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The Discussion of MJ's Unreleased Tracks

BlackAnon said:
Uno de los ingenieros, creo que era Rob, dijo que Michael grabó versiones en español y francés de algunas canciones de la sesión de Bad.
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A few years ago I saw an interview where Rubén Blades, IJCSLY's Spanish adapter, said that Michael wanted to make a full album in Spanish, but it never came to fruition because there was no time.
 
It's interesting how Bottrell thinks "Crack Kills" didn't have vocals when another collaborator on those pre-production sessions confirmed that it did. Maybe he wasn't there, or maybe that collaborator was mistaken.
 
Fuzball said:
Bill has just shared his session calendar.




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Some interesting revelations here.
  • Seems like "Crack Kills" and "Don't Be Messin' 'Round" were brought to Westlake at least once.
  • Apparently a Spanish-language version for "Price of Fame"'s Pepsi version exists.
  • "Hot Fever" did have vocals added post-registration.
  • "Don't Be Messin' 'Round" was brought to Westlake around October
  • A ton of work was done on "Speed Demon (either the album version or the a second, more fleshed-out demo)" and "Throwin' Your Life Away" 'round the end of December.
  • The Westlake sessions began on July 10th, not August 4th like I previously thought.
  • At Westlake, Bottrell was most involved with early production on "Smooth Criminal" and "Streetwalker."
I highly suspect "A Way With Words" was an earlier attempt at creating a ballad before "I Just Can't Stop Lovin' You" took its place.
 
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ChanceToDance said:
This would've killed my hype for the song if it wasn't for the fact that MJ praised that track himself and said it could've been a hit lol. There's no way it's as bad as Bill makes it out to be if it got MJ's blessing. I'm not expecting it to be the "next Billie Jean" since the song must've been discarded for a reason but I doubt it'd be something that fans would dislike hearing.
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It's a early 80s disco throwback, must be. Wouldn't have fit on Bad though.

Also, Bill doesn't like many of these songs lol.
 
SeriousFX said:
Some interesting revelations here.
  • Seems like "Crack Kills" was at least brought to Westlake at least once.
  • Apparently a Spanish-language version for "Price of Fame"'s Pepsi version exists.
  • "Hot Fever" did have vocals added post-registration.
  • Don't Be Messin' 'Round was brought to Westlake around October
  • A ton of work was done on "Speed Demon" and "Throwin' Your Life Away" 'round the end of December.
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Hot Fever is confirmed as the working title for TWYMMF
 
ChanceToDance said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1864891254280212980

(In regards to Song for Epic/A Way With Words)
https://twitter.com/x/status/1864889524914098420
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I'm posting these again as plain text in case Bill decides to delete his tweets.

"Throwing" got a lot of work put into it. One night M did lead vocals. I thought the key was too high, he couldn't find the right voice for it. He never brought it up again. Like I said, we moved fast at Hayvenhurst. Put some love into a track, and if it doesn't work, on to the next thing.

**********

Epic wanted M to do a trio with Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen. Pretty lame idea, but M was a good soldier and told them I'll try something. M went away for a few days and John B and I wrote a hook and no lyric and made a quick demo. M got to tell Epic he tried and all was done.
 
more posts:

I don't remember a Spanish language version.
Or was it for a commercial? Pepsi?
But I didn't record the vocal.
I did record the Spanish vocals for Pepsi on Billie Jean though

*******

Earth Song barely got started at Hayvenhurst, and never went off the list.
Monkey Business - same.
Strange how neither made Dangerous album
 
Demos finished, mixed and sent to Quincy:
Smooth Criminal
Leave Me Alone
Price of Fame
Speed Demon
I Just Can’t Stop Loving You
Dirty Diana
Liberian Girl

^I'd love to hear these mixes; especially IJCSLY with its "soprano vocals" (JUL 22, '86)
 
Fuzball said:
Demos finished, mixed and sent to Quincy:
Smooth Criminal
Leave Me Alone
Price of Fame
Speed Demon
I Just Can’t Stop Loving You
Dirty Diana
Liberian Girl

^I'd love to hear these mixes; especially IJCSLY with its "soprano vocals" (JUL 22, '86)
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I'd reckon this specific mix of Price of Fame is the one on Bad 25.
 
Listening to the third BOJ verse and I personally think they could have probably kept it. Only the start sounds a bit off.

Although I've had a feeling that the version Korg released is compiled from different recordings or cut up. Of course just speculating.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
Listening to the third BOJ verse and I personally think they could have probably kept it. Only the start sounds a bit off.

Although I've had a feeling that the version Korg released is compiled from different recordings or cut up. Of course just speculating.
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I get the feeling we havent heard the full picture.
 
Fuzball said:
this just feels odd; Sundberg, a studio runner having multiple (unauthorized?) copies of songs while some full time collaborators like Bottrell haven't even kept backup copies for themselves
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I've always been confused by this. No offence to Brad but he's not a songwriter and he was never - afaik - a senior studio tech. Sure, he was a regular part of Michael's team and I'm sure a very valued part of that team but he wasn't Matt Forger or Michael Prince or Brian Vibberts or any of those guys. I don't understand how he gets to have material in his possession the way that he does. Not trying to start any trouble here, not wanting to start any kind of vendetta against Brad, just saying it has always seemed weird to me.
 
zinniabooklover said:
I've always been confused by this. No offence to Brad but he's not a songwriter and he was never - afaik - a senior studio tech. Sure, he was a regular part of Michael's team and I'm sure a very valued part of that team but he wasn't Matt Forger or Michael Prince or Brian Vibberts or any of those guys. I don't understand how he gets to have material in his possession the way that he does. Not trying to start any trouble here, not wanting to start any kind of vendetta against Brad, just saying it has always seemed weird to me.
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Nah, let's start a vendetta against Brad. 400 dollars for a ticket, he is definitely a t*rrorist.
 
I dont mind Brad having copies of work he has done. I have copies of all the work I've done somewhere more or less. Sometimes I just like to look back on the design work I've done. I imagine he may work in a similar way.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
Some on here genuinely think he should be shot for going to take those tapes at mj's request
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I think for me it's more just not knowing anything about studio etiquette or any of that stuff. I'm just a bewildered outsider who doesn't understand their world. I've noted Bill Bottrell's comments but don't really want to go down that rabbit hole. The Brad thing doesn't quite add up for me but, like I said, that could just be my lack of knowledge. 🤷🏽‍♀️
 
Bill Bottrell is the current MVP in my eyes. Not only still being extraordinarily generous with sharing information, but outright publishing detailed session info with dates, song titles, and details as to what was done on each song?

What a legend. So grateful.

Very curious about the non-specified songs.
 
AlwaysThere said:
Very interesting that MJ went back to “Al Capone” twice after “Smooth Criminal” started. Maybe he was debating which was better?
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I thought one of those also had Roger Troutman... Maybe it was Al Capone? It was said Troutman worked on Tomboy and I think Al Capone. I wonder if that 11/28/85 session had Troutman perform on both songs.

Tomboy must have been held back for BAD25. There was a rough mix and vocals confirmed.
 
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