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The Discussion of MJ's Unreleased Tracks

Can anyone convince me that the I Was The Loser is real?

Because I'm fairly sure it's just a manipulated chorus, editing the "I am" to "I was". Tons of attempts were dkne back when IAAL leaked and with todays recent technology, it's even easier.

What's the source?
 
BlackAnon said:
Siedah confirmed Michael’s version existed but I also believe he played around with the song but nothing was officially recorded, if that makes sense.
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If you listen to the leaked snippet of Groove of Midnight with MJ, you can hear a brief moment where the close to album version background instrumentation is played. Also, consider the previous demos with Rod, ie: Slapstick, Baby Be Mine, Got the Hots, etc. They aren't just bare bones piano only, they are more advanced.

IMO, the leaked snippet pretty much confirms there is an advanced demo of GOM. They didn't just play around with it and not officially record anything. MJ and Rod were clearly in the studio recording it.

I think it's safe to assume that when Siedah recorded her version, she got to listen to MJ's demo and work from that.
 
It seems like MJ's way of recording changed so much through the years: from almost finished demo's to demo's with just the choruses..? Or as some say seperated lead vocals to prevent it leaking in total..? Some choruses seem so finished that it's hard to believe he didn't record any lead vocals for the songs, even when we know he wrote them. Anyone else is confused about this?

Is it time for a thread about Michael's recording processes, or is there already one?
 
Derek1984 said:
If you listen to the leaked snippet of Groove of Midnight with MJ, you can hear a brief moment where the close to album version background instrumentation is played. Also, consider the previous demos with Rod, ie: Slapstick, Baby Be Mine, Got the Hots, etc. They aren't just bare bones piano only, they are more advanced.

IMO, the leaked snippet pretty much confirms there is an advanced demo of GOM. They didn't just play around with it and not officially record anything. MJ and Rod were clearly in the studio recording it.

I think it's safe to assume that when Siedah recorded her version, she got to listen to MJ's demo and work from that.
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Rod Temperton himself would have made a demo of the song with guide vocals, like he normally did as the song's writer. So she would have heard that one as well.

Those other Rod songs were proper recordings made in the studio with Quincy Jones producing. Michael liked them, as it seems. But those did not develop far due to other stronger songs taking priority.

Evidently, Michael was not very open to outside writers' songs during the Bad era. He became more confident as a songwriter and producer on that record.
Rod presented his songs to Michael early on during the official Westlake sessions with Quincy.
It wasn't until midway through Bad (February 1987) that Quincy sought songs from other writers... And out of that came "Man In The Mirror" and "Just Good Friends", which Michael loved and felt their potential. So he decided to record them and release on Bad.
(JGF, in retrospect, wasn't a wise move though, let me tell you!)

IMO Michael may have tried out Groove of Midnight in studio rehearsals. But wasn't too keen to do a full recording of it...
Michael already wrote 9 of the 11 songs on Bad, songs that he felt were the strongest. So he didn't feel as much need to properly record Groove of Midnight if it didn't hold up as strongly to those other songs.
On Thriller (and albums before) it was a different situation, with Michael having four strong songs and they relied more on outside writers for the rest. As better songs came along during the project, other songs gradually fell by the wayside (Nite Line, Carousel, Got The Hots etc.) - specifically other writers' songs.
 
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I don't think GOM made it past what I would call the "advanced demo" stage. More complete than a regular demo, but not as complete as an outtake. I think a good example of an advanced demo is "Who Do You Know"
 
Fuzball said:
level of completion for all demoed Temperton songs should be similar as Got The Hots
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Yeah, good example is Baby Be Mine. Listen to that demo and then listen to the album version.

I'd consider that demo to be advanced. They have a chorus, bridge, etc. They aren't just rough ideas. Temperton came into every project prepared and with songs that were very well laid out for MJ to start with.
 
Fuzball said:
level of completion for all demoed Temperton songs should be similar as Got The Hots
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As mentioned earlier, Temperton did demos of his songs to present to Michael and these were fairly fleshed out and arranged. Michael would probably choose the songs he liked and record them as he pleased.

So a writer's demo of Groove of Midnight definitely exists. However, Matt Forger said he couldn't locate a version in the vault with Michael's vocals, though. Which isn't promising.
 
Fuzball said:
The multitrack tape w/ MJ vocals could have been moved over to Siedah's sessions.
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That was my theory, that MJ's vocals were used as a ref track (or erased, idk), and the multitrack tapes used to create the song were moved over to Warner Music Group's vault over in Southern California (either that, or they're with Quincy's estate).
 
BlackAnon said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/659469428166266880
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I'm guessing there is a demo with MJ's vocals. Probably happened right at the beginning of recording at Westlake. Rod probably had a couple songs ready and GOM was one of them MJ put vocals on.

Probably got discarded early. But I would think Rod still stayed for a while at Westlake and helped with some arrangements on songs.
 
Derek1984 said:
I'm guessing there is a demo with MJ's vocals. Probably happened right at the beginning of recording at Westlake. Rod probably had a couple songs ready and GOM was one of them MJ put vocals on.

Probably got discarded early. But I would think Rod still stayed for a while at Westlake and helped with some arrangements on songs.
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Even so, Michael was reluctant to use songs from other writers on Bad (save for JGF and MITM). Unlike previous albums.

Perhaps he did a quick multitrack demo of it.
Like Quincy used to do on Thriller, creating "polaroids" - a quick recording of a song to test out the arrangements before developing further. Basically a studio demo. But I don't see Michael being that keen on GOM.
 
Eventidescape1 said:
Even so, Michael was reluctant to use songs from other writers on Bad (save for JGF and MITM). Unlike previous albums.

Perhaps he did a quick multitrack demo of it.
Like Quincy used to do on Thriller, creating "polaroids" - a quick recording of a song to test out the arrangements before developing further. Basically a studio demo. But I don't see Michael being that keen on GOM.
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I don't think he was against using other songwriters. Wasn't it Quincy that pushed Michael to write more on Bad?

GOM is good but I don't think it would've fit the album with Liberian Girl and IJCSLY on there. It's also a possibility Michael only did background vocals for the song and never intended to record his own version
 
BlackAnon said:
I don't think he was against using other songwriters. Wasn't it Quincy that pushed Michael to write more on Bad?

GOM is good but I don't think it would've fit the album with Liberian Girl and IJCSLY on there. It's also a possibility Michael only did background vocals for the song and never intended to record his own version
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That would be true if Rod Temperton had already decided it was going to Siedah Garrett (or some other artist) and just had Michael on BG's...

But Rod has passed away nearly a decade ago so what do we know.
 
BlackAnon said:
I don't think he was against using other songwriters. Wasn't it Quincy that pushed Michael to write more on Bad?

GOM is good but I don't think it would've fit the album with Liberian Girl and IJCSLY on there. It's also a possibility Michael only did background vocals for the song and never intended to record his own version
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Agree GOM would not have fit the BAD album.

But that song with MJ vocals would be magical. Rod has a special way with his songwriting and arrangements.
 
Derek1984 said:
I'm guessing there is a demo with MJ's vocals. Probably happened right at the beginning of recording at Westlake. Rod probably had a couple songs ready and GOM was one of them MJ put vocals on.

Probably got discarded early. But I would think Rod still stayed for a while at Westlake and helped with some arrangements on songs.
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It probably wasn’t at the beginning of recording at Westlake, since Temperton mentions Michael’s hair being much longer than the last time they saw each other “in October”. I think it’s fair to say he was talking about October 1986, since Michael’s hair was indeed shorter than later on when he was shooting the Bad short film. So this session would have probably been around January-February 1987, perhaps?
 
I recently read that the video for "Who is It" was lost and before that there was a compilation of videos to the music, but why was it considered lost if it was officially released on a compilation of videos in 2010?
 
GotThis said:
I recently read that the video for "Who is It" was lost and before that there was a compilation of videos to the music, but why was it considered lost if it was officially released on a compilation of videos in 2010?
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because an alternate version (the clip compilation) was serviced to the USA while the actual video was confined to international countries after its initial airing (if it even aired at all) - possibly due to MJ's dissatisfaction with how it turned out.

It was never considered lost, just extremely rare and hard to come by.
 
threepea11 said:
Does anyone know if Michael actually recorded the California Raisin Grapevine song? Considering he recorded HBL, wouldn’t he have recorded IHITTGV?
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I don't think he recorded it as the song was used in previous California Raisin commercials but he did sneak in a "whoooo!" without Pepsi knowing.

Happy Birthday, Lisa was written by him so it's safe to assume he would record a version.
 
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