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The Song "BAD" and its Development

DarkMJ

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I have a question about the song "BAD" and its development?! ...
if some have new info?

A few years ago a fan friend revealed to me that at the beginning of its creation the song was called "PEE"...
lol did some know?^^

I'm going to ask the question Brad Sundberg, and that it was true, but without information from him???.
 
Re: The song "BAD" and its development?

The track itself was indeed called "Pee" at the beginning when it had no lyrics yet. It wasn't unusual for MJ to give his instrumental grooves some "random" names, like Hot Fever --> TWYMMF; Florida Groove --> Streetwalker; Song Groove --> Abortion Papers or in this case Pee --> Bad.
 
DarkMJ;4319377 said:
I have a question about the song "BAD" and its development?! ...
if some have new info?

A few years ago a fan friend revealed to me that at the beginning of its creation the song was called "PEE"...
lol did some know?^^

I'm going to ask the question Brad Sundberg, and that it was true, but without information from him???.
Click to expand...

The very first working title of the ‘BAD’ song was ‘Pee’, then it changed to ‘Who’s BAD’, and eventually it became simply ‘BAD’.

The song was originally meant to be a duet with Prince, but Prince declined the offer.

The bassline of the ‘BAD’ song is thought to have been inspired by the bassline of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘She Bop’ song (1983).

There is also a hidden meaning behind the ‘BAD’ song title: these three letters refer to the Be Against Drugs anti-drug slogan.

Michael Jackson actively promoted that Be Against Drugs anti-drug campaign when he was performing in certain US venues (such as, in Minneapolis) during his BAD Tour.
 
Re: The song "BAD" and its development?

thank you very much for the info ?
 
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Since we’re discussing the song:

When the BAD short film went into production in mid-November 1986, the song wasn’t finished yet. All the vocal parts were there but the music was still incomplete. (The exact same thing happened with “Smooth Criminal” — Swedien was literally making new mixes of it while they were filming.)

Also, in one of the last choruses, where MJ goes “WOO!” three times in a row, that wasn’t originally in the song. When they were watching the short film footage, they noticed MJ was mouthing “woos” that weren’t there, so one of the musicians (I think it was Christopher Currell) spliced them in from another song.
 
AlwaysThere;4319452 said:
Since we&#8217;re discussing the song:

When the BAD short film went into production in mid-November 1986, the song wasn&#8217;t finished yet. All the vocal parts were there but the music was still incomplete. (The exact same thing happened with &#8220;Smooth Criminal&#8221; &#8212; Swedien was literally making new mixes of it while they were filming.)

Also, in one of the last choruses, where MJ goes &#8220;WOO!&#8221; three times in a row, that wasn&#8217;t originally in the song. When they were watching the short film footage, they noticed MJ was mouthing &#8220;woos&#8221; that weren&#8217;t there, so one of the musicians (I think it was Christopher Currell) spliced them in from another song.
Click to expand...

How the times change.

Just think of all the work MJ was putting into BAD with the music videos before the album dropped. In todays world, there's no way this happens without any leaks. You could never get away with this.
 
AlwaysThere;4319452 said:
Since we&#8217;re discussing the song:

When the BAD short film went into production in mid-November 1986, the song wasn&#8217;t finished yet. All the vocal parts were there but the music was still incomplete. (The exact same thing happened with &#8220;Smooth Criminal&#8221; &#8212; Swedien was literally making new mixes of it while they were filming.)

Also, in one of the last choruses, where MJ goes &#8220;WOO!&#8221; three times in a row, that wasn&#8217;t originally in the song. When they were watching the short film footage, they noticed MJ was mouthing &#8220;woos&#8221; that weren&#8217;t there, so one of the musicians (I think it was Christopher Currell) spliced them in from another song.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, wonder what song they are from.
 
Re: The song "BAD" and its development?

I always wondered why they sounded so much louder
 
Re: The song "BAD" and its development?

I'm still dumbfounded that Michael called the instrumental for the song "Pee"
 
Re: The song "BAD" and its development?

wonderouzmj said:
I mean....his nickname is doodoo....
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"you can't polish doo doo" that's what was said in the studio, his nicknames were smelly and apple head
 
Re: The song "BAD" and its development?

Zakk said:
"you can't polish doo doo" that's what was said in the studio, his nicknames were smelly and apple head
Click to expand...

He was "uncle doo-doo" for his nephews (perhaps for his nieces, too)
 
Why is Michael's percussion work (which was probably his beatbox) credited as ''How now brown cow'' for this song?
 
Now that's an interesting idea...that he wrote the song with a collaboration with Prince in mind. Unfortunately I don't think Prince had yet forgiven MJ for "embarrassing him" in front of James Brown earlier that year (assuming "Bad"'s production began as early as 1983 with a demo called "The Sky Is The Limit"

Also I read somewhere that "Bad" is supposedly an acronym for "Black And Dangerous" -- supposedly by titling the song this way he wanted to dismiss the idea that he was ashamed to be black and wanted to be white. Sounds kinda far-fetched to me, since his skin wasn't even that light yet, but still
 
Re: The song "BAD" and its development?

AlwaysThere said:
so one of the musicians (I think it was Christopher Currell) spliced them in from another song.
Click to expand...
200% Currell, that was sorta his job during the BAD sessions.
 
king_of_style;4319619 said:
Also I read somewhere that "Bad" is supposedly an acronym for "Black And Dangerous" -- supposedly by titling the song this way he wanted to dismiss the idea that he was ashamed to be black and wanted to be white. Sounds kinda far-fetched to me, since his skin wasn't even that light yet, but still
Click to expand...

That is a complete made-up thing by some fans.

They took the &#8216;Dangerous&#8217; word (which is the title of his subsequent studio album) and they came up with that fake Black And Dangerous acronym for the &#8216;BAD&#8217; song.

Themidwestcowboy;4319550 said:
I always thought that the "P" stood for Prince. As just a working title.
Click to expand...

AlwaysThere;4319577 said:
Ooh, this makes sense! Maybe Bruce Swedien and others just misinterpreted.
Click to expand...

&#8216;P&#8217; refers to &#8216;Pee&#8217;, not to Prince.

Bruce Swedien was asked about that in another fan community, and he explained it clearly by posting this:

&#8220;Before Michael wrote the lyric for "BAD", the working title for "BAD" was "PEE"...&#8221; (Bruce Swedien, 2006)

&#8216;Pee&#8217; as the song&#8217;s original title has been confirmed also by several reliable authors in their books (like, Kit O'Toole).
 
AlwaysThere;4319452 said:
Since we’re discussing the song:

When the BAD short film went into production in mid-November 1986, the song wasn’t finished yet. All the vocal parts were there but the music was still incomplete. (The exact same thing happened with “Smooth Criminal” — Swedien was literally making new mixes of it while they were filming.)

Also, in one of the last choruses, where MJ goes “WOO!” three times in a row, that wasn’t originally in the song. When they were watching the short film footage, they noticed MJ was mouthing “woos” that weren’t there, so one of the musicians (I think it was Christopher Currell) spliced them in from another song.
Click to expand...

Isn’t it more likely that the “woos” are from BAD but just the same “woo” repeated three times?
 
Hudson112;4319694 said:
Isn&#8217;t it more likely that the &#8220;woos&#8221; are from BAD but just the same &#8220;woo&#8221; repeated three times?
Click to expand...

I've just gone back & watched again and it does sound like it's the same one repeated.
 
dam2040;4319710 said:
I've just gone back & watched again and it does sound like it's the same one repeated.
Click to expand...
And another thing I thought about: Now I’m not 100% sure of the timeline regarding when the short film was finished and when the album version of the song was finished but I get the idea that the short film was finished first. It’s also possible that Chris Currell did splice in woos to fit with Michael’s lip-syncing for the short film and then for the album, Michael went back and actually recorded woos for the song. Because I don’t know if it’s just me, but there does seem to be some kind of effect on his voice in the film, I don’t know if it’s reverb or what but whatever it is, it sounds normal on the album.
 
Does anyone else prefer the keyboard solo in the short film over the album version?
 
I also understand, and where I read it escapes me at the moment but it was from those who worked on the album, that the short film was what pretty much shaped the final version of the song, structure-wise. According to the BAD 25 Documentary, editing on the short film started around December 1986 so that could be a factor.

I would love to hear the version they used for rehearsals and filming the dance sequence.

Another thing I found out is that most of the elements of the song were there back in October - November 1986 (like most of the percussion, the main bass, the rhodes, and the synclav strings), and that other elements (like the horns, the synth links, and the cyclosonic moog drum) were added in early '87. This is evident in the work-in-progress Pepsi commercial released last year, and even the audio bleedthrough from Michael's earphones on the background vocal stem (logged on November 13, 1986).

My question is, if I can ask, has one of the first demo versions of BAD been played at a past seminar?
 
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