RIP Michael Jackson

I'll say this , as great a performer as he was and was GREAT, that in many ways his life was a tragedy. Hopefully now he can find peace and the rest of us, as others have mentioned, can sit back and enjoy the gift he left us.
 
I choose to only remember the goodness of Michael Jackson as an artist; his music will remain with me for the rest of my days. Every time I hear his songs, they bring back great memories of days gone by.

Waaaayyyy back in the day as a kid, I can still remember peeling vinyl record singles of The Jackson Five off the back of cereal boxes and playing them until the turntable needle wore through.

R.I.P. and God Bless MJ
 
During my tenure as an assistant egineer at The Hit Factory I had the pleasure of working with Michael for the recording of the invincible album. I was in session with Michael, Bruce Swedien, Rodney Jerkins, and Teddy Rilery months and he bought myself and the 2 other engineers Playstation 2's as a gift when the session was over.

He was simply one of nicest men I had ever worked with and his kids were just the best. I made a lot store runs for candy and chips or when ever they wanted something. We were on a first name basis and I had always been a fan. So needless to say I was pretty hurt when I found out.

I'm getting my autographed copy of thriller and the pictures I have from that session framed today. He will be missed and Thriller will be on repeat this weekend.
 
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It's funny how every single celebrity now is his friend and is "deeply saddened". They didn't seem to be around during the past years when the man needed friends...

Filthrich, Butterflies from Invincible is one of the best pop songs to come out in recent years, and was deeply neglected. Invincible was not up to par with his older albuns, but that song alone makes it a worthy addition... People said he was working on a new album. Do you know if anything was recorded? Are we going to hear something from Michael Jackson, post mortem?
 
SPZ said:
Filthrich, Butterflies from Invincible is one of the best pop songs to come out in recent years, and was deeply neglected. Invincible was not up to par with his older albuns, but that song alone makes it a worthy addition... People said he was working on a new album. Do you know if anything was recorded? Are we going to hear something from Michael Jackson, post mortem?
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Man, I was sitting right there when he recorded "Butterflies" It was an amazing day. I remember him coming out of the booth after his last take of leads and saying "This one is a hit"

A lot of people may not know that Michael almost always recorded on wooden platform so he can record his feet stomping on it to add to the feel. I had never seen anything like that before.

I know that he was working quite a bit with Wil.I. Am and they recorded quite a few songs but I don't know if it was an album's worth. And I also know for a fact that he did a song with Timbaland that has not been released yet.


I have some real funny celebrity stories from that session. I thought it was funny how huge stars turn to starstruck fans when in his presence.
 
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do share these stories! I figured he would do something like that ( the wooden platform). In the Dangerous album, there's one particular song whose Rythm is made by his own voice- sounds. Its simply unbelievable. The same goes probably to "Stranger n Moscow". Nothing quite sounds like a Michael Jackson song, rythm wise...
 
I witnessed with my own two eyes, Chris Tucker singing and dancing to "You rock My world" wearing only boxers. He came in the studio and Mike had just left and he wanted to hear the album. So we let him because he was Chris Tucker. I went in to check on the Protools Back-ups after about 20 minutes and stood there mortified. Chris did not care. He told me to bring the track back and he kept doing what he was doing. Tucker is one odd dude when it comes to MJ. And he was there at least 3 days a week. I played many a game of NBA street with that guy.

I also remember the day when MJ said that he wanted Jay-Z on the remix. Jay said that he could not do it because of scheduling issues. Then I remember MJ laughing and saying with such confidence "Oh, Jay-z will do it." and a few days later he was on the song. (Much to Rodney's dismay) Mike was the man. An Icon that will be missed.
 
The fascinating thing is that I'm watching BBC WOrld right now- took the day off due to a goofy sport injury- and people are dancing to his songs in the streets all around the World. His music touched people everywhere. He's probably one of the last singer-songwriters that actually wrote songs about world problems and issues beyond the love/heartbreak, sex, neorosis that constitutes about 95% of Pop songs nowadays. His music was full of positive energy. We live in a synical world, and Michael Jackson made me believe in Magic, as a kid, and, above all, feel good. I'll never forget the "Heehee"'s, "Owww!"'s... He could fill a whole keyboard with his vocal sound FX's!
 
Michael Jackson must have had a very troubled and unhappy life. He was a Superstar at a very young age, then a global icon. To never have the peace of privacy EVER, has to have a magnum effect on one's life. He was a troubled soul. The "King of pop" is definitely in a better place.
 
If you search my comments in the archives you'll see me try to explain some of Michael's "freakyness" because there were some things that I'm sure were misunderstood... it wasn't just being raised as a pop star that made him an outsider with the rest of the world... but he was also a Jehovah's Witness... which is pretty tough growing up in as well. It may be passable if you have JW friends, but if you don't, you sure won't have reliable friends that aren't JW... so being an outsider anywhere you go becomes the norm... it's even worse if you don't really buy what they're selling... because you grow up as an outsider every where... no matter who you're with.

I think this is why he had an attraction to kids (I didn't say physical attraction... just attraction)... it was a combination of the way kids take everything at face value, with little biased judgement, and the fact that MJ never had a childhood of his own.

So then add Vitiligo... a disease where your infection control system overpowers your melatonin... and you start to spread areas of no pigment... but not in a uniform, gentle way... no... you get speckled... with goofy white dots of various size... and that usually starts on your arms or wrists. (one glove anybody?) So what do you do as time goes on and you start getting these spots in more and more places? Hell... you may consider ways to hide the spots by lightening the rest of your skin.

I think all of this may explain his interest in the elephant man's bones... I think he probably related, by that time, to the ultimate feelings of isolation, and lack of acceptance... even though yes, he was one of the biggest stars of our time. (Do you think that most celebrities see a screaming, cheering crowd as a crowd of people, any one of which, they could have a nice relationship with? Wake up... most people are fans of what you presented to them... not of YOU personally... and I'm willing to bet 99% of stars realize this... or soon learn.)

Take it or don't... just a personal analysis of how/why Michael lived as he did... I'll be melancholy listening to his music for a while... he really was an innovator.
 
That was nicely put, Matt. I have been thinking alot of those things as well. I also forgot how he had that scalp surgery after his hair caught on fire from an explosion at the Pepsi commercial. I guess he really got hooked on painkillers after that, and it obviously contributed to the altering of his appearance(the surgery).

(I didn't realize that he wrote We Are The World with Lionel Richie!)

I am sad that he is gone.
 
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you know true genius is a man who got famous for being himself amongst geniuses and really only had one talent "here's Johnny"
 
Michael a couple of times in interviews mentioned that he wanted to direct and used his videos as mini feature films.
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Dont be sad guys,his family said that Michael wouldnt want that ,i will remember him for sure as a guy who took music videos to the next level and delivered many goosebumps during watching/listening to his art.
 
That's one impressive photo! How long was it taken? Are we going to see a RED MJ video post mortem?
 
Does it just *look* as though there's no lens mounted to that RED, or is there really no lens mounted to that RED...?
 
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