Your fave Victory tour Billie Jean performance?

[JichaelMackson]

As far as YouTube shows there have been 4 Billie Jeans leaked from this tour. Toronto, Kansas, Los Angeles and Dallas. Which one is your fave?
reading some of the comments, many people think this is MJ not up to his standards but I have to disagree. He sounds pretty good most fo the time, his energy is through the roof (it was needed because the pace in this tour was very fast), the bass sounds nasty in a good way. There is a rawness in these early BJ performances, much of it is less calculated, more improvised and natural plus he is doing the awesome circle glide here which is his best move imo. He is giving it is all and each version here is slightly different, either in the moves (for example he doesn't throw his hat at the public in Kansas) or vocally.

TORONTO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJEcYEsg1JM

LA -- correction CHICAGO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imPTpHUN_jk

KANSAS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=369bazgk2sI

DALLAS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZog8EUjwog

 

[Hulkamaniac]

The one you say it's from L.A. it's actually a mix of the Chicago shows shot on film. You also forgot NY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5k4AVw0vEg.

I think that my favorite performance is Toronto.

 

[JichaelMackson]

The one you say it's from L.A. it's actually a mix of the Chicago shows shot on film. You also forgot NY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5k4AVw0vEg.

I think that my favorite performance is Toronto.

Wow vocally this might be his best ever! Love the crowd reactions. Too bad the video quality is pretty much non existent :-D

 

[Hulkamaniac]

Wow vocally this might be his best ever! Love the crowd reactions. Too bad the video quality is pretty much non existent :-D

It does exist in higher quality though - http://mjjma.weebly.com/1984-victory-tour---new-york-city-usa-amateur-283-gb.html

by the way... by best live ever, you mean during the Victory tour, don't you? Because the one from the early Dangerous rehearsals is definitely the best one.

 

[dethorro]

This is a hard one!

I love all of them really.

The Madison Square Garden show has always been special to me. But I also like Chicago, which was shot on film.

In Kansas, there was something off with the spot lights.

 

[JichaelMackson]

It does exist in higher quality though - http://mjjma.weebly.com/1984-victory-tour---new-york-city-usa-amateur-283-gb.html

by the way... by best live ever, you mean during the Victory tour, don't you? Because the one from the early Dangerous rehearsals is definitely the best one.

Hmmm I think I prefer the Victory one, a rehearsal stays a rehearsal, it's missing the intensity of a full concert. If he sings it in the studio it's going to be vocally better too

 

[Robbsaber01]

Victory tour Chicago or NY should have been officially released. Im biased with Toronto but NY is up there on my list.

 

[Nite Line]

Has to be Toronto for me. Except the Dangerous Tour rehearsal, Toronto 84 is the best vocal performance of Billie Jean. It sounds almost identical to the studio version.

 

[Themidwestcowboy]

I love BJ from Toronto. Nice energy and nice vocals. Billie Jean is a song that MJ always seemed to have a bit of a struggle to sing live because of the verses sung in a low register and the tempo of the song being really fast, but as soon as he gets to the prec-horus he explodes. Dangerous Tour rehearsals is the only exeption though, as that is almost identical to the album version .

 

[analogue]

I think the best Billie Jean performances were on the Dangerous Tour. By that point Michael had perfected the dancing (Not that it wasn't great before) and he was still singing the song live.

 

[ChrisC]

Who knew "everybody sing along" was a part of his Billie Jean back then!

 

[JichaelMackson]

He also does dance moves that he never reproduced in any other live performance for billie jean. He also does that falsetto "oooh darling" part here, I'm not sure he does that in the other tours?

 

[Themidwestcowboy]

He also does dance moves that he never reproduced in any other live performance for billie jean. He also does that falsetto "oooh darling" part here, I'm not sure he does that in the other tours?

He did it here as well on the Dangerous Tour in Moscow at 5:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j1zsrCR-Kc

 

[MOR316]

The Victory tour...

A perfect example of Michael's naivety. If he wanted to tour, it should have just been him. He shouldn't have allowed himself to be hoodwinked/emotionally manipulated into doing it. I'm still trying to work out what the others done to deserve that Pepsi contract in 83/84.

It doesn't sit well with me that Michael poured his heart/soul into recording OTW/Thriller, singing those songs, writing those songs, creating that success for himself, only for his brothers/family to try mooch off him and his success.

Plus, I think Human Nature is performed badly on that tour.

Sorry, no offence mean't to anyone. Just had to get that off my chest

 

[SoCav]

I'll go with Toronto.

 

[Hulkamaniac]

Sorry, no offence mean't to anyone. Just had to get that off my chest

Why would this offend anyone? Lol. IMO, the Victory Tour is great. WBSS and Beat It have never sounded better. Love how Mike sang the whole set list, his vocals and dancing were on point. However, I do prefer the Triumph Tour over the Victory Tour because of how perfect the band was.

 

[JichaelMackson]

Why would this offend anyone? Lol. IMO, the Victory Tour is great. WBSS and Beat It have never sounded better. Love how Mike sang the whole set list, his vocals and dancing were on point. However, I do prefer the Triumph Tour over the Victory Tour because of how perfect the band was.

Can we really make such claims at this point (regarding picking triumph over victory)? We have such a small sample of concert performances for both tours not to mention the quality of the sound/video.
What I can already tell you for certain is that I love the smaller stages and that the backing band + brothers obviously are always into full view, makes the concerts more lively and fun imo

From the glimpses I've seen both look to be spectacularly good. To put it another way, I would be equally ecstatic if the Estate announced a full 100% quality dvd/cd of either tour.

 

[Hulkamaniac]

Can we really make such claims at this point (regarding picking triumph over victory)? We have such a small sample of concert performances for both tours not to mention the quality of the sound/video.

Uh, yes we can? I'm assuming you are a new fan, but come on. Have you ever listened to this album?

 

[Themidwestcowboy]

Why would this offend anyone? Lol. IMO, the Victory Tour is great. WBSS and Beat It have never sounded better. Love how Mike sang the whole set list, his vocals and dancing were on point. However, I do prefer the Triumph Tour over the Victory Tour because of how perfect the band was.

I wholehearteadly agree with you. The Thriller songs sounded best (vocally) on the Victory tour imo

 

[JichaelMackson]

Uh, yes we can? I'm assuming you are a new fan, but come on. Have you ever listened to this album?

This is like the 3rd or 4th time different people assume I'm either young or a new fan since I registered here a couple of months ago. I'm approaching 40! Do I really come across this young or immature or dumb?

Of course I know that album, I've bought it 20 years ago! I listen to it regularly but that's just 1 sample of dozens of shows done during the triumph tour and for Victory we only have the leaked Toronto show. It's not much, I can't tell right now which of the two is better. But I prefer the setlist of the Triumph tour.

 

[JichaelMackson]

I wholehearteadly agree with you. The Thriller songs sounded best (vocally) on the Victory tour imo

Destiny/Triumph/Victory from what I heard and seen he was never better, that's the peak right there 1979-1984. It's almost effortless, natural and without straining. The period 1975-1978 is probably a very close second, this is judged on the few samples of concerts (live in Mexico 75, Venezuela 77)

I say this with all respect possible for the bad tour and young Michael (1970-1972) because those were classic vocals as well.

He was slightly struggling during 1973-1974 but he still found ways to sing quite comfortably overall

 

[Robbsaber01]

I love BJ from Toronto. Nice energy and nice vocals. Billie Jean is a song that MJ always seemed to have a bit of a struggle to sing live because of the verses sung in a low register and the tempo of the song being really fast, but as soon as he gets to the prec-horus he explodes. Dangerous Tour rehearsals is the only exeption though, as that is almost identical to the album version .

Lets not forget how cold it was that night lol this for sure has an impact on vocals/performance. I think thats why he never came back lol. I remember watching snippets from each song leaking and I couldn't believe it. I still don't know how he was able to tour only months after the Pepsi accident.

 

[dethorro]

However, I do prefer the Triumph Tour over the Victory Tour because of how perfect the band was.

The band was indeed perfect! Not that it wasn't great on the Victory Tour, but the fact that it had a live horn section is just awesome.

On the Victory Tour, they still had Sugarfoot on drums and David Williams on guitar (two of the greatest players of Michael's bands imo) but they had different keyboardists and Gregg Wright, who is awesome too.

The thing is that the Victory Tour band has that typical synth heavy 80s sound while the Triumph Tour band doesn't.

To me, they were both great bands but I prefer the Triumph Tour band.

 

[ozemouze]

Thanks for the video links and information snippets in the thread! I'm discouraged a bit to watch amateur/poor quality/partial recordings but these recommendations help a lot.

This is like the 3rd or 4th time different people assume I'm either young or a new fan since I registered here a couple of months ago. I'm approaching 40! Do I really come across this young or immature or dumb?

I think it's more because you bring up topics with a kind of enthusiasm/curiosity like new fans do in their discovery phase, so it's not a bad thing after all.