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Michael's best live vocals,from his "solo" years at Epic/Sony?

PurpleThriller

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What would be Michael's best live vocals from the 1979(the year he's had his commercial breakthrough with "Off The Wall")-2009(including this year in case some of you wish to include some of the live vocals from TII as your personal highlights)time period,in your opinion?
The said vocals can come from any tour,any performance,any little bit of live improvisation that Michael did on stage etc,anything's welcome really šŸ™ƒ :)...
(my personal favorite would be the "Tell me what about it" segment from the "Earth Song" performance at the World Music Awards,from 1996..but that was just something that I've picked at the top of my head,really..and yeah,I consider this version of the live ad-libs to be impressively superior to the Royal Brunei one,honestly:
the live vocals happen somewhere between 7:18-7:44/7:45,if I'm not mistaken..)
 
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Iā€™d like to say his rock with you and ease on down the road performances in white suit with Diana Ross but Iā€™m not sure how ā€œliveā€ it was considering his album background vocals were also clearly heard. So was it pre recorded or was it live on tape or what?

Also gone too soon 1993, beat it live in Kansas 1984 was spectacularly good
 
filmandmusic said:
Iā€™d like to say his rock with you and ease on down the road performances in white suit with Diana Ross but Iā€™m not sure how ā€œliveā€ it was considering his album background vocals were also clearly heard. So was it pre recorded or was it live on tape or what?
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Hm,I'd still consider those as being indeed live but with pre-recorded backing vocals or so (I have to admit that I remember these performances being this way,yet I haven't checked out in a while and I might have to revisit them,hm.. )
filmandmusic said:
Also gone too soon 1993, beat it live in Kansas 1984 was spectacularly good
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Indeed! šŸ‘
 
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Blues_Away2023 said:
and this is where I get frustrated with the lack of live vocals.

I wish I could show MJ performing smile completely live and only accompanied by a piano... šŸ˜¢
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You technically get something to that effect with the recently leaked Childhood sessions. Even though you have the actual orchestra playing, and not just a piano, itā€™s great to hear these raw vocals, even if in a studio setting.
 
Blues_Away2023 said:
Probably one of the best vocal performances from Michael has to be you were there from the Sammy Davis Jnr tribute.

It was flawless. The gone too soon performance still has a couple of bum notes so it's not my favourite.

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Interesting pick!
Are we really sure that this was sung live,though?
 
dethorro said:
You technically get something to that effect with the recently leaked Childhood sessions. Even though you have the actual orchestra playing, and not just a piano, itā€™s great to hear these raw vocals, even if in a studio setting.
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Yeah I love those leaked childhood sessions actually.

One thing that struck me is when he's in a studio setting, he nails the vocals perfectly each time rather than being all over the place when performing especially on tour with the dancing.
 
PurpleThriller said:
Hm,I'd still consider those as being indeed live but without pre-recorded backing vocals or so (I have to admit that I remember these performances being this way,yet I haven't checked out in a while and I might have to revisit them,hm.. )

Indeed! šŸ‘
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You should revisit them. Perhaps they were just using unused vocals from the recording sessions. Maybe he sounds a bit too good but then again you never know.

There are certainly live elements. Apart from the vocals I also love his dancing here, best RWY performance ever imo
 
I think mostly Bad tour knocks it out of the park. WDAN is always good. Later on BOW and WYBT.

I'm not quite as familiar with the late 70s stuff, to be able to name individual performances. But he was a great singer even in 73.

As for She's Out of My Life, the live performances actually ruin the song for me. The overacting and constant pausing makes me cringe so much I want to skip the song.
 
imo it's human nature @ '87 leg of BWT.


... as for studio recordings, his vocal delivery on price of fame is without doubt his finest we've heard so far
 

It's not a solo song but it is the Solo Years lol.

But my actual answer is here


The ad libs are extraordinary. As dynamic as they are striking.
 
mjawb2009 said:
Human Nature TII was strong. I liked the freedom he seemed to have just at rehearsals.
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Probably my favourite performance of the song. I know it's edited like the whole film is due to it being a rehearsal and him not trying all that hard but I still think his voice was great then.

I was never a fan of how he sang the song live otherwise if I'm honest.
 
R1chard said:
I don't think you can believe what you see or hear during TII. The whole thing was cobbled together, line by line, from hundreds of different takes, going back 2 decades...
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Yeah, I think you can tell when it's audio taken from the rehearsals or when it's dubbed from older material. Which day of rehearsals the audio is taken from is another question, though.

I always thought Michael Prince did a great job making MJ look good with his audio editing for this film. You can tell he took his time with it.

My opinions about the film in general are much more negative, though, lol.
 
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R1chard said:
I don't think you can believe what you see or hear during TII. The whole thing was cobbled together, line by line, from hundreds of different takes, going back 2 decades...
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SmoothGangsta said:
Yeah, I think you can tell when it's audio taken from the rehearsals or when it's dubbed from older material. Which day of rehearsals the audio is taken from is another question, though.

I always thought Michael Prince did a great job making MJ look good with his audio editing for this film. You can tell he took his time with it.

My opinions about the film in general are much more negative, though, lol.
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From what I've seen he sounds best on June 23rd ... I would like to see that rehearsal in full
 
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