Depends if the publishing disagreements happened before or during Quincy’s involvement at Westlake. But from the score sheets, it looks like it may not have developed much if it did. Quincy usually did screen a lot of the material beforehand.
I have Chicago 1945 in my top unreleased songs TBH. Including songs included as extra or bonus tracks, it would make my top 10. I really like it. Chicago 1945, Throwin' Your Life Away and Remember What I Told You are the only songs leaked in recent years that I would actually say are worthy of a "Main MJ Playlist" for me.
He recorded Dirty Diana in 1983 and 1984 and its apparently the same as the final version but with scratch vocals (most of the lyrics are the final ones) and Michael imitating the ending guitar solo
pretty sure it was developed pretty far, most of the personnel on the phillinganes version are basically the exact same people Michael worked with
To clarify, Michael realised his ideas through other people - musicians and programmers alike, including Bill and John. Hooks, melodies, ideas, individual parts, grooves etc. And they help flesh them out in the studio as Michael told them.
TYLA is imo, instrumentally unfinished. Needs more percussion or snare, maybe guitar. The 2010 version tries to do that but it does too much imo
A lot of them were simply top-list session musicians in LA at the time that played on many more iconic records other than Thriller, like Greg himself. Like Michael McDonald, Toto and so forth.
iirc I found a source literally 2 days ago, but I cant seem to find it rn (I'm on my School Chromebook lol). Maybe someone like @SeriousFX might know
Carousel, Nite Line, and She's Trouble are also marked as "Not Used" and yet they ended up being recorded at Westlake. It's just as likely that a demo with the same quality could exist.
That's kind of what I said earlier. That it may exist as a quick "Polaroid" that Q made in the studio, a rough demo of the song to test out the song arrangements, key etc.
Turns out he did a demo of it at Hayvenhurst but said it was not strong enough:
That’s the first song Rod presented to Michael for Thriller. Never went further than Hayvenhurst
Insulting The Lost Children feels like picking on a disabled kid… not his fault he’s that way.
The demo couldn't sound any shittier, it doesn't matter whether the estate releases more or less or no demos/outtakes/etc if, when they do, they do it in such a horrible manner as they've done.
Usually Rod recycles songs that don't make MJ albums. I'd be surprised if this song or something very similar wasn't used by another artist.
I wouldn’t say it’s his fault tbh. It’s the source files. Whatever versions the estate grabbed were either sourced from damaged/worn cassettes or were day-of reference mixes that weren’t intended to be commercially released. Even the best mastering engineer in the world would fail at repairing a fundamentally poor mix. I’ve listened to other Brian Gardner masters over the years and he does a great job.
My skull candy wired buds I bought for 40 dollars at 7/11 disagrees with U Brudda. The future is now, old Man
Carousel is possible to be somewhat restored to a listenable quality, but of course not as the original release sounds due to the degraded cassette tape source. I wouldn‘t also say that his masters are particulary bad, although I would prefer different mastering engineers working on these releases, but that the compressor and limiter put on are the main issues. But was that his decision or The Estate‘s/Sony‘s. Thriller 40 somehow has a similar dynamic range as Bad 25, and that one was even put to court and remastered by Tom Coyne in 2014, which didn‘t compress and limit the audio as much as the 2012 master and is quite an enjoyable listening experience. It is a good improvement over the 2012. Nowadays, where even phone speakers can be really loud, limiting those tracks to such an extend, is in my opinion unnecessary
The only thing I’ve ever thought is that “Roll The Dice” could’ve become “Spice of Life” - same amount of syllables and basically rhyme, another Starlight/Slapstick situation.
The Estate releasing "untouched" demos in less than satisfactory quality is in the Estate's MO. Ever since Xscape, they've made it clear that they don't respect the stuff that was left behind as is.
My favorite new MJ song since Abortion Papers in 2012… and if speaking of leaks, my favorite since DYKWYCA in 2010.
Same! I actually got very annoyed recently when I went to listen to it on my phone that I had absolutely no idea if I was listening to an unedited version in the best quality - in the end I believe I found it, but easily my fave MJ song in years and years.My favorite new MJ song since Abortion Papers in 2012… and if speaking of leaks, my favorite since DYKWYCA in 2010.
I’ve heard many versions/files in the last six months of TYLA, and most of them seem to have issues….like a slightly wavy sound or pops and clicks in them.
And the 9-minute version is just silly after 4–5 minutes… IMO
(will never hear that one again)
The community is arguing and dislikes that The Estate remixes unreleased songs to be commerically profitable but when they do release the raw demos as Michael left them, you‘re disliking that as well?