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A sound engineer forum talks about MJ

HakaVelli

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I know most of you know this site, but for those who havent, it should be interesting read. gearslutz.com is a forum where sound engineers, mix engineer, Remixers, and other musician discuss. I found this thread where everyone who worked in any of Michaels albums shares their experience with each other. It is very fascinating to hear storys from people that was never interviewed by the media but have really nice story's to tell.

This is what one guy who worked with MJ had to say:
One morning MJ came in with a new song he had written overnight. We called in a guitar player, and Michael sang every note of every chord to him. "here's the first chord first note, second note, third note. Here's the second chord first note, second note, third note", etc., etc. We then witnessed him giving the most heartfelt and profound vocal performance, live in the control room through an SM57.

He would sing us an entire string arrangement, every part. Steve Porcaro once told me he witnessed MJ doing that with the string section in the room. Had it all in his head, harmony and everything. Not just little eight bar loop ideas. he would actually sing the entire arrangement into a micro-cassette recorder complete with stops and fills.

At one point Michael was angry at one of the producers on the project because he was treating everyone terribly. Rather than create a scene or fire the guy, Michael called him to his office/lounge and one of the security guys threw a pie in his face. No further action was needed . . . . .
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Another interesting read was when a user asked Bruce Swedien what happened to the MJ/Prince collaboration, and Bruce answerd:

Aaron......

Isn't it terrible how the press just can't tell the whole story???

I was there for a couple of the meetings with Prince and Michael, Quincy and all. Personaly I think that after meeting with Michael, Quincy, Fredy DeMann and his team, Prince realized that he couldn't win this duet/duel with MJ, artistically or other wise... And pulled out... He left the building, so to speak...

As far as I am concerned. I want to say that I love Prince's music...

Bruce Swedien
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Did you know that:

Gearslutz All....

Before Michael wrote the lyric for "BAD", the working title for "BAD" was "PEE"...

Bruce
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Prepare yourself for a long and interesting read:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-m...-worked-michael-jacksons-dangerous-album.html
 
More quotes:

"Billie Jean" is just such a superb song! Of course, Michael wrote "Billie Jean"..

Quincy says that the lyric that Michael wrote is highly personal. I’m sure that’s true. Michael told us... it was about a girl, that climbed over the wall at Michael’s house, and was lounging out there, by the swimming pool.... she was laying out there, near the pool , lounging... hangin’ out... with shades on, her bathing suit on. One morning she just showed up! Kind of like a stalker, almost. She had accused Michael of being the father of ONE of her twins... Is that possible? I don’t think so....

When it came time for me to mix "Billie Jean", it was business as usual... When I am working with Michael, Quincy, Rod, Jennifer, Sergio and so on..... I am allowed total ceative freedom with the sonics of the music... In other words, I am always left to myself when it is time to mix. My mixes can take hours, days or even weeks.... I firmly believe that a mix is not finished, until it is on a Record for sale at Tower....

So I had been mixing "Billie Jean" for a day or two. I’d do a mix. ..... Say I was up to mix number 2.... (At that time I was mixing onto 1/2” analogue.) I thought it was killer!!!

I called MJ, Quincy and Rod into the control room and played mix 2 for them. They loved it!!! They were all dancing and carrying on like crazy!!! Smiles all around! Then Michael slipped out of the control room, turned around and motioned to me to follow him... Then he whispered to me, “Please Bruce, it’s perfect, but turn the Bass up just a tiny bit, and do one more mix, please....” I said to him...”OK Smelly, no problem”...

(When we were recording “Off The Wall”, Quincy gave Michael the nickname of “Smelly” because when Michael liked a groove, he’d call it “Smelly Jelly.” Also Michael doesn’t curse, and when MJ wants to say a bad word he’ll simply call it “Smelly”... The name has stuck...)

Then I went back into the control room to add Michael’s tiny bit of bass to my mix... Quincy pulled me over into the corner and said “Please Svensk... “(Svensk is Quincy’s nickname for me. It means “Swedish Man” in Swedish... When you have a genuine Quincy Jones nickname like ‘Svensk” - You are truly honored....) Q said to me.... “Add a little garlic salt to the snare and the kick. Just a squirt!!!”) so I went back into the control room and added a little garlic salt to the snare and the kick. Just a squirt!!! Now I was up to mix 20 on "Billie Jean".

Well, this went on for about a week. Soon I was up to mix 91!!! I had a stack of 1/2 inch tapes almost to the ceiling!!! I would do a few mixes, we’d listen... Then do a few more. We had it PERFECT!!! We thought we had a really ‘HOT’ mix on “Billie Jean”. I played Mix 91 for the boys... Everybody smiled... but Quincy had one of his funny looks on his face...

I thought.... Hmmmm.... Oh, Oh....

Quincy said “You know Svensk, just for the fun of it, can we listen to one of your earlier mixes???” My heart jumped because I knew that my earlier mixes were dynamite!!! Then Quincy said, “Let’s hear mix number 2!!!” Oh WOW!!!! Hallelujah!!! I love mix 2!!!!

We listened to mix 2... IT WAS SLAMMIN’!!! EVERYONE IN THE STUDIO WAS GROOVIN’ AND DANCIN’ and HAPPY, and actin’ IGNORANT!!!!

Well, here’s the deal. When “Thriller” was released to the Whole World by Epic Records, on Tuesday, November 30, 1982, it went to Tower Records with MIX 2 OF "Billie Jean" on it!!! AND, when the single of "Billie Jean" came out it was MIX 2!!!

The REAL Story of "Billie Jean"...

Bruce Swedien
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I wished they would release all mixes of billie jean.
 
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Hey Geoff, great to see you on the thread! Of course, I'm bummed like everyone else, as Michael was truly one of the most talented people I've ever had the honor to work with.

Jim, re: the dancing, I wouldn't want to argue about who was "better" as Fred, Ginger and Michael were all incredible dancers. The one thing I would like to point out, especially to the younger ones here, is that Michael "invented" dance as it applies to modern day pop music. Prior to the "Beat It" video, there was NO ensemble dancing within the structures of pop music. Nowadays, we see this EVERYWHERE; Britney, Janet, Justin (perhaps), Christina, Madonna, etc etc would never consider going on the road without dancers, but I'll never forget seeing the BI video. Of course, I saw instant similarities to the dancing in West Side Story, but Michael's applying it to his pop/R&B was a FIRST. So, when we think about his impact on dance, we can certainly say that he single-handedly brought it to the pop mainstream in the 1980's. I'll go on to add that there was something about the way that Michael could move his body that was just on inherently funky. I might have mentioned upthread that he make me roll up the carpet in the studio so he could dance on our wood floors WHILE HE WAS SINGING. He HAD to do this...it was just how he expressed himself. As were those little mouth sounds he made. That was Michael. I've got much love for Fred and Ginger, as their contributions were most likely equally ground breaking. But to liken Michael to Paula (who took her every cue from his pioneering work) isn't giving Mike his due there, in my opinion.

By the way, some have asked about Michael's writing and/or production skills, and I'll say this. I recorded and mixed his demo recording of "The Girl is Mine", and I saw him tell each player what to play...yes, sometimes this took some searching, because he wasn't fluent in music-speak, but eventually, the musician in question would come up with what Michael was hearing in his head and Michael would exclaim, "YES, that's it!". We even recorded a string section on the demo (roughly 12 players, as I recall. Perhaps 6 violins, 2 second violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos?). The final mix I did of that demo was released (I believe) last year on a German MJ release of some kind...I'll try to get a copy, because that demo was pretty much spot on to the final Quincy Jones production of that song. String arrangement and all, it was nearly identical. So, that one was pretty much a Michael arrangement. He couldn't really play an instrument, but he definitely heard the music in his head and would ask others to actually identify what he was hearing. He knew what he was doing totally!
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Wow! this is a fascinating thread, will you be adding to it?
 
People tell stories about working with Michael
 
Gearslutz All....

Before Michael wrote the lyric for "BAD", the working title for "BAD" was "PEE"...

Bruce
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*spits drink out of mouth* what the????? bwhahahahahahah
 
When I discovered that forum, I spent a good 3-4 hours reading it all...It was fascinating :D
 
I love that forum. After reading everything in that thread, my respect and admiration for MJ grew even more. I wish someone would release a books with similar theme, where we could read about Michal when he was making music, and exacly how that process was.
 
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