‘Decade’ - The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

[mj_frenzy]

I'm not sure how people can say 'Decade' and 'History' are completely different... The fact it has different track list says very little to me simply because 'Dangerous' came out which took many of the track list that would have been on 'Decade'.. Since it took the tracks 'History' of course would have to have a new track list. Also History was made post allegation which changed his musical style so it changed the music even more..

And again, of course the track list would be different, 1) it was released years later 2) New music was created 3 ) tracks for 'Decade' was released on Dangerous 4) The allegations happened

‘Decade’ was going to get an official release on November 14th (1989). It would have included very few new songs (more likely only three) because it was meant first & foremost to be a greatest hits album. As a result, no subsequent album from 1989 onwards (including ‘Dangerous&#8217 is to blame for taking many of the ‘Decade’ new songs.

‘Dangerous’ & ‘HIStory’ are two records unique in their own ways. So, there is absolutely no reason for both of them to be related to the cancelled ‘Decade’ album.

As far as songs that were supposed to be on 'Decade' like 'Men In Black' - it's my belief that it was cut out of Dangerous the same way it would have been cut out of 'Decade'.. I remember hearing somewhere that the music being made for release in 1989/1991 - they felt too strong about it to be put on a compilation album.. I think with that Michael was persuaded not to use the idea but went back to It... History..

I cannot tell for sure why ‘Men In Black’ never made an official album. I think it is anyone’s guess.

 

[OnirMJ]

I cannot tell for sure why ‘Men In Black’ never made an official album. I think it is anyone’s guess.

The same reason why Serious Effect, Work That Body, Superfly Sister and other Bryan Loren tracks didn't made the album. Teddy Riley came on board.

 

[mj_frenzy]

The same reason why Serious Effect, Work That Body, Superfly Sister and other Bryan Loren tracks didn't made the album. Teddy Riley came on board.

Bryan Loren described a few things that happened during those years when he worked together with MJ on various tracks:

“We recorded some twenty-plus tracks together. Sadly, many of these we never finished…He did the backing chorus voices on ‘To Satisfy You’ from my ‘Music From The New World’ CD because I’d written it for him, for 'Dangerous'. When it was decided he wasn’t going to use it, I told him I wanted to keep his vocals and put it on my record. He said, ‘Of course’. We actually did the finishing work on ‘Superfly Sister’ from ‘Blood On The Dance Floor’ a few years after I’d already done the track, as this was a song that I started writing during the ‘Dangerous’ sessions. Which made me feel it was always possible that we might revist some of the other music we’d started all that time ago. This was not unusual for Michael, as in the case of ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ from the ‘History’ album. This was a song that he’d started even before I joined him for 'Dangerous'. One of the first things I heard was this song, but it got bumped at that time. ‘Earth Song’ was also started during 'Dangerous'…As we’d recorded so much music and none of it was used for that project [‘Dangerous’], and much else occured that I won’t go into here…When we began working, it was my hope to return to a form of feeling that you got from the 'Off The Wall' or even the 'Thriller' Lp. Where there was a very organic feeling about the content. ‘Work That Body’, is complete with Michael repeating (at my behest) the rap from The Jackson Five’s ‘ABC’. He DID NOT want to do this (lol), but realized the toungue-in-cheek fun contained in it. I produced this track, and am performing all of the music. There are no sequencers on it, as I do not generally use them in the course of my work. The two of us wrote the lyric and melody." (Bryan Loren, Myspace)

 

[OnirMJ]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

Bryan Loren described a few things that happened during those years when he worked together with MJ on various tracks

Thanks for this. But he did not say anything about why his tracks weren't used on the final tracklist. And the only reason is Teddy Riley. And not in a negative way. He just had better songs and he was in my opinion better producer, hit producer with current sound. That is what MJ was looking for. The same destiny that happened to Bryan Loren songs happened to Babyface & LA Reid and I am happy for that. They were all given a chance but didn't have what MJ was looking for, a "new sound" for a new decade. And MJ made the right decision. Himself, Teddy Riley & Billy Bottrell were the right team with truly the best songs from that era. Superfly Sister is great and maybe it could have replaced one of Teddy's weaker tracks but that's just details. Work That Body & Serious Effect are bad in my opinion. I haven't heard Man In Black so I don't know about that one but I'm not having big expectations from his songs.

 

[Electro]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

The same reason why Serious Effect, Work That Body, Superfly Sister and other Bryan Loren tracks didn't made the album. Teddy Riley came on board.

some of the weakest MJ songs/productions ever... Teddy saved it.

 

[OnirMJ]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

some of the weakest MJ songs/productions ever... Teddy saved it.

I agree. Superfly Sister is great though. Maybe not strong enough for Dangerous but one of the best tracks on BOTDF. Funky as hell!

 

[innuendo141]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

I agree. Superfly Sister is great though. Maybe not strong enough for Dangerous but one of the best tracks on BOTDF. Funky as hell!

Always got a Bad vibe off this song, despite the production. Love it more these days

 

[Themidwestcowboy]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

I agree. Superfly Sister is great though. Maybe not strong enough for Dangerous but one of the best tracks on BOTDF. Funky as hell!

Always got a Bad vibe off this song, despite the production. Love it more these days

Superfly sister is in my top 3 MJ songs. Such a great funky track

 

[hyperbolical]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

Personally I would have preferred he kept the compilation disc 1 off of HIStory and let it be a strong album on its own geared toward answering the allegations and expressing his emotions during that period with songs like Scream and ballads like YANA which work together with it.
The compilation disc 1 always confused me and I think alot of other people, as to what this album was. is it compilation or new stuff? it was not clearly defined. Maybe conceptually it was but not in a way that communicated well to a mass audience.
Same with BOTDF. Is it new stuff or remix? It falls dead in the middle and therefore lacks clarity as an album presented to the public. In my opinion.
===
I hope I have not offended anybody. That's my signature.

 

[innuendo141]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

Personally I would have preferred he kept the compilation disc 1 off of HIStory and let it be a strong album on its own geared toward answering the allegations and expressing his emotions during that period with songs like Scream and ballads like YANA which work together with it.
The compilation disc 1 always confused me and I think alot of other people, as to what this album was. is it compilation or new stuff? it was not clearly defined. Maybe conceptually it was but not in a way that communicated well to a mass audience.
Same with BOTDF. Is it new stuff or remix? It falls dead in the middle and therefore lacks clarity as an album presented to the public. In my opinion.
===
I hope I have not offended anybody. That's my signature.

I disagree. I was 10 when BOTDF came out and I understood fully what kind of album it was. Ditto HIStory. I was 8.

 

[HIStoric]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

I disagree. I was 10 when BOTDF came out and I understood fully what kind of album it was. Ditto HIStory. I was 8.

I understood the concept of HIStory pretty quickly when I first listened to it at 12 years old. I mean, the full title literally explains the concept of the album

 

[KOPV]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

I love love love hearing adult Michael singing young Michael music... Even in "work that body' when he sings "Sit down girl I think I love ya, no get up girl, show me what you can do." I repeat that...

 

[mj_frenzy]

Thanks for this. But he did not say anything about why his tracks weren't used on the final tracklist. And the only reason is Teddy Riley. And not in a negative way. He just had better songs and he was in my opinion better producer, hit producer with current sound. That is what MJ was looking for. The same destiny that happened to Bryan Loren songs happened to Babyface & LA Reid and I am happy for that. They were all given a chance but didn't have what MJ was looking for, a "new sound" for a new decade. And MJ made the right decision. Himself, Teddy Riley & Billy Bottrell were the right team with truly the best songs from that era. Superfly Sister is great and maybe it could have replaced one of Teddy's weaker tracks but that's just details. Work That Body & Serious Effect are bad in my opinion. I haven't heard Man In Black so I don't know about that one but I'm not having big expectations from his songs.

I think that MJ was bent on releasing an album (‘Dangerous&#8217 that would have primarily dealt with social problems/concerns. For this reason, the ‘street’, angular beats of the ‘new jack swing’ genre seemed to be fully in sync with the album’s social, urban direction.

Also, in my opinion, sugary ballads produced from Babyface (or Bryan Loren) would have made that album look too soft, especially for a record called ‘Dangerous’.

As a result, I believe (like you) that Teddy Riley’s contribution was not only better but also more appropriate, & consequently predominated over other producers’ works/ideas (Bryan Loren, LA Reid, Babyface, for example).

All in all, I think that MJ did the right thing when he sacrificed a greatest hits album for a new studio album, & thus to channel all his creativity in the most effective way.

Personally I would have preferred he kept the compilation disc 1 off of HIStory and let it be a strong album on its own geared toward answering the allegations and expressing his emotions during that period with songs like Scream and ballads like YANA which work together with it.
The compilation disc 1 always confused me and I think alot of other people, as to what this album was. is it compilation or new stuff? it was not clearly defined. Maybe conceptually it was but not in a way that communicated well to a mass audience.
Same with BOTDF. Is it new stuff or remix? It falls dead in the middle and therefore lacks clarity as an album presented to the public. In my opinion.
===
I hope I have not offended anybody. That's my signature.

I think that MJ did the right thing with those two discs on the ‘HIStory’ album. I mean that during that period, & especially shortly after the allegations, he needed an emphatic comeback. On this account, the inclusion of the ‘HIStory’ greatest disc one was, for me, a wise move.

Personally, I always regarded the two ‘HIStory’ discs as a way of rebirth for MJ.

Also, people should not have got confused by the ‘HIStory’ package/concept because it was clearly defined as to what kind of album was. But, I agree with you that ‘Blood On The Dance Floor’ was probably unclear about its direction.

 

[barbee0715]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

I agree that adding the greatest hits (and also calling it HIStory) was necessary and brilliant.

Not just because it showcased the first half of his story, his life.

Post 93 it was like a way of saying to everyone: did you forget who I am? This is me. I'm the person you have loved because of these songs. I'm still the same person.

 

[hyperbolical]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

well I'm going to continue in my opinion regardless of people implying that even a little kid could figure it out the title was so literal. Really why do people on MJ boards feel a need to condescend? never mind i guess it goes with the territory and I am just about going to quit trying to have any kind of a real conversation.

The simple fact of the matter is that by the end of the 90s MJ's career was spiraling downward and the overblown apparent megalomania of HIStory and the lack of clarity about that album and BOTDF both contributed to his commercial decline in the eyes of Sony. It doesn't mean I don't like those albums or that I personally, now that I've spent time getting into them, don't understand them. They just didn't have the immediate crystal clarity that Thriller or even Dangerous had. So I avoided them until last.

So now I quit. You may have your board back to yourselves.

 

[barbee0715]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

I did not mean to be condescending when I said the concept and title of HIStory was brilliant.
No way would I expect a little kid to understand the underlying meaning. I would just play it for them and they'd like it.

I DID expect more of educated music critics to understand the meaning and not just diss it as megalomania. All I remember at the time was bad press and idiotic reviews where they "pretended" to misunderstand the songs.

 

[hyperbolical]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

barbee I was not referring to your post but thank you.
I don't see how a little kid even had a clue as to the deeper implications of those albums and the new songs on them. As a little kid they would just see the word dancefloor and think of dancing, a kid who was 8 would not even have understood what molestation charges were 3 years earlier and probably had no clue who MJ was referring to in D.S. and why.

As for music critics being educated, I don't believe they are formally educated in either music or journalism for the most part. They get into the business and listen to alot of music. They then play to their audience. And pop music is just not taken that seriously. HIStory was the closest MJ came to a concept album but when you do concept albums they need to be singular. It would have made more sense in terms of the title to do HIStory either literally as in greatest hits by decade, or metaphorically as in response to the charges with new material. But both together came off as confusing, in my opinion.

I was living in England at the time HIStory came out and the statue going down the Thames rubbed the Brits the wrong way since they are mostly very understated and hate obvious pretention. Jarvis Cocker even interrupted his performance and objected to his humanitarian pretentions.

If you were not a die hard fan at the time you were not following all the news about the charges in America and so the album came off as megalomania.
BOTDF barely registered. It would have been better IMO if those new songs had been put together with the new songs on HIStory. And BOTDF been purely about dance remixes.

 

[hyperbolical]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

or at the very least
HIStory
Book 1 Past (Greatest Hits)
Book 2 Present (New material)
Book 3 Future (dance remixes)

 

[HIStoric]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

barbee I was not referring to your post but thank you.
I don't see how a little kid even had a clue as to the deeper implications of those albums and the new songs on them. As a little kid they would just see the word dancefloor and think of dancing, a kid who was 8 would not even have understood what molestation charges were 3 years earlier and probably had no clue who MJ was referring to in D.S. and why.

If you're referring to my post, reading back on it I just realised you might have thought I was talking about BOTDF. I should've clarified the album better but I was actually talking about HIStory, where the concept of the album is literally in the title (pretty sure it's on the back too, just above each disc's tracklist). That's how 12 year old me understood it pretty quickly

 

[hyperbolical]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

If you're referring to my post, reading back on it I just realised you might have thought I was talking about BOTDF. I should've clarified the album better but I was actually talking about HIStory, where the concept of the album is literally in the title (pretty sure it's on the back too, just above each disc's tracklist). That's how 12 year old me understood it pretty quickly

and did you understand it as His story about the allegations? seeing as they had occured when you were 10?

 

[innuendo141]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

Personally I would have preferred he kept the compilation disc 1 off of HIStory and let it be a strong album on its own geared toward answering the allegations and expressing his emotions during that period with songs like Scream and ballads like YANA which work together with it.
The compilation disc 1 always confused me and I think alot of other people, as to what this album was. is it compilation or new stuff? it was not clearly defined. Maybe conceptually it was but not in a way that communicated well to a mass audience.
Same with BOTDF. Is it new stuff or remix? It falls dead in the middle and therefore lacks clarity as an album presented to the public. In my opinion.
===
I hope I have not offended anybody. That's my signature.

This is what i was referring to, your confusion as to whether History was a compilation or new stuff. You never mentioned the concept, nor was i referencing that. Just your confusion at history being both a compulation and new album because it was not clearly defined as you put it. I knew all the songs on disc 1 previous to this, and clearly understood disc 2 was a new album. This is what i was referring to.

Ditto BOTDF.

 

[hyperbolical]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

If you look at the cover of HIStory that is already where the conceptual confusion starts.

HIStory
Past Present and Future
Book I

So you expect there to be 3 discs (or one disc that mixes up the 3 together?)

Disc 1 History Begins
Disc 2 History Continues

no Disc 3 so why not leave the word Future off the cover?

Also, So here is Book I.
Where is Book II? etc.
There is no Boo II, but we jump to HIStory on Film Volume II

Then BOTDF is History in the Mix. except it is also new stuff.
There is no Book II or III. There is no Volume I of Film. Just use the same terms and make them consistent, it's all I ask.
At least once that is clear the double meaning of HIStory can be plainer.

It's a mess. I don't care if you disagree with me, it's ok. We can agree to disagree. I am not the only one to have made this complaint so I am sure it has affected perception for other people as well.

 

[barbee0715]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

I was living in England at the time HIStory came out and the statue going down the Thames rubbed the Brits the wrong way since they are mostly very understated and hate obvious pretention. Jarvis Cocker even interrupted his performance and objected to his humanitarian pretentions.

If you were not a die hard fan at the time you were not following all the news about the charges in America and so the album came off as megalomania.
BOTDF barely registered. It would have been better IMO if those new songs had been put together with the new songs on HIStory. And BOTDF been purely about dance remixes.

Well, of course, an 8 year old living in England at the time is going to have a very different perspective than a 35 year old American. A child is going to pick up on what's around them and they are going to be influenced by the adults in their world.
Me, on the other hand, had a different view of the statue and promotion. I didn't see it as megalomania, but superb promotion. We didn't have the statue here, but I saw the news reports-and laughed. And I also saw the HIStory teaser (and I don't care what Michael says-it is a version of Triumph of the Wills, intentionally) and thought he was both smart and brave. Again, something that enraged people over here.

The one thing that Michael did well-was promote-and even if it rubbed people totally the wrong way, it got you talking. They "fell into his trap" as he put it.

When I watched the premiere of Black or White with my nephews-4 and 5 at the time-they only thing they got out of it was a happy song and then crotch grabbing, while I sat in horrified silence.

Again, when I thought about it long and hard later, a calculated move with the masturbation part of the Panther dance, much as Nijinsky did with the ballet to Prelude to an Afternoon to a Faun. Scandalizing and shocking, yet artistic and interpretive of the animal, and everybody was talking about Nijinsky and Michael in the same way. And if you didn't hear about it, he repeated and played up all the world coverage in his "Dangerous Diaries" video later.

Although, obviously these promotions, as well as the old ones of the hyperbaric chamber and Elephant Man Bones backfire with many, many people.

If you look at the cover of HIStory that is already where the conceptual confusion starts.

HIStory
Past Present and Future
Book I

So you expect there to be 3 discs (or one disc that mixes up the 3 together?)

Disc 1 History Begins
Disc 2 History Continues

no Disc 3 so why not leave the word Future off the cover?

Also, So here is Book I.
Where is Book II? etc.
There is no Boo II, but we jump to HIStory on Film Volume II

Then BOTDF is History in the Mix. except it is also new stuff.
There is no Book II or III. There is no Volume I of Film. Just use the same terms and make them consistent, it's all I ask.
At least once that is clear the double meaning of HIStory can be plainer.

It's a mess. I don't care if you disagree with me, it's ok. We can agree to disagree. I am not the only one to have made this complaint so I am sure it has affected perception for other people as well.

Although I like the title, I will totally agree with you that the Book I, Book II, film Volume II, etc. is kind of a mess. Not sure what they were going for there. I finally decided to break down and buy HIStory after Michael's death and got totally confused-so I had to print out the track listings of each thing for sale on Amazon, and decided to buy the HIStory on film-that way I got the songs and the videos.


(speaking of Jarvis Cocker, that's another story I've heard about for years-and I realized I had never seen it-so I pulled it up on You Tube. I was a little shocked to see him-for some reason, I had always picture JOE Cocker, who sang "You are so Beautiful"-not some young hipster type-so now I kinda understand that he jumped on the stage in a way to protest the establishment/wealthy pop star-teaching us a lesson about social issues. That's kind of weird to me in a way, since I grew up with Michael and think of him as more of the rebel type-but that's what the vid of the Brits Awards look like).

 

[HIStoric]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

and did you understand it as His story about the allegations? seeing as they had occured when you were 10?

Yeah I did actually. Not as much as I do today, but I still understood that songs such as Scream, Money, Tabloid Junkie etc were pretty much about the allegations/media. Songs like D.S. I learnt about quickly after as I often look up stuff I'm into at that moment.

 

[innuendo141]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

Yeah I did actually. Not as much as I do today, but I still understood that songs such as Scream, Money, Tabloid Junkie etc were pretty much about the allegations/media. Songs like D.S. I learnt about quickly after as I often look up stuff I'm into at that moment.

Snap. I wasthe very same. It had been explained to me what happened in 1993 (my uncle delightfully decided to inform me) so it was easy to see what most of the album was about. The lyrics speak for themselvesin most cases.

 

[mjprince1976]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

There was a rush on these decade type albums, at the end of the 80s. Maybe they kiboshed Michael's as Bad had only just finished on the charts (Leave me alone, was a hit in early mid 1989) and the music was over 2.5 years old. Not sure if Michael had even started recording Dangerous yet.

Another reason may be the rise of rap and dance/trance/techno music that ruled the charts in 1989, seriously all the pop rap like Young MC/ De La Soul and dance like Technotronic, Black box, Milli Vanilli and Soul 2 Soul, may have put Michael off from releasing more rock like product. Most 1989 chart rock was poodle hair metal, which I doubt MJ liked, stuff like Poison, Skid Row, Warrant and Bon Jovi and Bland MOR like Simply Red and Roxette ruling the charts. As good as some of the music was, 1989 was by far the worst year for 1980s music except 1981, which was a homage to rednecked ass Country pop like Christopher Cross, Oak Ridge boys and Juice Newton and Black music restricted to funk like Lakeside and Dazz band. With Thriller, Michael bought the funky black stuff back into the mainstream (And of course with a little help from a purple dude in Minneapolis, Black music moved back into the forefront of 80s music).

1990 was more of the same, poppy rap, hair metal, turgid MOR (Extreme anyone) and quality music was absent, I know I lived through it. Even worse in the UK and NZ, where we were exposed to a turgid sampling act called Jive Bunny which featured a cartoon rabbit moving to old samples of swing and early rock and roll music. Jive Bunny had 3 Number one hits in a row. All of them were unlistenable dreck. Young MC, MC hammer, C + C music factory anyone, 1989/1990 was the beginning of the great dumbing down of music that has persisted to this day. No wonder Taylor Swift called her album 1989, had she called it 1987, there would have been a riot. Basically great music stopped in 1988.

Seriously 1989 was a garbage year and that golden year of 1987 seemed an eternity away. The only good albums of 1989 were Rhythm Nation and Like a Prayer (Prince's Batman was turgid and his worst 80s record). It is possible a Michael Jackson greatest hits package in 1989 would have tanked, the Bad era songs were probably too fresh in peoples minds and 1989/1990 may have been the only time Thriller would have sounded dated, unless Jive Bunny or some DJ in a garage put on a 1989 style sampled beat on it like the "Ooohh!! Ahhh!!" song you hear in bad bars and stripclubs.

I know Warners were pushing Prince to release a greatest hits set in that year too, after his latest albums, which were critically acclaimed were poor sellers and each succeeding album sold even less than the last (Down from the Purple Rain Peak), he gave them Batman, which was a mega smash, but only because itw as tied in with the movie. The album today is his only 80s album that is not a masterpiece. Dirty Mind to Lovesexy were masterpieces, only 2 songs on Batman were.

It's good Michael waited, as he took the best parts of New Jack swing, dance pop and hair metal to give us Dangerous, 1991s very best album (Although use your Illusion, Blood Sex Sugar Magik and Diamonds and Pearls are great too).

 

[AlwaysThere]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

Might be late to this party, but Strawberry Fields Forever was never recorded. There is not a single person who has ever attested to hearing it. Bill Bottrell even personally acknowledged that he was relatively certain it did not exist, and Come Together is the only Beatles song Michael ever recorded.

 

[hyperbolical]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

From a commercial point of view, there was no reason to bundle greatest hits together with new material except that they were afraid not enough people would buy the new album. An effort to push up sales. Otherwise makes no sense.
So even though it might seem to make rhetorical sense in hindsight, ie MJ answering allegations, they already considered to do this for Dangerous and reused the concept for HIStory. Its just luck that it worked conceptually with the double entendre. Dan Beck VP at Epic records at this time, claims the credit for giving the album the title and concept.

The duet and video with Janet (Scream) was also done because she was perceived as the more bankable of the 2 stars at the time. Kind of ironic imo.

 

[hyperbolical]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

Me, on the other hand, had a different view of the statue and promotion. I didn't see it as megalomania, but superb promotion. We didn't have the statue here, but I saw the news reports-and laughed. And I also saw the HIStory teaser (and I don't care what Michael says-it is a version of Triumph of the Wills, intentionally) and thought he was both smart and brave. Again, something that enraged people over here.

The one thing that Michael did well-was promote-and even if it rubbed people totally the wrong way, it got you talking. They "fell into his trap" as he put it.

Personally I totally agree with you and I thought it was brilliant too. MJ was completely mesmerizing and seemed to have a 6th sense for drawing attention to himself, and fascinating others. As we look back on the statues they leave an indelible image in my mind and I am sure MJ was cementing his place in history with those statues, and it wasn't completely just about the allegations it was a long term fame he was after. But re the megalomania I was reporting on how that part of the world saw it and how it produced reactions such as Jarvis Cocker's and may have affected general perception and therefore sales. I remember thinking at the time that MJ had been completely eclipsed by Jarvis who represented the new 'cool brittania' contingent in music along with Oasis, Blur, etc. I think a big part of Jarvis' act was just to 'kill the father' so to speak.

By the way there are a few pages in Knopper's book about the statues, MJ is discussing them with Rupert Wainwright a british film director who did the teaser video for the album and who argues against mj's desire to have a 400' high statue in the film "some people might think it's slightly vainglorious" lol.

 

[hyperbolical]

Re: The story behind the greatest hits album that never happened

The weird thing is, why didn't they do the statues and all that promotion in the US? That is where all the bad press had been. There is something strange about that choice and I don't know enough about the story to understand it. The promotion was not necessary in Europe and South Africa, at least in terms of the allegations. Yet that is where the statues were. And MJ did not tour in the US to counteract the bad PR either. It's too bad. Maybe he was completely disgusted by America at this time, and was wanting to live in South Africa, he told Diane Sawyer. Still, he remained at Neverland. I wonder why. Because of the children? But then he should have made efforts to win over the americans again...it doesn't add up. Perhaps that was a mistake on his part.