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Thriller 40th Anniversary

I love 💜‘thriller’ more than anything, but I think the right decisions were made during michael’s lifetime about which songs made the final cut. most of the outtakes I’ve heard are either incomplete vocally and lyrically, or they’re simply not up to the standards of the seven singles.

I don’t understand how some fans can (illegally) leak everything they can get their hands on, then complain that they’ve heard it all already. Michael himself was upset when this happened. that’s why certain songs were shelved during his lifetime.

I’m curious about what material will be found for this project, and excited at how the single(s) will be modernised. most of all, it’s about the 4k visuals for me.

I don’t think any documentary outside of ‘the making of thriller’ should be released. Michael never had any profanity in the specials that he produced himself. by including that, the audience has been limited because it can only be shown after watershed. it also goes against michael’s principles, which is just as, if not more important.
 
Did they remaster 'Making Of Thriller' while they were doing Thriller 4K?
 
Robbsaber01 said:
You'd think, however they showed MITM from wembley in BAD25 at TIFF. Going from seeing APOM in HD to the stretched out VHS was disappointing.

Making of Thriller should be remastered and included no doubt.
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I remember the reports from then. A french god praised Bad25 and how good the footage was until he saw MITM. He said something along the lines of "It was a bad day to have the gift of eyesight" lol
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
The freddie mercury songs were recorded somewhere between 1981-1982. They were not recorded in 1983.
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All 3 songs were made in the summer of 1983, it's confirmed on the book For The Record:

Victory:
One of three songs Michael worked on with Queen’s front-man,
Freddie Mercury, when Michael invited him to Hayvenhurst in the
summer of 1983 (the other two were State Of Shock and There Must Be
More To Life Than This). Only Michael, Freddie and Freddie’s
personal assistant, Peter Freestone, were present during the 5-6 hour
session – so, with no drummer and Michael not keen on using a drum
machine, Freestone slammed a bedroom door in time with the rhythm...
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Fuzball said:
У меня есть ощущение, что Motown/Universal случайно выпустят некоторые неизданные вещи в районе даты выпуска T40.:РОФЛМАО:
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Quite possible. Moreover, 10 years have passed since the last such release Come and Get It.
 
AChanceToDance said:
All 3 songs were made in the summer of 1983, it's confirmed on the book For The Record:
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I always thought they were made pre Thriller, I remember Freddie Mercury saying in an interview "I could have been on the biggest album in the world, if we finished the songs in time"
Maybe they were completed in 1983?
 
AChanceToDance said:
All 3 songs were made in the summer of 1983, it's confirmed on the book For The Record:
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But where does this assumption that the year was 1983 come from? In 1983 Michael was still in the midst of the Thriller campaign, doing various photo shoots, recording music videos etc and Queen was in the midst of creating their album The Works during that summer. When would they even have the time to get their schedule to align?

I mean it’s not impossible and the info in For the Record may be correct but we even have Freddie Mercury saying that he was supposed to be on Thriller in an interview which would make sense if the timeline was 1981-1982. We also have pictures of the two of them on two different occasions (1980 and 1982). MJ was also very involved with Freddie and Queen at this time because he went to their concerts at the LA Forum and also suggested that they release Another Bites The Dust as a single from their Hot Space album.

I think I’ll stick with the 1981-1982 narrative because that makes most logical sense and was indirectly confirmed by Freddie himself.
 
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This confuses me a bit too, I think the first song they started to work for Thriller was There Must Be More To Life Than This since it was first written in 1981... I don't think this info is incorrect though, it's been confirmed by other books as well.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
This would be a perfect opportunity to release the third and final collaboration with Freddie!
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Doubt Brian and Roger will want to work with the MJ Estate again. They described it as not at all fun and the estate made them release a version of TMBMTLTT that wasn't their first choice.
 
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AChanceToDance said:
This confuses me a bit too, I think the first song they started to work for Thriller was There Must Be More To Life Than This since it was first written in 1981... I don't think this info is incorrect though, it's been confirmed by other books as well.
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Interesting! Personally I believe the info to be wrong. It really doesn't mean much because they all can be citing an inaccurate source. We have seen this happen numerous times, for example before the full amature audio concert of Brisbane 1987 leaked everyone thought that MJ and Stevie sung Just Good Friends and spread that like the gospel.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
Interesting! Personally I believe the info to be wrong. It really doesn't mean much because they all can be citing an inaccurate source. We have seen this happen numerous times, for example before the full amature audio concert of Brisbane 1987 leaked everyone thought that MJ and Stevie sung Just Good Friends and spread that like the gospel.
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That's a good insight, but I still don't believe Victory is ever coming out mainly because of what SmoothGangsta said above.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
But where does this assumption that the year was 1983 come from?
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From Brian May.

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AONp8OH.png


One of the most legendary of all Queen guest shots took place in 1983, when Mercury joined forces with Michael Jackson to record at Jackson’s home studio. The pair recorded two songs, “Victory” and “State Of Shock,” but when the latter track made its public debut, it was Mick Jagger who took the co-lead vocal, with Mercury nowhere in sight. Mercury, apparently, had offended Jackson backstage at a Queen show soon after the original session, prompting Jackson not only to shelve the original tapes, but to abandon “Victory” altogether – the song titles The Jacksons’ 1984 reunion album but the song itself remains unreleased.
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Fuzball said:
From Brian May.

$_57.JPG

AONp8OH.png
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But this isn’t a direct quote from Brian May correct? And this was also published in 2001..

I don’t mean to be all conspiratorial haha but I still choose to believe Freddie’s narrative as he was the one who was in the studio with Mike and I see no reason why Freddie would lie about something so trivial. On top of that, that specific part is the typical tabloid garbage nonsense.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
But this isn’t a direct quote from Brian May correct? And this was also published in 2001..

I don’t mean to be all conspiratorial haha but I still choose to believe Freddie’s narrative as he was the one who was in the studio with Mike and I see no reason why Freddie would lie about something so trivial. On top of that, that specific part is the typical tabloid garbage nonsense.
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I believe that's real, that's around the time he and Roger Taylor were working on the song again for a possible release.
 
Peter Freestone, Freddie Mercury’s personal assistant, also said that the songs were recorded in 1983. Freddie likely mixed up Thriller and Victory when mentioning how the songs were supposed to come out.

Themidwestcowboy said:
But where does this assumption that the year was 1983 come from? In 1983 Michael was still in the midst of the Thriller campaign, doing various photo shoots, recording music videos etc and Queen was in the midst of creating their album The Works during that summer. When would they even have the time to get their schedule to align?
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1983 wasn’t a busy year whatsoever: no concerts, few interviews, maybe a day here spent on a photoshoot or a week there spent on a short film. Michael spent most of it writing songs for Victory, so it’s not like his schedule was booked. Plus, Michael is notorious for multitasking in this seemingly hectic way (e.g., recording new songs while on tour, making short films in the middle of recording sessions), so it’s not out of the ordinary. I’m sure that over the course of a full year, both Freddie and Michael could’ve found a day or two (which, according to Freestone, it was) to pound out three demos.
 
1983... Buffalo Bill was recorded in 1983. And I think several other demos as well, like Liberian Girl.
 
Derek1984 said:
1983... Buffalo Bill was recorded in 1983. And I think several other demos as well, like Liberian Girl.
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Dirty Diana, too. And iirc all of the the Brian Malouf engineered songs (e.g. Abortion Papers), too.
 
Derek1984 said:
1983... Buffalo Bill was recorded in 1983. And I think several other demos as well, like Liberian Girl.
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Buffalo Bill, Bad Company, Far Far Away, the Freddie Mercury songs, the Peter Pan musical songs and a rumoured Frank Sinatra collaboration were all recorded in 1983... The best outtakes are from 1983 and onwards.
 
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Hess said:
I would really like to hear a 1983 version of Liberian Girl and Dirty Diana...
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LG's pretty much the same as realeased on Bad. DD has an interesting evolution. Would love to hear the discarded 1984 mix.
 
AlwaysThere said:
Peter Freestone, Freddie Mercury’s personal assistant, also said that the songs were recorded in 1983. Freddie likely mixed up Thriller and Victory when mentioning how the songs were supposed to come out.


1983 wasn’t a busy year whatsoever: no concerts, few interviews, maybe a day here spent on a photoshoot or a week there spent on a short film. Michael spent most of it writing songs for Victory, so it’s not like his schedule was booked. Plus, Michael is notorious for multitasking in this seemingly hectic way (e.g., recording new songs while on tour, making short films in the middle of recording sessions), so it’s not out of the ordinary. I’m sure that over the course of a full year, both Freddie and Michael could’ve found a day or two (which, according to Freestone, it was) to pound out three demos.
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I don't believe Freddie got Thriller and Victory mixed up because Thriller was after all the greatest selling record of all time and he said something to the effect that he "missed out on the royalties on that one!" So that specific comment gives the credence that he was very aware what album subsequently came out after they recorded their songs. He also spoke about Michael calling him asking him to complete State Of Shock for the Victory album which proves that Freddie did not lump these two albums together.

Another thing to take into consideration is that Freddie lived in Munich, Germany from about 1983-1985, so just finding the time to go to havyenhurst in that period of time would not have been an easy task unless he was in the USA for whatever reason that summer. That's my personal opinion and I still believe Freddie's account.

Edit:
This is an interview with Peter Freestone from 2013
When asked about where the impulse came from for Freddie and Mike to record together this is what he said

“The first that I heard about it was when Michael came to a Queen show at the Forum in Los Angeles. I remember him talking in the corner with Freddie and John. Afterwards Freddie said 'Huh! Michael says we should be doing something together because he loves what he’s heard!' Because he’d been listening to Another One Bites the Dust and loved that and the whole feel of it. So Freddie said 'He wants to meet up to record. Ah, but it’ll never happen, it’s just talk!'. Months later that was followed up with a phone call from Michael, because he had heard Freddie was in L.A. and he invited him over.”

This makes perfect sense which means that they recorded in 82 not 83. This is the story I believe.

Article
english.radio.cz

Peter Freestone - former personal assistant to Freddie Mercury – discusses forgotten tracks the singer taped with Michael Jackson

For 12 years Peter Freestone was a personal assistant and close friend to Freddie Mercury, the singer who reached superstardom with the rock group Queen. He was also there…
english.radio.cz english.radio.cz
 
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Themidwestcowboy said:
Another thing to take into consideration is that Freddie lived in Munich, Germany from about 1983-1985, so just finding the time to go to havyenhurst in that period of time would not have been an easy task unless he was in the USA for whatever reason that summer. That's my personal opinion and I still believe Freddie's account.
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Freddie recorded some stuff for his solo album (which became Mr. Bad Guy) at The Record Plant on April 21st and 22nd, 1983.
 
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