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Posted by: Jamie Clarke in Music14 September 2013
Michael Jackson's Blood On The Dancefloor: HIStory In The Mix is the biggest selling remix album of all time - quite a record given the number of remix albums that are released every year. It's even more of an achievement when you consider that it was released when Michael Jackson's stock, both personally and professionally, had never been lower.
The album, containing thirteen tracks - five new and eight remixes - was written and produced while Jackson was travelling the globe on his HIStory World Tour to promote a double disc greatest hits CD packaged with a CD of new material. Whilst the remixes included on the album are very strong, it's the original tracks selected to feature that are a particularly interesting insight into Jackson's world circa 1997.
The caricature that Jackson had created for himself over the years, by purposefully releasing stories and pictures to the press, had backfired. The press, who he was manipulating to create a level of mystery and in turn increase his iconic status, created their own ****** *****' title. Jackson became, in his eyes, a victim and this began to work its way into his songwriting as early as 1987's Bad.
Upon release, reviews were largely mixed. Critics felt that Jackson had already explored the musical themes present on the album, while others criticised what they perceived to be weak vocals.
In retrospect, critics have viewed the material present on the album in a more favourable light and believe the album should have been more successful—commentators have stated that tabloid stories about the singer's personal life had overtaken his musical career.
'Morphine' contains a sample from The Elephant Man, a direct link to a false tabloid story that Jackson had made a bid to purchase the remains of Joseph Merrick. It was later revealed that Jackson himself had leaked this story to the press.
The song, one of the most interesting on the album, discusses the use of the drug Demerol. The artist had attended a rehab in 1994 following the original child molestation charges made against him. It is unknown whether it was due to an addiction to the prescription painkiller. The instrumentation is metallic, stabbing, aggressive and harsh, completely matching the tone and subject matter.
'Blood On The Dancefloor,' the title track and lead single, was written during sessions for 1991's Dangerous album. The song's style, composition and production continue the New Jack Swing sound that Teddy Riley pioneered in the 80s. Suzie, the antagonist Jackson sings of, is rumoured to be a metaphor for AIDS. She is a predatory woman who seduces Jackson before plotting to stab him with a knife.
Indicative of Jackson's popularity at the time in the United States, 'Blood On The Dancefloor' reached number fourty-two on the Billboard Hot 100. A dismal chart position for an artist of Jackson's calibre and even more so when you consider he had not released new music for almost two years by this point. In the UK however, and most of Europe, the song took the number one spot.
'Is It Scary' is another track Jackson uses to confront the public image he and the press had created, whilst cleverly hiding behind a metaphor. Originally intended for the Adamms Family Values soundtrack, Jackson decided to keep the song for himself, perhaps because it spoke so directly to those who had vilified him and created this monstrous image of him in the eyes of many onlookers.
'Am I amusing you / Or just confusing you / Am I the beast you visualised /And if you wanna see eccentric oddities / I'll be grotesque before your eyes,' Jackson spits on the track, which takes elements of goth rock, soul and operatic pop to create a haunting and dramatic song. The most telling line being, 'Am I scary for you?'
The anger, bitterness and resentment that Jackson was feeling towards Tom Sneddon, the District Attorney of Santa Barbara County and main prosecutor in the 1993 child molestation case, is further explored on 'Ghosts'.
A short film, Ghosts, was released which tells the story of a maestro with supernatural powers who is run out of a town by its plump, arrogant mayor. The actor playing the mayor (Michael Jackson) was carefully disguised to resemble to Tom Sneddon.
Jackson sings, probably to Sneddon, 'And who gave you the right to shake my family tree? / You put a knife in my back / Shot an arrow in me / Tell me are you the ghost of jealousy'
The album, which showed incredible originality and ingenious songwriting, sold 6 million copies worldwide, a fraction of the sales figures Jackson was used to securing for labels and as such has been regarded historically as a failure.
It's arguable, though, that these five original songs create the most accurate portrait of the man Michael Jackson became in the public eye. It's almost his own middle-finger-up to the world. You can almost here the subtext of these tracks - 'if you want me to be this monster, you want me to be terrifying, then here I am, enjoy'.
Following the album's release, Jackson didn't release new material until 2001's Invincible, which continued the themes present here, but also lent itself to more radio-friendly material and classic Jackson ballads. But as a portrait of a man who had gone through hell, this album deserves more attention than it received. The sad irony is that Jackson's life at this point was probably nowhere near as bad as it would be if we were to jump forward five years.
If Jackson had performed his This Is It tour as planned and released the inevitable album that would have coincided with, or would have been written on the tour, how angry would he have been then and how would he have chosen to vocalise it?
Blood On The Dancefloor is available to download on Amazon and iTunes
http://sosogay.co.uk/2013/lost-music-michael-jackson-blood-dancefloor/
