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Liberian Girl live

Mr. Norway

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I´ve been thinking about this: Why do you think MJ never performed Liberian Girl live? To me, it´s a song that really could´ve worked out live, maybe with a choir for the great ending of the song. I truly believe it could be a great live song that could work with different arrangements. I´m not saying it´s a song he would have to put into a tour setlist but I think it would be a perfect song to perform at a show or another one-off performance. Anyone knows if there was ever rumoured that he would be performing this live???
 
I Agree with you, it would have been a great addition to the setlist. What mystifies me is why he never performed Give In To Me..
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
I Agree with you, it would have been a great addition to the setlist. What mystifies me is why he never performed Give In To Me..
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Maybe due to strong vocal performance he was afraid to screw up live like the long B4 note in YANA which he never did live (or didn't want to push that much on his voice? I dunno).
 
MJ's adult catalogue is littered with songs we never got to hear live.

Even back when MJ wouldn't be caught miming, he was still leaving some gems off the stage...I Can't Help It, Lady In My Life.

I can tell you I'd sooner listen to a loop of MJ's live vocals of Will You Be There from the NAACP show rather than listen to the mimed performance from Dangerous in Bucharest.

Give In To Me, Liberian Girl and Stranger In Moscow are the ones I ache for...sigh.
 
- Yes, there sure are a lot of songs he never performed, and that´s quite simply a shame - because they truly deserved to be. I think it´s strange that he never did do "Liberian Girl" since it was one of the singles from Bad and a ballad that he def could pull off without straining his voice too much. When it comes to the other songs I agree as well. Stranger In Moscow; I think I heard some time on a video that someone had uploaded from the History Tour soundcheck where it seemed like MJ was singing SIM live during the soundcheck, but obviously lipsinced during the concert. Why?? It should be the opposite way around...
 
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I do wish that MJ switched some songs around when he performed live to mix things up a little. For example Liberian Girl could replace I Just Can't Stop Loving You on some shows, Give Into Me could replace Black Or White on some shows, Baby Be Mine could replace Rock With You on some shows, I Can't Help It could replace She's Out Of My Life on some shows and Who Is It could replace Will You Be There on some shows.

I also wish that MJ would have continued to perform Another Part Of Me after the Bad Tour. I would have preferred that over Wanna Be Startin Somethin to be honest
 
I agree that it's a shame how so many great songs were never performed live in his lifetime, I also think that the popularity of certain songs when they were performed played a part as well. For instance, "Another Part of Me" was a top 20 hit when the Bad Tour was in full swing, but was never performed after 1989 because it wasn't necessary since it's not one of the "quintessential" MJ songs. "Liberian Girl" was only released as a single until after the Bad Tour wrapped up, not to mentioned it wasn't released in the US, so it wouldn't have been as "demanded" to be performed live as much as "Bad" or "Man In the Mirror" for instance.

Basically, I'm just saying that the more popular songs (like Black or White) took priority over less popular songs (like Who Is It). MJ said himself during the This Is It announcement that he would do the songs he knew that his fans would want to hear the most, and that's exactly what he always attempted to do.
 
^^ Yes, I understand that, but I too wish sometimes he had been more experimental in song selection for concerts. There are songs which weren't as big hits as others, but they worked better in concerts. Another Part of Me is typically such a song IMO. It wasn't as big of a hit as WBSS and WBSS may be a better song on record, but IMO APOM is a better concert song.

I actually wish Michael had done an acoustic concert (similar to MTV Unplugged) and performed all the lesser known gems. With focus on live singing instead of dance and spectacle. I really think he could have gained big critical acclaim with such a concert because he was such a great vocalist and that aspect of his talent is often overshadowed by other aspects of his talent.

I know Michael wanted to please the audience and he thought the audience always wanted big stadium tours from him. I'm not saying he should have fully abandoned performing the big hits at big stadium tours. But I wish he would have done one acoustic concert with focus on something different than usual from him. I can see songs like Liberian Girl, Who Is It (with the beatbox), Someone In The Dark, Stranger in Moscow, I Can't Help It etc. work very well in an acoustic concert. He could have even performed some of the big hits, like Billie Jean, only with a different arrangement.

He should have reminded people of what a great vocalist he was - besides being a great dancer, entertainer and showman:

 
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Respect77, I totally absolutely agree with you. And if one should be allowed to be a little critical to MJ on this forum, as we of course should be able to be, I think that this was one of the things that Michael really could have been better at; changing setlists, giving more surprises and not always just pleasing everyone. I mean, as you said about the This Is It announcement, he said that he would perform the songs that his fans wanted to hear. Well, who says that his fans wanted him to do all the hits? That`s obviously not the truth. It`s more like he wanted to perform the songs that the general public, those who are not die hard fans, and the press, wanted to hear. Because I am sure that if we had a poll on this fan forum about which songs we, as his big fans, wanted to hear, the result would turn out a little different than the general public`s. Of course there are certain songs that would have to be in the setlist no matter what, such as Billie Jean, but in general I think most of would have liked him to change it a bit more around.

A more intimate unplugged concert would be fantastic, with focus on live singing and showcasing his vocal abilities over the show factor. Like you`ve mentioned, songs like I can`t Help It, Give In To Me, Liberian Girl and Whatever Happens would be great. I would also very much think that a raw unplugged live version of Morphine would be awesome and Lady In My Life an amazing experience. I would also love for him to do a Motown set with other songs than I Want You Back, The Love Yo Save and I`ll Be There, that he ALWAYS did on all of his shows. They are great but there are so many more fantastic J5 songs that he could have alernated with to make it more exciting.
 
Rudolf said:
Maybe due to strong vocal performance he was afraid to screw up live like the long B4 note in YANA which he never did live (or didn't want to push that much on his voice? I dunno).
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He could have mimed it like he did with the rest of the songs from Dangerous. Imo it is a song just too good to be left out.
 
Not only would mixing the setlists up make things interesting for the fans but it also would have made it more interesting for Michael himself. There were times on the HIStory Tour when Michael just looked really fed up of performing those song. Thriller especially.
 
ChrisC said:
When was the last time a trader leaked anything THAT valuable? Again, we can but hope!
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Last year BADTourDB leaked Bad tour Smooth Criminal rehearsal. Perhaps not THAT valuable to you, but doesn't it count anyway?
 
Okay yeah I'll give you both that. Dangerous Tour rehearsals leaked ages though, right?
 
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