Latest on MJJC

Where did MJ get the inspiration for Liberian Girl?

uhm.......from Liberia...?:tease:










just kidding... I don't know that one, but yeah good question. I wonder muyself.
 
Last edited:
The song was called Pyramide Girl at first, it is dedicated to Liz Taylor - imo she (as an actress) was the inspiration. Could have been the movie Cleopatra for example.
 
well michael had been writing it and tweaking the song for years, so much changes happen in his song writing process, i think the song could have been stronger, it had alot more potential
 
Probably around the time he realized how many songs needed to be on the album. That song is filler to the 10th power. The only thing good about it is the video.
 
Filler!!??? I don't think so. You can tell Mike put a lot of time and effort into this song. I have been listening to it all week and the if you listen to the music, you can hear the African overtones to it.
The chant being sung by an African singer is in the Zulu language. No :no: I don't think Liberian Girl is a filler song at all!!!! It is one of my favorites.

Ticie,
The JACKSONOLOGIST
 
  • Like
Reactions: MJ5
I recently added this song to my ipod and I hadn't listened to that song in a long time. Since listening to it on my ipod, I realize more and more how amazing it really is.
 
this song is incredible....
I just love the whole of it....
the passion of the Swa-hili (sp?) speaking part girl and Michael's
and all the sounds...
he mentioned working on this song during this nice interview from the80s
when he was with Latoya...
but he didn't say anything about this after all.... as far as I remember....

and he is hugely inspired by his own life....

so maybe he got the inspiration from his own personal life?????????
 
Last edited:
No idea who or what inspired it, but it's interesting that it was Pyramid Girl before it was Liberian Girl...I've never really been a fan of the song, but I love the video!
 
I thought that at the end of the video it says dedicated to Elizabeth Taylor :unsure:
Besides that I have no idea what its about, but for some reason when I hear that song it makes me think he was inspired by a movie...
Lol but who knows? He never explained where that song came from.. Too bad because I love that song and I would love to know how he came up with it..
 
The video is fun but doesn't match with the song at all. When you watch it you just don't pay attention to the music. He should have used this video for a funky track because Liberian girl is one of his deepest interpretations in my opinion.

I don't know about this misterious Liberian girl...
 
I wrote that at my house in the game room. I guess I was playing some pinball or something, and the song just popped into my head. And I think I ran upstairs, put it on tape, and it became ‘Liberian Girl’…..I don’t think about it, it just comes. - Michael
 
michaelsson said:
Allowing you and clearly everyone else in this thread to be ignorant for so long didnt sit well with me. You’re welcome.
Click to expand...
You didn't get my point,tho it's my fault for expecting that to happen in the first place,I assume.
Have a good day.
 
michaelsson said:
Liberia is in African. Clearly his inspiration was african women. The ignorance my god.
Click to expand...
I'm glad you stated this!

I have my own thoughts on the original title being "Pyramid Girl."

Song Thoughts:

For the fact of knowing how much Mike loved History and him believing how history books have been changed regarding black people; I wouldn't be surprised if that was something at play, but that's just my opinion. However, considering there has always been some dispute of whether ancient Egypt was a black civilization, maybe that prompted a name change or simply the song just evolved, (If) that was his angle. But this is all just my personal opinion and pondering.

In Michael's large collection of African American/Black books, there was the title: "In Praise of Black Women: Ancient African Queens." (Edit: The book title has nothing to do with the song or shortfilm but I just mentioned it because Michael has books on Black Women in general and so, maybe certain topics were interesting to him. The book didn't come out til like 2001.) Sorry if the mentioning of this book was confused with whether Cleopatra was black or not. I never stated she was or wasn't. I did try to separate the two thoughts (song and shortfilm) in my original post. I was merely speaking about how I found it interesting he had a book on that subject and I should have made that more clear. Anyhoo, I've since edited the post to make it more clear.

All in all, the inspiration for the song was black women, even if it just popped into his head while playing pinball! I'm basing my opinion on the song itself.

Short film thoughts:

The short film opens with Beverly Johnson (a famous Black Super Model) mouthing the intro that's in the African language "Swahili," as if it would be an actual film about the songs subject, along with the marquee above the building that says "Cafe Afrique" and the dancers in tradition African clothing. But I digress since the original post was about the song itself. However, I saw folks comment on the short film, hence this response.

I think his dedication to Elizabeth Taylor (had to do with the short film only. Perhaps for the sake of the art of film...or him dedicating it to her just because.) Who knows!?

Please note: people will have opinions on what I mentioned above and that's fine. This is a discussion forum. So, I was simply relaying my thoughts and pondering as well just like many others.
 
Last edited:
MJsAngelOfMusic said:
I'm glad you stated this!

I have my own thoughts on the original title being "Pyramid Girl." For the fact of knowing how much Mike loved History and him believing how history books have been changed regarding black people; I wouldn't be surprised if that was something at play, but that's just my opinion.

In Michael's large collection of African American/Black books, there was the title: "In Praise of Black Women: Ancient African Queens." However, considering there has always been some dispute of whether ancient Egypt was a black civilization, maybe that prompted a name change or simply the song just evolved, (If) that was his angle. But this is all just my personal opinion and pondering.

All in all, the inspiration for the song was black women even if it just popped into his head while playing pinball!

The short film even opens with Beverly Johnson (a famous Black Super Model) mouthing the intro that's in the African language "Swahili," as if it would be an actual film about the songs subject, along with the marquee above the building that says "Cafe Afrique" and the dancers in tradition African clothing. But I digress since the original post was about the song itself. However, I saw folks comment on the short film, hence this response.

I think his dedication to Elizabeth Taylor (had to do with the short film only. Perhaps for the sake of the art of film...or him dedicating it to her just because.) Who knows!?
Click to expand...
Well since it was called 'Pyramid Girl' first and one of Liz Taylor's biggest roles was playing 'Cleopatra' (Egyptian queen/pyramids) Liz most probably was the inspiration for the initial song..

For some reason MJ changed the title (maybe it just sounded better..?) but that still makes Liz Taylor the inspiration right..?

Anyway, both Cleopatra and Liz Taylor were not black women
 
Victorious said:
Well since it was called 'Pyramid Girl' first and one of Liz Taylor's biggest roles was playing 'Cleopatra' (Egyptian queen/pyramids) Liz most probably was the inspiration for the initial song..

For some reason MJ changed the title (maybe it just sounded better..?) but that still makes Liz Taylor the inspiration right..?

Anyway, both Cleopatra and Liz Taylor were not black women
Click to expand...
I respect your opinion while still maintaining my own.

But it still stands, the version of "Liberian Girl" that we know today was about African Women—and I believe them to be it's inspiration based off a few things that have only to do with the song itself.
 
Last edited:
Victorious said:
Well since it was called 'Pyramid Girl' first and one of Liz Taylor's biggest roles was playing 'Cleopatra' (Egyptian queen/pyramids) Liz most probably was the inspiration for the initial song..

For some reason MJ changed the title (maybe it just sounded better..?) but that still makes Liz Taylor the inspiration right..?

Anyway, both Cleopatra and Liz Taylor were not black women
Click to expand...
Also, I was merely speaking about "Pyramid Girl" and the dispute of whether ancient Egypt was a black civilization. This had nothing to do with Cleopatra nor whether she was black or not. However, I understand how that could have been confused since I mentioned that book. I just found it interesting how Michael had a book on that particular topic. And I definitely know Elizabeth Taylor is not black! Lol. I'm black! I've been a MJ fan since 1982.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top