by Joseph Vogel
“There were a lot of things he wanted”: Ibid.
“There were just frustrations”: Author interview, Bill Bottrell.
“Michael was maturing and coming”: Author interview, John Barnes.
“a teenager leaving the nest”: “Post Here If You Worked on Michael Jackson’s DANGEROUS Album.”
“With ‘Liberian Girl’ ”: Author interview, John Barnes.
“This can’t go on Victory”: Author interview, Bill Bottrell.
“after three hours, I had taught”: Christopher Currell, “The Event Horizon—‘Synclavier, Music and Michael Jackson’—Part 1,” Headphone.guru, March 31, 2015.
“grooves and various musical pieces”: Ibid.
“Many times”: Ibid.
“his sound library was in chaos”: Ibid.
“The vision came from Michael”: Elias Leight, “How Michael Jackson’s Bad Scored a Staggering Five Number Ones,” Rolling Stone, August 31, 2017.
“But it taught me something really”: Author interview, John Barnes.
“I said, ‘Michael, imagine—we get James Brown”: Ibid.
“After a few weeks of working”: Currell, “The Event Horizon.”
“John and I developed a strong”: Author interview, John Barnes.
“There were not a lot of people”: Leight, “How Michael Jackson’s Bad Scored a Staggering Five Number Ones.”
“When you listen to this song”: Author interview, Matt Forger.
“It was great, exciting stuff”: Ibid.
“It has a special kind of significance”: Author interview, John Barnes.
“We weren’t just piling synths”: Ibid.
“Tokyo was just kickass”: Author interview, Matt Forger.
“Michael asked Quincy to come out”: Author interview, Bill Bottrell.
“I believe Quincy viewed us as threats”: Author interview, John Barnes.
“So you’re the reason why no one was being called”: Currell, “The Event Horizon.”
“What a great introduction to LA’s finest”: Ibid.
“Michael was concerned that the ‘punch’ ”: Ibid.
“[Quincy and I] disagreed on some things”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 263.
“widest variety of soundfields”: Author interview, Bruce Swedien.
“synth stacks filling up the entire large”: Author interview, Russ Ragsdale.
“A lot of people are so used”: Johnson, “Michael Jackson Comes Back!”
“sending long streams of cigar smoke”: Troupe, “The Pressure to Beat It.”
“We tried our best to just treat Michael”: Author interview, Russ Ragsdale.
“Michael would want to get out of the studio”: Ibid.
“Michael thought it was a voodoo”: Author interview, John Branca.
“It was a strange summit”: Troupe, “The Pressure to Beat It.”
“Prince was like, ‘Oh, he wants to punk me’ ”: Keith Murphy, “Michael Jackson vs. Prince: An Oral History,” Vibe, June 25, 2010.
“Well, you know, that Wesley Snipes”: History Chanel, “Prince Chris Rock Interview—Best Document 2016,” YouTube video, 22:46, May 29, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd97mAsvR0g.
“It will be a big hit”: Joseph Vogel, “Prince and Michael Jackson: The Rivalry and the Revolution,” PopMatters, April 28, 2016.
“Jackson had sixty-two songs written”: Goldberg and Handelman, “Michael Jackson in Fantasyland.”
“I gotta be honest, I was never”: Bad 25, directed by Spike Lee (Optimum Productions, 2012), DVD.
“I will not allow this album”: Ibid.
“A perfectionist has to take”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 262.
“Alone in the semidarkness, illuminated softly”: Troupe, “The Pressure to Beat It.”
“You need a dramatic deadline”: Goldberg and Handelman, “Michael Jackson in Fantasyland.”
“a state-of-the-art dance record”: Jay Cocks, “The Badder They Come,” Time, September 14, 1987.
“Anybody who charges studio hackery”: Robert Christgau, review of Bad, Consumer Guide Reviews, October 1987.
“Bad is not only a product but also”: Sigerson, review of Bad.
“Jackson the singer can get bushwhacked”: Cocks, “The Badder They Come.”
“The backlash has more to do with”: Guy D. Garcia, “People,” Time, February 29, 1988.
“They also have lyrics that”: Jon Pareles, “How Good Is Jackson’s ‘Bad’?,” New York Times, September 3, 1987.
“Many of the attacks”: Troupe, “The Pressure to Beat It.”
“The word superstar”: Gregory Sandow, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, February 23, 1988.
“some of the sharpest black pop”: “Michael Jackson,” Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, July 2009.
“ ‘Bad’ needs no defense”: Sigerson, review of Bad.
“hearing a very specific bass sound”: Currell, “The Event Horizon.”
“Michael liked them”: Ibid.
“Only Quincy would think”: Carl Lamarre, Gail Mitchell, Andrew Unterberger, and Tayklor Weatherby, “Michael Jackson’s Bad: Quincy Jones, Wesley Snipes & Other Collaborators Tell the Stories of the Album’s Five No. 1 Singles,” Billboard, August 31, 2017.
“It’s a bold statement to make”: Johnson, “Michael Jackson Comes Back!”
“It’s a really intense shuffle”: Jon Dolan, “Bigger, Tougher, Riskier,” Rolling Stone, July 2009.
“I would hate to record Michael”: Bruce Swedien, In the Studio with Michael Jackson (New York: Hal Leonard, 2009), p. 45.
“I mean, Michael’s imagination is awesome”: Quincy Jones, Bad (special edition), Sony, 2001, compact disc. Originally released in 1987.
“There is a great singer at work”: Cocks, “The Badder They Come.”
“were so astonished to hear”: “Memory of Michael Jackson Uplifts Liberia,” Washington Times, July 2, 2009.
“We used the Fairlight CMI”: Author interiew, John Barnes.
“I mean, ‘Liberian Girl,’ who would”: Jones, Bad (special edition), Sony, 2001, compact disc.
“one of my absolute favorites”: Swedien, In the Studio with Michael Jackson, p. 45.
“They used our original”: Author interview, John Barnes.
“dusky, tropical atmosphere, jazz shadings”: Richard Cromelin, “Pop Album Review: Michael Jackson Has a Good Thing in ‘Bad,’ ” Los Angeles Times, August 31, 1987.
“The lead, and the big”: Swedien, In the Studio with Michael Jackson, p. 45.
“only mediocrity”: Sigerson, review of Bad.
“the most ripping synth solo”: “Post Here If You Worked on Michael Jackson’s DANGEROUS Album.”
“heavy R&B riffer…[with] a timely”: Cromelin, “Pop Album Review: Michael Jackson Has a Good Thing in ‘Bad’.”
“one of [his] most powerful”: Josh Tyrangiel, “Top Ten Michael Jackson Songs of All Time,” Time, June 26, 2009.
“This, more than any other”: Paul Lester, “Michael Jackson’s Twenty Greatest Hits,” in The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson, edited by Mark Fisher (Washington, DC: Zero Books, 2009), p. 33.
“I said, ‘I’ve been writing for Michael’ ”: T. Cole Rachel, “Q&A: Super-Producer Glen Ballard on Jagged Little Pill, ‘Man in the Mirror,’ & His Other Classic Recordings,” Stereogum.com, September 29, 2015.
“ ‘Baby, the song is great’ ”: Paul Zollo, “Siedah Garrett: Behind the Man in the Mirror—Working with Michael Jackson,” Bluerailroad, October 23, 2009.
“I screamed!”: Ibid.
“The next thing I know”: Rachel, “Q&A: Super-Producer Glen Ballard on Jagged Little Pill, ‘Man In The Mirror,’ & His Other Classic Record
ings.”
“The song was this really magical”: “Behind ‘Man in the Mirror’ with Glen Ballard,” Rolling Stone, July 24, 2009.
“No one since Dylan”: Sigerson, review of Bad.
“[The choir is] not coddling”: Armond White, Keep Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles (New York: Resistance Works, 2009), p. 92.
“It is a remarkable dramatic performance”: Cocks, “The Badder They Come.”
“He just killed it”: Rachel, “Q&A: Super-Producer Glen Ballard on Jagged Little Pill, ‘Man in the Mirror,’ & His Other Classic Recordings.”
“Quincy said, ‘You got the tape’ ”: Paul Zollo, “Siedah Garrett: Behind the Man in the Mirror—Working with Michael Jackson.”
“This is the first time I realized”: Ibid.
“He has a real keen sense”: Ibid.
“It almost sounded like a British”: Lamarre et al., “Michael Jackson’s Bad.”
“That was another one of those”: Author interview, John Barnes.
“My initial thing was”: Lamarre et al., “Michael Jackson’s Bad.”
“We were just kind of getting to know”: Ibid.
“There have been many cases where”: Author interview, Matt Forger.
“It’s a song that remains”: Owen Gleiberman, “Michael Jackson: Why the Weirdness Was the Greatness,” Entertainment Weekly, July 21, 2009.
“I worked hard on the song”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 270.
“a batch of thick chords”: Jon Dolan, “King of Pan,” Rolling Stone, July 2009.
CHAPTER 4: DANGEROUS (1991)
“greasy Caucasian youths in ripped jeans”: Rick Marin, “Grunge: A Success Story,” New York Times, November 15, 1992.
“[Our rise] was so fast”: David Fricke, “Kurt Cobain: Success Doesn’t Suck,” Rolling Stone, January 27, 1994.
“I definitely feel closer to the feminine side”: Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, April 16, 1992.
“I always tell her my favorite song”: Marcosff26start go, “Michael Jackson private home movies, YouTube video, 1:15:56, November 3, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaBZVFiAQkE.
“Three words in one capsule”: Robert Doerschuk, “Interview with Teddy Riley About Michael Jackson and Guy,” Keyboard, February 1992.
“Classic rap assaults your guts”: Ibid.
“I actually played piano at Universal”: “Teddy Riley Runs Down His Entire Catalogue,” Vibe, March 14, 2012.
“[He] has so many things happening”: Barry Michael Cooper, “Teddy Riley’s New Jack Swing: Harlem Gangsters Raise a Genius,” Village Voice, October 18, 1987.
“It was hard for me to believe”: Katherine Jackson and Richard Wiseman, My Family, the Jacksons (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990), p. 189.
“I sat with him for hours”: Deepak Chopra, “A Tribute to My Friend, Michael Jackson,” HuffPost, July 26, 2009.
“dirty burlesque dancing”: Shmuley Boteach, The Michael Jackson Tapes (New York: Vanguard, 2009), p. 105.
“When I did certain things”: Ibid., p. 148.
“I have chosen to break and be free”: Michael Jackson, Dancing the Dream (New York: Doubleday, 1992), p. 146.
“It’s strange that God doesn’t mind”: Ibid., p. 69.
“When the real music comes”: Photo from Matt Forger.
“With Michael”: Author interview, Matt Forger.
“Michael was not angry”: “Brad Buxer Interview,” Black & White, November/December 2009.
“Michael was inspired by touring”: Author interview, Matt Forger.
“Michael was always prepared”: Richard Buskin, “Classic Tracks: Michael Jackson ‘Black or White,’ ” Sound on Sound, August 2004.
“The ‘producer’ role is something”: Author interview, Bill Bottrell.
“As opposed to some of”: Buskin, “Classic Tracks: Michael Jackson ‘Black or White.’ ”
“Most of the time while I worked”: Author interview, Bill Bottrell.
“I didn’t own an Emulator”: Ibid.
“It was pretty unbelievable really”: “Brad Buxer Interview.”
“He has an entire record”: Buskin, “Classic Tracks: Michael Jackson ‘Black or White.’ ”
“his recording crews separated”: Author interview, Brad Buxer.
“I appreciate both approaches”: Brad Sundberg, “In the Studio with Michael Jackson,” Facebook, June 17, 2018. https://www.facebook.com/inthestudiowithmj/posts/give-in-to-methe-dangerous-project-had-three-production-teams-bruce-bill-and-ted/941360452704516/.
“We had been experimenting with”: Bruce Swedien, In the Studio with Michael Jackson (New York: Hal Leonard, 2009), p. 49.
“When we began working”: “Post Here If You Worked on Michael Jackson’s DANGEROUS Album,” Gearslutz, June 27, 2009.
“Michael Jackson, even though he might”: Fab 5 Freddy, “New Again: L.L. Cool J,” Interview, December 3, 2013.
“Working with Michael”: Supertictac811, “LL Cool J Talks About Working with Michael Jackson,” YouTube, September 28, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0PTgDTql9E.
“When we did do vocals”: Bryan Loren, “Michael and Me,” Myspace, July 13, 2009.
“He did not want to do this”: Ibid.
“it was not [record the vocal] once”: Joe Levy, “Bringing Michael Jackson Back: The Inside Story of ‘Xscape,’ ” Billboard, May 5, 2014.
“Michael loved finding new sounds”: “Brad Buxer Interview.”
“There was more pressure”: “Michael Jackson: Recording Dangerous with Teddy Riley,” MusicRadar, July 3, 2009.
“He started scatting and beatboxing”: The Official Michael Jackson Opus, edited by Jordan Sommers and Justyn Barnes (Guernsey: Opus Media Group, 2009), p. 142.
“I didn’t check out until”: Ibid.
“Our first day at the studio”: “When Heaven Can Wait: Teddy Riley Remembers Michael Jackson,” Hip-Hop Wired, July 8, 2009.
“We didn’t want to sound”: Doerschuk, “Interview with Teddy Riley About Michael Jackson and Guy.”
“I learned from Michael”: “Teddy Riley and Michael Jackson,” MOJO, April 2011.
“I was using a lot of vintage”: “Michael Jackson: Recording Dangerous with Teddy Riley.”
“ ‘You know what I’d like to have’ ”: Doerschuk, “Interview with Teddy Riley About Michael Jackson and Guy.”
“When we dropped the bass”: Ibid.
“Working with Michael was like”: “Teddy Riley Runs Down His Entire Catalogue.”
“Teddy was very professional”: Michael Goldberg, “Michael Jackson: The Making of ‘The King of Pop,’ ” Rolling Stone, January 9, 1992.
“I told Michael”: Doerschuk, “Interview with Teddy Riley About Michael Jackson and Guy.”
“He always pushed me”: “Michael Jackson: Recording Dangerous with Teddy Riley.”
“Michael likes to listen”: Goldberg, “Michael Jackson: The Making of ‘The King of Pop.’ ”
“I have this whole vision”: Don Shewey, “Madonna: The Saint, the Slut, the Sensation,” Advocate, May 7, 1991.
“He wanted to get to know”: James Dinh, “Madonna Opens Up About Michael Jackson,” MTV, October 20, 2009.
“started writing words and getting”: “Remembering the Michael Jackson and Madonna Duet That Almost Happened,” Genius, December 1, 2016.
“He’s a fucking brilliant entertainer”: Omoronke Idowu et al., “Michael & Me,” Vibe, June/July 1995.
“I get a basic”: Ibid.
“He’s very shrewd”: Ibid.
“In a thriller of a deal”: Alan Citron and Chuck Philips, “Michael Jackson Agrees to Huge Contract with Sony,” Los Angeles Times, March 21, 1991.
“When the deadline came”: Goldberg, “Michael Jackson: The Making of ‘The King of Pop.’ ”
“I felt confident ‘Remember the Time’ ”: The Official Michael Jackson Opus, p. 142.
“We’d drive to the studio”: Goldberg, “Michael Jackson: The Making of ‘The King of Pop.’ ”
“I’m never satisfied with anything”: Michael Jackson, interview by Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show, ABC, February 10, 1993.
“The last three days of the project”: Goldberg, “Michael Jackson: The Making of ‘The King of Pop.’ ”
“ ‘We bumped the pumpkin’ ”: Ibid.
“ ‘Thriller,’ Can Michael Jackson Beat It?”: Richard W. Stevenson, “ ‘Thriller,’ Can Michael Jackson Beat It?,” New York Times, November 10, 1991.
“That is the challenge Jackson is up against”: Goldberg, “Michael Jackson: The Making of ‘The King of Pop.’ ”
“This is the situation”: Jackson, interview by Oprah Winfrey.
“I got so sick of that”: Lynn Norment, “Grown-Up Janet Jackson,” Ebony, September 1993.
“Michael Jackson’s Video Nightmare”: David Browne, Michael Jackson’s Video Nightmare,” Entertainment Weekly, November 29, 1991.
“the most significant personal gesture”: Armond White, Keep Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles (New York: Resistance Works, 2009), p. 30.
“sleeve so symbol-laden”: Mat Snow, “Michael Jackson: Dangerous: Hip-hop and Gospel, Slash and God, Sublime and Ridiculous,” Q, January 1992.
“It was by far my most”: Mohammad Osman, “Dangerous,” Art of Design, November 24, 2018.
In addition to Bosch’s painting: Ibid.
an African girl: Ibid.
“loping, melodic electro-groove patented”: Mark Coleman, “Dangerous Liaisons,” Us Weekly, January 1992.
“a much sharper, harder, riskier”: Stephen Thomas Erlewine, review of Dangerous, AllMusic, November 1991.
“triumph…that doesn’t hide from”: Alan Light, review of Dangerous, Rolling Stone, November 1991.
“On Dangerous”: David Browne, review of Dangerous, Entertainment Weekly, November 29, 1991.
“least confident album since”: Jon Pareles, “Michael Jackson in the Electronic Wilderness,” New York Times, November 24, 1991.