*****

well i guess i'm the only man in the universe to cop the 4 reissues released for off the wall, thriller, bad, and dangerous. ahhhh big bad mike. a man whose every move makes it harder for me to defend. but i can occasionally seperate the art from the artist. since many of us are familiar with the albums themselves, i will focus on the extras included. mind you this isn't for everyone. some might feel gipped because of the price for what is basically some demos and quincy jones rattle on and on about obscure thangs talking inside speak with the quickness.....(reminds me of someone...can't quite call it....)--but for the curious and die hards, cop these classics sho nuff.


off the wall
for starters it's dope for the remastering. and hilarious for ceephus and ressee like demo's of ''don't stop'' and ''working day and night''. nice to see mike ain't in total denial about photos (although he is still acting like the back cover (feet) is the front cover.) so he included some photos of what seems like 1981 era photos instead of 1979 (back cover is of him behind the same wall in a tux and loafers (he aint rock loafers on orignal off the wall cover, he rocked patent leather shoes) with a heavier ''rock with you'' era shag/jheri curl (off the wall cover was last days of afro). still nice to see mike give some photo's up from that era. although i'm wondering why he included a photo of him and paul mccartney doing dishes from 1982?---okay i'm anal.

even more priceless are siblings' randy and janet arguing on the ''working day and night'' demos. i guess janet got fired from her duties cause she's not on the final product. i must say that it is educational for producers to understand how they made records back in the day. james poyser and i were amazed at how quincy jones and rod temperton (author of "rock with you" and "off the wall" and former member of "boogie nights" outfit heatwave) were documenting facts such as writing the song on one day. doing demos the next. playing with musicians on another day. background vocals after that. then take a day to do lead vocals. and then hiring cats to write bridges, and bringing cats in to do rhythm arrangements??!?!?! then mix!!!!

sheeeeeesh!

james and i rolled! we go in studio. write the song, record it, do leads first, eat, then backgrounds, and mix in the same day. we are so far from that. and we have no patience whatsoever. demo a song? sheeeeesh!!!!!!!!! i will almost rethink the whole process of how to record. i recall bob power and erykah doing this for baduism. and d and bob doing the same for brown sugar. so i do have an incredible respect for quincy jones as a producer. cause them demos were sketchy and funny as hell. ''working day and night'' didn't even have no drums. so he taught me about how to trim the fat from a song (he says songwriter's are married to their songs and it's up to the producer to realize what should be cut and not) nowhere is this more evident than on their next opus..............

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People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.

Peter Drucker