The Discussion of MJ's Unreleased Tracks

Thank YOU! It’s definitely not 100% given that it’s second and third hand information, but I’m glad that it’s for the most part accurate and that I could contribute in any way:)
Your contributions are always greatly appreciated!

I do wonder whether there is any truth in the idea that Remember What I Told You was recorded in June 2009. I know Damien wrote that it was done in 2008, but could there have been some changes done to it in June 2009?
 
Your contributions are always greatly appreciated!

I do wonder whether there is any truth in the idea that Remember What I Told You was recorded in June 2009. I know Damien wrote that it was done in 2008, but could there have been some changes done to it in June 2009?
It’s entirely possible! MJ was working on music days before he passed, so perhaps he added some vocals or musical elements in June 2009.
 
To recap everything Damien has shared so far (I will edit whenever new info comes about):
  • “11pm” — Instrumental.
  • “Bottom of My Heart” — Instrumental. Separate song from “I Have This Dream.”
  • “Boy No” — Scratch vocals. Verses describe “seeing the city lights, being alone, and having nowhere to go.” Chorus lyrics include, “Boy, no / [We/they] ain’t got a place for [you/me] to stay.”
  • “Broken Chair” (working title) — Instrumental.
  • “Butter Funk” — Instrumental.
  • “Changes” — Scratch vocals and choir. Gospel influence.
  • “Children’s Hour” — A children’s song.
  • “D.I.E.” — Instrumental. Described as “epic. Hard hitting drums and bass with really strong strings. It also has these moments where the music stops and a haunting choir type thing comes in creating an ominous build, then the beat drops again.”
  • “Dark Lady / H2O” — Full scratch vocal, recorded in one continuous take. Few ineligible lyrics, but a very refined vocal melody. Both verses open with the words “dark lady.”
  • “Don’t Make Me Stay” — Scratch vocal, recorded a significant distance from the microphone. Only coherent lyrics are the title. Reminiscent of “Runaway” by Janet.
  • “Get Your Weight Off of Me” — Fully finished. Features aggressive verse vocals (similar to “Unbreakable”) and ad-libs, but lighter chorus vocals. Sounds like a hybrid of “Invincible” and “Privacy.”
  • “Green Hornet Groove” — Instrumental. Co-written by Brad Buxer in the mid-2000s as an incidental piece for the Seth Rogan film, The Green Hornet.
  • “He Who Makes the Sky Gray” — Vocals exist, but their extent/completion is unknown.
  • “Hot Fun in the Summertime” — Recorded at Marvin’s Room between 1998 and 2003.
  • “I Have This Dream” (2005) — All-star version fully finished. Ciara, Snoop Dogg, James Ingram, Jermaine, Shirley Caesar, and the O’Jays contribute vocals. R. Kelly is also featured, but MJ allegedly wanted him removed. Leaked demo on YouTube is authentic, though the vocalists are unknown. MJ demo vocals exist.
  • "I Love You More" — Co-written by MJ, Michael Prince, and Eric Kirkland. Two recordings exist: one sung by Kirkland, another by a female vocalist. The existence of MJ vocals is uncertain.
  • “Innocent Man” — Chorus vocals only. Vocal delivery is “super soft.”
  • “Jungle” — Dr. Freeze demo. MJ likely never recorded vocals.
  • “King Tutankhamen” — Instrumental. Recorded in 2008.
  • “Lady of Summer” — Classical piece. One of two songs played to composer David Michael Frank in spring 2009.
  • “Light the Way” — No MJ vocals. Ballad. Horn section intro, full choir singing the choruses. Lyrics include, “Light the way, let’s pray for peace.”
  • “Michael’s Affirmation” — Spoken word piece dedicated to Roy Horn (of Siegfried & Roy), who was healing from an onstage tiger attack in October 2003. “Photographs” is used as incidental background music.
  • “Neverland Landing” — Children’s song.
  • “Pajamas” — Instrumental.
  • “Red Eye” — Instrumental. Described as a “guitar track [with] Chinese influence.”
  • “Remember What I Told You” — Same song as “Just Remember.” Recorded in 2008. 1:30 in length. Musically comparable to “Speechless.”
  • “Rock Tonight” — Instrumental. Not the same as “Rocker.”
  • “Rocker” (working title) — Reminiscent of “We Will Rock You” by Queen. Aggressive verse vocals and an anthemic chorus. Verses are random phrases and sounds; only the chorus and ending ad-libs have intelligible lyrics. Chorus lyrics include, “The world is one big melting pot of life.”
  • "Shut Up and Dance" — Co-written by MJ, Michael Prince, and Eric Kirkland. Eric sings on the demo.
  • “Silent Spring” — Instrumental.
  • “Thank Heaven” — Indicative of a “lullaby/nursery rhyme.” MJ delivers a spoken word intro dedicating the track to “[his] son Michael Jackson Jr.,” but a female vocalist and choir sing the actual track.
  • “That” (working title) — Instrumental.
  • “Walk Away” — Instrumental.
  • “What More Can I Give” — The leaked demo, as distributed to the all-star vocalists in 2001, was recorded in 1998.
  • “What You Do to Me” (1985) — Completion is uncertain, but it does feature at least one verse, a chorus, and a bridge. Mid-tempo, similar in tone to “I’m So Blue” and “Free.” Chorus lyrics include, “You just don’t know, you just don’t know, what you do to me, do to me, do to me, do-do-do, do to me.”
  • “What You Do to Me” (1998) — Early version of “The Way You Love Me.” Features scratch chorus vocals and “scatting/yodeling” in the outro.
  • “World of Candy” — Children’s song.
What does mean scratch vocals i did not u der Stand ?
 
Real Water: Recorded in MJ's final years. Production includes water splash sounds. Only lyrics: "Inches of water, water, trying to take a piece of my mind/Inches of water, water, trying to take a piece of my time." Very nice background vocals: "Inches of water, ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo."
I posted the alleged vocals here a while ago and while I can't exactly remember where I got them from they were half-right lol
"Because it's water, water, trying to take a piece of my mind.
Because it's water, water, trying to take a piece of my time".
 
If you ask me I am personally dying to hear the demos of dark lady, rocker, boy no, lady of summer, D.I.E., innocent man, king tuthankamen, red eye, remember what i told you, silent spring, what you do to me, real water and real monster.
 

I posted the alleged vocals here a while ago and while I can't exactly remember where I got them from they were half-right lol
These match what I was told years ago, except “inches of water” was “it’s just the water.” Very interesting nevertheless.
I’m not sure myself. I think he hums most of the lyrics or mixes some words together that don’t make any sense, all of this to create a melody.
Scratch vocals are early, rough recordings that are used as placeholders. MJ would record a scratch vocal to demonstrate (hence “demo”) the melody, and he and his collaborators would build the instrumental around it. Once the music was to his liking, he would go in and lay down his finished vocals.

Sometimes scratch vocals could be considered finished because MJ had a strong idea of where the song was meant to go and gives a high-level performance; think “Hollywood Tonight” or “I’m So Blue.” Other times he’s still feeling out the melody and lyrics, so he’ll sing nonsense words; think “Free” or “In the Back.”
 
If you ask me I am personally dying to hear the demos of dark lady, rocker, boy no, lady of summer, D.I.E., innocent man, king tuthankamen, red eye, remember what i told you, silent spring, what you do to me, real water and real monster.
Same here but I don't think the Estate is ever gonna release the songs with no vocals on them, hopefully the instrumentals will be leaked online someday.
 
Do we have any information about „Turning Me Off“? This song kinda has to be finished/mostly finished as it was considered for Xscape, right? I think a tape of it was seen in the documentary of the album.
 
Someone in our facebook group had a chat with a studio staff shortly after Michaels passing.

Based on the guys vague memories on some unreleased songs it is possible that a song called "Apocalypse Now" is conected to "They Don't Care About Us" in some way.

The song "Going to Rio" seems to be based on a story what some of you might know as "The Life if Chico".
 
I refuse to believe that there's nothing releasable from the Invincible era, you mean to tell that with all the producers that worked on the album, all the titles and Get Your Weight Off Of Me is the only one that's releasable? There has to be a handful more from that era.
 
I refuse to believe that there's nothing releasable from the Invincible era, you mean to tell that with all the producers that worked on the album, all the titles and Get Your Weight Off Of Me is the only one that's releasable? There has to be a handful more from that era.
Angel and do you want me are full
 
I refuse to believe that there's nothing releasable from the Invincible era, you mean to tell that with all the producers that worked on the album, all the titles and Get Your Weight Off Of Me is the only one that's releasable? There has to be a handful more from that era.

Of course there was stuff releaseable but don’t forget how many of those songs are already released

(I like) the way you love me
chicago
we’ve had enough
shout
another day
xscape
A place with no name
blue gangsta
one more chance
fall again

I believe most of these largely completed songs were recorded post history pre Invincible
And now it seems can’t get your weight off of me is one of the very final pieces left.
 
The song "Going to Rio" seems to be based on a story what some of you might know as "The Life if Chico".
Makes sense. Rio is located in South America and the boy's heading to the big city.
 
I refuse to believe that there's nothing releasable from the Invincible era, you mean to tell that with all the producers that worked on the album, all the titles and Get Your Weight Off Of Me is the only one that's releasable? There has to be a handful more from that era.
Damien put it best: there was a lot of releasable material, but most of it has leaked or was posthumously released.
 
Author Joseph Vogel writes, in his 'Man In The Music' book, that 'Deep In The Night' remained an unreleased track (from the 'Dangerous' album sessions).

It has also been said that the song has vocals on it (at least, the hook of it).

'Deep In The Night' has a duration of around 4 minutes.

'Deep In The Night' was one of the songs that Michael Jackson worked on with Bryan Loren for the 'Dangerous' album.

Michael Jackson apparently was not satisfied with 'Deep In The Night', hence the song's exclusion from the album.

Also, it appears that 'Jane Is A Groupie' has definitely more vocals on it.
CAn. You told me what Vogel said about .make or break .make a wish .men in black .Michael McKiller .Angel .do you want me .bio .babies smile .truth about youth turning me off .tomboy .crack kills and other unreleased .Damien said tomboy have no vocals I'm confused
 
Of course there was stuff releaseable but don’t forget how many of those songs are already released

(I like) the way you love me
chicago
we’ve had enough
shout
another day
xscape
A place with no name
blue gangsta
one more chance
fall again

I believe most of these largely completed songs were recorded post history pre Invincible
And now it seems can’t get your weight off of me is one of the very final pieces left.
Damien put it best: there was a lot of releasable material, but most of it has leaked or was posthumously released.
Oh yeah that's true, but still. There's a lot of titles out there that we still never heard of and I refuse to believe that out of all them GYWOOM is the only one that's releasable. There has to be another Darkchild track that's in a releasable state lol.
 
Do we have any information about „Turning Me Off“? This song kinda has to be finished/mostly finished as it was considered for Xscape, right? I think a tape of it was seen in the documentary of the album.
From Man in the Music:

Jackson wrote and recorded “Turning Me Off” during the Hayvenhurst sessions in early 1986. He worked on it primarily with John Barnes and Bill Bottrell. “It had some crazy sound combinations,” said Barnes. “It was kind of an Electronica sound—we had three different synthesizers we were using. The synths had enough punch that we left the bass out.” According to Matt Forger, it was “one of Michael’s edgier experiments. Very groove-oriented. It was quite an interesting track.” The song remains unreleased.
 
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