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Questions/Thoughts Raised by TII (Song)

adamschoales

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There's been a lot of discussion of This Is It (the song) over the last few days and it's really got me thinking, and asking questions. Granted, it may be too early to know all the answers but I thought I'd throw 'em out there (also I posted this in General rather than the Film forum because its more about the song than the film)

Firstly let me say on first listen I was disapointed: it was good but not great. It was repetative (it felt like it just repeated and repeated and then faded off). It was rather typical poppy balady stuff. It also didn't feel anywhere near completed. It felt rushed. The mix wasn't great, the keys didn't seem to fully match, and other sonics bothered me. That said, I thought Michael's voice sounded REALLY strong (which is why I was suprised to hear it was a 1983ish outtake since his voice sounded much more Dangerous Era). Of course I eventually heard the "Extended Orchestral Version" or "Video Version" or whatever you want to call it which actually sounded much more like a finished piece (although some of the piano bleeding through was troubling) and I liked it much, much more. It feels more polished, and overall a better song. Still not the best, but certainly very good.

Then all the Anka stuff came out and things started to make a bit more sense: it's true, it doesn't sound like a typical Jackson tune, and the Anka connection does help to explain the type of song (though I think McClain or Branca - dont remember who - was off base saying that "thats why it sounds so good" and "not something Michael could do". no. that's true. he could do a lot better).

But here's the thing. Early on they said the new "single" or new song was one that Jackson was working on for the tour. Now they say they picked this song to close the film because of it's use of the title "This Is It" (and depending on which news story you read, or how Branca/McClain comments were quoted) and that it either "was the best of the bunch [of unreleased stuff]" or "wasn't the best, but suited the tone and had the lyrics to match". So I'm confused: was Michael planning on performing this tune? Could that be why the vocals sounded a bit more like Dangerous era than Thriller era? Did he compose the (rather beautiful) orchestral overdubs? If not who did? Getting back to some of my earlier thoughts: if this WAS something Michael was planning on performing/releasing in conjunction with the tour (which from the sounds of it, it wasn't) did they re-record vocals? Were they in the process of recording from scratch and then he passed and had to work with what they had (again, unlikely as this paul anka stuff came out of no where, and there had been talks for some time of a new track he was working on for the show).

And then the question that everyone has been asking: why this? Michael wanted nothing but the best, and this certainly isn't it. Did they seriously choose it because it said "This Is It"? Certainly this makes "sense" but to be the only reason to pick this song? I'm sure Michael has written PLENTY of songs similar to this that would suit the tone of the film much more and would have been even better. I mean, we've heard some of the "unreleased" leaked material from over the years and this certainly is not the best of it (Love Never Felt So Good immediately came to mind: it's at least 10 times better). Again, this leads me to believe this WASN'T the song that Michael was working on, and if thats the case, what WAS he working on and will we ever get to hear it?

But there's one last thing I want to mention:
Today I was listening to my iPod on shuffle and after This Is It came (one of my favourite MJ outtakes) Love Never Felt So Good, which in my opinion is a better track than This Is It. But I noticed they had similarities - the piano, the tone, the repition. I quickly came home, googled and sure enough Paul Anka was a co-writer on that track too. This got my head spinning: no wonder they sound a like. Wonder why they chose This Is It (appart from the lyric of "This is It") over Love Never Felt So Good. But most importantly: if the song was by Anka it stands to reason it came from the same "stolen tapes" as This Is It. And if THAT'S the case... did michael leak it? If he had the tapes in his collection it IS possible...

Anyways: thoughts?
 
well..simple. MJ was not working on the song before he passed. They picked it because it has "This is it" in the verses & chorus. The words in the song connects to the movie.
 
how do you even know the song is called "this is it"? I believe the demo had a different name but they changed it for the movie... it's all about the movie.
 
Thats what I thought - i remember there being talk of a new single being released in conjunction with the tour but then everything sort of went dark, and then this is what we got months later which causes some confusion.
 
Apparently Michael had recorded brand new material because both Randy Philips and Kenny Ortega said that they had heard it. I know people in rehearsals had twittered about rehearsing a brand new song and I remember people asking them to make sure it wasn't from Invincible (since some people are unaware of the songs on Invincible) and they said no it wasn't from Invincible and that it was a completely brand new song.

I believe that This Is It was just demo and that it had nothing do with the concerts but the Estate and Sony found it lying around and took a listen and honed in on the words This Is It and thought great that willl fit with the movie title let's put it on the album.
 
this is it just connected with the project,but it's a older track which i couldn't see mj releasing a main single.
 
This Is It is not it's actual title - the song was released as I Never Heard by Safire. Obviously they have selected this because it fits the tour title.

Evidently Michael recorded this as a demo with just piano accompaniament - the orchestral and backing track were recorded separately. This accounts for the poor quality recording of his voice - the beginning shows the recording is warbling slightly. I am sure he would be mortified knowing his perfectionist nature.
 
I like "This is It" but I agree they could have picked a better song than that. It sounded very familiar to me and similar to some of his other songs. In other words, there's nothing really unique or distinctive about it. Nothing that I think would make it a big number one hit, like they've been saying. And I just know there's probably a lot of goodies in his unreleased vault that would make better number one hits. When I first listened to the song, the music sounded kinda Off the Wall era, but the vocals sounded like from Dangerous era. Didn't know it was recorded during Thriller era though. That's interesting. "This is It" is a good song, but I'm kinda disappointed they decided to choose it. I couldn't see him actually performing it, but it does work as an end of the credits song. Yeah, now I really have to wonder what new song(s) he actually was working on, and if he was actually going to perform it at the concerts.
 
I find this sad - because all the radio stations are playing this is it - but this is not his best. I think if Sony release another new track of higher quality music in the future it will be less well received because the radio stations will have lost interest. That's just what I think anyway.
 
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