlled society, a future technological era, and the mask represented that immobile, unemotional state," Mosdell says.
The Japanese electro-pop band, Yellow Magic Orchestra, liked the lyrics. One of Japan's biggest stars, Ryuichi Sakamoto, wrote the melody line and the band launched the song in the late '70s, Mosdell says.
On a trip to Japan, musician Quincy Jones
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heard the song and introduced it to Jackson, thinking it would fit the album they were producing. Jackson agreed, adding more lyrics and music, transforming the song from a techno classic into a dance-funk soundtrack, Mosdell says.
"When Michael Jackson took it, it made it into a love song, kind of, about a woman," Mosdell says. "It was a completely different premise to me, but hey, it's Michael Jackson. I let him have that one."
However, the evolution complicated copyright issues. As Mosdell recalls, he agreed to divide the royalty share equally with Jackson and Sakamoto. But this apparently did not sit well with the management of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, Mosdell says, "and after further discussion, and disagreement, the song was taken off 'Thriller.'"
"It retained a kind of mystique for the last 25 to 30 years. Everyone knows about it and knows that it was recorded for ('Thriller') but was taken off," Mosdell says. "This created a subculture history behind it."
Over the years, while Jackson's recording sat untouched, other artists picked up "Behind the Mask." Eric Clapton. Human League. Greg Phillinganes. Orbital and countless electronic bands around the world remixed it.
"This song has a life of its own, completely out of control," Mosdell says.
After Jackson's death, producers began putting together an album of the artist's unfinished recordings, and "Behind the Mask" resurfaced as one of 14 possible songs for a 10-track set. This time, the copyright quibbles went smoothly, Mosdell says. Still, he says, he didn't hold his breath.
Then, last month, Mosdell says he was walking down the street when he bumped into an acquaintance who complimented the song on the album.
Mosdell was speechless. The publishing company hadn't told him the news yet.
"No, I heard it on the street," he says with a laugh. "The lyricist is the last person to know these things."

The story of the writer
Mosdell calls his work "lyrical lunacy." Which, by the definition lunacy -- and its very omission of self-awareness -- would make Mosdell, in fact, perfectly sane.
His rhyming children's poems, and the corresponding Boulder-based Goofy Guru Publishing Company, are kind of an alter ego, he says, to balance out his heavy, abstract, psychedelic and often obscure poetry.
"They're a way to keep me sane, in an ironic kind of way, because the whole books are so insane," he says.
But at his core, Mosdell considers himself a serious poet. He writes in coffee shops, inspired by what he calls the existential hum of Tokyo. The city is his muse, he says -- also a bit ironic, since he moved to Japan on a total whim after graduating college. (He majored in science.)
Mosdell has published multiple poetry books with some of Japan's biggest publishing houses, and he boasts a list of awards, including the gold prize for poetry at a literature festival in Boulder and the gold prize at the Tokyo Music Festival for his lyrics. He has traveled the nation, even landing on stage at New York's legendary CBGB club, performing his poetry to electronic music.
Producing the music: Denver's Brian Comerford, a volunteer producer at KGNU radio who has been running the Electronic Air show since 1995. Comerford is currently working on a documentary about Mosdell, expected to be released next month under the title "Ink Music" or "Behind the Mask."
"I found his stories fascinating. Everyone in Japan knows his work, and yet no one there knows who he is," Comerford says. "He's worked with the who's who of all these major names in Japanese pop culture, from the music scene to calligraphy artists to fashion designers to stage directors to the largest broadcasting company."
Everyone in the Japanese entertainment industry and the general public would recognize a Mosdell song if they heard it, Comerford says.
"It's an anthem that everyone in the country knows," he says. "But no one would be able to pick this guy out from a crowd if he's walking the streets of Tokyo."
Part of that is intentional, Comerford says. Mosdell is even particular about the kinds of photos published of him. He admits that he likes that mystical presence of a poet.
"He's just this behind-the-scenes guy in the entertainment industry, yet he's still tour de force with all these other artists," Comerford says. "He has crafted this persona. He kinds of likes to be behind the mask."
 
Michael is a powerhouse on this song.

His 80s vocals were just out of this world. What a gem. What a brilliant addition to his back catalogue.
 
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