The Discussion of MJ's Unreleased Tracks

[Eventidescape1]

@Eventidescape1: there're earlier recordings from previous album sessions. For history every song the team has worked on was created from scratch - except Earth Song.

I was talking in the context of the three 24-track reels of tape Rob Hoffman was referring to for TDCAU - those were all overdub reels towards the final HIStory album recording, aside from the master reel.
Come Together was another one not created from scratch.

There definitely was an earlier version of TDCAU from Dangerous, which Matt Forger and Bill Bottrell worked between June & August 1989 at Westlake Recording Studios. Bryan Loren heard that version when he joined the team by October 1989, but it got "bumped" at the time. Bill more recently said a version may exist from the Bad sessions (1986/87), but that may just be an idea or groove that Michael thought had potential.

 

[arisenow]

I was talking in the context of the three 24-track reels of tape Rob Hoffman was referring to for TDCAU - those were all overdub reels towards the final HIStory album recording, aside from the master reel.

There definitely was an earlier version of TDCAU from Dangerous, which Matt Forger and Bill Bottrell worked between June & August 1989 at Westlake Recording Studios. Bryan Loren heard that version when he joined the team by October 1989, but it got "bumped" at the time. Bill more recently said a version may exist from the Bad sessions (1986/87), but that may just be an idea or groove that Michael thought had potential.

I wasn’t exclusively talking about the HIStory tapes. Mine are only safety copy’s from different time periods. Mostly Dangerous. I’m still searching for the rest.

For example, I’m missing the vocal takes from the Bad sessions. I’ve been told there’s also a „home demo“.

 

[Eventidescape1]

I wasn’t exclusively talking about the HIStory tapes. Mine are only safety copy’s from different time periods. Mostly Dangerous. I’m still searching for the rest.

For example, I’m missing the vocal takes from the Bad sessions. I’ve been told there’s also a „home demo“.

To be fair, you initially said "There are at least three 24-track tapes with different arrangements" of TDCAU, which technically isn't wrong but I thought you misinterpreted what Rob Hoffman was saying initially.

For all the Michael album tracks, there are several multitrack "slave" tapes /w overdubs corresponding to one "master" multitrack for a given recording... Bad itself used around 400 reels of tape for all 12 recorded songs /w Quincy, including Streetwalker. And these are all compiled from (including vocals) for the final song you hear, so not all of the slave reels are needed or used eventually. Or not all of the tapes were transferred to digital.

There would also be previous recorded versions for songs, cut on 24-track, 16-track etc. at Hayvenhurst and other studios. Which may or may not have used slave reels at all, or not as many as the final recordings did. If that makes sense.

You may have safety copies of the slave reel, but not the full set of isolated tracks used in the end, as is for the "Billie Jean" demo and "You Are Not Alone" multitracks which are largely isolated vocals with submixed backing tracks.