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Making Michael: Inside the Career of Michael Jackson (Excerpts on page 19)

I like this account of "You Were There".

‘You Were There’ was originally just a poem, but could easily be turned into a lyric if music were added. Shortly after, Kohan wrote Michael a letter to tell him about the piece he had written. “I told Michael, ‘If the words strike a resonant chord in you; if they express how you feel about Sammy, and if you think you would like to spend an hour with me putting a melody to it before the show then give me a call’. And I said to him, ‘If you feel you just want to say the words without actually singing them I can arrange to have some lovely underscore under your voice’. Knowing how busy he was, I took it upon myself to write a tune to it and make a song out of it.” At around midnight the night before the show, Michael showed up at the Shrine Auditorium.

Together with Kohan he went into the adjacent Shrine Exposition Hall, which was completely empty except for a grand piano and one light in the far corner. The producer, the arranger and a number of others involved in the show all stood outside – the arranger would have to do a chart by the next morning if Michael agreed to perform the song. “So Michael sat on the piano bench next to me,” Kohan said. “He used to call me ‘Buzzie Wuzzie’. I played the song for him on the grand piano, and Michael said, ‘Buzzie that’s beautiful’. We sat there for a while and made some adjustments to the melody line and changed a few words and chords, but Michael still wasn’t sure if he would be able to learn the song, agree to the arrangement, set his lighting and feel
physically up to performing it. So I said to Michael, ‘This man, whether you are aware of it or not, has done so much for you, and if you pass up this last chance to say thank you, you will never forgive yourself’."

Michael told Kohan he understood and that he would try, so at least the producers finally had a commitment of sorts. Everything then went into gear to prepare for the dress rehearsal, which by then was less than 12 hours away. “I knew Michael… he was such a perfectionist, he would spend days and weeks honing a performance or a song,” Kohan said. “But here he was, going on stage before an audience of millions to perform a song he had never sung before, which had an orchestration he would hear for the first time on the afternoon of the show. It was so out of character for him, but to his everlasting credit, he set the wheels in motion and went home with a piano track I made on a small cassette recorder to learn the song.” After rehearsing the song on the afternoon of the show, Michael went to his dressing room to rest and prepare. That evening he performed ‘You Were There’ for the first and only time, joining other stars such as Clint Eastwood, Mike Tyson, Whitney Houston, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Stevie Wonder in honouring Davis. Michael’s tribute brought tears to Davis, who was battling throat cancer. After Michael finished performing, he walked over to his idol and hugged him warmly. “Michael was brilliant, simple, eloquent and so powerful,” Kohan said. “The connection was made, the debt was paid, and it was one of the most memorable moments in a night that was overflowing with exceptional performances.”
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[video=youtube;IjmalHcQh54]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjmalHcQh54[/video]
 
SmoothMJ said:
Replacement Michael Jackson!? :rofl:
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It's no laughing matter:scratch:
Talented guys like Michael is growing in every trees, so it is possible that real MJ (pre-Thriller MJ) was replaced by even more talented MJ (after Thriller):rofl:

Don't mind Psychoniff's funny stuff, he is just sore because replacement Michael kicked the brothers to curb and refused to participate their albums and stuff:cheeky:
 
Just finished the book- honestly it's SO great in my opinion! Definitely one of the best books I've ever read on his career, I also have Man in the Music by Vogel but I think this one goes way more in-depth into making of the albums and then the era that surrounded it when they were released. Vogel's book goes more into the actual technical aspects of the songs while Smallcombe goes into HOW everything happened, which for me is what I'm more interested in. LOVE both of them though and definitely recommend you buy this one.
 
^^this book is sounding better and better. I buy precious few Michael books-but I love Vogel's book, so may get this one.
I'd really like to read more about the post Quincy period, because I'm not as familiar with that.
 
Vogel's book actually goes into more song by song analysis and talks about all songs on an album while this book often just floats over songs. A different approach.
 
^Totally agreed! Vogel's book is whether unintentional or not, the benchmark for future MJ book's imo.
 
From the book.

Bill Bottrell about Black or White

Michael sang the riff to the heavy guitar section to Bottrell, who then hired his friend Tim Pierce, as he couldn’t play that kind of guitar. “Tim laid down some beautiful tracks with a Les Paul and a big Marshall, playing the chords that Michael had hummed to me – that’s a pretty unusual approach,” Bottrell said. “People will hire a guitar player and say ‘Well, here’s the chord. I want it to sound kinda like this’, and the guitarist will have to come up with the part. However, Michael hums every rhythm and note or chord, and he can do that so well. He describes the sound that the record will have by singing it to you… and we’re talking about heavy metal guitars here!”
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I'm enjoying it so far. Maybe not the best book if you are of the "MJ is perfect" variety, though.
 
Is it only me who would love to hear a record of Michael singing the entire arrangement of at least one song…

Thanks a lot to everyone for sharing parts from the book.
 
Can anyone who has read the book shed some light on the apparent bubbles punching incident? It was reported in some tabloids, taken from an excerpt of this book. What was the context of this story? Trashy stuff like this would put me off getting the book.
 
By far the definitive book on MJ. Glad people are enjoying it thus far.
 
Besides that lame attempt made by some people to present this book as one that shows Michael in a bad light I see many fans did like it. Does it offer a lot of new information about Michael for the longtime fans?
 
Re: Making Michael: Inside the Career of Michael Jackson

AlwaysThere said:
Buy this book.

I could rant about it for paragraphs upon paragraphs, but I'll keep it short: it's phenomenal.
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Please rant! This book sounds brilliant! I need to get this!
 
Bump! Half way through this book and savouring every word of it. I can't recommend this book enough. Just finished the Dangerous era and have learned so much info from each era so far. One of the great things about this book is the excellent timeline so your reading everything as it happens which really adds so much and makes certain things make so much more sense. MJ made short films before albums were released and worked on multiple projects. It's better than Vogels book IMO (I really like Vogels book) and is way ahead of anyother book I've read in terms of creating the albums.
 
aazzaabb said:
Bump! Half way through this book and savouring every word of it. I can't recommend this book enough. Just finished the Dangerous era and have learned so much info from each era so far. One of the great things about this book is the excellent timeline so your reading everything as it happens which really adds so much and makes certain things make so much more sense. MJ made short films before albums were released and worked on multiple projects. It's better than Vogels book IMO (I really like Vogels book) and is way ahead of anyother book I've read in terms of creating the albums.
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Remember the other day (in the other thread) that you wrote after he completed filming "Beat It" he was performing at Motown 25 just two weeks later?
I have Vogel's book and "Moonwalk" by my bed and read something or another before I go to sleep-and I opened the section where Michael is talking about working at the Motown studio when Berry approached him about doing Motown 25. And he said "I was editing Beat It". For some reason, I've always just glazed over that sentence, and now I realize he was editing the actual short film. Ooooh-how cool.
 
barbee0715 said:
Remember the other day (in the other thread) that you wrote after he completed filming "Beat It" he was performing at Motown 25 just two weeks later?
I have Vogel's book and "Moonwalk" by my bed and read something or another before I go to sleep-and I opened the section where Michael is talking about working at the Motown studio when Berry approached him about doing Motown 25. And he said "I was editing Beat It". For some reason, I've always just glazed over that sentence, and now I realize he was editing the actual short film. Ooooh-how cool.
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I didn't know they had video edits in motown studios (not in 1983 anyway). That's why i never thought anything of it. Maybe he was mixing the music for the video itself. I don't think he edited the video himself in a motown studio. Just doesn't seem to make sense now that i sit bk & think about it
 
Do you guys recommend the book? I'm thinking of buying it, but I thought I should get your reviews first... I don't wanna read all posts here on this thread lol.. And I wonder how the writer got all the information about Michael. Did he know him personally? Or did he speak to people who were with Michael?
 
wonderouzdj2 said:
I didn't know they had video edits in motown studios (not in 1983 anyway). That's why i never thought anything of it. Maybe he was mixing the music for the video itself. I don't think he edited the video himself in a motown studio. Just doesn't seem to make sense now that i sit bk & think about it
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maybe that's what he meant by editing. The music for it. He's not super wordy in his book.
Anyway, you're right. I just assumed it was music but didn't realize they had just barely wrapped the vid til now.
 
Doggone said:
Do you guys recommend the book? I'm thinking of buying it, but I thought I should get your reviews first... I don't wanna read all posts here on this thread lol.. And I wonder how the writer got all the information about Michael. Did he know him personally? Or did he speak to people who were with Michael?
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This book is (for me) essential reading if you want to go back in time and relive each era as if you were a member of MJ's team. I feel like I'm a member of staff floating in the background as MJ and his producers and musicians work, and when the record label begin their promotional campaign for each new album. This book is the closest I've felt to actually being there. Mike Smallcombe never met MJ but he spoke to around 60 people and quoted others that declined such as Quincy. It's none biased and none judgemental and speaks honestly. In that sense it doesn't pander to the reader and treats you like you are an intelligent person. It doesn't sugar coat everything and is a better book for it. There is no trash talk, no media fodder and no nonsense, just lots of informative and enjoyable insights including instances where MJ makes the occasional mistake like anyone. Everyone speaks fondly of him and there's a few great stories.

Barb, yes, he may have been talking about editing the actual short film also. He was becoming fairly hands on by Thriller.
 
aazzaabb said:
This book is (for me) essential reading if you want to go back in time and relive each era as if you were a member of MJ's team. I feel like I'm a member of staff floating in the background as MJ and his producers and musicians work, and when the record label begin their promotional campaign for each new album. This book is the closest I've felt to actually being there. Mike Smallcombe never met MJ but he spoke to around 60 people and quoted others that declined such as Quincy. It's none biased and none judgemental and speaks honestly. In that sense it doesn't pander to the reader and treats you like you are an intelligent person. It doesn't sugar coat everything and is a better book for it. There is no trash talk, no media fodder and no nonsense, just lots of informative and enjoyable insights including instances where MJ makes the occasional mistake like anyone. Everyone speaks fondly of him and there's a few great stories.

Barb, yes, he may have been talking about editing the actual short film also. He was becoming fairly hands on by Thriller.
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That was just kind of a thrilling moment to me to suddenly notice this and connect the dots. Don't know if he was editing the music for the vid or the vid itself, and I think it's possible that Motown had that capability by that time. Their artists made videos.

Aazzaabb-how do you compare his writing to say, Brad Sunberg's facebook posts. He and Glen Ballard have such a way with words that I have just had goosebumps reading their stuff and can actually SEE it as though I were in the room with them at the time. It's the way you're describing this book. These are the kinds of biographies I love.

Ironically, when I was a teenager I bought Hugh Fordin's book on the Arthur Freed Unit at MGM-he's the producer of the most celebrated MGM musicals of all time. I read that thing to death until I had to keep it together with multiple rubberbands. He's so detailed that you feel like you are there and he even gets down to camera shots and WHY they were important to the dance, etc. Many years later, I wondered if Michael had ever read his book, because I could see things that Fordin talked about in Michael's videos that were homages to MGM (like SC for example). And sure enough, one day I was looking at a picture of Michael's books in his Neverland library and there it was!
 
I'm reading it now barbee, and it is very good, but not as personable as Brad's posts, in my opinion. The narrative is informative and includes surprising stories that make me truly laugh out loud. For example, I never knew Quincy and team referred to the then untitled Bad album as 'pee.' :lol:
 
Hahaha. Had heard that BUT thought they were talking about the song itself and that it was "P" (for Prince). Lol. I got that wrong.
I think I need to order it.
 
Barb, Dewey is correct to a certain extent when comparing Brad. Brad shares some very vivid memories indeed. Incidentally Brad did an interview on a certain MJ podcast last year and shared some nice info.
Mike Smallcombe as a writer is straight forward and I think his strength in the book is that he's been able to organise everything into a concise timeline. The people he's spoken to tell the story, so it's the combination of everyone that has made it an enjoyable read. I also like the fact that I feel like I'm being treated like an adult; there's an instant when MJ FLIPPED on his managers and I liked hearing about MJ the business man.

That story about the MGM book you mentioned is fantastic. You must have had chills when you saw that MJ had the book. :cool:
 
MM has some absolutely wonderful stories at every angle.

There's one passage in particular that always makes me laugh - where someone (I believe Russ Ragsdale?) recounts that Michael was a "horrible driver" and hit everyone's car at least once over the course of the Dangerous sessions :rofl:
 
^^I cracked up while reading that. Or how he was afraid to use the freeway and would use back roads and get lost. :lol:
 
To anyone thinking of buying this book, please do. It is a real glimpse behind the curtain of MJ in the studio, it's really addictive. I read it while on holiday and I couldn't put it down. Tons of great insight and stories. Also it's not biased towards or against Mike. Thanks to AlwaysThere for your recommendation.
 
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