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The Lyrical Foreshadowing Of The Destiny Album

Funkystrong

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Every time listen I can't help but shed a tear listening to the songs on the Destiny album. The lyricals themes clearly foreshadow what was to be a constant theme throughout much MJ's later solo output. Push Me Away, Things I Do For You, Destiny, Bless His Soul and That's What You Get (For Being Polite) are essentially confessional poems and autobiographical tales of internal conflict, confusion, contractions, being manipulated, used and abused, a yearning to be appreciated, a need to be loved, the paranoia, the anxiety, the insecurity etc. Yeck this man was crying out for help but own brothers who singing the songs didn't recognize his plea.
 
I listened to Destiny constantly after he died for these very reasons. It was kind of my way with connecting with younger Thriller/OTW-age Michael in a way I hadn't really done in awhile.

That being said, while some of the songs are very bittersweet to listen to now, sometimes I think people read too much into things - maybe some songs are autobiographical (That's What You Get...) but maybe some are simply inspired but not fully truth, and some are storytelling. A songwriter I like, Mitch Allan, said something that has always stuck with me - "There's nothing worse than a writer with nothing to say." That's well and true, but that doesn't necessarily mean every time a writer (Song, poetry, literature) says something it specifically has to be about himself.

Maybe Michael was working out some demons, maybe he wasn't. He said all the time that he would just experience the songs coming to him. Maybe they did, and he was able to channel his own energy into it. Nobody really knows for sure.
 
reibish said:
I listened to Destiny constantly after he died for these very reasons. It was kind of my way with connecting with younger Thriller/OTW-age Michael in a way I hadn't really done in awhile.

That being said, while some of the songs are very bittersweet to listen to now, sometimes I think people read too much into things - maybe some songs are autobiographical (That's What You Get...) but maybe some are simply inspired but not fully truth, and some are storytelling. A songwriter I like, Mitch Allan, said something that has always stuck with me - "There's nothing worse than a writer with nothing to say." That's well and true, but that doesn't necessarily mean every time a writer (Song, poetry, literature) says something it specifically has to be about himself.

Maybe Michael was working out some demons, maybe he wasn't. He said all the time that he would just experience the songs coming to him. Maybe they did, and he was able to channel his own energy into it. Nobody really knows for sure.
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True, but many songwriters including MJ have always maintained that their songs were inspired by their own life experience or something they see on tv or read about in the newspaper. So It's very hard to listen to the lyrics to tracks on Destiny and not think that was about some real life experience. "Destiny" seems inspired by his time in New York shooting for the The Wiz. "Things I Do For You" is probably the most prophetic of his whole career:

Always wanting something for nothing
Especially what they don't deserve
Reaching in my pocket
I just got to stop it

Need I say more.

"Stranger In Moscow", "Childhood" and "Price of Fame" are all unquestionable autobiographical. MJ was once quoted somewhere I can't remember where, but he said he was tired of writing and singing love songs, he wanted to write songs about a cat, a dog or food.
 
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yes, but "inspired by" does not mean "direct translation of" :) I write songs and short stories; my work is very inspired, and sometimes about events in my own life, but considering what I write about sometimes, lol it's definitely not about me. Then again, there are songs I wrote that are definitely lifts straight out of my life.

Of course SIM and Childhood and POF are all auto - Michael fully admitted about the first two, and it's safe to say that the latter was also. But that doesn't mean every song he wrote that remotely reflected his life was autobiographical.

My point is - art is subjective. What it means to Michael may not be what it means to you. That's the ~beauty of it. Appreciate it for what it is :)

"Things I Do For You" is probably the most prophetic of his whole career:

Always wanting something for nothing
Especially what they don't deserve
Reaching in my pocket
I just got to stop it

Need I say more.
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Actually, yes. I am not a big fan of logical fallacies. Who knows about Destiny. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. We don't really know. Does it really matter? There are songs of Michael's that are very hard for me to listen to, they may seem innocent or whatever to others but to me, in my little world, I may feel he was saying something much deeper...but that's just my take on whatever. It doesn't mean whether or not it is. Unfortunately, Michael isn't around to answer either way.
 
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