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The Discussion of MJ's Unreleased Tracks

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Did Bill mention why he and Quincy bumped heads during the Bad album session? I still find it messed up how majority of the songs were created at Hayvenhurst only for the tapes to be taken and reproduced
 
is there a way to contact Christopher Currell? He seems to have a vivid memory about the Encino and Westlake sessions.

regarding "Apocalypse Now":

After about six months working with Michael everyday on various songs, sound design and library work, I got the word that Michael was soon to start his next album with Quincy Jones. We had lots of songs demoed. I was wondering if I was going to be working with Michael and Quincy or if my fun job would finally close.

[...]
I did not know what would become of me. I just kept working as usual. Then the day before the work was to begin at Westlake, Michael’s secretary came in the studio and said to me that Michael wanted me to work on the album and to move the Synclavier to Westlake.

[...]
One morning, John Robinson, drummer extraordinaire and another of Quincy’s top guys brought in six of Michael’s songs that he had programmed on an Oberheim drum machine. Most drum machine parts I had heard sounded very mechanical. Not so with these tracks. They sounded amazing! The feel was great! John said “He programed them in real time and were not quantized to a click.” John said He finished just in time because he was going on tour the next day with the famous group The Band. We recorded his drum tracks from the drum machine to digital tape. That day I was just observing. The next day, Michael came in to hear the tracks. I told him they sounded great. He listened and was dancing. When we finished listening, Michael agreed, they sounded great but…the arrangements were completely wrong! John was already gone on tour so he could not redo the tracks!

Bruce was perplexed as to what to do. I said, “I can put those tracks into the Synclavier and then rearrange everything correctly.” So he said “Ok” and I did it. This is when Bruce realized the importance of being able to sync the recordings with the Synclavier. So we proceeded to redo everything that we had already done, so we would have a solid framework from which to do anything. We could replay parts, change sounds, change arrangements…anything. I could even make a breathable click track from John’s drum machine performance so as to not mess with the feel! So for a few more weeks, the Synclavier became a “Band Aid.” We re-recorded everything in order to begin at square one.


John Robinson:

There was another track I did that never made it called "Apocalypse Now" that I wrote six and a half minutes of military drum cadences for. I brought in Don Wiliams, John Wiliams' brother, Dan Greco and Bob Zimetti and we recorded with four field snares, four piccolo snares, two sets of piatti and one gran casa. It was a very hip tune but it never made the record. I was kind of upset about that.
 
Fuzball said:
John Robinson:

There was another track I did that never made it called "Apocalypse Now" that I wrote six and a half minutes of military drum cadences for. I brought in Don Wiliams, John Wiliams' brother, Dan Greco and Bob Zimetti and we recorded with four field snares, four piccolo snares, two sets of piatti and one gran casa. It was a very hip tune but it never made the record. I was kind of upset about that.
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The title reminds me of something military style and made me wonder if this was the song Michael was going to do a short film for before Janet borrowed the theme for RN.....or Michael could've been telling one of his white lies
 
When was Who Do You Know really worked on? And with who? It is really developed as a composition, with the horns and all. Yet otherwise it's a demo.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
When was Who Do You Know really worked on? And with who? It is really developed as a composition, with the horns and all. Yet otherwise it's a demo.
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Year of composition is listed as 1981 but I think it's one of those songs Michael probably had in his head for a while, which is why it sounds so polished outside of the lyrics.
 
ChanceToDance said:
One other thing that's fascinating to me is that's pretty much how MJ looked like throughout the recording of Dangerous. When I hear the songs from that album I picture Michael looking the way he did on the BOW clip or during the Dangerous tour when he recorded them but he still looked exactly like his Bad era self.

I mean just look at any photo of MJ during 1989-1991, that's literally just Bad era Michael lol

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Still blows my mind. I really wonder what happened later in 91
 
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BlackAnon said:
Year of composition is listed as 1981 but I think it's one of those songs Michael probably had in his head for a while, which is why it sounds so polished outside of the lyrics.
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It would've been really good contemporized.

I think the public is ready for a new MJ ballad. They've focused on uptempos this past decade but, if Dream Away is utilized properly, it can take the world by storm.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
It would've been really good contemporized.

I think the public is ready for a new MJ ballad. They've focused on uptempos this past decade but, if Dream Away is utilized properly, it can take the world by storm.
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Bro...can you imagine getting the multitracks to Dream Away? I hope we get a proper release of that one
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
It would've been really good contemporized.

I think the public is ready for a new MJ ballad. They've focused on uptempos this past decade but, if Dream Away is utilized properly, it can take the world by storm.
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Yeah Dream Away is amazing.. And it also feels strangely contempory imo
 
The Estate must do something special for the movie right? Or could it still be just a 'greatest hits' soundtrack?
 
In 2025 the time has come for The Verdict to be released on HIStory 30. (Hopefully the Estate doesn't read this)
But seriously, HIStory is actually perfect as a soundtrack for the biopic. Even better would be The Essential.
 
Sneaking suspicion we're gonna get a solid amount of unreleased stuff. in the most recent red jackson podcast, Brad said that the estate has everything he had or worked on that hasn't been released. Fair to say the same can be said for most collaborators such as porcaro/jerkins/riley or even the Munich blu-ray footage. Doesn't mean we're gonna get it all in the near future but I would not be shocked if we got new stuff in the aftermath of the movie.

My kinda less optimistic feeling is that most of the best unreleased MJ songs have leaked, so it's highly likely that we're gonna get finished or updated versions of the song's we've been hearing on the internet since 2010 and maybe one or two surprises (kinda like T40).
 
FMJP said:
Sneaking suspicion we're gonna get a solid amount of unreleased stuff. in the most recent red jackson podcast, Brad said that the estate has everything he had or worked on that hasn't been released. Fair to say the same can be said for most collaborators such as porcaro/jerkins/riley or even the Munich blu-ray footage. Doesn't mean we're gonna get it all in the near future but I would not be shocked if we got new stuff in the aftermath of the movie.

My kinda less optimistic feeling is that most of the best unreleased MJ songs have leaked, so it's highly likely that we're gonna get finished or updated versions of the song's we've been hearing on the internet since 2010 and maybe one or two surprises (kinda like T40).
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Does that include the Will.I.Am stuff? And RedOne?
 
TLDR: not ploughing through 434 pages, lol. :D

Apologies if this song has already been covered upthread ... posting as FYI. Not sure if this even qualifies for this thread but this quote from Richard Stites intrigued me ... "Just vocals but Michael kept the reels with his vocals on there" :unsure:

www.bricenajar.com

Richard Stites - BRICE NAJAR

Michael Jackson Teddy Riley Invincible Richard Stites Don't Walk Away Sony Music
www.bricenajar.com

Did you work on other demo tracks that never made it to the album?​

"I also recorded a song called “Just a Lover in My Life” that he planned to record but ended up never cutting vocals on. We never mixed it and finished it. Just vocals but Michael kept the reels with his vocals on there. If it wasn’t released in 5 years all rights revert back to me. So I own all rights to it.

(…This answer about “Just A Lover In My Life” had inevitably aroused my curiosity. Fortunately, in the same spirit as listening to the demo of “Don’t Walk Away”, Richard suggested I listen to it, as a pleasant surprise. A midtempo track with an interesting potential – that was enough to arouse Michael’s interest. From the first listen, we feel Jackson’s influence even through Richard’s vocal performance. In the dark and tormented atmosphere, I find some similarities with “She Was Loving Me” by Cory Rooney, another song not selected for Invincible. This atmosphere fits perfectly for the King of Pop and one can imagine him totally immersed in this demo as it was made for him. I imagine hearing his version and I let myself be carried away by these percussions that sound like a new disillusionment in love, but in a much more bitter way than “Don’t Walk Away”, in a theme close to that of “Who Is It”. All of this makes me want to be positive and tell myself that the vaults have not been looted yet. I still have Jackson treasures to discover, and this gift from Richard Stites is here to remind me. Naturally, I asked him for permission to talk about the demos. He kindly accepted, saying that he has kept it all to himself for too long. He even added that since the Invincible sessions, I am the first person to listen to this demo and he appreciates my interest. This is how I keep hope that, among the collaborators of the King of Pop, many more will be happy to share the beautiful experience they had with him…)"​
 
zinniabooklover said:
TLDR: not ploughing through 434 pages, lol. :D

Apologies if this song has already been covered upthread ... posting as FYI. Not sure if this even qualifies for this thread but this quote from Richard Stites intrigued me ... "Just vocals but Michael kept the reels with his vocals on there" :unsure:

www.bricenajar.com

Richard Stites - BRICE NAJAR

Michael Jackson Teddy Riley Invincible Richard Stites Don't Walk Away Sony Music
www.bricenajar.com

Did you work on other demo tracks that never made it to the album?

"I also recorded a song called “Just a Lover in My Life” that he planned to record but ended up never cutting vocals on. We never mixed it and finished it. Just vocals but Michael kept the reels with his vocals on there. If it wasn’t released in 5 years all rights revert back to me. So I own all rights to it.

(…This answer about “Just A Lover In My Life” had inevitably aroused my curiosity. Fortunately, in the same spirit as listening to the demo of “Don’t Walk Away”, Richard suggested I listen to it, as a pleasant surprise. A midtempo track with an interesting potential – that was enough to arouse Michael’s interest. From the first listen, we feel Jackson’s influence even through Richard’s vocal performance. In the dark and tormented atmosphere, I find some similarities with “She Was Loving Me” by Cory Rooney, another song not selected for Invincible. This atmosphere fits perfectly for the King of Pop and one can imagine him totally immersed in this demo as it was made for him. I imagine hearing his version and I let myself be carried away by these percussions that sound like a new disillusionment in love, but in a much more bitter way than “Don’t Walk Away”, in a theme close to that of “Who Is It”. All of this makes me want to be positive and tell myself that the vaults have not been looted yet. I still have Jackson treasures to discover, and this gift from Richard Stites is here to remind me. Naturally, I asked him for permission to talk about the demos. He kindly accepted, saying that he has kept it all to himself for too long. He even added that since the Invincible sessions, I am the first person to listen to this demo and he appreciates my interest. This is how I keep hope that, among the collaborators of the King of Pop, many more will be happy to share the beautiful experience they had with him…)"​
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Says MJ didn't record any vocals, then says he did but took them away with him? Am I reading that correctly?
 
SmoothGangsta said:
Says MJ didn't record any vocals, then says he did but took them away with him? Am I reading that correctly?
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You are reading it correctly. I'm confused, also. If Michael didn't get around to recording vocals, then fair enough, I can live with that. But if he did, if there is a tape somewhere with his vocal of this song it's another thing I'd like to hear even if it's just a fragment (never gonna happen blah blah, just sayin').

This is why stories about Michael drive me mad. So often there just isn't a coherent narrative. It's like reading the worst kind of detective novel with no resolution!
 
zinniabooklover said:
You are reading it correctly. I'm confused, also. If Michael didn't get around to recording vocals, then fair enough, I can live with that. But if he did, if there is a tape somewhere with his vocal of this song it's another thing I'd like to hear even if it's just a fragment (never gonna happen blah blah, just sayin').

This is why stories about Michael drive me mad. So often there just isn't a coherent narrative. It's like reading the worst kind of detective novel with no resolution!
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He said: "We never cut vocals on. " Later he said MJ took his vocals with him. I understand out of this, that he recorded vocals, but they wasnt cut or mixed, just the bare vocal recoding.
 
Lordus Hanus said:
He said: "We never cut vocals on. " Later he said MJ took his vocals with him.
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"I also recorded a song called “Just a Lover in My Life” that he planned to record but ended up never cutting vocals on ...
Sounds like Michael didn't record any vocals.

"We never mixed it and finished it ...
Seems like they did work on the song but didn't complete it.

"Just vocals but Michael kept the reels with his vocals on there ...
Sounds like something does exist somewhere.

Lordus Hanus said:
I understand out of this, that he recorded vocals, but they wasnt cut or mixed, just the bare vocal recoding.
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Agreed. It's just a bit confusing the way the story is presented in the interview. Not being critical, I love Brice Najar interviews and I love these comments from Richard Stites. But the story comes across a little bit muddled, imo. I would love some clarification as to whether there really are recorded vocals for this song. Although, even if a tape exists, who knows if it would ever become available in any form.

Oh well, back to reality!
 
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