Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary - Estate Announcement Page 66

I really hope to recieve my copy today.

few questions:

1. Are there subtitles on the Blu-Ray? There wasn't on BAD25...

2. Is there any kind of extra materiale this time?? There wasn't on BAD25.

3. Is the DVD/Blu-Ray version longer than the one on TV?

There are subtitles in many languages on DVD/Blu-Ray. No extra material. Same version like TV.
 
^^Its always funny when fans are expecting perfection and perfect releases from Michael's estate when according some of the threads here have ripped Michael, his ideas, and releases apart:scratch:

Just out of curiosity, what would you have done/do if you were on charge of Michael's estate?

Hi Bubs,

I think i am well entitled to be skeptical of anything the estate does considering they released a posthumous album containing 3 songs that aren't Michael Jackson. This speaks for itself.

This is inexcusable for the greatest artist of all time and elephants dont forget.

I dont really think thats expecting perfection now, expecting them not to make an absolute mockery of his memory? Almost everything the estate has done since 09 has divided the fan community.

I think im well entitled to be suspicious of anything the estate does because of this alone. As is anyone else here. As has been said by many members here, we dont have to accept everything the estate releases with open arms. Ive no interest in a 3d release of anything, because Ive no interest in 3d. And the hologram was horrific and laughable. Im allowed have these opinions

To answer your question about what I would have done, for every project the estate has released I would have taken at least another 3 months to ensure that what I was releasing was not creating a further divide in the fan community. Simple.
 
The estate has screwed up on almost every release thus far in some way. Some have been better than others but every single one gives off the impression that they rushed it into completion rather than put any legitimate work into it.

Xscape for example - the mastering/sound quality of the demos is awful compared to the remixes.

It would be more nonsensical if people weren't skeptical and accepted everything they did without question. That's why we criticize, that's why we complain. I don't want perfection, I just want things to be as good as they can possibly be. It truly isn't difficult in certain cases.
 
Quick recap:


OFF THE WALL - DELUXE REISSUE


#12 Netherlands (Top 100 CombiAlbums)
#10 Netherlands (Top 100 Fullprice Albums)
#31 Belgium/Flanders (Top 200 Fullprice Albums)
#39 Belgium/Wallonia (Top 200 Fullprice Albums)




OFF THE WALL


#17 Australia (Top 100 Albums)
#1 Australia (Top 50 Catalogue Albums)
#1 France (Top 100 Back Catalogue Albums)
#24 Italy (Top 100 Artist Albums)
#62 United Kingdom (Top 100 Albums)
#52 United Kingdom (Top 100 Albums Sales)
#38 United Kingdom (Top 100 Physical Albums)
#64 Germany (Top 100 Albums)


NOTES:


The Italian comprehensive chart will be published Tuesday on TV Sorrisi e Canzoni magazine. Probably, Off the Wall will rank at 25th place.


The French comprehensive chart is not yet published.


In Australia, France, Italy, United Kingdom and Germany, all the editions of Off the Wall are counted as an only album.


Sources: ARIA, SNEP, FIMI, Dutch Charts, Ultratop, ODC e OCC


Thanks SimoneMJJ
 
^Except Bad25 Deluxe. That was awesome in every way (even the Wembley VHS-rip)

That's most definitely their strongest. But even then there were some things to be desired - for instance, I don't quite see why they gave us the 2001 version of the album as opposed to the original version. And God knows no one wanted the Pitbull remix. These may be nitpicks but they're essential because they prevented a great release from being an excellent release.
 
^Except Bad25 Deluxe. That was awesome in every way (even the Wembley VHS-rip)

I disagree. Xscape and This Is It were much much better than Bad 25. I'd say it's 3rd best one. If there weren't VHS then maybe it would climb to #2 after Xscape.
 
Bad25 overall was exactly what fans wanted -- unreleased demos exactly as Michael left them (none of which we had ever heard before), excellent packaging, the first ever live CD, and an exquisite live performance (albeit in VHS quality). The only downsides are things that could have been touched up, such as sound quality, the mixing of the live disc, and of course the Wembley show (which was out of their hands).

Xscape was an album featuring eight remixes (only six of which I thought were good) and eight demos (only four of which I thought were any good).

I would put This Is It as number two right beneath Bad25, simply because (a) they left out several rehearsed songs that I wanted to see, Dangerous and Stranger in Moscow topping the list, and (b) the second disc of the soundtrack was hilariously bad.
 
Another good review: (and some good points about the OTW album re-issue).



Review: Spike Lee Honors Michael Jackson's Drive, Music

By NATHAN CONE • 22 HOURS AGO
SHARETwitter Facebook Google+ Email


  • <figure style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box;">
    COURTESY SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
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Around the midway point in Spike Lee&#8217;s entertaining new documentary about Michael Jackson&#8217;s transformation from child wonder to adult superstar, one of the talking heads reads an astonishing letter that Jackson wrote to himself, quoting: &#8220;MJ will be my new name. No more Michael Jackson. I want a whole new character, a whole new look. I should be a totally different person. People should never think of me as the kid who sang &#8216;ABC,&#8217; &#8216;I Want You Back.&#8217; I should be a new, incredible actor, singer, dancer that will shock the world. I will do no interviews. I will be magic. I will be a perfectionist, a researcher, a trainer, a masterer. I will be better than every great actor roped in one. I must have the most incredible training system, to dig and dig and dig until I find.&#8221;
Lee&#8217;s documentary is called Michael Jackson&#8217;s Journey From Motown To Off The Wall, but for Jackson, it&#8217;s apparent that it was more a quest than a journey. The 90-minute movie illustrates the singular drive that led Michael Jackson down the road from bubblegum soul to Studio 54 and beyond.


The movie spends little time on the early Jackson 5 recordings, and although Jackson&#8217;s parents Joe and Katherine Jackson appear on camera, there are no mentions of the whippings that Michael claimed his father would give to him and his brothers when they didn&#8217;t hit their performance marks. It goes largely unsaid in the film, but that desire to emerge from the shadow of his family and become his own man was one of the driving forces behind Michael&#8217;s creativity. That and the burgeoning disco scene that developed out of producer/songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff&#8217;s Philadelphia International records. After the Jackson 5 left Motown for Epic Records and became The Jacksons, the group released two albums produced by Gamble & Huff that largely fizzled. Self-producing for the first time, the Jacksons&#8217; smash album Destiny (1978) featured the singles &#8220;Blame It on the Boogie&#8221; and &#8220;Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground),&#8221; the latter co-written by Michael and brother Randy, and a monster hit.

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NYMKxDgTk1M" width="560" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></iframe>
That same year, Michael met Quincy Jones on the set of Sidney Lumet&#8217;s film of The Wiz. Jones recalls in Lee&#8217;s film how Michael would bring his "A" game to each take, even after a day of waiting on set. He could see there was something special, a drive to succeed, that was unlike anyone he had ever met.
In 1979, over Epic Records&#8217; initial objections, Michael hired Quincy Jones to produceOff The Wall, and as Questlove exclaims during Lee&#8217;s film, that opening &#8220;whooooah!&#8221; heard at the beginning of &#8220;Don&#8217;t Stop &#8217;Til You Get Enough&#8221; is both Michael&#8217;s &#8220;free at last&#8221; moment and the beginning of the superstar&#8217;s signature sound. Lee&#8217;s film goes track by track, dissecting the hits, from the proto-&#8220;Thriller&#8221; cut &#8220;Off The Wall&#8221; to the silky smooth late-night jam &#8220;I Can&#8217;t Help It.&#8221; Tom Bahler recalls writing &#8220;She&#8217;s Out Of My Life&#8221; from experience, and Rosie Perez remembers asking her girlfriends who it was that made Michael cry on that same song, the album&#8217;s lone ballad. Off The Wallholds together as a fantastic R&B/disco album yet doesn&#8217;t sound dated. As one musician points out in Lee&#8217;s documentary, there are no cheesy hand claps or signature disco sounds, just a crackerjack band in the studio &#8220;playing the sh*t out of&#8221; the greatest dance songs they could write and find.
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I was about 18 months behind the curve in discovering Michael and his brothers when I was growing up, and never heard Off The Wall until after Thriller. My entry into the music of The Jacksons was facilitated by a music video from a later album that was naturally visualized by Michael. Inspired by epic special effects extravaganzas like Star Wars, the video for &#8220;Can You Feel It&#8221; from the 1981 album Triumph, features the brothers as over-the-top demi-gods showering a city with happiness and falling stars. The video featured extensive use of computer animation, and I remember being transfixed by it at age seven, watching American Bandstand after school. I excitedly asked kids the next day if they had seen the same thing. In less than two years, my friend David Hardisty was wearing the red zippered "Beat It" jacket to school, and we were all trying it on and attempting to moonwalk. With Thriller&#8217;sgenre-bending songs a new era in popular music had begun. But its roots were laid down on the dance floor with Off The Wall in 1979. Perhaps fittingly, the final song on the album is titled &#8220;Burn This Disco Out.&#8221; What heat!
The New Release
This new reissue comes with a stick of chalk and a specially treated package that fans can write on.
CREDIT NATHAN CONE / TPR



Off The Wall was first reissued in 2001 with two homemade demo recordings from Michael Jackson. Those are sadly missing here, because they reveal just how clearly he saw the final arrangements of &#8220;Don&#8217;t Stop &#8217;Til You Get Enough&#8221; and &#8220;Working Day And Night.&#8221; This new release includes Off The Wall on CD plus Spike Lee&#8217;s full documentary, Michael Jackson&#8217;s Journey From Motown To Off The Wall, so if you already have the album, the DVD is the main selling point. The film is a terrific treasure trove of rare footage, but much of it is seen in fleeting glimpses. How wonderful it would have been to include more performance footage as the full-length music videos for songs like &#8220;Blame It On the Boogie&#8221; and the sensual &#8220;Rock With You,&#8221; where Michael stands alone in a sparkly outfit, framed by a laser halo, stares into the camera and sells it. Sure you can find the clips on MJ&#8217;s YouTube channel, but I&#8217;d love to see these videos on my TV screen. It's a missed opportunity for the fans.


Below: an insane production, and memories of American Bandstand.
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http://tpr.org/post/review-spike-lee-honors-michael-jacksons-drive-music#stream/0
 
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Its really sad that the new OtW album is invisible in the charts.

The great documantary has a very little impact on sales, and thats very sad, imo.
Thriller 25 had great sales numbers, OtW failed.
Young(er) fans dont like this album and find it a disco classic and dont see (literally) the Michael Jackson they have known in the 80s and especially in the 90s.
 
Its really sad that the new OtW album is invisible in the charts.

The great documantary has a very little impact on sales, and thats very sad, imo.
Thriller 25 had great sales numbers, OtW failed.
Young(er) fans dont like this album and find it a disco classic and dont see (literally) the Michael Jackson they have known in the 80s and especially in the 90s.

Once again they made the mistake of airing the documentary too far away from the release. First time they aired Bad 25 a couple of months after the release (although it was Thanksgiving). This time they aired it almost a month before release; by which point most of the small buzz that it had was gone.

On top of that, there's not much incentive to buy the package. There's not a single second of new audio on the CD, it's an album everyone has and many of us have various reasons for not wanting to spend that much on a 90 minute documentary (I don't hate it myself, I actually liked it! I just don't see myself watching it more than once or twice though so it's not worth the ~$30 price).
 
Its really sad that the new OtW album is invisible in the charts.

The great documantary has a very little impact on sales, and thats very sad, imo.
Thriller 25 had great sales numbers, OtW failed.
Young(er) fans dont like this album and find it a disco classic and dont see (literally) the Michael Jackson they have known in the 80s and especially in the 90s.

How is it invisible when it re-entered every major chart and OTW is in the Top 100 for weeks now both in the US and UK?

Thriller 25 is not comparable to this. T25 was a much publicized anniversary release this is not. This one is basically just a documentary that was so far only aired on a US pay TV. Considering that it actually had a very much visible impact on the album's sales.

Bad25 hardly had any more impact on Bad's sales and it had most of the elements that fans dream of - demos of unheard songs, concert CD, a documentary in support of it - and hard core fans consider it one of the best releases since MJ's death. I actually think it's a LOT better than Thriller 25. But commercially it hardly had any more impact than this OTW docu, so I guess the Estate figured it's not really worth to put more effort in album re-releases than they did with this OTW release (commercially at least).

One thing though is, that Bad - the original album - constantly charts in the last 1-2 years - actually usually higher than Thriller. I have no idea why, but it's great to see. I don't think it's because of the Bad25 docu because I have never seen that docu on TV and I don't hear from other fans either that the documentary is played on TV. So maybe people just discovered the album on streaming sites or whatever.

What I hope is that this OTW docu will be disseminated to TV channels worldwide to play and it will make OTW yet another MJ album that constantly charts. It doesn't have to be #1 or Top 10 (if some fans were dreaming of such an impact - well, I don't think it's a realistic expectation from a release like this), but a constant, long term charting would be nice.
 
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I think the release is a decent sucsess, better then expected. The album enterd the charts in the USA before the documentation was released which indicates it was bought by non-fans. In other countries it is in the charts with no promotion and before airing in television. I am confident it will go up again and remains in charts after the documantation will air in TV in other countries, for example soon in the UK.
The release and the documenation is really a good thing for Michael.
 
Young(er) fans dont like this album and find it a disco classic and dont see (literally) the Michael Jackson they have known in the 80s and especially in the 90s.
Young fans that were kids in the 80s and 90s would be young adults now and I'd think they'd want to see where all this originated. Even when I WAS a kid and discovered somebody like Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly, I'd go back to biographies and old movies and was fascinated with how they started.
 
What SOME fans wanted.

Opinions dude. Why are you always trying to start arguments? All I see on here is you arguing about HIStory tour or trying to tell people their opinion is wrong. It's as if you feel a constant need to prove that your opinions are the better ones. Very annoying.
 
Opinions dude. Why are you always trying to start arguments? All I see on here is you arguing about HIStory tour or trying to tell people their opinion is wrong. It's as if you feel a constant need to prove that your opinions are the better ones. Very annoying.

I don't know what is your problem. I just said that Bad 25 is not "exactly what (all) fans wanted". It is exactly what some fans wanted. It's not an opinion. I don't see why or how anyone can have problem with what I replied to Always There. You are the one who is trying to start an argument, not me.
 
http://www.dailynews.com/arts-and-e...-the-wall-reissued-with-spike-lee-documentary

Michael Jackson&#8217;s brilliant &#8216;Off the Wall&#8217; reissued with Spike Lee documentary

Michael Jackson recorded four solo albums while still part of the Jackson 5 in the early 1970s, but his journey from child star to worldwide phenomenon really began with &#8220;Off the Wall,&#8221; his landmark 1979 album for Epic.

Reissued here in a CD/DVD package deal with a Spike Lee documentary, about which more later, its 10 tracks sound as fresh and exciting as they did 37 years ago.

That&#8217;s partially due to Quincy Jones&#8217; fanatically crisp, clear production. The two became friends when Jackson was working on the 1978 film, &#8220;The Wiz,&#8221; for which Jones was musical director. Jackson hired him over objections from his record label, who thought Jones would be &#8220;too jazzy.&#8221;

The song selection also helped. Jackson wrote three electrifying originals, &#8220;Don&#8217;t Stop &#8217;Til You Get Enough,&#8221; &#8220;Working Day and Night&#8221; and &#8220;Get on the Floor,&#8221; and Heat Wave&#8217;s Rod Temperton contributed the title track, &#8220;Burn This Disco Out,&#8221; and the irresistible &#8220;Rock With You.&#8221;

Then there was the musicianship. For an album that broke all kinds of barriers between pop and dance music and paved the way for the highly processed chart-topping music of today, &#8220;Off the Wall&#8221; is remarkably organic.

Real musicians played real instruments, and played them with tightness, precision and enough funk to shake a thousand dance floors. As a result, four singles from the album reached the Billboard Top 10.

&#8220;Off the Wall&#8221; brought Jackson to the cusp of stardom. He had the dance moves, the incredible voice and the flair for showmanship, but how did he make that final leap?

Spike Lee&#8217;s film, &#8220;Michael Jackson&#8217;s Journey from Motown to &#8216;Off The Wall,&#8217;&#8201;&#8221; aired by Showtime in February, does an excellent job of answering that question. The 93-minute documentary, included as a DVD or, for a couple dollars more, a Blu-Ray, tracks Jackson&#8217;s career arc from the Jackson 5 days, through the band&#8217;s run as The Jacksons after signing with Epic, ending with a track-by-track look at &#8220;Off The Wall.&#8221;

Lee keeps himself out of the narrative for the most part, letting an impressive collection of archival performance and interview clips tell the story. These include appearances on &#8220;Ed Sullivan,&#8221; &#8220;Dinah,&#8221; &#8220;Soul Train&#8221; (doing some dazzling robot moves) and a stunning &#8220;Shake Your Body Down to the Ground&#8221; from &#8220;American Bandstand&#8221; that telegraphs Michael&#8217;s readiness for prime time eight months before the release of &#8220;Off the Wall.&#8221;

Contemporary interviews and comments from everyone from Jackson&#8217;s brothers to Kobe Bryant, Motown chief Berry Gordy, Pharell Williams, Stevie Wonder and San Pedro ballet star Misty Copeland effectively testify to Jackson&#8217;s wide-ranging influence, even at this early phase of his solo career.

It&#8217;s a superb documentary, detailed and nuanced, that concentrates wholly on its subject. Watching Jackson at this early artistic peak, one can&#8217;t help but be saddened by the knowledge of what was to come for the King of Pop in his later years.

Pair Lee&#8217;s film with one of the most essential R&B/pop crossover albums ever made, and you have this can&#8217;t-miss package.

Eastwood Allen &#8207;@Eastwoodallen March 5th

Watched Michael Jackson's Journey From #Motown to #OffTheWall with my folks. The entire family toe tapping in sync for 90 mins.

Sinbad &#8207;@sinbadbad March 3th

Check out spike lee's documentary on michael jackson. I got it on iTunes! Michael jackson from Motown to off the wall.
 
^with all these positive reviews, someone edit that wiki page of this documentary.
 
What SOME fans wanted.

There are only two general complaints I could justifiably see being made: poor edits on the Wembley live CD and the fact that Wembley live was sourced from a 24 year-old VHS tape (and poorly remastered for that matter). Also some hold-outs regarding the documentary.

Almost anything else is greedy and unfair.
 
I watched my blu-ray today. The documentary is great, very well done, but not excellent. I'd say the first part is excellent (including part of DSTYGE). 5/5 for the first part. After that it just goes downhill. It's just too short and not informative enough. I'd say the turning point of the documentary is Rock With You when they start talking about roller skating. After DSTYGE it's just not so good with brilliant pieces here and there like live performances and Tom Bahler interview. So for the second part I'll give it 3/5. All in all 4/5.
 
There are only two general complaints I could justifiably see being made: poor edits on the Wembley live CD and the fact that Wembley live was sourced from a 24 year-old VHS tape (and poorly remastered for that matter). Also some hold-outs regarding the documentary.

Almost anything else is greedy and unfair.

I wasn't talking about that. I just said that Bad 25 is not "exactly what [all] fans wanted". It is exactly what some fans wanted. I didn't like the concept. Maybe majority of the hardcore fans here and on the other forum boards liked it and it was exactly what they wanted, but it's not exactly what all fans wanted especially casual fans who don't care about demos and unfinished material. And we, hardcore fans, are just small percentage of all MJ fans worldwide. I just wanted to point that out. That's all.
 
I wasn't talking about that. I just said that Bad 25 is not "exactly what [all] fans wanted". It is exactly what some fans wanted. I didn't like the concept. Maybe majority of the hardcore fans here and on the other forum boards liked it and it was exactly what they wanted, but it's not exactly what all fans wanted especially casual fans who don't care about demos and unfinished material. And we, hardcore fans, are just small percentage of all MJ fans worldwide. I just wanted to point that out. That's all.
But wasn't it good for casual fans too-because they also offered a set of the reissued album and demos only-and they also offered Wembley totally separate.
 
At the end of the day the fanbase,ranging from hardcore to newbies,from collectors to facebook likers is so large that no release will ever please 100% of the buying fanbase. People need to understand that and just enjoy or not whatever release gets put out there. An ongoing debate will never end if you keep picking through every little thing as you can and will never beable to please everyone with every release.
 
Anyone confirm when this is on in the uk cant see anything for was it the 12th??
 
Well this is something I didn't expect! Unbeknownst to me, the doco aired on NZ TV about three hours ago... and well... :D

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