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The Discussion of MJ's Unreleased Tracks

Themidwestcowboy said:
I remember that old thread from gearslutz back in 2011 where different producers talked about their time working with Michael. One producer talked about the A and B team and he said that Cheater was worked on with the A-team. I believe his username was Russ or Rass. Something like that.

Isn’t there also a Quincy version of Price Of Fame?
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God I hope so mate. I'd love to hear a "finished version" of Price Of Fame, one of my favourite songs by Mike
 
SmoothCriminal1995 said:
I'd love to know for definite how many songs were worked on at Westlake by "The A Team" (hate calling them that) because if it was only the 11 on the album and then just Streetwalker I'd be shocked.

Although the 86 and 87 mix of Streetwalker are better than the 88 mix, I still don't know how they thought it had enough potential to make the Bad album, espicially when considering the quality outtakes from the Bad sessions.

I do really like Streetwalker, but in almost every mix I've heard it runs out of steam and sort of becomes aimless towards the middle of the song
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Themidwestcowboy said:
I remember that old thread from gearslutz back in 2011 where different producers talked about their time working with Michael. One producer talked about the A and B team and he said that Cheater was worked on with the A-team. I believe his username was Russ or Rass. Something like that.

Isn’t there also a Quincy version of Price Of Fame?
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I don't think we have a Quincy mix of anything outside of what made the album. Not sure if it was Brad or Bruce but they said there were no outtakes outside of Streetwalker and everything else was scrapped during pre-production.
 
BlackAnon said:
I don't think we have a Quincy mix of anything outside of what made the album. Not sure if it was Brad or Bruce but they said there were no outtakes outside of Streetwalker and everything else was scrapped during pre-production.
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I don’t think that’s quite true because there’s also Groove Of Midnight which was a Rod contribution, so that song probably went through Quincy and the A-team.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
I don’t think that’s quite true because there’s also Groove Of Midnight which was a Rod contribution, so that song probably went through Quincy and the A-team.
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We don't have proof that GOM was fully recorded by Michael...it still doesn't take away from the song being cut during pre-production. Same way there's no Quincy version of Rolling the Dice.....it was demoed but never went beyond that.
 
MJbr2 said:
Such a bummer how Quincy dropped so many bangers. I can't see why Bad would fail if it was turned into a double album really. Sign o The Times seems to work, for example.
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The 'Sign O' The Times' double vinyl album was not really successful, considering that it sold only 5 million copies worldwide (whereas for example his 'Purple Rain' album, comprised of 1 vinyl, sold 25 million copies worldwide).

In any case, even if Quincy Jones wanted a double vinyl 'BAD' album, the record company would not have allowed that (because of bigger manufacturing costs, and fewer sales due to its higher price).
 
BlackAnon said:
I don't think we have a Quincy mix of anything outside of what made the album. Not sure if it was Brad or Bruce but they said there were no outtakes outside of Streetwalker and everything else was scrapped during pre-production.
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I'm not disagreeing with you mate, but wouldn't it be surprising if Quincy and the "A Team" worked on more songs for Thriller than they did for Bad?
I mean wasn't Bad a massive production that lasted over a year?
So in over a year long production they only worked on 12 songs would be wild to me.

I really wish some of the documentaries we had touched on more of the production and dates of the record, it'd really help clear up any confusion.
 
SmoothCriminal1995 said:
I'm not disagreeing with you mate, but wouldn't it be surprising if Quincy and the "A Team" worked on more songs for Thriller than they did for Bad?
I mean wasn't Bad a massive production that lasted over a year?
So in over a year long production they only worked on 12 songs would be wild to me.

I really wish some of the documentaries we had touched on more of the production and dates of the record, it'd really help clear up any confusion.
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For sure it would be surprising. The only thing that throws it off is John Barnes saying they were working on finished songs at Hayvenhurst but Quincy made it seem like the “B-Team” was only doing demos. To me, Michael was cutting songs at Hayvenhurst and presenting them at Westlake and whatever Quincy deemed “not strong enough” would be discarded and not worked on any further than the way MJ presented them.

We need production dates
 
BlackAnon said:
For sure it would be surprising. The only thing that throws it off is John Barnes saying they were working on finished songs at Hayvenhurst but Quincy made it seem like the “B-Team” was only doing demos. To me, Michael was cutting songs at Hayvenhurst and presenting them at Westlake and whatever Quincy deemed “not strong enough” would be discarded and not worked on any further than the way MJ presented them.

We need production dates
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I was also under this illusion. They decided on the songs and that's it. No time wasted on B-Sides.

Are we certain Streetwalker was worked on by Quincy at all?
 
full credits of the 2001 release of Streetwalker; Bruce & Brad were part of Qs team @Westlake

Streetwalker
(Composer Michael Jackson, Lyricist Michael Jackson)
Producer Bill Bottrell
Engineer Humberto Gatica
Assistant Engineer Laura Livingston/Brad Sundberg/Claudio Ordenes/Debbie Johnson
Recording Engineer Bill Bottrell/Claudio Ordenes/Brian Malouf/Gary Olazabal/Matt Forger/Bruce Swedien
(P) 2001 MJJ Productions Inc. USA
Published By: Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.
Mijac Music
 
innuendo141 said:
I was also under this illusion. They decided on the songs and that's it. No time wasted on B-Sides.

Are we certain Streetwalker was worked on by Quincy at all?
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Here's my theory

It's getting near to closing out the track list and 2 songs are battling for a spot on the album.....APOM and SW. Michael doesn't care which one makes it because he wrote both so MJ and Q get help from Frank to pick a song. They pick APOM and with that, they head back to the studio to mix, master and add final touches. We've heard APOM 1985 mix and we can hear the difference with Quincy on board

If there is a Quincy mix of SW, how come it wasn't included on Bad SE 2001? We get Quincy talking briefly about the song only for them to play Bill's version? Why not include the one that almost made the album?
 
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BlackAnon said:
Here's my theory

It's getting near to closing out the track list and 2 songs are battling for a spot on the album.....APOM and SW. Michael doesn't care which one makes it because he wrote both so MJ and Q get help from Frank to pick a song. They pick APOM and with that, they head back to the studio to mix, master and add final touches. We've heard APOM 1985 mix and we can hear the difference with Quincy on board

If there is a Quincy mix of SW, how come it wasn't included on Bad SE 2001? We get Quincy talking briefly about the song only for them to play Michaels version? Why not include the one that almost made the album?
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Another Part Of Me was re-worked on September 1986, so that theory's probably wrong. The 1987 version of Streetwalker more than likely wasn't included on the rerelease because Sony immediately went for the latest version of the track, which just so happened to be Bottrell's 1988 remix.
 
BlackAnon said:
If there is a Quincy mix of SW, how come it wasn't included on Bad SE 2001? We get Quincy talking briefly about the song only for them to play Michaels version? Why not include the one that almost made the album?
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royalty dispute, maybe?

Keep in mind that Starlight was part of Thriller SEs 2nd configuration. It got kicked off the tracklist few weeks prior to its release - yet on one of the interviews on the cd Q (or was it Rod? *I haven't listened to the interviews since ages*) mentions the song Starlight.
 
Fuzball said:
royalty dispute, maybe?

Keep in mind that Starlight was part of Thriller SEs 2nd configuration. It got kicked off the tracklist few weeks prior to its release - yet on one of the interviews on the cd Q (or was it Rod? *I haven't listened to the interviews since ages*) mentions the song Starlight.
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Or Michael probably thought the 1988 mix was better than the one he presented.

I'll have to listen again to the Thriller SE


Also, regarding SW being on test pressing, this is what Brad said

"Never saw or heard of this. Album sequencing/song choice were made long before pressing, much less printing. Hello Photoshop, goodbye reality."

"To clarify, it is possible that Epic was doing test artwork for Michael to see, but to the best of my memory there was never a finished pressing with this sequence. Could be legit in terms of a visual test piece."
 
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Fuzball said:
royalty dispute, maybe?

Keep in mind that Starlight was part of Thriller SEs 2nd configuration. It got kicked off the tracklist few weeks prior to its release - yet on one of the interviews on the cd Q (or was it Rod? *I haven't listened to the interviews since ages*) mentions the song Starlight.
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Kind of adding to this topic... Why did Got The Hots make the Japan SE for Thriller 25 but not the US? And I thought Got The Hots was supposed to make the 2001 SE but didn't at the last minute? Did MJ just not want it out there?
 
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