Publicity photo of Prince on guitar with 3rdEyeGirl

I had the opportunity to see Prince perform in his hometown this past Saturday and the Purple One didn’t disappoint. There are few artists past the age of 50 who can still bring it without feeling like a nostalgia act. Prince is one of them. The show was outstanding. Electric atmosphere, intimate setting (the Myth holds about 3,000 people), a packed, diverse crowd, and (for me ) a straight-on view about 75 feet from the stage. It was a fairly short gig at about 90 minutes (a second show followed at 11:30), but Prince and his new band, 3rdEyeGirl, had the place rocking from start to finish.

Cameras and cell phones were not allowed inside the venue so the only photos I have are from outside the club

Highlights for me were the opener, a guitar-centered, bluesy take on “Let’s Go Crazy”; the new, Nirvana-esque “Fixurlifeup”; a moody, slowed-down version of the 80s B-side “She’s Always in My Hair”; and a moving rendition of “Purple Rain” featuring former Revolution member Bobby Z (who Prince hadn’t played with since 1987) on drums.

As the Minneapolis Star Tribune‘s Jon Bream notes, the rock-driven, guitar-centric take on his catalog at times seemed to channel the legendary Jimi Hendrix. It also contained elements of grunge and metal (an influence that became overt when Prince covered Pearl Jam’s 1991 anthem “Even Flow” on guitar). His “new sound” not only reinvents old songs, but also, in typical Prince fashion, pushes against the grain of the current music scene, where EDM and synth pop now dominate. Prince did play DJ for a while, inviting audience members to dance on stage while he cranked out parts of hits like “Hot Thing” and “Housequake.” The funk was still there.

But regardless of genre, seeing Prince in silhouette, bathed in purple light and smoke, playing guitar solos or soulfully crooning ballads like “The Love We Make” (from Emancipation) while playing piano was something to behold. It was clear he was in his element and enjoying every second of it, joking about “lip sync bands” and shouting out love to his hometown. “It’s Saturday night,” he said at one point. “We could do this all night.”

No one would have objected.

3rdEyeGirl

Here’s the setlist for the first show at the Myth:

Let’s Go Crazy
Endorphinmachine
Screwdriver
She’s Always In My Hair
The Love We Make
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
Guitar
Fixurlifeup
When Doves Cry
Nasty Girl
Sign O’ The Times
The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
Hot Thing
A Love Bizarre
Housequake
Purple Rain (with Bobby Z)
Guitar Cover of Pearl Jam’s Even Flow (Encore)
Bambi (Encore)
Plectrum Electrum (Encore)
U Got The Look (Encore)

When Michael Jackson died unexpectedly in June of 2009, then-26-year-old choreographer Wade Robson – who has recently made headlines for accusing the pop star of molestation – wrote about his longtime friend and mentor:

Michael Jackson changed the world and, more personally, my life forever. He is the reason I dance, the reason I make music, and one of the main reasons I believe in the pure goodness of humankind. He has been a close friend of mine for 20 years. His music, his movement, his personal words of inspiration and encouragement and his unconditional love will live inside of me forever. I will miss him immeasurably, but I know that he is now at peace and enchanting the heavens with a melody and a moonwalk.

Such a gushing statement came as no surprise to those who knew Robson’s backstory. During Jackson’s Bad World Tour in 1987, five-year-old Robson won a local dance competition in Australia. The reward was attending a backstage meet-and-greet with the King of Pop and the opportunity to join his idol on stage at the end of the concert.

Two years passed before Robson saw Jackson again. This time he was performing at Disneyland when his mother, Joy, decided to reach out to Jackson’s secretary to see if they could meet again. Jackson allowed the Robson family to visit him at the recording studio at Record One where he was working on his Dangerous album. He also invited them to stay at his Neverland Ranch. This hospitality was not unusual for Jackson. Around this same time, Jackson also spent countless hours at his Ranch with AIDS victim, Ryan White, who had been shunned, taunted and bullied at his school in Kokomo, Indiana. “Those trips to California kept me going,” Ryan White said. Similar positive experiences have been shared by hundreds of others.

Not long after their visit to Neverland, the Robson family decided to move to California to allow Wade and his sister, Chantal, more opportunities in the entertainment industry. Over the subsequent years, a friendship blossomed between the Robsons and Jackson. Wade Robson was ambitious and talented, and Jackson took on the role of mentor, teaching him the nuances of his craft and signing him to his MJJ Productions label. Jackson also gave him small parts in his music videos, including “Black or White.”

Robson went on to have a successful career in the industry, choreographing for the likes of Britney Spears and ‘N Sync, and later having his work showcased on shows like So You Think You Can Dance. In 2005, he married Hawaii native Amanda Rodriguez.

That same year, Robson, who had every reason to avoid the circus that was the 2005 Michael Jackson child molestation trial, decided to testify under oath about his experiences with the singer. First questioned by Jackson’s attorney Thomas Mesereau and then under rigorous cross-examination, Robson matter-of-factly gave his account of his time with the artist. Robson repeatedly and adamantly denied being molested or of any other inappropriate sexual activity.

After Jackson was acquitted of all charges a few months later, Wade Robson’s mother Joy spoke of their family’s relief about the verdict. “We were crying and screaming and crying and screaming…We all believed ultimately the truth would come out…I’ve always said to Michael, ‘I wished the world could know the Michael we do.’”

Wade Robson invited Jackson to his wedding later that year, but Jackson decided not to attend because he did not want to turn the joyous occasion into a media circus.

Jackson and Robson, however, remained good friends. Whenever asked, Robson continued to praise Jackson as his biggest inspiration.

They last met in Las Vegas in 2008. Jackson was living there with his three children and Robson was working on a show in the city. “Me, my wife and him and his three kids had a barbecue,” recalled Robson. “It was the most normal thing in the world.”

It had been over twenty years since they first met, and Robson was still, by his own admission, completely unaffected by any past abuse or trauma. His life and career were thriving. He also seemed to have no concerns about Jackson’s own young children.

According to initial reports, Robson’s attorney, Henry Gradstein, claimed the reason his client lied under oath and continued to praise the pop star following his death was because the alleged abuse was a “repressed memory.” Repressed memories — instances in which an individual believes they have blocked or forgotten a traumatic event before “recovering” it years or decades later — has become a highly controversial subject in the field of psychology. According to the American Psychological Association, “experienced clinical psychologists state that the phenomenon of a recovered memory is rare (e.g., one experienced practitioner reported having a recovered memory arise only once in 20 years of practice).” The overwhelming consensus by experts is that such “memories” are not reliable without corroborating evidence. Dr. Richard McNally, Professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, describes the phenomenon of belatedly recovered memories as “the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry.”

In his interview with Matt Lauer on the Today Show, however, Robson claimed that that his memories of abuse were not repressed; he was simply unable to process them emotionally or psychologically. Robson claims that he was fully aware Jackson was a child abuser at the time of his 2005 trial, but decided to lie under oath because he didn’t yet realize what happened to him was wrong. Robson was 22 at the time. But perhaps, one might assume, in the months or years to come he regretted his decision and went to authorities — at least to prevent further “victims.” Nope. Instead, he was barbecuing with MJ and family in 2008, and praising him without any pressure or prompt in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

It goes without saying that accusations of abuse must always be taken seriously. When an individual has told one story very credibly and convincingly as an adult, however, and then suddenly changes it with no corroborating evidence (letters, photos, phone conversations, witnesses, etc.) to file a creditor’s claim, it deserves a healthy dose of skepticism. Believing such claims on faith can be dangerous, destroying lives and reputations with absolutely no proof beyond the accusation.

According to Wade Robson’s attorney, Henry Gradstein, it was sometime in 2012 when the choreographer had a mental breakdown, and “collapsed under the stress” of his recovered memory. Robson’s career had also taken a downturn with the choreographer mysteriously dropping out of many projects. Soon after, Robson decided to file a creditor’s claim against Jackson’s estate. Robson also filed a civil lawsuit in L.A. County Superior Court, in which he is reportedly targeting companies associated with Jackson. Whatever one makes of his allegations, then, they are not simply to heal. Robson clearly wants a payout.

In a statement, Howard Weitzman, an attorney representing Jackson’s estate, called Robson’s accusations “outrageous and pathetic…This is a young man who has testified at least twice under oath over the past 20 years and said in numerous interviews that Michael Jackson never did anything inappropriate to him or with him. Now, nearly 4 years after Michael has passed this sad and less than credible claim has been made. We are confident that the court will see this for what it is.“

Jackson’s attorney, Thomas Mesereau, feels Robson’s claims are shamelessly motivated by money, given the timing (a high-stakes trial between Jackson’s mother and concert promoter AEG Live, is currently being litigated) and the enormous amount of wealth the Jackson estate has generated since the singer’s death.

Regardless of one’s views of Jackson, Robson’s case raises serious questions about the nature and validity of decade-delayed allegations, especially when attached to money.

Dr. Elizabeth F. Loftus, a renowned cognitive psychologist and human memory expert from the University of Washington, notes that these memories can often be triggered by therapist suggestion. “Some contemporary therapists have been known to tell patients, merely on the basis of a suggestive history or symptom profile, that they definitely had a traumatic experience…Once the ‘diagnosis’ is made, the therapist urges the patient to pursue the recalcitrant memories.”

Wade Robson, then, could very well believe he was abused even if it never happened.

In any case, objectivity and fairness should compel at least some burden of proof. Robson’s own family members have repeatedly defended Jackson over a period of twenty years. Were all of them completely oblivious to what happened until just months ago?

Numerous other individuals who were close to Jackson as children continue to defend him with no apparent incentive for doing so. Since the latest allegations, several people who visited Jackson’s Neverland Ranch as children, have once again spoken out in support of the artist, including Alfonso Ribeiro, Frank Cascio, Brett Barnes, and Jackson’s nephews, Taryll, T.J. and Taj Jackson.

In defense of his uncle, Taj Jackson wrote movingly on Twitter:

I will not sit back and let someone flat out lie about my uncle. PERIOD. I am writing these words knowing that the minute I press send, my life will never be the same afterwards…I was sexually abuse[d]. By an uncle on my mom’s side of the family when I was a kid. My uncle [Michael Jackson] was a support system for me and my mom. He wrote a letter to her that many have seen already, u just didn’t know what it was about. That is how I KNOW Wade is lying. Because I AM a survivor. My hands are still trembling. Don’t forget I was living at Neverland when Wade testified during my uncle’s case. I sat there and ate dinner with him and his family. I will not let them smear my Uncle’s legacy. I don’t want to go on TV. I don’t want publicity, I just want the truth. I hate that Wade made me do this, this way. But since my uncle Michael is no longer here to defend himself. I will.

The letter Taj Jackson referred to was written by Jackson some time in the 1980s. It reads:

Dee Dee Please read this article about child molestation and please read it to Taj, T.J., and Taryll, it brings out how even your own relatives can be molesters of children, or even uncles or aunts molesting nephews or nieces, please read. Love MJ.

Later faced with the public perception that he himself was a child molester, Jackson wrote these lyrics to an unreleased song, called “An Innocent Man”:

If I sail to Acapulco

Or Cancun, Mexico

There the law is waiting

And God knows that I’m innocent

If they won’t take me in Cairo

Then Lord where will I go?

I’ll die a man without a country

And only God knew I was innocent now.

As an eccentric, wealthy man who opened his home to thousands of people, including disadvantaged and ill children, Jackson was an undeniably easy target. But is it conceivable that of the hundreds of children who spent time with him, only a handful were abused? Is it possible that after two unannounced, scouring searches of his homes, in 1993 and again in 2003, resulting in no child pornography or other corroborating evidence, that the artist was nonetheless masterfully hiding criminal behavior?

Or have we, as a society, conflated Jackson’s difference and eccentricity with criminality? In 2005, infotainment pundit Nancy Grace infamously deduced Jackson’s guilt from his strange appearance and childlike sensibility. It was inconceivable to her that a grown man would want to spend so much time with children without wanting to have sex with them.

No doubt, after hearing these latest accusations, some will likewise conclude that “where there is smoke there is fire.”

Jackson, of course, is no longer here to defend himself. But the unacknowledged tragedy the fair-minded person must at least consider is this: the life and career of one of the most talented and creative artists of the past century was derailed and ultimately destroyed by allegations, innuendo, sensationalism and speculation, but no concrete evidence and no witnesses or accusers who didn’t want money.

The term “witch hunt” is often used to describe the moral panic and hysteria caused by individuals who threaten our sense of normalcy, order and social assumptions. They must be disciplined or punished to allow people to feel safe, regardless of actual guilt or innocence. So, for example, in the Salem witch trials, women were profiled, accused and sentenced to death for a range of perceived “suspicious” behaviors or traits. Or, historically, African American men have been unfairly targeted and lynched because of myths and culturally-ingrained hysteria about their “predatory” intentions with white women (see D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation).

Over his lifetime (and now in death), Michael Jackson faced more frivolous lawsuits than any individual in American history. During the Thriller era, dozens of women claimed he was the father of their children. As recently as 2010, a woman named Billie Jean filed a $600 million paternity lawsuit against Jackson’s estate.

In 2010, part of Jackson’s FBI file was released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) at the request of media, including British journalist Charles Thomson. “A lengthy report,” writes Thomson, “shows that when Jackson’s Neverland Ranch was raided in 2003, the FBI went over every computer seized from the property with a fine tooth comb looking for any incriminating files or internet activity. Jackson’s file contained individual summaries of the FBI’s findings for each of the 16 computers. Scrawled in capital letters across each of those 16 reports – ‘NOTHING’.”

Rolling Stone‘s Matt Taibbi, an incisive cultural critic with no investment whatsoever in Jackson’s legacy, described the 2005 court case against Jackson like this:

Ostensibly a story about bringing a child molester to justice, the Michael Jackson trial would instead be a kind of homecoming parade of insipid American types: grifters, suckers and no-talent schemers, mired in either outright unemployment…or the bogus non-careers of the information age, looking to cash in any way they can. The MC of the proceedings was District Attorney Tom Sneddon, whose metaphorical role in this American reality show was to represent the mean gray heart of the Nixonian Silent Majority – the bitter mediocrity itching to stick it to anyone who’d ever taken a vacation to Paris. The first month or so of the trial featured perhaps the most compromised collection of prosecution witnesses ever assembled in an American criminal case – almost to a man a group of convicted liars, paid gossip hawkers or worse…

In the next six weeks, virtually every piece of his case imploded in open court, and the chief drama of the trial quickly turned into a race to see if the DA could manage to put all of his witnesses on the stand without getting any of them removed from the courthouse in manacles. Sneddon’s hard-on for Jackson was a faith-based vengeance grab every bit as blind and desperate as George Bush’s “case” against Saddam Hussein…

Jackson, of course, was acquitted of all charges in 2005 after two grueling years of investigations, testimony and proceedings. Four years later, in 2009, after years of living as a cultural pariah, a vagabond drifting from country to country, he died at the age of fifty in Los Angeles. The silver lining, one assumed, was that at least his many troubles would end and the focus could return to his rich artistic legacy. But as long as big money is involved, it seems, the relentless stream of grifters will continue.

And in the court of public opinion, the Michael Jackson witch trial goes on.

Only a few more weeks until this hits theaters. I’m very anxious to see how it turns out as Gatsby has long been one of my favorite novels. Here’s an article from HuffPost about director Baz Luhrmann reaching out to Fitzgerald scholar James L. West III (I’m glad he read Trimalchio — the earlier incarnation of Gatsby).

People have probably already heard that Jay-Z put together the soundtrack, which also includes Beyonce, Jack White and Gotye.

Any thoughts on this adaptation? It at least should be better than the lifeless 1974 version.

Over the past few weeks I have been researching Quentin Tarantino’s recent film, Django Unchained, for an essay I plan to submit for publication. I thought I would post some of the helpful articles/essays I have come across for those interested in the film and the conversations it has provoked. Feel free to sound off on the film or any of these responses in the comments.

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

Spike Lee Goes After Django
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/spike-lee-goes-after-django-unchained/

Django, Still Chained
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/19/opinion/williams-django-still-chained/index.html

http://jessehimself.tumblr.com/post/43450542625/me-tarzan-you-jane-me-django-you-chains

Still Not a Brother
http://cityarts.info/2012/12/28/still-not-a-brother

Surviving Django
http://www.buzzfeed.com/roxanegay/surviving-django-8opx

John Singleton: Django is Soft
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/02/14/john_singleton_calls_django_unchained_soft.html

What was so damn funny?
http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2012/12/django-unchained-or-what-was-so-damn.html

Black Audiences, White Stars (Ishmael Reed)
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/12/28/black-audiences-white-stars-and-django-unchained/

Slavery and the White Male Imagination
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tarantinos-candy-slavery-in-the-white-male-imagination

http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/movies/django-unchained,1209972/critic-review.html

Tarantino vs. Spielberg
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/edgeofthewest/2013/01/05/tarantino-vs-spielberg-two-films-about-slavery/

POSITIVE REVIEWS:

Django as Heroic Love Story
http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/12/24/toure-django-unchained-is-a-heroic-love-story/

Faster, Quentin! Thrill! Thrill!
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/01/django_unchained.html

The Black, the White, and the Angry
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jermaine-spradley/django-unchained-controversy_b_2457739.html

White Revenge Fantasy
http://www.businessinsider.com/django-unchained-is-a-white-revenge-fantasy-2013-2

A Slave’s Insurrection
http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/movies/django-unchained,1209972/critic-review.html

OTHER ARTICLES:

Django’s Bloody Real History
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/24/django-unchained-s-bloody-real-history-in-mississippi.html

Selling Slaves
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/06/django-unchained-selling-slaves-as-action-figures.html

We Owe Spike an Apology
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/morris-w-okelly/we-owe-spike-lee-a-huge-a_b_2528785.html

Django Unchained Controversy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jermaine-spradley/django-unchained-controversy_b_2457739.html

A Postracial Epic?
http://www.theroot.com/views/django-unchained-postracial-epic

A Conversation about Django (David J. Leonard)
http://thefeministwire.com/2012/12/django-unchained-a-critical-conversation-between-two-friends/

First we get a brand new song from David Bowie, and now a new track from His Royal Badness, Prince. It’s called “Screwdriver.” You can check it out at his new website here. Prince is also featured on the cover of the latest edition of Billboard. A full album shouldn’t be far behind, which begs the question. What are your favorite Prince albums?

Here’s my current Top Five:

1. Purple Rain

2. Parade

3. Sign O’ the Times

4. 1999

5. Around the World in a Day

This is now on Netflix. If you haven’t seen it, you should definitely check it out. It’s one of Spike Lee’s most powerful films.

Earth Song: Inside Michael Jackson's Magnum Opus.

Hey everyone!

I’m excited to let you know that the 2nd edition of Earth Song: Inside Michael Jackson’s Magnum Opus is now available at Amazon.com and other online retailers. Unlike Man in the Music, this book was published independently, meaning I had the freedom (and limitations) of not working with a traditional New York publisher. I won’t be doing much promo for it so I would appreciate if you helped spread the word. The story of “Earth Song” doesn’t offer any salacious commentary on plastic surgery, drugs, or sex, but it does offer a portrait of the artist in his element during a crucial time in his career (1988-1999). “Earth Song” meant a great deal to Michael. Hopefully the book makes a case for why it should matter to others as well.

Below I am offering some exclusive excerpts from the book. Enjoy!

*******************

When recording began on HIStory in January of 1994 at The Hit Factory in New York, Jackson was excited to finally get back to work on “Earth Song.” He felt confident it would find a home on the new record. The only questions were how to make it better and who to assist him in finalizing his vision.

As it turned out, Jackson was mostly satisfied with the demo he had worked out with Bottrell during the Dangerous sessions. The length, arrangement, and production remained almost exactly the same. Still, there were some crucial additions, most significantly in the climax of the song.

Jackson turned to renowned Canadian-born “hitmaker” David Foster to help finish the track. The winner of sixteen Grammy awards, Foster had worked with legends like Chicago, Barbara Streisand, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion (he had also worked briefly with Jackson in 1978 during the Off the Wall sessions). His specialty was the power ballad, though his work in this genre also gave him a reputation for affectation and hyper-glossy production. In 1985, Rolling Stone described him as the “master of…bombastic kitsch.” In production style, he was almost the exact opposite of Bill Bottrell. Jackson, however, knew what he needed and what skills Foster brought to the table. For Jackson, the role of a producer wasn’t to overtake the song; it was to help him achieve in very specific detail what he wanted. In the case of “Earth Song” he didn’t need an overhaul, just small brush strokes.

Foster brought in talented orchestrator Bill Ross to give the track a fuller, more powerful sound, most notably in the surging brass parts. “The orchestra added so much drama,” said assistant engineer, Rob Hoffman. “It made this beautiful song into an epic.”

Another important addition was Michael Thompson, a highly regarded session guitarist. Before Thompson, David Foster apparently offered the position to Eric Clapton, but either Clapton or Jackson (or both) passed on the idea. It is possible that Jackson remained concerned about Clapton’s racist past. Thompson, however (who had worked with David Foster and Quincy Jones), ended up being perfect for the job. His bluesy phrasings echo Jackson’s pained singing beautifully.

A new mix of “Earth Song” was completed at the Hit Factory in 1994. Most of Jackson’s engineers assumed at that point that the track was finished. Although Jackson was pleased with many of the improvements, however, he still wasn’t completely satisfied.

When recording moved back to Record One in Los Angeles in the spring of 1995, Jackson and his team focused in on the final details. Matt Forger estimated that around 40 multi-track tapes were used in total. “It crossed formats. It started on 24-track, switched to digital. The detail and work that went into it was staggering.”

Michael Jackson with recording engineers during the HIStory sessions, including Rob Hoffman, Brad Sundberg, Matt Forger, Bruce Swedien and Eddie Delena.

Jackson turned to sonic magician, Bruce Swedien, to re-record parts of his lead vocal. To capture the immediacy and intensity Jackson wanted, Swedien recorded with a Neumann M-49 tube mike (instead of his usual SM7) and had him get “as close as physically possible to the microphone, thereby eliminating almost all early reflections… I used no windscreen. I placed him as close as he could possibly get to this incredible old mike.” The results were subtle but palpable. “The real goal of music recording is to preserve the physical energy of the music and the musical statement itself,” explains Swedien.

Jackson saved the final ad libs for the last weekend of recording as he expected “to kill his voice” in the process. He told assistant engineers, Eddie Delena and Rob Hoffman, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think any of us are going to sleep this weekend. There’s a lot to get done, and we have to go to Bernie [Grundman for mastering] on Monday morning.”

Over the next few days, Jackson and a small crew of engineers ate, slept, and breathed the music. “He stayed at the studio the entire time,” recalled Hoffman, “singing and mixing. I got to spend a couple quiet moments with him during that time. We talked about John Lennon one night as he was gearing up to sing the last vocal of the record—the huge ad libs at the end of ‘Earth Song.’ I told him the story of John singing ‘Twist and Shout’ while being sick, and though most people think he was screaming for effect, it was actually his voice giving out. He loved it, and then went in to sing his heart out.”

As was his custom, Jackson sang that night with all the lights out. From the control room, Bruce Swedien and his crew of assistant engineers couldn’t see anything. Yet what they heard roaring out of the darkness was astonishing: it was as if Jackson was channeling from the lungs of the earth—a pained, fierce, prophetic voice, giving utterance to the suffering of the world.

Those who witnessed it could feel the hair standing up on the back of their necks…

Copies of Earth Song: Inside Michael Jackson’s Magnum Opus are available at Amazon.com.

Copyright © 2011 by Joseph Vogel. All rights reserved.

This article is cross-posted at the Huffington Post.

On Thanksgiving night, the world will get a glimpse of Michael Jackson they have never seen before when Spike Lee’s Michael Jackson: Bad 25 makes its television premier (ABC, 9:30pm EST). What follows is an exclusive excerpt from Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson, which was used as a resource for Bad 25 and comprehensively explores the artist’s entire solo career — from 1979′s Off the Wall to 2001′s Invincible. The excerpt below comes from the third chapter, dedicated to Jackson’s highly-anticipated follow-up to Thriller, the Bad album.

***********************

Michael Jackson began work on what would become the Bad album in 1985. Three years had lapsed since the release of Thriller, and fans were waiting anxiously for the sequel. Following the most successful record in the history of the music industry, however, was not an enviable task.

Jackson added to the pressure, writing a note on his bathroom mirror that said simply: “100 million.” That was his aim for Bad — more than double the sales (at the time) of Thriller. With this ambitious goal in mind, he went to work.

In the early stages, he would simply go into his home studio at Hayvenhurst with musicians and engineers such as Matt Forger, John Barnes, or Bill Bottrell and work on ideas. Jackson called it “the laboratory.” Here, he recorded dozens of 48-track demos in a variety of styles. It was a space that allowed him more freedom and spontaneity to pursue creative ideas.

Eventually a bit of a rift developed between what became known as the B-Team working with Jackson at his home studio and Quincy Jones’s A-Team at Westlake Studios. “Michael was growing and wanted to experiment free of the restrictions of the Westlake scene,” explained producer Bill Bottrell. “That’s why he got me and John Barnes to work at his home studio for a year and a half, on and off. We would program, twiddle, and build the tracks for much of that album, send the results on two-inch down to Westlake and they would, at their discretion, rerecord, and add things like strings and brass. This is how MJ started to express his creative independence, like a teenager leaving the nest.”

Many of the songs the B-Team worked on were practically finished before they reached Westlake. “He was able to take some finished demos into the ‘real’ studio with Quincy and that was his way of getting more say [in how they were produced],” recalls Bill Bottrell.

In late 1986, recording finally began in earnest at brand new Studio D at Westlake, where Jackson continued to work with many of the same key players from Off the Wall and Thriller, including recording engineer Bruce Swedien and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes.

Quincy Jones, meanwhile, continued to act as producer, though he and Jackson didn’t always work together as smoothly as they had in the past. It was clear to everyone around Jackson that he was evolving and gaining more and more creative confidence and control as an artist (he would write nine of the eleven songs included on Bad, plus numerous others that didn’t make it onto the record). This led to some collisions on production and song choices, as well as on the album’s overall aesthetic vision.

“[Quincy and I] disagreed on some things,” Jackson recalled. “There was a lot of tension because we felt we were competing with ourselves. It’s very hard to create something when you feel like you’re in competition with yourself.”

In spite of the pressure and high expectations, most who worked on the album remember the atmosphere in the studio as one of “love” and “camaraderie” — a creative climate attributed to both Jones and Jackson. Bruce Swedien recalls a tradition Jackson started called “Family Night,” in which all the family members and friends of the studio crew were invited on Fridays to dinner in the studio prepared by Jackson’s cooks, Catherine Ballard and Laura Raynor (affectionately nicknamed the “slam-dunk sisters”). Assistant engineer Russ Ragsdale remembers Jackson doodling all the time in the studio; he also remembers him enjoying getting out for a break. “On a few occasions,” recalls Ragsdale, “Michael would want to get out of the studio for a bit. At the time I had a big full-sized Ford pickup truck with tinted windows. Michael loved riding in that truck and got real excited because he was able to sit so much higher off the ground than his Mercedes. We tried our best to just treat Michael like a regular guy. We didn’t go out of our way too much.”

As with Thriller, hundreds of songs were considered for Bad. From these, Jackson and Jones whittled down the list. “Fifty percent of the battle is trying to figure out which songs to record,” Jones remarked. “It’s total instinct. You have to go with the songs that touch you, that get the goosebumps going.”

According to Rolling Stone, “Jackson had 62 songs written and wanted to release 33 of them as a triple album, until [Quincy] Jones talked him down.” This trimming down led to some excellent tracks being left on the cutting room floor, including “Streetwalker” (which Jackson preferred, but was talked out of by Jones in favor of “Another Part of Me”), “Fly Away” (a beautiful, melodic mid-tempo ballad), and “Cheater” (a funky, gritty rhythm track), among others.

Once the songs were chosen for recording, the objective was creating sounds the “ear hadn’t heard.” Jackson didn’t want to duplicate Thriller, or other music on the radio, for that matter. He wanted to innovate sonically. “Michael’s vision [is] to start making a record by creating totally new fresh sounds that have never been heard before,” explained Russ Ragsdale. “For Bad this was achieved with synth stacks filling up the entire large tracking room taking up every available space, as well as the largest Synclavier in the world at the time operated by Chris Currell. … It took over 800 multitrack tapes to create Bad; each song was a few hundred tracks of audio.” For the rhythm tracks in particular, Jackson wanted fresh drum sounds that would really hit. Swedien recorded them on 16-track tape as he did on Thriller, but then transferred them to digital, retaining that “fat, analog rhythm, sound” Jackson loved. Jones called it “big legs and tight skirts.”

In the end, Jackson and Jones were in the studio for more than a year. “A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work,” Jackson reflected. “They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome.” As deadlines came and passed, however, frustration mounted. Quincy Jones reportedly walked away from the project for a time when he discovered Jackson had snuck into the studio and altered some tracks. Epic executives kept pushing to wrap up the record, but Jackson couldn’t bring himself to release the album until it was “ready.” “A perfectionist has to take his time,” he explained. “He shapes and molds and sculpts that thing until it’s perfect. He can’t let it go before he’s satisfied; he can’t.”

Excerpted from MAN IN THE MUSIC: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson by Sterling Publishing Co., Copyright © 2011 by Joseph Vogel. All rights reserved.

OTHER RECENT ARTICLES I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT THE BAD ALBUM:

Beyond “Wacko Jacko”

Fame, Abortion and the Blues: Inside Michael Jackson’s Unreleased Bad Demos

A Piece of History: Michael Jackson Live at Wembley Stadium