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From the Destiny to the HIStory tour, what were all the songs that were rehearsed/considered but never performed?

KingofPop125

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I remember the time (pun intended) when I saw a Dangerous Tour rehearsal of Remember the Time and thinking it’s a shame it was never realized in concert minus the Soul Train Music Awards.

So it got me wondering: What other awesome songs were not given the live treatment, but were almost going to?

I included all the tours from Destiny to HIStory to cover the Off the Wall-HIStory albums. No Invincible since there was no tour for that one, and not This Is It because to my knowledge, they were mostly sticking to the preexisting live staples and adding cool new stuff for them.
 
KingofPop125 said:
I remember the time (pun intended) when I saw a Dangerous Tour rehearsal of Remember the Time and thinking it’s a shame it was never realized in concert minus the Soul Train Music Awards.

So it got me wondering: What other awesome songs were not given the live treatment, but were almost going to?

I included all the tours from Destiny to HIStory to cover the Off the Wall-HIStory albums. No Invincible since there was no tour for that one, and not This Is It because to my knowledge, they were mostly sticking to the preexisting live staples and adding cool new stuff for them.
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Morphine, Speed Demon, Remember The Time
 
Ronald Stain said:
Morphine, Speed Demon, Remember The Time
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“Okay. You won. I need to make a confession... (Richard76) He is my brother. My stepbrother. We lived together sometime ago. But now I do not talk with him anymore. I promise you, I'm different person.?”

This has to be the most hilarious post ever on MJJC. This guy is such a moron. Ronald Stain go away.
 
MKTCREATE said:
Don’t listen to a word this guy says, same old B.S. New account.
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But he is right this time, shockingly. The songs he mentioned were in fact rehearsed, but never performed.

Liberian Girl was also rehearsed in early 1988. And Can’t Let Her Get Away was rehearsed and was supposed to be performed during the Dangerous Tour. Finally, 2Bad was rehearsed for the HIStory Tour.
 
MKTCREATE said:
“Okay. You won. I need to make a confession... (Richard76) He is my brother. My stepbrother. We lived together sometime ago. But now I do not talk with him anymore. I promise you, I'm different person.?”

This has to be the most hilarious post ever on MJJC. This guy is such a moron. Ronald Stain go away.
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dethorro said:
But he is right this time, shockingly. The songs he mentioned were in fact rehearsed, but never performed.

Liberian Girl was also rehearsed in early 1988. And Can’t Let Her Get Away was rehearsed and was supposed to be performed during the Dangerous Tour. Finally, 2Bad was rehearsed for the HIStory Tour.
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Hi, bro! Glad to see ya back. But there is no need to use 2 accounts. ;) (y) You can use one, I let you
 
dethorro said:
But he is right this time, shockingly. The songs he mentioned were in fact rehearsed, but never performed.

Liberian Girl was also rehearsed in early 1988. And Can’t Let Her Get Away was rehearsed and was supposed to be performed during the Dangerous Tour. Finally, 2Bad was rehearsed for the HIStory Tour.
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I wanna see that Liberian Girl rehearsal...if he rehearsed it....I wish he did that song rather than she's out of my life
 
dethorro said:
But he is right this time, shockingly. The songs he mentioned were in fact rehearsed, but never performed.

Liberian Girl was also rehearsed in early 1988. And Can’t Let Her Get Away was rehearsed and was supposed to be performed during the Dangerous Tour. Finally, 2Bad was rehearsed for the HIStory Tour.
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Is there actual proof they were rehearsed?
 
dethorro said:
But he is right this time, shockingly. The songs he mentioned were in fact rehearsed, but never performed.

Liberian Girl was also rehearsed in early 1988. And Can’t Let Her Get Away was rehearsed and was supposed to be performed during the Dangerous Tour. Finally, 2Bad was rehearsed for the HIStory Tour.
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Where was LG mentioned?
 
MegaMix12” said:
Can you provide a source for this?

Remember The Time, absolutely! We have the Dangerous rehearsals to prove that.

Morphine, Speed Demon??
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MegaMix12” said:
Is there actual proof they were rehearsed?
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There is no actual proof (footage) that songs like 'Morphine', 'Speed Demon', 'Can’t Let Her Get Away', etc, were rehearsed.

But people from his camp have stated that on each tour there were new songs (from his latest album) that although they were rehearsed, later they were removed from that set list, for example:

The Oregonian Interview:

Question: "Are there many songs that were rehearsed that Michael didn't actually perform live at all?"

Jennifer Batten: "Yes, and I hated that. I wanted to play all the new songs [during] every tour"

Jennifer Batten also strongly implied (in that interview) that the main reason for their removal was that Michael Jackson did not have much confidence in the on stage, dance choreography of these new songs.
 
I think a distinction should be made between rehearsed by the band and rehearsed by Michael. Speed Demon was rehearsed by the band but Michael didn’t participate most likely.

Anyway State of Shock and Be Not Alwas were supposedly also rehearsed
 
Fuzball said:
Where was LG mentioned?
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Now that you ask, I realize that for that one in particular I’m not sure where I first heard it from. I was under the impression that it was mentioned by Christopher Currell. Turns out it was not.

Fans have been mentioning it for years though. I even remember someone claiming once that Dorian Holley had talked about it. Liberian Girl I guess is not confirmed. The rest pretty much are though.
 
State of Shock was on an early HIStory Tour setlist.

As of 25th August 1996, In The Closet wasn't on the setlist too.
 
dam2040 said:
State of Shock was on an early HIStory Tour setlist.

As of 25th August 1996, In The Closet wasn't on the setlist too.
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filmandmusic said:
Source?
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dam2040 said:
I’m pretty sure Sugafoot posted a picture of the setlist. I’ve been going crazy trying to find it - I’m hoping someone can back me up. But I’ll keep digging.
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SOS was considered for This Is It according to Jonathan. I never seen it on a HIStory draft

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WAs State Of Shock planned for the Victory Tour? Because it's funny how not a single song from the Victory album was performed on the Victory Tour but Michael wanted to perform State Of Shock on his solo tours.
 
r8lxv1os4opb1.jpg


Boom. This doesn't look like an actual setlist in terms of order of the songs but it was definitely in the list.

There's a few more notables here actually:
2 Bad
She's Out Of My Life
Will You Be There
State of Shock
Dirty Diana

This is probably 5-6 weeks before opening night.
 
dam2040 said:
r8lxv1os4opb1.jpg


Boom. This doesn't look like an actual setlist in terms of order of the songs but it was definitely in the list.

There's a few more notables here actually:
2 Bad
She's Out Of My Life
Will You Be There
State of Shock
Dirty Diana

This is probably 5-6 weeks before opening night.
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Yeah I was looking at it and if this was an actual setlist, it was all over the place.
 
mj_frenzy said:
There is no actual proof (footage) that songs like 'Morphine', 'Speed Demon', 'Can’t Let Her Get Away', etc, were rehearsed.

But people from his camp have stated that on each tour there were new songs (from his latest album) that although they were rehearsed, later they were removed from that set list, for example:

The Oregonian Interview:

Question: "Are there many songs that were rehearsed that Michael didn't actually perform live at all?"

Jennifer Batten: "Yes, and I hated that. I wanted to play all the new songs [during] every tour"

Jennifer Batten also strongly implied (in that interview) that the main reason for their removal was that Michael Jackson did not have much confidence in the on stage, dance choreography of these new songs.
Click to expand...

Jennifer Batten is extremely vague due to her memory of things and lack of interest in certain areas.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard Jennifer or any other band member or dancer ever mention Speed Demon, Can’t Let Her Get Away or Morphine having been rehearsed. I’d love to be wrong.

Moreover, Speed Demon and Can’t Let Her Get Away weren’t singles so I can‘t really imagine MJ prioritising them for live performances in any way. Especially when there’s other singles from any given era that are not being included.

Liberian Girl? Possibly. We know that Remember The Time and In The Closet were considered as they were both singles and we have proof via the rehearsal tape showing Remember The Time and the amateur shot footage of In The Closet instrumental interlude which was performed once for Princess Stephanie of Monaco who was in attendance at one of the shows. And of course he included a verse of In The Closet on the the HIStory Tour.

That said, he did perform D.S (which wasn’t a single) on some HIStory shows, so who knows.
 
MegaMix12” said:
I don’t think I’ve ever heard Jennifer or any other band member or dancer ever mention Speed Demon, Can’t Let Her Get Away or Morphine having been rehearsed. I’d love to be wrong.
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Can't remember where exactly, but I think it was Chris Currell who said Speed Demon and Liberian Girl were rehearsed by the band in Pensacola before MJ joined them in late January 1988.
 
MJbr2 said:
Can't remember where exactly, but I think it was Chris Currell who said Speed Demon and Liberian Girl were rehearsed by the band in Pensacola before MJ joined them in late January 1988.
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So “the band” possibly rehearsed them? Plausible I guess. I actually listened to his interview (possibly on the MJ cast, I can’t remember either).

The thing is, is that band members aren’t necessarily always right either. But I’d definitely give Chris Crurell the benefit of the doubt.
 
MegaMix12” said:
So “the band” possibly rehearsed them? Plausible I guess. I actually listened to his interview (possibly on the MJ cast, I can’t remember either).

The thing is, is that band members aren’t necessarily always right either. But I’d definitely give Chris Crurell the benefit of the doubt.
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It's not that deep, man. According to said claim, it was rehearsed by the band only for a few days, even before MJ joined them. It's clear neither track was not going anywhere.
 
From what I remember off the top of my head

Victory Tour:
- Thriller (1984 - Pretty sure this was just considered, but wasn't done due to potential backlash from Jehovah's Witnesses elders)
- State of Shock (1984 - Soundcheck was released by Sugarfoot)
- Daddy's Home (1984 - Sugarfoot brought this up in a Zoom session years ago)

BAD Tour:
- Liberian Girl (1988 - Unconfirmed: One of the floppy disks from the tour mentioned a sample for it by name)
- Speed Demon (Pensacola 1988 Rehearsals - Band rehearsed it & loved it, tried to convince Michael but he rejected it due to not having a solid dance for it.)

Dangerous Tour:
- Rock With You (1992)
- Remember the Time (1992 & 1993 - Removed for unknown reasons, but from what I understand is that it was too exhausting of a song to be constantly performing. Famously almost brought back for the Bucharest show, but was cut.)
- In The Closet (1992 & 1993 - Michael just randomly removed it from the setlist)
- Workin' Day & Night (1993 - Rehearsed)
- Beat It (1993 - Rehearsed)
- The Way You Make Me Feel (1993 - Rehearsed)
- BAD (1993 - Rehearsed)
I believe I heard some other songs from the album were rehearsed from an old source who interviewed one of the band members. From my understanding, almost every song on the album was rehearsed by the band (and for sure "Someone Put Your Hand Out", which was kept as the instrumental interlude).

HIStory World Tour:
- Morphine (1997 - I think LaVelle Smith mentioned rehearsing it before Michael pulled the plug on it)
- 2 Bad (1996 - Sugarfoot released rehearsal audio)
- Childhood (7/30/96 - From early setlist; probably just considered)
- Dirty Diana (7/30/96 - From early setlist; probably just considered)
- State of Shock (7/30/96 - From early setlist; probably just considered)
- Man In The Mirror (7/30/96 - From early setlist; probably just considered)
- Will You Be There (7/30/96 - From early setlist; probably just considered)
- Rock With You (7/30/96 - From early setlist; probably just considered)
- She's Out of My Life (7/30/96 - From early setlist; probably just considered)

MJ & Friends:
- She's Out of My Life (1999 - Rehearsed)
I recall there being another song that was supposed to debut during this show as a duet, but that never happened.

30th Anniversary Celebration:
- Heartbreak Hotel (2001 - Completely rehearsed a few nights prior to the show)
- Thriller (2001 - Confirmed via its outfit being shown off)
- One Day In Your Life w/Whitney Houston (2001 - Footage exists)
Coulda sworn "Dangerous" was also considered, but I could be completely wrong.

This Is It:
- The Whole Thing (2009)
 
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