General MJ musings thread

I’m currently reading Susan Fast’s book on Dangerous. I put it down a few months ago because I felt she politicised the album and it’s intent a little too much, but something prompted me to pick it up again and I’ll concede that she makes some really interesting observations and some great points, and ultimately it’s worth reading. I love her observation on how the earths globe is a central visual theme of the album.

Anyway,

She makes the following observation on the Remember The Time short film; “The place of real intensity and musical change comes during the outro. Jackson’s ad libs are forceful, desperate; our aggressive soul man is back. In the short film, the instrumental tracks are removed at this point and Jackson is left to sing by himself, eventually accompanied only by percussion during the choreographed group dance sequence (I’ve always liked this version better; the intensity of his voice on its own is breathtaking). The dance sequence is there as both an offering to the Queen (the micro-level narrative) and as a celebration of Africa, with its Egyptian-inspired choreography.”

She makes two wonderful observations here, (the first point of which got my head spinning and which I’ve expanded on here to further the point; that MJ presents as a soul man in his short films, (the music is structured in such a way as to bring more intensity to his performance, ie; instrumentals dropped, choruses dropped in the Thriller short film to build the performance to a very intense and climactic finale. Smooth Criminal being the best example.

And the second point; that the short film version of the song(s) is a better version. On the album the songs are presented in a Pop structure; verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus etc, whilst in the short films they’re presented in more of a Soul fashion and he presents himself as a Soul performer.

How many times have any of us watched, say, Thriller and come away from it thinking “I forgot how good it was! Every time I watch it I’m reminded how great it is!” Thriller, Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Smooth Criminal, Black Or White, Remember The Time, In The Closet, even Blood On The Dance Floor has that very brief moment where the instrumental track drops, apart from the rhythm section, coupled with MJ’s vocal clicks before he claps his hands and we’re thrust back into the full instrumental. It’s pure James Brown, it’s so wonderful to experience and it’s got so much soul!

Are these versions actually the definitive versions for many fans? Shouldn’t they be included on Anniversary Editions of their respective albums?
In the short film when we finally hear MJ sing “Cause this is Thriller!! Thriller night!!” It is sooo dramatic, so soulful and so effective and rewarding and satisfying that it takes your breath away. Whereas say, for the live performance during the Dangerous and HIStory Tours it doesn’t (in my opinion) have anywhere near the same dramatic impact. Although I loved it on the Bad Tour because of the live vocals and superb intro. I feel he should have performed it live the same way as it was structured in the short film; verse, verse, verse and bring it to a climax with the chorus.

Smooth Criminal; instrumental drops, MJ finger snaps and shushes and swishes, a cat scatter walks across a piano, we get that very weird moment from the entire cast before MJ soooo powerful calls out “So Annie are you okay??” and the music kicks back in. We also get that extra verse in the short film.

Bad; perhaps not so much the black and white portion of the short film that’s spoken dialogue between MJ and his old gang, but the breakdown “You’re doin’ wrong, Just watch your mouth” etc. The different—earlier keyboard infused instrumental section where MJ performs a mixture of ballet and street dance.