Best of Joy - Original Version

I may be very late to the party, but there's an ORIGINAL version? The only one I've heard was the one on Michael.
 
Hey guys, hopefully this post doesn't break any rules and the mods let me post, but I've found what appears to be an original lyrics sheet in Michael's handwriting (although which version of the song the lyrics are for I have no idea, be it the '90-91 or the 2008 version), and I'll put the image here:

ef30636fb87fd232a5d5e7ec7dbac410.jpg


Assuming it's genuine, it looks like Michael wrote the second verse down first (like that was the first part he ever wrote maybe), and then wrote down the first and went from there. I'll bold the stuff I think is different from the version we got on Michael:

... You are the sun that lights up the sky
When things are shady
Let come what may, we do get by
I was the only one around
When things would hurt you

I am forever.

I am your joy
Your best of joy
I am the moonlight
You are the spring
Our love's our sacred thing
You know I always will love you

I am forever.

I am the one who chased the clouds away
[Baby] I'm[SUP][?][/SUP] here[SUP][?][/SUP] forever and a day or You[SUP]?[/SUP] have[SUP]?[/SUP] forever and a day
Nothing can hurt you

I am forever.

I am the one who said that you are free
It used to be you, but now it's we
And nothing can hurt you.

We are forever

Two of these unheard verses ("I am the one who chased the clouds away" and "It used to be you, but now it's we") seem like fairly good candidates for that missing third verse that got cut. Seeing as though there's slight differences in wording between the released verses and the verses written here, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that this is not the version of the song that Michael would go on to record in 2008. I'd say possibly the '90-91 version, but it could easily be from the 2000s. If we ever get a release of the original version of "Best of Joy" or in the very least part of the original gets leaked, I wouldn't be surprised if some of these lines I bolded would be on there.
 
a couple of words have been crossed out and replaced, so it's actually this:

I am the one who chased the clouds away
I'll be here forever and a day
Nothing can hurt you
I am forever

Wasn't I the one who said that you are free
It used to be you, but now it's we
And nothing can hurt you.

We are forever
 
Brad and Neff-U haven’t commented on it, but several fans have heard the original demo and have confirmed that the third verse does indeed exist.
 
Well, hopefully if there's ever a Michael rerelease (not sure how they'd get around the fake stuff though) they might include the original version of "Best of Joy" and other songs like "Behind the Mask", a la Xscape.
 
A re-release of Michael would be the best thing the Estate could ever do. - Then remove the 3 Cascio songs and add demoes and alternate versions instead.

Stop selling the original Michael album - remove the original version with the 3 fake songs from Spotify and other streaming services. Then after some years the 3 fake songs would be forgotten to have ever existed.
 
If they re release it then the cascio tracks will be there. They are not going to do anything that makes it look like they think they've done something wrong.
 
They could release the original versions on the deluxe edition of a 50th Anniversary set. Of course, this is only feasible if rumours are true and such a set is indeed in the works.
 
I love best of joy.. the lyrics are so simple but something about his voice and the sweetness in his delivery makes me sad.
 
I think this song is so much more powerful a capella, I mean, some music could be added, the album version sounds overstuffed:

 
I think this song is so much more powerful a capella, I mean, some music could be added, the album version sounds overstuffed:


What I don't like on those new recreated tracks is that the "gaps" on MJs LV tracks have been muted. Bruce Swedien used to leave these parts within the final mix.
 
A re-release of Michael would be the best thing the Estate could ever do. - Then remove the 3 Cascio songs and add demoes and alternate versions instead.

Stop selling the original Michael album - remove the original version with the 3 fake songs from Spotify and other streaming services. Then after some years the 3 fake songs would be forgotten to have ever existed.

I agree, they could add WHE to then take it to 8 tracks and also include the original demo's of each song on a 16 track fan edition
 
They’ll never pull the Cascio tracks off the Michael album — at least not while the ongoing civil case surrounding them is going on. That would be a basic admission of guilt, and Sony won’t take that route.

However, if they ever did, use the XSCAPE formula — take the seven remixed songs and throw on the original demos. That brings us to fourteen songs total, and gives us some A/B comparisons. (Plus, adding previously released songs is just a cheap and tacky move imo.)
 
AlwaysThere;4319535 said:
They’ll never pull the Cascio tracks off the Michael album — at least not while the ongoing civil case surrounding them is going on. That would be a basic admission of guilt, and Sony won’t take that route.

However, if they ever did, use the XSCAPE formula — take the seven remixed songs and throw on the original demos. That brings us to fourteen songs total, and gives us some A/B comparisons. (Plus, adding previously released songs is just a cheap and tacky move imo.)

So, adding TWYLM is cheap and tacky?
 
AlwaysThere;4319535 said:
They’ll never pull the Cascio tracks off the Michael album — at least not while the ongoing civil case surrounding them is going on. That would be a basic admission of guilt, and Sony won’t take that route.
You might have to eat your own words sooner or later
 
I love best of joy.. the lyrics are so simple but something about his voice and the sweetness in his delivery makes me sad.

For me a lot of the sadness comes with the fact that this is one of the last songs he ever worked on and to date the latest chronologically that has ever been released. It doesn't help that he repeats the lines "I am forever, we are forever" as if he's trying to console us

100%. I have no idea why that song was on there.

Neither do I honestly. From what I understand, Michael wasn't entirely pleased with the version that had been released (was it on The Ultimate Collection?) and wanted to revisit it. You can see in the top (right-center-ish) portion of this picture the title "Ways You Love Me".

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Now, I don't know if that's the same song as "(I Like) The Way You Love Me" since Michael did work on two different "Don't Walk Away"s, two different "Can't Stop Loving You"s, and three different versions of "Cheater". But if it is, then that means that Michael at least intended to work on it circa 2009. So maybe that's why they slapped it on Michael
 
I would understand the mentality of "Michael was working on it at the time of his death, so we wanted to include it" if they didn't also include three songs that he hadn't worked on in ten to twenty years (Another Day, Behind the Mask, Much Too Soon).
 
I would understand the mentality of "Michael was working on it at the time of his death, so we wanted to include it" if they didn't also include three songs that he hadn't worked on in ten to twenty years (Another Day, Behind the Mask, Much Too Soon).

I think it can be the reason they include one song and not the reason they include others, haha.
 
AlwaysThere;4319552 said:
I have no idea why that song was on there.
If the song “The Way You Love Me,” was going to be included in any list of songs on anything else other than the boxed-set, “The Ultimate Collection,” then, the original Demo version* (*already leaked on the Internet long before the boxed-set was officially released in 2004) should have been included on the “MICHAEL” album as well, and NOT some lesser-quality version with unnecessary dialogue in it. The original 2004 Demo was much, much better than the one on “MICHAEL,” in my honest opinion. What do you think?

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GGVVGGCC22331122;4319752 said:
If the song “The Way You Love Me” was going to be included in any list of songs on anything else other than the boxed-set, “The Ultimate Collection,” then, the original Demo version* (*already leaked on the Internet long before the boxed-set was officially released in 2004) should have been included on the “MICHAEL” album as well, and NOT some lesser-quality version with unnecessary dialogue in it. The original 2004 Demo was much, much better than the one on “MICHAEL,” in my honest opinion. What do you think?


I like Michael on the phone in the beginning of the Michael version. It makes it more intimate and sentimental in my opinion. Although the "la la la" fade-out at the end of the The Ultimate Collection version was nice too.
 
I think the 2010 mix is well done and respectful, but I completely agree that the original 2004 version is superior. It’s so simple and elegant, yet so excellent.
 
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