Troy Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 ABC's 60-second trailer previews the documentary film by award-winning director Spike Lee, celebrates the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson's landmark "BAD" album and tour. "Michael Jackson: BAD25" will air Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 22 ( p.m., ET) on ABC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Posted November 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 I remember that "Tower Records" store... I brought the album and later the CD, but I was not really big fan of this album (sacrilege, I know) I was much more into rap at the time. This album was so big because of the marketing, promotion and more. Sure the music was fine (personally I never go back and listen to "BAD") but there was a tremendous marketing machine behind the music -- nothing like it before. or since really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynique Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Do you recall the rumor that was circulating about Quincy Jones supposedly suggesting that Prince play the role that Wesley Snipes later ended up with in the "Bad" video? It was also rumored that Prince turned the role down because he didn't want to be associated with the line Michael uttered in one verse of the song that went: "your ass is mine". Prince was always such a twerp. I don't even know why I liked him, strutting around with all those tight, frilly constumes, wearing eyeliner and blush and Shirley Temple ringlets. Almost as bad as MIchael with his military styled uniforms and jeri curled hair and bleached skin. I guess it was because I was caught up in the frenzy of the times, brainwased by all of my post office co-workers and my kids. Thank goodness, my jazz afficionado husband kept me from going completely overhboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Posted November 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Nah I was unaware of the rumors, or have forgotten them. I really did not follow Michael that closely. I just know Bad was not all that good. Here is a song that has captured my attention lately. The music, arrangement, singing, lyrics ...just beautiful. There's a saying old Says that love is blind Still we're often told Seek and ye shall find So I'm going to seek A certain lad I've had in mind Looking everywhere Haven't found him yet He's the big affair I cannot forget Only man I ever think Of with regret I'd like To add his initial To my monogram Tell me Where is the shepherd For this lost lamb? There's a somebody I'm longin' to see I hope that he turns Out to be Someone to watch over me I'm a little lamb Who's lost in the wood I know I could Always be good To one Who'll watch over me Although he may Not be the man some Girls think Of as handsome To my heart He carries the key Won't you tell him please To put on some speed Follow my lead Oh, how I need Someone to watch over me Won't you tell him please To put on some speed Follow my lead Oh, how I need Someone to watch over me Someone to watch over me ,"Someone to Watch Over Me," written in 1926 by George and Ira Gershwin was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynique Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 This is a beautiful song, Troy; deeply melodious with exquisite lyrics, a ballad from the great American songbook that I'm always blubbering about, as my praise falls on the deaf ears of this generation who think this kind of music is schmaltzy. As slow as this song is I'm surprised you liked it. It's certainly one of my favorites, an old standby that back in the day any chanteuse worth her salt recorded a version of. Male vocalists did, too. Romantic classics like this are mostly taken from the Broadway musicals of the 1920s and 30s and 40s and many were recorded and sampled by jazz instrumentalists. But, you knew that, didn't you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Wow...that voice! Beautiful! (Ella...not MJ...I didn't even click the MJ doc vid. ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admin Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 While looking for the video I see that Amy Winehouse did a version as well. Collectively her renditions have gotten FAR more views than Ella's. I prefer Ella's rendition much more -- it is just firing on all cylinders. I did know Jazz musicians played these melodies. Actually it was you mentioning your husband affinity for Jazz that prompted me to post Ella's song. Winehouse's version is fine but it does not move me at all. I'm literally enthralled by Ella's version. I can't explain why perhaps someone who understand the mechanics of music more can explain why. I heard a singer perform this song at the Apollo during a $10 variety show (Jazz Shrines tremendous entertainment value). It was perhaps the single best performance of anything I've seen at the Apollo. It blew away Winehouse version but not as good as Ella's. The sing is still being performed and quite relevant. But Pop music appeals to the masses and will garner the lion's share of the marketing resources. So I can't imagine Bad 25 being much more than an extended music video of one of Michael's weakest, albeit better selling, songs. I don't plan to tune in. It is interesting to think how much stuff I share that I personally don't care very much about -- or dislike even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynique Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Lena Horne version: http://youtu.be/g8J2Gb-hMIY Sarah Vaughn version: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admin Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 The photo history of Lena Horne was beautiful. She aged so gracefully Both versions of these versions were great. I'll have to listen a few more times to each to pick a favorite (not sure why I feel compelled to pick a favorite -- just the way my brain works I guess). Still hard to believe this tune is almost 90 years old. When it debuted the only way you would likely here it is was when it was performed live or if you caught it on the radio. The idea that we can call up so many different version of this song, play it on demand, share it with others, download to portable devices -- without paying for it is mind boggling. Often people draw analogies between where music has gone with digital files and where books are going with eBooks as if they were analogous. Few have really considered a world where books are shared as freely as music files are today -- even if they talk about it as if it inevitable. But that is a different conversation. Here is Frank 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Someone to waaaatch over me... now this song will be stuck in my head for days! not a bad thing...much better than BANDS TO MAKE HER DANCE! lol Awww...I remember when Lena was on Sesame Street! childhood throwback ...such wonderful voices! all of them - so pretty! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynique Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 60 years ago, back in the days before "Take 5", when I was a student at the University of Illinois, music like this jazz version of the old standard "The Way You Look Tonight" rendered by the Dave Brubeck quartet, would be what me and my fellow black coeds would be listening to in a dorm room, smoking unfiltered Pall Malls, sitting cross-legged on the floor playing Bridge, rich Jewish girls from NY, kibitizing over our shoulders, there at the U. of I. because this great midwestern university was a haven for the bargain-hunting parents of Jewish kids looking for a quality education that cost half the price of the prestitgious private colleges back east. 'Spent many a night doing this, neglecting my studies, which is why I ended up getting my degree in the subject of everything at the U. S. Post office where I sat on my ass observing a broad cross section of people for 30 years before retiring. Brubeck is now in his 90s and I'm on the brink of 80. Weren't those the days, Dave? A simpler time, before Charlie and Billie OD'd and Miles got petulant. Before Rosa got tired and Martin began to march and Malcolm began to preach, and America changed its tune... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 nice...good times...i can only imagine of course, but my mind's eye tells me these were good days...nice thnx 4 sharing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynique Posted November 7, 2012 Report Share Posted November 7, 2012 I'm glad you are on my wave length, writergirl! Finally a female poster with whom I have rapport. I find your comments so pithy and on point and inciteful.. ( Great minds run along the same path. Right? ) I know that Brubeck selection was probably tuned out by many people because it is "straight ahead jazz"; not the garden variety of smooth jazz fushion available on your FM radio dial. It's too bad that white musicians like Dave Brubeck gained so much prominence by becoming practioners of the music originated by Blacks who gradually abandoned this art form and gravitated to R&B and Rap. So it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Posted November 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2012 Yeah I could take or leave the Brubeck selection not so much because it is "straight ahead jazz", but because I don't particular care for it. I don't dislike it, but I would not purchase it. I don't like all Funk and Rap music either. Jazz is no different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynique Posted November 9, 2012 Report Share Posted November 9, 2012 Actually, Troy, not all jazz purists are fans of Dave Brubeck's music. Their main problem with it being that it's too structured, and that he and saxophonist Paul Desmond engaged in too much classical baroque contra point and not enough improvising. But during the 50s which was when this group began its ascent to fame, this style was what appealed to jazz neophytes who were turned off by the be-bop which was also the rage during the early 50s, because to them be-bop was just a lot of frenetic noise. And on big 10 college campuses, Brubeck was the man. Doo-Wop was just as popular on black college campuses. I always liked Brubeck and Paul Desmond because their renditions were melodious, starting out slow and then crescendoing into a climax. They didn't originate this appoach and Desmond's lyrical saxophone stylings harked back to black saxophonists like Lester "Prez" Young. Here's another jazz treatment of a classic old ballad. http://youtu.be/hC2LL7aaYgY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Posted November 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2012 Yep this is more my speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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