The Discussion of MJ's Unreleased Tracks

There’s absolutely no way the leak wasn’t tampered with somehow and/or is fake. Cassette transfers will damage audio, but the leaked mix sounds utterly terrible at the source. I can’t think of another MJ mix that sounds that bad. Even the piss-poor XSCAPE original versions sound better.
It's not fake, but it was likely tampered with in an attempt to de-noise it.
 
Yeah I'm not expecting "Buffalo Bill" to be anything crazy since the song clearly got shelved and was never brought back again thoughout MJ's career, it probably turned out to not be up to standard. Nowadays I try not to overhype myself over any unheard song (I fail at this) so I don't end up feeling disappointed once I hear it, the songs I did enjoy a lot were songs I thought nothing of anyway lol.

But I do think "Buffalo Bill" might stand out in comparison to other Thriller-era outtakes since it publicly got MJ's blessing, though. I don't think MJ had ever mentioned an unreleased song so openly like he did during that interview at Hayvenhurst.
He also mentioned Liberian Girl, and that was with less enthusiasm than Buffalo Bill. Go figure.
 
I do think that the mindset of “MJ stopped working on it therefore it can’t be that good” is a bit flawed. Keep in mind there are plenty of songs MJ never finished that we think are better than songs he worked on for years on end. It’s all subjective at the end of the day.

“We’ve Had Enough” is widely seen as one of the best Invincible outtakes and he bailed on it pretty early. Same with “Hot Street.” Meanwhile, “Best of Joy” (which I love but many don’t) was on his mind for nearly three decades.

I definitely think “Buffalo Bill” won’t measure up to expectations (very few unreleased songs do), but I don’t think it’s failure to make it past the Bad sessions is indicative of anything.
 
Buffalo Bill at this point is 50/50…..it might be one of the best songs or it might be one of the worst. I think when he mentioned it, he was working on it in that immediate moment which is why he spoke highly of it being a hit. With the song being written by both Michael and Barnes, I’m betting the actual tape is in the possession of Barnes estate.
 
Oddly enough the tape hiss is intact in the intro but removed it for the main song… Does sound very muddy.
That and the weird hiss that goes on and off in the verse following the first chorus. It’s like someone tried to restore the file but gave up half way and just leaked it lmao
 
I do think that the mindset of “MJ stopped working on it therefore it can’t be that good” is a bit flawed. Keep in mind there are plenty of songs MJ never finished that we think are better than songs he worked on for years on end. It’s all subjective at the end of the day.

“We’ve Had Enough” is widely seen as one of the best Invincible outtakes and he bailed on it pretty early. Same with “Hot Street.” Meanwhile, “Best of Joy” (which I love but many don’t) was on his mind for nearly three decades.

I definitely think “Buffalo Bill” won’t measure up to expectations (very few unreleased songs do), but I don’t think it’s failure to make it past the Bad sessions is indicative of anything.
Yeah also interesting is the fact that MJ wrote and recorded an entire song (Dream Away) in one session. Yet never went back to it again and it’s quite good, not great but pretty good. Then there’s songs like Changes that he was working on from 1985 until 2009 (supposedly), yet never laid down a proper vocal.

It shows how though songs might be quickly recorded or for a long time doesn’t mean it’s any good or bad. I’d be curious to hear the level of completion on songs like Bad Girl, that only had one vocal session, maybe it’s got a full vocal.
 
A lot of users tend to throw half-knowledge into this thread. And quite confidently at that.
So this whole thread becomes watered down.

When I look at the thread where the
“Streewalker 87“ leak was debated and I see the usual suspects steadfast claim that it was „fake“ it makes me sick.
And now they riding the „it‘s not studio material/quality“ wave, to safe face.
Guess what, a leak almost never is studio quality. The only time we got OG studio files was from the Sundberg laptop theft.

The same goes for judging a song by it‘s title.
Or because the song „got mentioned“ by x person. Even it was MJ himself mentioning it:
We simply don’t know how the song sounds or how the quality is.
But here we are, expecting either the second coming or a trash show by only knowing the title.. it’s often very ridiculous, really!
 
I think a lot of stuff never got released because it (or parts of it) evolved into other songs. So for instance 'Buffalo Bil' wasn't released because the melody, lyrics or bassline was used to create 'Smooth Criminal' (I know it didn't but as an example)
 
Buffalo Bill at this point is 50/50…..it might be one of the best songs or it might be one of the worst. I think when he mentioned it, he was working on it in that immediate moment which is why he spoke highly of it being a hit. With the song being written by both Michael and Barnes, I’m betting the actual tape is in the possession of Barnes estate.
I would guess Barnes had a tape but the MJ estate has a tape as well. The MJ estate probably has a more developed tape of the song.

From what we can gather, the song was initially worked with Barnes, but then it was further developed and even possibly worked on by Swedien for Victory.
 
I do think that the mindset of “MJ stopped working on it therefore it can’t be that good” is a bit flawed. Keep in mind there are plenty of songs MJ never finished that we think are better than songs he worked on for years on end. It’s all subjective at the end of the day.

“We’ve Had Enough” is widely seen as one of the best Invincible outtakes and he bailed on it pretty early. Same with “Hot Street.” Meanwhile, “Best of Joy” (which I love but many don’t) was on his mind for nearly three decades.

I definitely think “Buffalo Bill” won’t measure up to expectations (very few unreleased songs do), but I don’t think it’s failure to make it past the Bad sessions is indicative of anything.
I think if Michael had his way, Hot Street would've been on Thriller. That was a Quincy decision. Thriller is perfect as is. Hot Street is great, but sounds too dated.
 
More than a month since that Dark Lady snippet dropped… I guess we're just gonna be left with blue balls.

Out of all the leaked snippets, this one's the least talked about for obvious reasons. I feel like as a demo it has huge potential, late 00s hip-pop MJ… crazy that it's probably in the hands of some Discord kid.
 
I think if Michael had his way, Hot Street would've been on Thriller. That was a Quincy decision. Thriller is perfect as is. Hot Street is great, but sounds too dated.
I agree, “Hot Street” is awesome but it feels like a song that any other artist could’ve done justice to. It didn’t stand out like everything else did.
 
More than a month since that Dark Lady snippet dropped… I guess we're just gonna be left with blue balls.

Out of all the leaked snippets, this one's the least talked about for obvious reasons. I feel like as a demo it has huge potential, late 00s hip-pop MJ… crazy that it's probably in the hands of some Discord kid.
I've been analyzing that snippet lately and the thing about it is that it actually has everything to give us an idea of how the full song is like; most of the instruments are there, the vocals are all frankensteined (it's the first verse, then it cuts to the pre-chorus, then it goes back to the verse again and it jumps straight to the chorus) and the "Under Pressure"-esque bass is there underneath it all. If that same snippet ever leaks in high quality I'll be more than satisfied, it's literally all I need lmfao.
 
I think if Michael had his way, Hot Street would've been on Thriller. That was a Quincy decision. Thriller is perfect as is. Hot Street is great, but sounds too dated.
His face lit up when Hot Street was mentioned but I agree on the dated sound. I wonder what Michael's configuration of Thriller would've been if he had full control.
 
Back
Top Bottom