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The Discussion of MJ's Unreleased Tracks

michaeljackson.nl said:
Wasn’t it confirmed Ghosts wasn’t created during Dangerous? I thought it was written in 1993/94.
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It isn't fully confirmed whether Ghosts was a Dangerous track. Rob Hoffman said on Gearspace forums that it was a "Dangerous-era" track which can mean anytime between 1989 and 1993 before HIStory.

Teddy Riley's Future studios is credited, which was opened after Dangerous was finished... Suggesting the actual recording was done as early as 1993 for Addams Family Values. Who knows if there is an earlier version of that same track from the actual Dangerous sessions
 
SeriousFX said:
Actually, I don't think Steve ever changed his story. From the info I gleamed from him describing the order in which they were recorded within a year of them leaking, he seems to always maintain that it and Chicago 1945 were recorded within a few days to a week after the Thriller single (or video) came out.
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I've been confused about this for a while too.

If Chicago 1945 had been recorded two weeks after the release of Thriller the single in the UK, that would be November 25, 1983, which is the date I always went by. 2 weeks after the US single release would be February 6, 1984. Both dates are just before the Victory Tour.

However, this new video confirms that it was recorded 2 weeks after the completion of the Thriller album on November 8, 1982. So that would mean that Chicago 1945 was recorded November 22, 1982. Dream Away would have been recorded around December 1, 1982. These dates actually make the most sense because the Victory sessions (which Steve was involved in) began in March 1983 after Michael returned from London. So, after Thriller, Michael and Steve collaborated on the two unreleased songs, then Michael probably invited him to work on Victory with his brothers a few months later. By November 1983, the songs that Steve and David Paich worked on were probably finished for the most part, so the 1982 dates seem most accurate.
 
Apparently GOAL already appeared on Skylark's website as early as 2017: https://web.archive.org/web/2017080...iweb/skylark.me___Ghost_Of_Another_Lover.html

Credits:
voices - michael jackson
instruments - skylark
add’l synthesizers - michael boddicker

engineered by bruce swedien
produced by michael jackson + skylark
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EDIT: I was able to find Skylark and the song's publishing entity (Sputnik Adventure Music Publishers) on ASCAP. Sadly, GOAL is not registered at all. https://www.ascap.com/repertory#/ace/works/publisher/456224/SPUTNIK ADVENTURE MUSIC PUBLISHERS
 
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robotchicken14 said:
In that interview Porcaro is almost certainly referring to the album, rather than the single/video release.
He says he was doing final synth work with Humberto Gatica and stuff for Temperton on TLIML, while Bruce Swedien was mixing the album in another room.

That would put both Chicago 1945 and Dream Away in December ‘82 at the latest, but if his story keeps changing then we may have to wait for something more definitive like track sheets
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The thing with that is Porcaro at one point mentioned the song(s) being recorded a few months before the Victory tour, which would point us to 1984.

I hope one day his collaborators can come together and present calendar sessions.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
I don't think there being lyrics means MJ recorded any more of it. Would love that to be the case, of course.
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Wasn’t it already confirmed when a CD was found that had notes saying at least seven different mixes were made, with and without the intro, back in 2009? So there must be more vocals then..
 
Still The King said:
Wasn’t it already confirmed when a CD was found that had notes saying at least seven different mixes were made, with and without the intro, back in 2009? So there must be more vocals then..
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There was a CD found in mj's house with a mix number but really no info other than that. It could easily just be a new mix Michael Prince made with the same vocals.
 
So many 1989 songs didn't make it on to Dangerous.

I wonder what if the outcome of Dangerous would have been any different, if Decade was released in early 1990 & Dangerous later at the end of 1991 (or beginning of 1992).🤔
 
Fuzball said:
So many 1989 songs didn't make it on to Dangerous.

I wonder what if the outcome of Dangerous would have been any different, if Decade was released in early 1990 & Dangerous later at the end of 1991 (or beginning of 1992).🤔
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Bit like how different Invincible would have been had it been released in 1999 or even 2000 for that matter.
 
Victorious said:
Ghosts has some identical samples as BOTDF and RTT in it, seems like it's from the same sessions
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It's possible that if it did start during the Dangerous sessions, it most likely began while Teddy was at Soundtrack Studios preparing beats with Dave Way. It explains why none of the Dangerous-era studios are credited despite it sounding similar to BOTDF and RTT: because Soundtrack Studios was never credited for those (and ITC + Joy) either.

My theory is that it was made then, but was initially passed over and was never picked up until Teddy started searching for beats to use for the "Addams Family Values" soundtrack project.
 
Eventidescape1 said:
Or those said samples were included when other collaborators re-worked Ghosts in 1995-97... Like Brad Buxer and Rob Hoffman.
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I personally disagree, and here's why:

The Ghosts multitrack has 22 whole tracks that seem to belong to a different tape. It's obviously from early on given how all the tracks put together produces a mere drumbeat-heavy/percussive skeleton of the track, and one of the tracks included in that section is the exact same sample heard in RTT and BOTDF.
 
SeriousFX said:
I personally disagree, and here's why:

The Ghosts multitrack has 22 whole tracks that seem to belong to a different tape. It's obviously from early on given how all the tracks put together produces a mere drumbeat-heavy/percussive skeleton of the track, and one of the tracks included in that section is the exact same sample heard in RTT and BOTDF.
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So you meant drum & percussion samples right? Not the looped vocoder-ish sample the song is built around and other sound Fx samples in the track itself.

They all sound similar but that's because they were using similar tools of the time. Teddy and Brad Buxer were both into using Akai MPC drum sequencers & samplers in those days (the 90s - Dangerous thru HIStory and BOTDF era). Engineer Rob Hoffman was also using the MPC, and he's credited for drum programming on this tune.

Indeed there would have been some stock samples, but they added their own sounds as they went along. And built their own drum sound library.

Teddy may have used some of the same sampled sounds as he did for Dangerous when he made the 1993 backing track for Ghosts. Similar era per se. Just because there are similar samples doesn't mean it's definitely from Dangerous, and it's the same producer (Teddy Riley).

So it's a mix of Teddy's samples, Brad's samples and whatever else was there. After all, it was reworked a fair bit from the original Teddy Riley track.
 
Gluepix said:
This was among the extras in the Earth Song multitracks that leaked earlier today; thoughts? It’s so weird hearing this song with a TR-808 rather than the live drums we hear in the final mix.
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I'm pretty sure that sounds like a guide drum machine loop from something like a Roland TR-808?? Rather than Steve Ferrone's pass on the electrical drum kit.
Sounds too tame and robotic to be said drum part.

That drum machine was a guide part to keep the tempo from the early stages of recording... So they could record the song ground-up - keyboards, intro and all.
That certainly helped before they came around to recording Steve Ferrone's drums at the end.

The drum machine part exists as a 'bit' on the very start on Track 47 (for those who have the multitrack).... It would have run through the entire song, but was mostly recorded over.

It seems that drum machine bit was taken, synced up and looped over the ending on this.

Edit: Steve Ferrone's electronic drum pass likely exists on another reel of tape somewhere, but it's certainly not like this. But the real drums are absolute killer! Hope that makes sense.
 
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