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Rare: Playback for Black or White fails, and Michael sings the whole song live

Blues_Away2023 said:
Why is nobody else picking up on the fact that the heal the world performance was impromptu?

Look how uncomfortable he is to receive the live mic and is trying to act all shy (oh no don't pass it to me)

Was it a big misunderstanding? Was MJ expecting it to be a sing a long with everyone.
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he handled impromptu moments in the past very well. I don’t get why he changed so much in the 90s. The 80s Michael would have taken this moment to shine.
 
filmandmusic said:
he handled impromptu moments in the past very well. I don’t get why he changed so much in the 90s. The 80s Michael would have taken this moment to shine.
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I agree, in all honesty by the late 90's I believe he had lost confidence in his live singing and in his mind he felt that he would be exposed by how poor his vocals had become? Strain of History tour etc

That impromptu moment was one of my favorite versions (from what we heard) of HTW because I heard different and unique vocals from the bog standard record.

I bet he was raging with his team/hotel organizers after it though. A full MJ performance was not part of the deal no doubt , a we are the world sing-along type was probably the expectation.
 
Robbsaber01 said:
I wish this Argentina show leaked in pro instead.
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For real, not only there's this moment, but MJ also performed Man In The Mirror the same night.

So we've got an amazing BoW performance with no playback, a full tracklist and an almost full energy MJ during a 1993 night in my homeland.

God, it makes me so sad this concert didn't leak :(
 
filmandmusic said:
The cheat. It’s not like he couldn’t sing. Shame on you Michael
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analogue said:
This is really frustrating. You mean you could have sung this live the whole time?! I get it being lip synced on the HIStory Tour cause his voice wasn't in very good shape at that time, but on the Dangeorus Tour there was no excuse.
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Judging by the recently leaked feed from the 97' Münich Concert, he did indeed sing live on top of the playback, even when his mic was turned off and only the playback was heard to the audience.

In other words, there were no "laziness" on Michael's part, but rather: Perfectionism. If he didn't like how he sounded, he would use playback. But he would still sing live, just that the audience most likely wouldn't hear it. That also explains how some fans who were there in the front row at the concert explained that they could hear him sing! I never really gave much thought about it, but it makes much sense now. The reasons he sang on top of the playback was propably to make the performance "more believable" and authentic. His approach to detail transcended your usual performer. It's hard listening to the live vocals of History Tour Billie Jean and not feel sorry for the poor guy.
 
Michael4MyLife said:
Judging by the recently leaked feed from the 97' Münich Concert, he did indeed sing live on top of the playback, even when his mic was turned off and only the playback was heard to the audience.

In other words, there were no "laziness" on Michael's part, but rather: Perfectionism. If he didn't like how he sounded, he would use playback. But he would still sing live, just that the audience most likely wouldn't hear it. That also explains how some fans who were there in the front row at the concert explained that they could hear him sing! I never really gave much thought about it, but it makes much sense now. The reasons he sang on top of the playback was propably to make the performance "more believable" and authentic. His approach to detail transcended your usual performer. It's hard listening to the live vocals of History Tour Billie Jean and not feel sorry for the poor guy.
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Basically, yeah
that's what i've been saying for years and years and somehow people don't really get it.
MJ COULD sing if he wanted, he just didn't like how he sounded live, he never did, even in his prime (see how he re-recorded the entirety of the lead vocals in The Jacksons Live album even though that wasn't necessary at all, one thing is to do overdubs over parts where he struggled, another is to re-record absolutely everything just because you don't like hearing yourself live.)
 
NeoGardiV8 said:
Basically, yeah
that's what i've been saying for years and years and somehow people don't really get it.
MJ COULD sing if he wanted, he just didn't like how he sounded live, he never did, even in his prime (see how he re-recorded the entirety of the lead vocals in The Jacksons Live album even though that wasn't necessary at all, one thing is to do overdubs over parts where he struggled, another is to re-record absolutely everything just because you don't like hearing yourself live.)
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If he re recorded the entire live album we have no clue how it actually sounded, perhaps it was truly bad
 
filmandmusic said:
If he re recorded the entire live album we have no clue how it actually sounded, perhaps it was truly bad
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There's isolations out there that remove the overdubbed vocals and let you hear the original vocals as bleed, they sound good.
Plus the live album was recorded over the span of multiple concerts, do you really think he sounded like shit in every single one of those concerts?
Sorry if it comes off as aggressive, it's just that literally there's no point in playing devil's advocate here.
MJ was a perfectionist, to an irritating fault.
 
NeoGardiV8 said:
There's isolations out there that remove the overdubbed vocals and let you hear the original vocals as bleed, they sound good.
Plus the live album was recorded over the span of multiple concerts, do you really think he sounded like shit in every single one of those concerts?
Sorry if it comes off as aggressive, it's just that literally there's no point in playing devil's advocate here.
MJ was a perfectionist, to an irritating fault.
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If he thought it was bad then who are we to say it’s good?
 
filmandmusic said:
If he thought it was bad then who are we to say it’s good?
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I'll say it again, do you really believe MJ sounded like shit over the entire recording dates for the live album? on every single song?
I love MJ and i respect his vision on many things, his take on live performances ain't one of them though
If it was up to him, i assure you a live performance would mean playing the original album on the speakers while a band also plays it but on super low volume so you can't actually hear them.

Btw, that's not too far from the truth. that's what the HIStory Tour basically was, like a good chunk of every song, i'd say at least 70%, is literally the original multitracks playing not on the background BUT UPFRONT overpowering the actual musicians ☠️

Anyways, i can see why you would chose to value and respect MJ's vision and i respect your desire to do so.

But i don't, hell i even listen to his unreleased and incomplete music which to him would probably be a sin hahaha
 
filmandmusic said:
Anyway the overdubs are the reason I don’t love that live album. It’s just not authentic. But I understand most live albums feature overdubs.

I prefer live at the Forum a lot more

@NeoGardiV8 i quoted the wrong person
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Yeah, most of them do, and it's understandable and, if they are there on a moderate degree, they don't really matter.
But as you said, it is not authentic when it is up to the level they did it on the Jacksons Live album.
 
NeoGardiV8 said:
I'll say it again, do you really believe MJ sounded like shit over the entire recording dates for the live album? on every single song?
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Of course not I was just being a pain in the ass for a moment
NeoGardiV8 said:
I love MJ and i respect his vision on many things, his take on live performances ain't one of them though
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agreed
NeoGardiV8 said:
If it was up to him, i assure you a live performance would mean playing the original album on the speakers while a band also plays it but on super low volume so you can't actually hear them.

Btw, that's not too far from the truth. that's what the HIStory Tour basically was, like a good chunk of every song, i'd say at least 70%, is literally the original multitracks playing not on the background BUT UPFRONT overpowering the actual musicians ☠️
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yeah sacrilege really
 
dethorro said:
Teleprompters did not start being used regularly at live concerts until the late 2000s / early 2010s. Nowadays, every big singer/band has one or more teleprompters on stage. The only time Michael used an autocue was during the rehearsals for This Is It, and it’s pretty much a given that he was going to use one during the concerts as well.
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filmandmusic said:
he handled impromptu moments in the past very well. I don’t get why he changed so much in the 90s. The 80s Michael would have taken this moment to shine.
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This thread literally started with a video of him in the 90s singing all of Black or White and doing unique ad-libs all as a result of a playback fail he couldn't have predicted, if that's not handling an impromptu moment very well idk what is. I can't even think of any moments thrust upon him like that on that level in the 80s, if there are, tell me, I'd love to hear them. The only time I can think of where the mic was forced to sing when he wasn't expecting to in the 80s was basically squandered and just seemed confused. Not to say he couldn't improvise at all in the 80s but with the limited examples we have he seems much better at it in the 90s so I'm confused as to why you would say this.

Michael4MyLife said:
It's hard listening to the live vocals of History Tour Billie Jean and not feel sorry for the poor guy.
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This is baffling to me because I always thought the way he sung the ad-libs on the HIStory Tour was far stronger than the other tours. There's like four performances where his vocals are a bit craggly but other than that it's pretty excellent imo.
https://youtu.be/yf7h-WTpVko?t=252
https://youtu.be/v8lMhGYQyVA?t=126
https://youtu.be/U8uW1TihbuA?t=241
https://youtu.be/0iA38rhMCKc?t=4258
https://youtu.be/BJNaLmgI4N8?t=348
 
ArchieSmash said:
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Yeah. What I should have said is non-televised concerts. Even Elvis used an old-fashioned version of a teleprompter for his televised Aloha From Hawaii show, in the use of handwritten cards, handheld by the staff, next to the cameras, so that he could read the text. And that was in 1973.

It wasn’t necessarily standard practice in 2001 to use teleprompters at concerts, unless they were meant to be part of a TV special.
 
Michael4MyLife said:
Judging by the recently leaked feed from the 97' Münich Concert, he did indeed sing live on top of the playback, even when his mic was turned off and only the playback was heard to the audience.

In other words, there were no "laziness" on Michael's part, but rather: Perfectionism. If he didn't like how he sounded, he would use playback. But he would still sing live, just that the audience most likely wouldn't hear it. That also explains how some fans who were there in the front row at the concert explained that they could hear him sing! I never really gave much thought about it, but it makes much sense now. The reasons he sang on top of the playback was propably to make the performance "more believable" and authentic. His approach to detail transcended your usual performer. It's hard listening to the live vocals of History Tour Billie Jean and not feel sorry for the poor guy.
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He always sang live but covered his vocals with playback with his microphone turned low. This is why i really hated the argument against him for using playback. We all know he can sing, but the dude had major health issues. Like really fucking bad health problems.
 
mt_2506 said:
In Turin as well. These don't particularly seem that impromptu for him though cause judging by some audios, Michael was totally going all in even under the mic.
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I figured that was the case but I was giving filmandmusic the benefit of the doubt and assuming Rome was impromptu against my better judgement. What actually impromptu live vocals exist from the 80s?
 
I agree with him being anxious to be asked to sing on the spot because he feared he forgot the right lyrics. A lot of the times during the reheasals you hear he mixes up the lyrics or forgot parts
 
ArchieSmash said:


This thread literally started with a video of him in the 90s singing all of Black or White and doing unique ad-libs all as a result of a playback fail he couldn't have predicted, if that's not handling an impromptu moment very well idk what is. I can't even think of any moments thrust upon him like that on that level in the 80s, if there are, tell me, I'd love to hear them. The only time I can think of where the mic was forced to sing when he wasn't expecting to in the 80s was basically squandered and just seemed confused. Not to say he couldn't improvise at all in the 80s but with the limited examples we have he seems much better at it in the 90s so I'm confused as to why you would say this.
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He looked way more confidant of himself in the 80s when james brown and Diana ross called him onstage
 
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