This film is for us, the fans...
quarta-feira, 21 de setembro de 2011
sábado, 16 de julho de 2011
Brunei - The Royal Concert in Full Length!
This is my favorite concert of all!
Although Michael seems annoyed at the very beginning, this somehow adds energy to his performance. When Human Nature beginns, it seems like he is feeling the audience, and this audience really is listening to him singing!
There are many precious moments, his smiles, his voice in the ballads, his interaction with the audience and with the others on stage. He's obviously enjoying it all! In this concert is, IMO, the best "I just can't stop loving you" performance, and also the best ending to a MJ concert, his improvisation at the end of Earth Song.
Michael shows here that doens't need any special effects to give us the most wonderful show!
Enjoy!
Although Michael seems annoyed at the very beginning, this somehow adds energy to his performance. When Human Nature beginns, it seems like he is feeling the audience, and this audience really is listening to him singing!
There are many precious moments, his smiles, his voice in the ballads, his interaction with the audience and with the others on stage. He's obviously enjoying it all! In this concert is, IMO, the best "I just can't stop loving you" performance, and also the best ending to a MJ concert, his improvisation at the end of Earth Song.
Michael shows here that doens't need any special effects to give us the most wonderful show!
Enjoy!
segunda-feira, 4 de abril de 2011
A hidden Gem: Liberian Girl
Even though Liberian Girl is not the most popular love song from Michael Jackson's album "Bad", I truly love it for it's dream atmosphere. Like in a hollywood movie, it describes a love scene and the "guy" hopes for a happy ending with marriage ("I wait for the day when you have to say 'I do', and I'll smile and say it too"). The final verse "and for ever we'll be true" has the same meaning as the fairy tale's "and they lived happily ever after". In my opinion it is more beautiful than the popular "I just can't stop loving you".
Recently I read that I am not alone in this opinion! The writer and cultural critic Joe Vogel has characterized it as "a hidden gem" on the album "Bad", and found also other reasons why this song is not only beautiful, but also meaningful. Here an exerpt from his article "Michael jackson - Man in the music part 3"
(Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-vogel/michael-jackson-man-in-th_b_222860.html)
Liberian Girl -- (from Bad)
Once Jackson has successfully sped the listener out of society's world of control, discrimination, hypocrisy and limitations [in "Speed Demon"], we are suddenly transported into the faraway, primal jungles of Africa. The juxtaposition is striking (and quite bold and artistic for an album accused of being commercially calculated). The sounds shift from mechanical to natural as the noises of engines dissolve into the distant cries of birds and animals. For Jackson, this imagined Africa seems to represent a purer, simpler, richer world. It is as if he is returning to the birthplace of music's origins to explore what it can teach us, to recover some essence that has been lost. In this way, "Liberian Girl" seems to be as much a love song to Africa and what it signifies as it is to any one woman.
The song begins with the beautiful Swahili intro (spoken by Letta Mbulu), "Naku penda piya, naku taka piya--mpenziwe (which translates: "I love you too, I want you too--my love). The lush arrangements, including deep drum sounds and exotic instruments, beautifully support Jackson's passionate, yearning vocals, which are arguably his best since "Human Nature." Indeed, like "Human Nature" on Thriller (and "I Can't Help It" from Off the Wall) "Liberian Girl" is the hidden gem on Bad, often overlooked on an album of numerous well-known hits. The song is yet another "dream capsule," a cinematic fantasy in which Jackson transports the listener to a vivid paradise of possibility.
Listen to the songs referred to in the article!
Recently I read that I am not alone in this opinion! The writer and cultural critic Joe Vogel has characterized it as "a hidden gem" on the album "Bad", and found also other reasons why this song is not only beautiful, but also meaningful. Here an exerpt from his article "Michael jackson - Man in the music part 3"
(Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-vogel/michael-jackson-man-in-th_b_222860.html)
Liberian Girl -- (from Bad)
Once Jackson has successfully sped the listener out of society's world of control, discrimination, hypocrisy and limitations [in "Speed Demon"], we are suddenly transported into the faraway, primal jungles of Africa. The juxtaposition is striking (and quite bold and artistic for an album accused of being commercially calculated). The sounds shift from mechanical to natural as the noises of engines dissolve into the distant cries of birds and animals. For Jackson, this imagined Africa seems to represent a purer, simpler, richer world. It is as if he is returning to the birthplace of music's origins to explore what it can teach us, to recover some essence that has been lost. In this way, "Liberian Girl" seems to be as much a love song to Africa and what it signifies as it is to any one woman.
The song begins with the beautiful Swahili intro (spoken by Letta Mbulu), "Naku penda piya, naku taka piya--mpenziwe (which translates: "I love you too, I want you too--my love). The lush arrangements, including deep drum sounds and exotic instruments, beautifully support Jackson's passionate, yearning vocals, which are arguably his best since "Human Nature." Indeed, like "Human Nature" on Thriller (and "I Can't Help It" from Off the Wall) "Liberian Girl" is the hidden gem on Bad, often overlooked on an album of numerous well-known hits. The song is yet another "dream capsule," a cinematic fantasy in which Jackson transports the listener to a vivid paradise of possibility.
Listen to the songs referred to in the article!
segunda-feira, 28 de março de 2011
About Human Nature
"Reaching out to touch a stranger
Electric eyes are everywhere
See that girl, she knows I'm watching
She likes the way I stare
If they say: Why, why?
Tell them that it's human nature
Why, why does he do me that way?"
Human Nature -- (from Thriller)
"Human Nature" is synth-pop at its finest. "Simple, stark, quiet and beautiful," writes music critic J. Edward Keyes, " Jackson himself once described it as "music with wings," and indeed the singer's smooth voice seems to float effortlessly over its lush synthetic strings. An early version of the song was sent to Quincy Jones by the musical group Toto. Jones left the tape running until it reached an instrumental version of the track which he immediately fell in love with and brought to Jackson. "He and I both agreed that the song had the prettiest melody we'd heard in a long time," recalled Jones (197).
In its 1982 review the New York Times called "Human Nature" Thriller's most "striking" song: "This is a haunting, brooding ballad by Steve Porcaro and John Bettis, with an irresistible chorus, and it should be an enormous hit." In its 2003 review Slant Magazine concurred, calling the track "probably the best musical composition on the album and surely one of the only A/C ballads of its era worth remembering." Rolling Stone called it "beautifully fragile...open and brave."
Easily one of Jackson's best vocal performances, the song is further enhanced by it's subtle, intriguing lyrics: "Looking out/ Across the nighttime," Jackson sings, "The city winks a sleepless eye/ Hear her voice/ Shake my window/ Sweet seducing sigh. . ." The imagery throughout conjures the magic of a city at night; a young man, as if walking in a dream, is both observed (by "electric eyes") and observes ("she likes the way I stare"). Everything is experienced in a sort of fascinated detachment but he seems to yearn for something more intimate. If this town is just an apple," he tells himself, "Then let me take a bite."
Jazz legend Miles Davis covered the song for his 1985 album You're Under Arrest; it has also been sampled or covered by numerous others including Boyz II Men, Ne-Yo, and SWV. "Human Nature" was the last song included on Thriller, replacing "Carousel."
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-vogel/michael-jackson-man-in-th_b_222860.html
Electric eyes are everywhere
See that girl, she knows I'm watching
She likes the way I stare
If they say: Why, why?
Tell them that it's human nature
Why, why does he do me that way?"
Human Nature -- (from Thriller)
"Human Nature" is synth-pop at its finest. "Simple, stark, quiet and beautiful," writes music critic J. Edward Keyes, " Jackson himself once described it as "music with wings," and indeed the singer's smooth voice seems to float effortlessly over its lush synthetic strings. An early version of the song was sent to Quincy Jones by the musical group Toto. Jones left the tape running until it reached an instrumental version of the track which he immediately fell in love with and brought to Jackson. "He and I both agreed that the song had the prettiest melody we'd heard in a long time," recalled Jones (197).
In its 1982 review the New York Times called "Human Nature" Thriller's most "striking" song: "This is a haunting, brooding ballad by Steve Porcaro and John Bettis, with an irresistible chorus, and it should be an enormous hit." In its 2003 review Slant Magazine concurred, calling the track "probably the best musical composition on the album and surely one of the only A/C ballads of its era worth remembering." Rolling Stone called it "beautifully fragile...open and brave."
Easily one of Jackson's best vocal performances, the song is further enhanced by it's subtle, intriguing lyrics: "Looking out/ Across the nighttime," Jackson sings, "The city winks a sleepless eye/ Hear her voice/ Shake my window/ Sweet seducing sigh. . ." The imagery throughout conjures the magic of a city at night; a young man, as if walking in a dream, is both observed (by "electric eyes") and observes ("she likes the way I stare"). Everything is experienced in a sort of fascinated detachment but he seems to yearn for something more intimate. If this town is just an apple," he tells himself, "Then let me take a bite."
Jazz legend Miles Davis covered the song for his 1985 album You're Under Arrest; it has also been sampled or covered by numerous others including Boyz II Men, Ne-Yo, and SWV. "Human Nature" was the last song included on Thriller, replacing "Carousel."
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