What is known about the Bad "On the Road" Documentary?

[staywild23]

I saw this mentioned in a random Twitter thread earlier today and I know absolutely nothing about it. I searched the archives here and while it may have been mentioned once or twice in passing, it doesn't seem like there's been any dedicated conversation about it. Why???

So I'm really curious... what is known about this? Who was involved? How far did it get? Why was it never released? How involved was Michael (meaning, was it focused on him and getting footage and interviews of him, or more on his he crew/fans, etc)?

I need all possible information about this so I can cry myself to sleep nightly until I get to see it. Jk. But not really.

Thanks!

 

[Beano Wild]

i remember reading that alot of the recording session footage in the bad 25 doc was all actually fake, and that they were recreations done by michael for the doccumentary, though this could be some mj_frenzy type stuff i was reading.

 

[staywild23]

i remember reading that alot of the recording session footage in the bad 25 doc was all actually fake, and that they were recreations done by michael for the doccumentary, though this could be some mj_frenzy type stuff i was reading.

Hmm that's very interesting! I'm actually not bothered if that is true, or not. I just want to see Michael in any capacity possible But your qualifying statement made me laugh out loud, so thank you!

Brad Sundberg mentioned during his event that there weren't cameras in the studio for Bad nearly as much as for Dangerous, or especially HIStory, during which Michael was filming a lot himself, or requesting that others were. Really the amount of archival footage that must exist somewhere is staggering to imagine.

 

[Beano Wild]

Hmm that's very interesting! I'm actually not bothered if that is true, or not. I just want to see Michael in any capacity possible But your qualifying statement made me laugh out loud, so thank you!

Brad Sundberg mentioned during his event that there weren't cameras in the studio for Bad nearly as much as for Dangerous, or especially HIStory, during which Michael was filming a lot himself, or requesting that others were. Really the amount of archival footage that must exist somewhere is staggering to imagine.

thats why it sorta makes sense the bad footage is probably a recreation. 35mm film is really expensive, so why would you have like 2 or 3 cameras recording a real recording session for songs that might not come out lmao

 

[dethorro]

It appears that the IJCSLY section from Bad 25 was done for the cameras, and unlike the Just Good Friends footage, was not the actual recording session of the song. If you notice, Michael and Siedah don't even wear headphones while singing and we don't hear the actual raw audio of them singing either.

This doesn't necessarily mean it was done for the On The Road documentary. It could have been done for an intended music video for the song. Who knows?

 

[Beano Wild]

It appears that the IJCSLY section from Bad 25 was done for the cameras, and unlike the Just Good Friends footage, was not the actual recording session of the song. If you notice, Michael and Siedah don't even wear headphones while singing and we don't hear the actual raw audio of them singing either.

This doesn't necessarily mean it was done for the On The Road documentary. It could have been done for an intended music video for the song. Who knows?

i think that was prob for the film, siedah was rehearsing for the bad tour for a period of time, maybe that was recorded at that time?

 

[Beano Wild]

now that i think of it, if the just good friends recording is real maybe michael only had this idea half way through recording everything, so he went back and recreated the recordings of a bunch of songs like smooth criminal and IJCSLY?

 

[dethorro]

Smooth Criminal was never recreated. What we see in the Bad 25 documentary when they talk about that song is the Just Good Friends session, but in black and white. The only recreated session is the IJCSLY one. Todo Mi Amor Eres Tu and Just Good Friends are both 100% real.

 

[Beano Wild]

Smooth Criminal was never recreated. What we see in the Bad 25 documentary when they talk about that song is the Just Good Friends session, but in black and white. The only recreated session is the IJCSLY one. Todo Mi Amor Eres Tu and Just Good Friends are both 100% real.

really?? thats interesting. i wonder if there are other sessions recorded like Bad and TWYMMF?

 

[wonderouzmj]

I posted this thread so long ago but nicks responded but everyone here has said exactly what I thought. They were all recreations. What I'm pissed about is...how can you do a bad 25doc & NOT MENTION "ON THE ROAD" or where these pieces came from. I swear we need to work for the estate because I'm sure spike Lee had no idea. He probably thought it was real studio footage. The fact that the estate has even more footage in quality like that baffles me.. just give us the whole thing. Why do we only get clips like that....wtf!

 

[staywild23]

I posted this thread so long ago but nicks responded but everyone here has said exactly what I thought. They were all recreations. What I'm pissed about is...how can you do a bad 25doc & NOT MENTION "ON THE ROAD" or where these pieces came from. I swear we need to work for the estate because I'm sure spike Lee had no idea. He probably thought it was real studio footage. The fact that the estate has even more footage in quality like that baffles me.. just give us the whole thing. Why do we only get clips like that....wtf!

Oh really? I'm sorry, I didn't see your original thread when I looked in the archives. I may have accidentally passed over it. I would have bumped that had I seen it!

I really just want to know more about this project. How do we know it exists at all? Who/what is the source? How complete is it?
I just want to know!

Now I am dreaming they will release it in the future with some anniversary edition of Bad but I may be way too optimistic

 

[dethorro]

I posted this thread so long ago but nicks responded but everyone here has said exactly what I thought. They were all recreations. What I'm pissed about is...how can you do a bad 25doc & NOT MENTION "ON THE ROAD" or where these pieces came from. I swear we need to work for the estate because I'm sure spike Lee had no idea. He probably thought it was real studio footage. The fact that the estate has even more footage in quality like that baffles me.. just give us the whole thing. Why do we only get clips like that....wtf!

As I said in my previous posts, they weren’t all recreations. Only the snippets of Michael and Siedah recording IJCSLY are done for the camera and are thus “fake”. The rest comes from the sessions themselves.

We also have footage from Michael’s personal handheld camera of the MITM and TWYMMF sessions, which was great to see. There is definitely more footage where this came from.

 

[SmoothCriminal1995]

Wasn't there a plan to release a documentary about the Bad Album in the 80's? I don't remember it being called "On The Road" but I could be wrong.

That's were all the studio footage is taken from I believe.

 

[wonderouzmj]

As I said in my previous posts, they weren’t all recreations. Only the snippets of Michael and Siedah recording IJCSLY are done for the camera and are thus “fake”. The rest comes from the sessions themselves.

We also have footage from Michael’s personal handheld camera of the MITM and TWYMMF sessions, which was great to see. There is definitely more footage where this came from.

I doubt that. Mj wasn't rocking those clothes with stevie by that time yet. That design didn't come then. June 18th 1987 at Westlake Studios is the day of the actual recording