Michael Jackson

[hedgehog90]

Via the AV Club's comments section I've just discovered this site - http://www.mjfacts.com/michael-jacksons-full-porn-collection-analyzed/ - which is a full analysis of all of the pornography that Jackson owned. No idea if it's true or not, but it made for vaguely interesting reading.

On a similar note, I was reading a fairly trashy article the other day about MJ's err... habits, shall we say.

http://nypost.com/2014/08/10/michael-jacksons-ex-maids-reveal-madness-at-neverland/

[mrpupkin]

Via the AV Club's comments section I've just discovered this site - http://www.mjfacts.com/michael-jacksons-full-porn-collection-analyzed/ - which is a full analysis of all of the pornography that Jackson owned. No idea if it's true or not, but it made for vaguely interesting reading.

It made for incredibly annoying reading. Not to comment on any of the publications discussed or inferences drawn but who are these two anonymous wallies and why would anyone sit down and transcribe that endless drivel?

I can't make head nor tail of the story. One of them has a mate who works in porn so they got him to find copies of all the porn Jackson apparently owned ("three freakin' HUGE boxes"), which they then recorded themselves looking through, typed up the incredibly long transcript and posted it online? Then presumably said "ta mate you can put it all back now, wherever the fuck all that came from". Why are all the photos obviously from the internet? No photos of the boxes? Why don't we find out anyone's full name? This is doing my nut

[popcorn]

I watched those Spike Lee documentaries. They're a bit workmanlike but they do serve as nice compilations of astonishing live footage and stuff.

The bit I can't get past is how different the man used to look. I mean, we all know that, but the MJ that burns in my memory is mainly the gross 90s one, because that's just how he looked when I was a kid. It's chilling to imagine the 20-year-old MJ on the Off the Wall cover trapped somewhere inside the ghoul he became.

[daf]

Fake Michael Jackson songs on posthumous album

Sony Music has conceded finally in court that they released three fake tracks sung by an impersonator. These songs, 'Breaking News', 'Keep Your Head Up' and 'Monster' appeared on the late legend's first posthumous album, Michael in 2010.

Cascio and Porte claimed that these songs were recorded in Cascio's New Jersey basement in 2007 but failed to provide any concrete evidence to support it. Serova argued in the Los Angeles Superior Court that the songs were fake and performed by an impersonator named Jason Malachi.

when Sony tried to defend itself and asked Porte and Cascio to provide alternate vocal takes of these songs, they claimed they had deleted them all from their computers.

BREAKING NEWS - FAKE! (the 3rd person 'Michael Jackson' bits always sounded a bit odd)

MONSTER - FAKE! (Scream put through a blender)

KEEP YOUR HEAD UP - FAKE! (that weird vibrato clearly evidence of some jiggery if not your actual pokery at work)

[Baby Of The Year]

I would just like to thank Popcorn for alerting me to Francis and the Lights in his original post. Fucking hell, that video is making my skin sizzle with delight, I must have watched it (and other F&TL videos) about 30 times in the last 24 hours.

[Satchmo Distel]

I think he has more name recognition among Americans aged between 16 and 50 than just about anyone else in the history of music who is not still active. More than Elvis or Frank Sinatra, say. Stevie and Prince were more talented and influential but Jackson was the great showman, so to speak, the one who crossed over into every part of white culture as well as black (sadly those musical cultures are still not totally integrated).

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Michael Jackson's ghost is planning a big disruption of some Jarvis Cocker show.

[samadriel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8JwBZAtflE&t=0s
Michael Jackson as Spiderman, what a brilliant idea.  I hear 'rock spider' is prison slang for a child molester, appropriately.

[Twit 2]

Although it does contain a shrieking James Corden, he's handsomely right to be laughing so much at Sean Lock's flight of fancy concerning the Jacksons operating a tea room in Devon:

https://youtu.be/5I3SbdHSteE

[popcorn]

Fake Michael Jackson songs on posthumous album

It seems this was misreported and Sony are denying admitting anything. Varsity: "According to sources close to the situation, individuals who attended Tuesday's court hearing seized upon a statement by an attorney for Jackson's estate in which he said something to the effect of 'even if the vocals weren't Jackson's' as proof that they were indeed faked. The sources insist that the attorney was speculating."

Which isn't to say Sony is definitely telling the truth - but they haven't admitted anything yet.

[popcorn]

THOUGHTS ON BEAT IT:

Unlike  Earth Song, in which MJ martyrs himself as Jesus (hence Jarvis Cocker's bumwafting), in Beat It he's just a guy in the neighbourhood. A neutral onlooker, despairing at the senseless violence in the streets.

Look at Michael here. He's absolutely fucking had it with gang warfare. Even aside from moral concerns, it means he can't get any fucking shuteye.



Look at his T-shirt! It's adorable! On anyone else it would destroy his credibility entirely but it only makes him so much more boyish and endearing.



So he goes down into the streets and resolves the gangs' differences by sweeping them into a dance routine.



It's fucking brilliant, effortlessly cool, and amazingly non-cheesy. Perhaps because it feels like a metaphor, rather than something you're asked to literally imagine happening. He's an unassuming angel figure who descends from his little apartment to show the criminals the light - but without being self-aggrandising or pompous. By the way, I think this is coolest look MJ ever had. Great colours.

Then you've got Bad. Bad is a very similar concept: gang warfare. Except now Jackson is the leader of a gang, no longer the neutral figure.



Something's gone wrong here. I've seen people say this was MJ's hottest ever look, but to me he looks more like Janet Jackson than Michael Jackson. He's no longer a plucky kid with a heart of gold who makes effortlessly cool fashion choices. He's posturing. It's ridiculous. It's trying way too hard.



Wesley Snipes says: "You gonna dance us to death? You got to be kidding me." The Bad video does exactly what the Beat It video brilliantly doesn't - it forces you to literalise the whole encounter and imagine a bunch of street toughs doing ridiculous dance moves to impress one another. And at the end when you see Wesley's reaction to this extraordinary display you can't help but think: "Well, yes, that was fucking weird." Meaning this finale does not fucking scan:



The other thing is that whereas Beat It does plausibly feel a bit badass, musically, Bad doesn't. Those harmonies are pure bubblegum. Sometimes I think Michael Jackson was not really much of a tough guy after all.

[magval]

Popcorn, your Smooth Criminal edit on the previous page works brilliantly and I agree with your reasons for making it. A cool hypothesis nicely realised.

[popcorn]

Popcorn, your Smooth Criminal edit on the previous page works brilliantly and I agree with your reasons for making it. A cool hypothesis nicely realised.

I've been forcing it onto people for years and you're the first person who's agreed. If only Michael had heard it.

[daf]

Girls Talk by Elvis Costello has a funny bit with the structure - it's actually a line short - throwing the whole lot out of whack!

I'll let Dave Edmunds take up the story :

As I recall, I recorded the first version of Girls talk. Costello gave me a very rough cassette with just acoustic and vocal. It was twice the speed of my version...really had to work at it, and I put some Don Everly type acoustic gtr bits in it. Costello recorded his version some time later

Nick Lowe and I added the line "More or less situation..." because Costello's version was a line short, making the verse asymmetric. I pointed this out to him but he gruffly replied that "that's the way I wrote it.: He's made it quite plain that he doesn't like my version, which I find inconceivable

Costello's Wonky Line Version (from around 35s - 40s)
Dave Edmunds Fixed Version (added line at 48s)

Though Costello's live version now sounds like the Edmunds arrangement, he STILL misses out a line at the wonky point - the ornery blind-spotted barmpot!

[Bazooka]

To this day I've never listened to a whole MJ album, do they even exist? Are there fossils somewhere to back up the claims?

[magval]

Aye. Several of them are wholly excellent.

[popcorn]

Aye. Several of them are wholly excellent.

Are they really? I've given them a few once-overs and I only like bits and pieces (if that) of any of em.

[magval]

Aye, I could listen to Bad and Thriller without skipping and Off The Wall's only really let down by Girlfriend.

[Captain Z]

Girls Talk by Elvis Costello has a funny bit with the structure - it's actually a line short - throwing the whole lot out of whack!

I'll let Dave Edmunds take up the story :
Costello's Wonky Line Version (from around 35s - 40s)
Dave Edmunds Fixed Version (added line at 48s)

Though Costello's live version now sounds like the Edmunds arrangement, he STILL misses out a line at the wonky point - the ornery blind-spotted barmpot!

Never heard this track before but I prefer Costello's version - can't hear how it's supposed to sound wonky.

[daf]

Let's look at the lyrics and chords :

verse 1
There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder (line ends on a 'D')
I thought I heard you mention my name, can't you talk any louder? (ends on an 'E')

pre-chorus 1
Don't come any closer, don't come any nearer
My vision of you can't get any clearer
Oh, i just want to hear girls talk

verse 2
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *
I got a loaded imagination being fired by girls talk (line ends on an 'E')

pre-chorus 2
But I can't say the words you want to hear
I suppose you're going to have to play it by ear
Right here and now

(Verse 3 reverts to the structure of verse 1 with the lines resolving first on D and then on E)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* as there's no 'set up' line here ending in D - it sounds like he goes into pre-chorus 2 a line too soon.
Edmunds changes the note at the end of the 'loaded imagination' line from 'E' to 'D'  and adds a new line after it ending with 'E' **

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
** (technical note : as Edmunds changes the key, the two lines actually end in a C# and a G#)

[Captain Z]

I wouldn't like to disagree with your analysis as you know more about it than I, but I hear:

verse
There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder
I thought I heard you mention my name, can't you talk any louder?

pre-chorus
Don't come any closer, don't come any nearer
My vision of you can't get any clearer, oh...

chorus
...I just want to hear girls talk
I got a loaded imagination being fired by girls talk
But I can't say the words you want to hear
I suppose you're going to have to play it by ear
...

It's not a conventional structure, and I'd say it's at this point it gets a bit wonky.