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MJ's birthday streaming party!

WHAT ABOUT ABRAHAM?
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I love the videos like earth song, dirty diana, give in to me, where there is a huge gust of wind or a storm going. especially the dirty diana video i think just looks gorgeous.
 
I just woke up but I am happy to report I streamed the album all night šŸ˜‚
 
katara said:
i am a huge fan of hector barjot on youtube and he is a major Michael jackson collector. like his whole basement is wall to wall mj merchandise. like a museum. TJ actually visted his collection a few weeks ago with his wife and children. The video was heartwarming.
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Don't have time to watch the whole thing just now but have watched the first 10 minutes. It's fabulous. I just loved it.

I've got out of the habit of checking Hector's YT channel so thank you for flagging this up. I'll be watching the rest of it later on today. Can't wait.
 
I have legit been streaming this album nonstop for like 16 hours šŸ˜‚ When I have to work or focus I mute it. But this album is so amazing. OMG. I am increasingly enraged that it does not get the praise or appreciation it deserves.

As for the video -- I think TDCAU Brazil version does it for me, with the Prison version coming as a close second, followed by Scream. I love ALL of the videos from this era (except Childhood and You Are Not Alone, neither of which I"m super crazy about). Question though...

Does Ghost count since 2Bad is in it?? Because if it does my answer might be quite different :)
 
@zinniabooklover I don't remember where you said it, but I think Little Susie is beyond brilliant. I think it is GENIUS. And I'm obsessed with the classical intro. I think this is a highlight moment for me of the album, even if I don't listen to the song itself that often.

I think HIStory is an interesting album because it is a mix of commercial and high art, in my opinion. It has a darkness to it, of course, but there is brilliance in that. Some of the best films I've ever seen in my life I can't watch more than once, or too often at all, because they are too much for me. Sometimes HIStory is like that. I wouldn't mind if people said that was the reason they don't listen to it as much. But I hate that it's just not given the credit it deserves because I think the entire album is genius and I will die on that (and every other) hill LOL.
 
staywild23 said:
(except Childhood and You Are Not Alone, neither of which I"m super crazy about).
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YANA video is just, eww!

staywild23 said:
Does Ghost count since 2Bad is in it?? Because if it does my answer might be quite different :)
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Good point. 2Bad / Ghosts would be my 2nd, pushing TDCAU Brazil into 3rd place.

staywild23 said:
@zinniabooklover I don't remember where you said it, but I think Little Susie is beyond brilliant. I think it is GENIUS.
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It's beyond genius. We don't have the language for it. We can't get near it. Well, I can't get near it. I sometimes try but it's hopeless. I don't have the brain power.

staywild23 said:
And I'm obsessed with the classical intro. I think this is a highlight moment for me of the album, even if I don't listen to the song itself that often.
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The classical intros for WYBT and Little Susie are totally underrated, imo. The transitions are freakin' ... well, you know what I'm gonna say? Freakin' awesome! I don't have the language, to my shame and endless sorrow. I cannot do justice to Michael's genius. I do think the intro for Little Susie is even more brilliant than WYBT. But I can't explain why. I'm only human! With a rubbish vocab that cannot capture what Michael was doing.

staywild23 said:
I think HIStory is an interesting album because it is a mix of commercial and high art, in my opinion. It has a darkness to it, of course, but there is brilliance in that.
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With Michael's music, amongst other things we are hearing about the cruelties, the loneliness and the great struggles that he fought against. But it all comes to an almost operatic crescendo on HIStory. Hopefully I don't sound TOO pretentious here but that is my feeble attempt to describe part of what I think I experience when I listen to these songs. Only part, of course. But that operatic, melodramatic sweep of emotions on this album in particular, omg, it just floors me. It's the whole journey - awful word, sorry, don't know what else to use there -

... the journey of emotions I go through if I even just listen to one song off the album. In fact, I should point out, I never listen to it (or any album) straight through. With HIStory I especially couldn't do that. It would pulverise me.

All of this said, I think the 'journey' continues with BOTDF. Is It Scary in particular is like an addendum to HIStory.

staywild23 said:
Some of the best films I've ever seen in my life I can't watch more than once, or too often at all, because they are too much for me. Sometimes HIStory is like that. I wouldn't mind if people said that was the reason they don't listen to it as much.
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Exactly. It probably will never be on heavy rotation for me. Well, SIM, TDCAU and Scream would be. I mean, they already are. But most of the rest I have to take at a steady pace. Little Susie I only listen to once every few months. The power and pain in that song, I have to be very, very sparing with it.

staywild23 said:
But I hate that it's just not given the credit it deserves because I think the entire album is genius and I will die on that (and every other) hill LOL.
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I find it quite painful. Maybe I'm wrong about this but it does seem to me as if the album is underrated. That's just weird.
 
zinniabooklover said:
YANA video is just, eww!
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LOL yeah, it's not for me. But good for Michael for trying something different. For what it's worth, I don't really love the song itself. I mean there are no MJ songs I dislike and I can say that quite honestly. But it's not one on heavy rotation for me.

zinniabooklover said:
It's beyond genius. We don't have the language for it. We can't get near it. Well, I can't get near it. I sometimes try but it's hopeless. I don't have the brain power.
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Totally agree!

zinniabooklover said:
The classical intros for WYBT and Little Susie are totally underrated, imo. The transitions are freakin' ... well, you know what I'm gonna say? Freakin' awesome! I don't have the language, to my shame and endless sorrow. I cannot do justice to Michael's genius. I do think the intro for Little Susie is even more brilliant than WYBT.
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I'm not sure which one I find more brilliant, but they both wreck me. I'm sorry, but it is just a totally different experience to listen to the FULL version of each song without skipping past the classical intro. It is breathtaking. it is like an entire upheaval. It's like being elevated to another level for a little while. I cannot get enough of it.

@filmandmusic I think we were just talking about all of this somewhat recently... anything to add? šŸ˜‰

zinniabooklover said:
With Michael's music, amongst other things we are hearing about the cruelties, the loneliness and the great struggles that he fought against. But it all comes to an almost operatic crescendo on HIStory. Hopefully I don't sound TOO pretentious here but that is my feeble attempt to describe part of what I think I experience when I listen to these songs. Only part, of course. But that operatic, melodramatic sweep of emotions on this album in particular, omg, it just floors me. It's the whole journey - awful word, sorry, don't know what else to use there -

... the journey of emotions I go through if I even just listen to one song off the album. In fact, I should point out, I never listen to it (or any album) straight through. With HIStory I especially couldn't do that. It would pulverise me.
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I love listening to album's straight through and I have managed to do so with HIStory several times. It somehow has not eviscerated me to do this, though I did work up to it. But I think this is where some of the brilliance of the album is. It is not one gutting song after another. Each song contributes something unique and approaches pain, injustice, legacy, humanity, etc. in uniquely nuanced ways. It builds energy and then collapses it, with both the journey to the peak and fall downward equally visceral experiences. I think the entire album manages an incredible balance, while constantly pushing us to the brink. Ending on Smile is such utter genius to me, I can't even describe it. It's almost like a bookend to everything Michael tried to convey to the world. It's gorgeous.

zinniabooklover said:
All of this said, I think the 'journey' continues with BOTDF. Is It Scary in particular is like an addendum to HIStory.
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Very true. BOTDF is it's own animal to me, though. And I'm obsessed with those 5 tracks. I really am. If we want to talk about musical genius, I could talk Is It Scary and Morphine for days.


zinniabooklover said:
Exactly. It probably will never be on heavy rotation for me. Well, SIM, TDCAU and Scream would be. I mean, they already are. But most of the rest I have to take at a steady pace. Little Susie I only listen to once every few months. The power and pain in that song, I have to be very, very sparing with it.
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For me it is still in pretty heavy rotation, but I go through phases with it. I'm in actual love with almost every song on the album, with a few exceptions of songs I just sort of like lol.

zinniabooklover said:
I find it quite painful. Maybe I'm wrong about this but it does seem to me as if the album is underrated. That's just weird.
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The album is egregiously and offensively underrated. Considering it's his most personal album and came from a place of significant pain, it hurts my soul for fans to not give it the recognition I think it deserves. I also think it's short-sighted. Though, of course, people are allowed to like what they like. I just don't like the assertion so many fans seem to have that it was a "weaker" album or era, or something.
 
staywild23 said:
I'm not sure which one I find more brilliant, but they both wreck me. I'm sorry, but it is just a totally different experience to listen to the FULL version of each song without skipping past the classical intro.
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Hang on, I'm confused. Are you saying that you sometimes listen to the songs *without* the intro? Or that other people skip over those intros? Do people really do that? Seriously? Help me out here. Maybe I misunderstood what you wrote.

staywild23 said:
I love listening to album's straight through and I have managed to do so with HIStory several times.
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Just to clarify. I listen to an album straight through when I'm new to it and I need to get the gist of what it all sounds like. But I probably only listen to it all the way through maybe 2 / 3 times. After that I always cherry pick. I've always done that, even in the days of vinyl. I just don't do a whole album in one sitting.

staywild23 said:
It somehow has not eviscerated me to do this, though I did work up to it. But I think this is where some of the brilliance of the album is. It is not one gutting song after another. Each song contributes something unique and approaches pain, injustice, legacy, humanity, etc. in uniquely nuanced ways. It builds energy and then collapses it, with both the journey to the peak and fall downward equally visceral experiences.
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Absolutely. But I do this on a micro level with maybe 3 or 4 songs rather than the whole thing.

staywild23 said:
I think the entire album manages an incredible balance, while constantly pushing us to the brink. Ending on Smile is such utter genius to me, I can't even describe it. It's almost like a bookend to everything Michael tried to convey to the world. It's gorgeous.
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I can't remember how long I'd had the album before I finally twigged - that whole 'start with a Scream, end with a Smile' thing. I was like, 'duh!' :ROFLMAO:

staywild23 said:
Very true. BOTDF is it's own animal to me, though.
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Oh sure. I'm not downgrading it at all. I get frustrated when it gets dismissed. It gets a rougher ride than HIStory, imo.

staywild23 said:
And I'm obsessed with those 5 tracks. I really am. If we want to talk about musical genius, I could talk Is It Scary and Morphine for days.
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I don't have a fave Michael track - except for Whatever Happens - but I often think if I was really forced to pick just one I could probably survive with just Is It Scary. There is so much there. It's so complete. It's like an entire album all by itself.

staywild23 said:
For me it is still in pretty heavy rotation, but I go through phases with it. I'm in actual love with almost every song on the album, with a few exceptions of songs I just sort of like lol.
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Come Together jars just a little bit. That doesn't really fit in. Other than that I'm fine with all of them. I can't think of any I only 'sort of like'. I've got that with the Quincy albums and with Dangerous. Not with HIStory.

staywild23 said:
The album is egregiously and offensively underrated. Considering it's his most personal album and came from a place of significant pain, it hurts my soul for fans to not give it the recognition I think it deserves. I also think it's short-sighted. Though, of course, people are allowed to like what they like. I just don't like the assertion so many fans seem to have that it was a "weaker" album or era, or something.
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oh my goodness! I hadn't picked up on that. How weird. That's just ... what? Weaker? Wow. Each to their own, obvs, but that is a bit of a stretch.
 
@staywild23 well if you insist lol

I think for both songs it is required to listen to the entire thing and not a single edit. I love how Michael is able to fuze classical music into his pop songs, it would have been even better if he composed a piece himself for the intros.
WYBT and LT are 2 very different experiences. The first song provides comfort with its warm piano intro and angelic choir, it paints an atmosphere of calmness and fulfillment, that is when you donā€™t pay attention to the lyrics of course because they seem to be about doubt and anxiousness. I wonder whom he had in mind when writing this. The spoken outro is especially interesting to dissect. It is a very foreboding song as if he knew his life would get so much harder as it went on. Or maybe it is all about someone else, someone he knew, his/her cry for help? Itā€™s a great track it is calming and healing as well as uplifting and desperate, there are a lot of emotions here.
Little Susieā€™s classical intro is for me very heavy, it seems to crush my lungs because it is very emotional. I often find music both eternally beautiful as well as very hard to take and the intro of LS is a perfect example of that. There is so much loneliness and desperation in the intro especially when it bleeds into the little kid playing alone in her room while humming a tune. It is very foreboding, like the intro of a pure nightmare. Like WYBT I would love to know more about the background of this track, how was MJ inspired, how did the songs evolve into how we know them? Lyrically LS reminds me a bit of the lonesome death of Hattie Carroll. Both tragic songs with a sense of mystery and a lot of sadness. It is a very descriptive song for MJ he would not usually write songs like that (unlike Bob), very interesting.
 
katara said:
Would money be considered Michael rapping?
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I say yes! Rap doesn't have to be 60 miles an hour delivery. Rap isn't my jam so maybe a purist would say no to 'Money' but, yeah, I think those sections count as rap.

god, I love this song. It's one of those songs that, when I'm not playing it, I forget how much I love it. And then, when I get back into it, the impact just hits me all over again.
 
zinniabooklover said:
I say yes! Rap doesn't have to be 60 miles an hour delivery. Rap isn't my jam so maybe a purist would say no to 'Money' but, yeah, I think those sections count as rap.

god, I love this song. It's one of those songs that, when I'm not playing it, I forget how much I love it. And then, when I get back into it, the impact just hits me all over again.
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I totally agree with this too! I've literally been playing that track so much, I love the flow and harmonies in it, this just hits.
 
katara said:
Would money be considered Michael rapping?
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Further thoughts - yes, of course it's rap.

The Last Poets were the original rappers, imo. No-one has ever come close to them. I haven't listened to everything they've ever done. They were always too far ahead of me. But the stuff I've heard is not super fast like a lot of modern rap and hip hop. It's more like spoken word with music. If a slower delivery is good enough for The Last Poets, it's good enough for me.
 
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