Dall'autobiografia di Quincy Jones [solo parti MJ]

Ho postato e tradotto la prima volta quanto segue, nel 2007... Visto che questo forum è pieno di "nuovi fans", credo che possa essere di valido interesse. Copio e incollo tutto così come l'avevo scritto.

dangerousbadgirl 12/10/2007
Una fan marnifrances stà postando alcuni estratti dall'autobiografia di Quincy Jones dove parla di Michael.

Questi i primi due:

We did another album together, "Bad", which sold 25 million copies. At this point, Steve Ross and I had joined forces in a multimedia company- always my dream- ... It was time to move on. In addition, key members of Michael's entourage, including his attorney, were whispering in his ear that I'd been getting too much credit. His brother Jackie Jackson told CBS-TV interviewer Les Edwards that I had wanted to take "Billie Jean" off the album. Pleeze! After every hit record Michael and I made, he and his brothers would go into the studio to make a follow-up album of their own. Reportedly his father, Joe, said "Quancy ain't no damn producer. I know a producer who coulda made that record for twenty-five thousand."

Michael was like a member of my family, a surrogate son. He spent many hours with my daughter Kidada, who was a precocious child of eight at the time. They adored each other and totally communicated despite the age difference (he was twenty then). Her mother once found a phone bill showing that Kidada made ninety-one long distance calls to Michael in a single month. She played the telephone like Herbie Hancock plays the keyboards. These days. I'm sorry to say, I don't see Michael as much as I'd like to; both of our lives have changed dramatically. But as long as I live he'll always be a big part of my soul and memories and my heart and arms will always be open to him. The eighties were as good as it gets. To this day no one has ever done it bigger and broader than Smelly. I thank god for ever minute (with as much modesty as you can muster up for 50 million copies).

========================

By then it was clear- at least to some of us- that rap had made its mark in our culture. It was out newest baby and it was here to stay.

there were plenty of doubters about the music's staying power. When we made "Bad" in 1987, I wanted to put an anticrack song on one side with Run-DMC and Michael. The group showed up at Westlake Studios several times, ready to jam, but Smelly was sceptical of rap as an option for a couple of the album's cuts and he wasn't the only one. Snoopy never budged from his rock-steady conviction that rap would rule for quite some time.


Traduco sommariamente:

Con Bad avevano delle attrezzature migliori visto il successo ottenuto con il precedente album. Dice che il fratello di Michael Jackie disse alla CBS durante un'intervista che Quincy voleva togliere Billie Jean dall'album! Ovviamente non era vero.
Quincy chiama Michael "Smelly" per via del fatto che "puzza". E' risaputo che quando lavora in studio Michael si lava poco.
Dice che al tempo era molto legato a sua figlia che aveva solo 8anni. Si adoravano reciprocamente nonostante Michael avesse più di 20. Dice che un giorno sua moglie scopre una bolletta del telefono salatissima, perchè la figlia passava ore a parlare con Michael. Oggi le loro strade (tra quincy e mj) si sono divise e non riesce più a vedere Michael come una volta con molto dispiacere, ma sarà sempre bene accolto il giorno in cui si ritrovassero e che Michael è una persona che gli è rimasta nel cuore. Quincy considera Michael quasi come un figlio.


Nel secondo pezzo parla di quando voleva far cantare Michael con i RUNDMC il brano 'Crack kills. Dice che tutti si erano resi conto che il rap stava prendendo una buona direzione e Quincy voleva che Michael inserisse nell'album Bad un brano appunto con delle parti rap. Michael non era convinto e la cosa non si realizzò mai.


Qui c'è il pezzo dove si parla di We are the world, subito sotto trovate la traduzione sommaria di quello che c'è scritto:

We were trying to figure out who should write the song. first they said "Maybe Stevie Wonder and Lionel Richie could write it". I said, "No. Stevie's the best, but don't bother him - he's in the middle of making a record." I suggested to Lionel that he ask Michael to do it with him. In those days Michael would like nothing better than to sit around and write, so those two took it on.

Two weeks before the session, I started calling Michael's house to listen to what they came up with, and sure enough he and Lionel were there hangin', sitting around talking about Motown and old times. I said, "My dear brothers, we have forty-six stars coming in less than three weeks and we need a damn song." Lionel came up with something first. He played a cassette with the melody on the title lines for Michael. Michael locked himself in his house for a couple of days and finished the rest. the lyrics were written by the two of them.

We needed a demo on the song "like yesterday". After recording the basic instrumental track, we'd have Lionel, Stevie and Smelly do "guide" vocals to teach the other artists the melody and lyrics in preparation for the main session. We were sitting in my den listening to the demo and Lionel said, "Q, I'm not sure about that minor part yet." I said, "I think the minor part is perfect, Skeet. It's a great contrast to the chorus. You both brought it home- it's just what we needed." Then we called Michael, who suggested that he and Lionel sing the leads, and everyone else sing the background.

Right! That would have really gone over great. I could just see Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner and Ray Charles and Diana Ross and all the others singing in the background. Forget it. But Michael was serious. I had to talk him out of it. He asked Lionel to convince me. But forty-four other divas when they have to be don't play that sh**. They were coming there to do something unselfish collectively for the benefit of starving people in Africa. We did change one line in the demo to avoid any implication of suicide: "There's a chance we're taking, we're taking our own lives" to "There's a choice we're making, we're saving our own lives."

We had forty-six stars coming.... forty-six fiercely independent nations. If concerned, any one of them could take your skin off layer by layer. If I hadn't worked individually with over half of these singers before, there was no way I would have even considered doing this. Tommy Bahler... got records of each of the artists in order to pin point everyone's range.

We planned the session like the Invasion of Normandy at Lionel and Brenda's house the night before the recording... Collectively [with Humberto Gatica, Ken Kragen, Tommy Bahler and Marty Rogel] we decided to mark the spots on the floor where everyone would be standing. We didn't want to encourage decision making during the session. Any decision. Where they would stand, what they would sing, when they would sing it- we had to think it through and spell it out... I had the sign put on the door that said, "Check your egos at the door".

January 28, 1985, the day of the session, we were scheduled to start at the A & M studio at 10pm. After the American Music Awards downtown, at 9pm a bunch of limos full of singers and security guards pulled up... They were on the case: everybody was really on a mission, ready to get busy.

When we walked into the studio we felt our first brush with divinity that night. We needed to put down a lead vocal on the first chorus as a guide. Sure enough, as planned, Smelly was standing at the mike, earphones on, ready to hit it, at ten o'clock. As we proceeded to put his voice on the first chorus, and then stack it- which means double it, to double it with himself- I knew this was going to be a special evening.


Si stavano domandano chi avrebbe potuto scrivere la canzone (we are the world). Fu suggerito Steve Wonder, ma Quincy disse di no perchè era nel bel mezzo della registazione del suo album così suggerì lui stesso Lionel Richie che a sua volta chiese a Michael di collaborare.

Due settimane prima della session Quincy ha chiamato casa di Michael per sapere a che punto erano con la canzone. Era sicuro che i due stessero chiaccerano dei vecchi tempi passati alla Motown. Quincy racconta di aver detto "miei cari fratelli, ci saranno 46 stars tra meno di tre settimane ed abbiamo bisogno di una maledetta canzone". Lionel fu il primo a fare qualcosa. Aveva registrato la melodia e passato il tutto a Michael che si è chiuso in casa e nel giro di un paio di giorni ha finito di arrangiare il resto. Il testo è stato scritto da entrambi.

Dopo aver registrato la parte strumentale, avevano bisogno di Lionel, Stevie e Puzzolo per guidare vocalmente ed insegnare agli altri artisti la melodia e le parole come preparazione alla session. Lionel non era convinto di alcuni punti, ma a Quincy la canzone piaceva molto. Alla fine Lionel e Michael suggerirono di cantare loro le parti principali e di lasciar cantare tutti gli altri nel coro.

L'idea ovviamente era assurda eppure Michael sembrava serio. Aveva chiesto anche a Lionel di convincere Quincy e lui fu costretto a parlarne più volte con Michael dell'impossibilità della cosa.
Parla anche di come hanno cambiato delle frasi per non farle sembrare ideali di suicidio. (sempre se ho capito bene ndDBG)

Ricorda le prove a casa di Lionel Richie la sera prima della registrazione, come l'invasione della Normadia. Erano 46 stars proveniente da tutto il mondo. Hanno segnato sul pavimento i punti dove ognuno si sarebbe collocato mentre cantava. I posti non furono imposti, ognuo si mise dove preferiva. Inoltre prima di iniziare Quincy disse a tutti "lasciate il vostro ego fuori dalla porta".

La registrazione iniziò il 28 Gennaio del 1985 agli A&M studio, alle 22 dopo che molte delle star tornava dagli American Music Awards.
Michael fu messo a capo per aiutare gli altri a fare il primo coro, così cantò come voce guida. Quincy sapeva che quella sarebbe stata una notte speciale per tutti.


I had all forty-six sing "We Are The World" choral parts. No problem. When we got to the last part of the song, where were were to sing answers to the title melody, they were supposed to sing "Sha la/ sha lingay", as Smelly had done it in the demo.

Bob Geldof, the guiding force from Band Aid / Live Aid said "No, you can't do that. The Africans might feel that we're making fun of them, that we're mocking their language... Forget the sha la, sha lingay".

With the kind of potential tension hovering over a session involving this many creative people, there has to be one moment where as a conductor or producer, you must make a very important decision as to where to let them go and just vent. This was a spot where I couldn't lose: I was mostly interested in the choir parts and the solos. But this was the spot to do it, with these answer backgrounds. I could feel it coming, the time to let them release and get it all out. This was that moment.

Sure enough, there was an explosion of opinions. The whole session stopped cold. I told the crew filming for MTV: "Turn off the cameras. We're gonna throw down here for a minute."

Some of the singers started to split into teams, Sides were chosen, A few swords were drawn. Paces were marked out. By this time, Stevie Wonder was steadily making his way to... the phone and call Nigeria to get the correct pronunciation in Swahili. Meanwhile the lodge meeting was starting to simmer in the studio with the other artists. By the time he got back, the debate was going full steam. Stevie asked for silence, and after a pause he told then he'd just talked to the Motherland, and that in Swahili the correct lyrics should be "willi moing-gu".

Sure enough, sh** hit the fan.

Ray Charles slapped the side of his pants in his usual "fed-up" fashion. "Say what! Willi what! Willi moing-gu my ass! It's three o'clock in the mornin'. Swahili, sh**- I can't even sing in English no more." They were not having it. Everybody lost it. And while the whole thing was falling apart, a country singer who for the whole evening had been hanging out in a trailer having some laughs with Ray and Willie Nelson while enjoying a few sips of emotion lotion, disappeared, never to be seen again... Having to sing in Swahili was way beyond the call of duty for any self-respecting good ole boy.

Finally we all agreed to repeat the first title lines of the chorus so that everybody could go home. I didn't want to press our luck and closing time was beginning to make itself apparent.

And the impact Michael and Lionel's song made? This next part made me cry:

I have never before or since experienced the joy I felt that night working with this rich, complex human tapestry of love, talent and grace.

None of us had a clue that the event would ever be that big; it was beyond out wildest dreams. Predictably, afterward there were those who took potshots at us. I think it takes a strange mind ... a small mind - to find fault with a project that raised $60 million to feed the hungry and reportedly prodded the US Government to spend $800 million more in the same cause. Those forty six singers came into the studio with only one thing on their minds: to try to make a difference, and they did, and I know God blessed each one of them for it. Everyone in the studio that night was at the peak of his or her career individually; most were already doing tens of millions in record sales. Their collective star power was what made this a global event. When a reporter asked me about the naysayers, I responded, "Anybody who wants to throw stones at something like this can get up off his or her butt and get busy." Lord knows, there's plenty more to be done.

With a single call, we persuaded artists in other countries to join the effort. In Canada, "Northern Lights"... featured everyone from Bryan Adams to Wayne Gretzky; Olivia Newton-John went with us to the satellite station to spread the word to Australia; and a song for the Spanish speaking market was recorded again at the A & M studio with Gloria Estefan ... Julio Iglesias among others. Overall it was one of the most successful and unified outreaches ever in the music world.


In poche parole parlano del problema dei "controcanti" nella parte finale della canzone, "Sha la/ sha lingay" come Puzzolo aveva cantanto nel demo guida.
Si alzò il problema da parte di Bob Geldof che quel "sha la/sha lingay" potesse essere interpretato dalla popolazione africana come un' offesa.
Steve Wonder si mosse per cercare di sapere quale fosse la pronuncia esatta di "we are the world" in Swahili da usare come parola per i controcanti. Finalmente arriva la pronuncia esatta "willi moing-gu". Panico. Ray Charles si rifiuta di cantare anche solo un'altra parola in inglese, in effetti sono le 3 del mattino e sono tutti distrutti.
Alla fine hanno ripetuto la prima parte del coro e se ne sono andati tutti a casa. Il resto parla delle preoccupazioni di Quincy su come la gente avrebbe reagito alla canzone e sul magnifico risultato ottenuto dal progetto globale.


Altro pezzo interessante sulla lavorazione di Thriller, come sempre alla fine c'è una traduzione sommaria.

The making of "Thriller" in a little more than two months was like riding a rocket. Everything about it was done at hyperspeed. Rod Temperton, who also wrote several of the album's songs, and I listened to nearly 600 songs before picking out a dozen we liked. Rod would then submit to me about thirty-three of his own songs on totally complete demos with bass lines, counter lines, and all, recorded on the Temperton high tech system of bouncing the sound of two cassette recordings between ghetto blasters, and ten to twenty-five alternate titles for each song, with the beginnings of lyric schemes. He was absolutely the best to work with- always totally prepared , not one drop of b.s. ...

Michael was also writing music like a machine. He would really crank it up. In the time I worked with him he wrote three of the songs on "Off The Wall', four on "Thriller" and six [sic] on "Bad". At this point on "Thriller" I'd been bugging him for months to write a Michael Jackson version of "My Sharona". One day I went to his house and said, "Smelly, give it up. The train is leaving the station." He said, 'Quincy, I got this thing I want you to hear but it's not finished yet. I don't have any vocals on it."

I called Michael "Smelly" because when he liked a piece of music or a certain beat, instead of calling it funky, he'd call it "smelly jelly". When it was really good, he'd say, "That's some smelly jelly." I said, "Smelly, it's getting late. Let's do it."

I took him to the studio inside his house. He called his engineer and we stacked the vocals on then and there. Michael sang his heart out. The song was "Beat It".

We knew the music was hot. On "Beat It" the level was literally so hot that at one point in the studio Bruce Swedien called us over and the right speaker burst into flames. We'd never seen anything like that in forty years in the business. that was the first time I began to see the wildness in Michael's life during the "Thriller" sessions. One time we were working in the Westlake studio and a healthy California girl walked by the front window of the studio, which was a one-way mirror facing the street, and pulled her dress up over her head. She was wearing absolutely nothing underneath. Rod and Bruce and I got an eyeful. It was right on time in the middle of intense deadline pressure. We stood there gawking. We turned around and saw Michael, devoted Jehovah's Witness that he was, hiding behind the console.

We did the final mixes and fixes and overdubs up until nine o'clock in the morning of the deadline for the reference copy. We had three studios going at once. We put final touches on Michael's vocals on "Billie Jean", we he sang through six-foot cardboard tubes. Then Bruce put his magic on the final overdub of Ndugu Chancler's live drums, replacing the drum machine. I took Eddie Van Halen to another small studio with two huge Gibson speakers and two six packs of beer to do his classic guitar solo, dubbing the bassline on "Beat It" with Greg on mini Moog. Bruce liked to record out rhythm tracks on sixteen-track tape, then go digital to get that fat, analogue rhythm sound that we loved and called 'big legs and tight skirts". He left with the tape to go to Bernie Grundman's studio to master the record: Bernie's the absolute best in the business. In the meantime I took Michael to my place, laid him out on the couch in my den, and covered him with a blanket for a three hour nap at 9 am. By twelve o'clock we had to be back to hear the test pressing that was going out to the world. I couldn't sleep myself; the anticipation was tremendous. We'd all worked ourselves into a near-frenzy. Meanwhile, back at the studio, Larkin Arnold, the head honcho of black music at Epic, was popping champagne, anxiously waiting to hear the final mix.

This was it, the big moment: Rod, Bruce, Michael, his managers Feddie DeMann and Ron Weisner, and myself sat down and listened to the final test pressing of a record that was to be the follow up to "Off The Wall". It was a disaster. After all the great songs and the great performances and great mixes and a great tune stack, we has 24-karat sonic doo-doo. There was total silence in the studio. One by one we crept across the hall for some privacy; more silence ensued.

We'd put too much material on the record. To be really competitive on the radio, you need bug fat grooves to make a big fat sound. If you squeeze it into thin grooves, you get tinny sound. We had twenty-eight minutes of sound on each side; we knew there was nothing to discuss. Smelly would say, "Oh no, that's the jelly- that's what makes me want to dance," which would end the conversation every time. With vinyl, you had to be realistic; it had to be under nineteen minutes of music per side. This was now all about physics first, then music. On CD's it didn't matter, because it's digital. Deep down inside we must have known all this all along as we were working, but chose not to deal with reality in our fatigue and musical euphoria.

We were in trouble and tears were streaming down Michael's face. He said, "What do we do now?". "The Girl is Mine" single was already out in the marketplace and charting at number 2 with a bullet: the album was late. The record company wanted the masters that afternoon.

We told Larkin Arnold, "In its present state, this record is unreleasable".

We took two days off and in the next eight days we put it dead in the pocket, mixing one tune per day. Rob cut one verse from "The Lady In My Life" [which would explain why there is extra lyrics printed on the original "Thriller LP" cover], and Smelly finally agreed to give up some of the jelly in the long, long, long intro to "Billie Jean".


Il lavoro inziale per Thriller fu molto faticoso. Quincy ha esaminato più di 600canzoni. Solo Rod Temperton ne aveva realizzate più di una trentina. Anche Michael scriveva canzoni a non finire. Un giorno Quincy si presenta a casa sua e gli dice "Puzzolo dai bisogna andare, questo treno stà per partire!" (Michael dobbiamo chiudere l'album ndDBG) ma Michael stava lavorando ad un'altra canzone che voleva fargli ascoltare anche se non aveva uno straccio di parola per il testo. La canzone in questione era "Beat it".
Il lavoro continuava a procedere, erano tutti ansiosi perchè la scadenza era ormai vicina. Parlano dei vari ritocchi ai brani e di come tre studi di registrazioni si sono fusi in uno per lavorare a ritmo accelerato.
Quando si sono messi in studio per ascoltare il risulato finale, Thriller risultava a tutti un disastro! Quincy dice che ognuno di loro è uscito in silenzio dalla stanza.
Avevano inserito troppo materiale nell'album, le canzoni erano troppo lunghe e al tempo bisognava fare i conti con gli spazi limitati che offrivano i vinily, 19minuti massimo, per parte. Loro ne avevano più di 28 a lato. Il singolo "the girl is mine" era già stato diffuso l'album era in notevole ritardo, la casa discografica lo voleva per il pomeriggio.
Dopo aver fatto sapere che il risultato finale era impresentabile in circa otto giorni hanno tagliato e cucito dove possibile per riconfenzionare l'album. "The Lady in my life" fu tagliata e infatti nelle lyrics dell'LP ci sono delle strofe in più che nella canzone non compaiono per via dei tagli. Quincy dice di essere riuscito anche convincere Puzzolo nel tagliare il luuuuuuuuuuuuuungo intro di "Billie Jean".

Questo che segue non compare sull'autobiografia di Quincy, ma è stato scritto da Bruce Swedien sul sito gearslutz.com.
Come sempre alla fine una traduzione sommaria.


The REAL Story on "Billie Jean"

Recording and Mixing "Billie Jean"....

The year is 1982. The song is "Billie Jean". The sonic image of Michael Jacksons' "Billie Jean" is a perfect example of what happened, when I sat around dreaming awhile, about combining different recording techniques to produce a unique musical canvas with a tremendous 'sonic personality'.

Of course I was comfortably ensconsed in Westlake Audio’s beautiful new Studio ‘A’ on Beverly Boulevard, with my good friends Quincy Jones, Micheal Jackson and Rod Temperton. We were doing our favorite thing... We were making music!!! We had just started recording Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller”...

We were recording Michael’s song “Billie Jean”.....

I recorded the drums,(played by the fantastic drummer, N'Dugu) with as tight, and powerful a drum sound as I could come up with. Of course I put N'Dugus' drum set on my plywood drum platform. Also at this time, I had a special kick drum cover made that covers the whole front of the kick drum. There's a slot with a zipper in it that the mike fits through. When the kick drum mike is in place, in the slot in my drum cover, I zip the opening tightly shut around the mike.

I brought in my old pal George Massenburgs' spectacular sounding, portable, 12 channel recording console and used it to record the rhythm section. With it I recorded the bass, drums and guitars on my analogue 16 track, with no noise reduction equipment in the way of that fantastic sound!

In my estimation, the the result of the song “Billie Jean”, is a perfect example of what I call “Sonic Personality”. I don’t think there are many recordings, where all you need to hear is the first few drums beats, and you instantly know what song it is.

Great albums always start with great songs....

"Billie Jean" is just such a superb song! Of course, Michael wrote "Billie Jean"..

Quincy says that the lyric that Michael wrote is highly personal. I’m sure that’s true. Michael told us... it was about a girl, that climbed over the wall at Michael’s house, and was lounging out there, by the swimming pool.... she was laying out there, near the pool , lounging... hangin’ out... with shades on, her bathing suit on. One morning she just showed up! Kind of like a stalker, almost. She had accused Michael of being the father of ONE of her twins... Is that possible? I don’t think so....

When it came time for me to mix "Billie Jean", it was business as usual... When I am working with Michael, Quincy, Rod, Jennifer, Sergio and so on..... I am allowed total ceative freedom with the sonics of the music... In other words, I am always left to myself when it is time to mix. My mixes can take hours, days or even weeks.... I firmly believe that a mix is not finished, until it is on a Record for sale at Tower....

So I had been mixing "Billie Jean" for a day or two. I’d do a mix. ..... Say I was up to mix number 2.... (At that time I was mixing onto 1/2” analogue.) I thought it was killer!!!

I called MJ, Quincy and Rod into the control room and played mix 2 for them. They loved it!!! They were all dancing and carrying on like crazy!!! Smiles all around! Then Michael slipped out of the control room, turned around and motioned to me to follow him... Then he whispered to me, “Please Bruce, it’s perfect, but turn the Bass up just a tiny bit, and do one more mix, please....” I said to him...”OK Smelly, no problem”...

(When we were recording “Off The Wall”, Quincy gave Michael the nickname of “Smelly” because when Michael liked a groove, he’d call it “Smelly Jelly.” Also Michael doesn’t curse, and when MJ wants to say a bad word he’ll simply call it “Smelly”... The name has stuck...)

Then I went back into the control room to add Michael’s tiny bit of bass to my mix... Quincy pulled me over into the corner and said “Please Svensk... “(Svensk is Quincy’s nickname for me. It means “Swedish Man” in Swedish... When you have a genuine Quincy Jones nickname like ‘Svensk” - You are truly honored....) Q said to me.... “Add a little garlic salt to the snare and the kick. Just a squirt!!!”) so I went back into the control room and added a little garlic salt to the snare and the kick. Just a squirt!!! Now I was up to mix 20 on "Billie Jean".

Well, this went on for about a week. Soon I was up to mix 91!!! I had a stack of 1/2 inch tapes almost to the ceiling!!! I would do a few mixes, we’d listen... Then do a few more. We had it PERFECT!!! We thought we had a really ‘HOT’ mix on “Billie Jean”. I played Mix 91 for the boys... Everybody smiled... but Quincy had one of his funny looks on his face...

I thought.... Hmmmm.... Oh, Oh....

Quincy said “You know Svensk, just for the fun of it, can we listen to one of your earlier mixes???” My heart jumped because I knew that my earlier mixes were dynamite!!! Then Quincy said, “Let’s hear mix number 2!!!” Oh WOW!!!! Hallelujah!!! I love mix 2!!!!

We listened to mix 2... IT WAS SLAMMIN’!!! EVERYONE IN THE STUDIO WAS GROOVIN’ AND DANCIN’ and HAPPY, and actin’ IGNORANT!!!!

Well, here’s the deal. When “Thriller” was released to the Whole World by Epic Records, on Tuesday, November 30, 1982, it went to Tower Records with MIX 2 OF "Billie Jean" on it!!! AND, when the single of "Billie Jean" came out it was MIX 2!!!

The REAL Story of "Billie Jean"...

Bruce Swedien

======================================================================

La vera storia su Billie Jean

Bruce racconta di come Billie Jean rappresenti perfettamente la magia successa creando Thriller.
Le parti che seguono spiega gli stumenti usati per realizzare i vari suoni. Poi arriva al punto in cui spiega che Quincy ha detto che il testo di Billie Jean era molto personale per Michael, le parole scritte lo riguardavano direttamente. Bruce infatti racconta che Michael un giorno ha parlato di una ragazza che si era introdotta nella loro casa (quella di Encino, con mamma e papà. Si legge di questa storia non esattamente così come la racconta Swedien, anche nel libro di LaToya o forse era di Kathrine? beh cmq ne ho parlato in un altro topic "Curiosità su Michael Joseph Jackson" ndDBG) dopo aver scavalcato il muro di cinta si è messa vicino alla piscina, girandoci intorno, nuotando etc. Il giorno dopo ritorna ed è arrabbiatissima, urlava contro Michael che aspettava due gemelli da lui.
Continua nel raccontare come gli avessero dato molta libertà per mixare i brani, come per Billie Jean. Dopo aver preparato due mix, fa ascoltare il secondo al resto dello staff che ne restano entusiasti, solo Michael aveva qualcosa da dirgli in disparte "Per favore Bruce, alza di più i bassi e mixala un altro pò, grazie". "Ok Puzzolo...nessun problema".
Qui Bruce spiega perchè il nickname "smelly" che è diverso da quello inzialmente spiegato da Quincy! Dice che smelly è la parola che usa Michael per indicare un groove che gli piace chiamandolo "smelly jelly" Aggiungendo che dal momento che Michael non bestemmia, per farlo usa la parola "smelly"... (Forse però inizialmente la parola fu coniata da Quincy per il motivo precedentemente narrato e poi utilizzata da Michael per le sue esclamazioni ndDBG)
Billie Jean viene modificata ancora dopo altri suggerimenti di Quincy, Bruce è a quota 20 mix.
Dopo circa una settimana i mix sono a quota 91! A sorpresa Quincy chiede a Bruce "giusto per curiosità, perchè non mi fai sentire i primi mix che hai fatto?" Bruce ne è felice perchè è consapevole che i primi mix realizzati sono i migliori, così scelgono il numero 2!!!
Con 91 mix realizzati, alla fine il numero 2 fu scelto per la versione finale di Thirller.


Tratta da un'intervista fatta a Matt Forger che ha preso parte alla realizzazione dell'album Thriller. In risposta a quale fosse l'aneddoto musicale più insolito risponde:

Forger: Before the advent of digital technology, you needed to be creative acoustically and electronically. In the song "Billie Jean," when Michael sings the line "Do think twice" at end of the third verse, he's singing through a cardboard mailing tube. We often would record elements in the bathroom (tiled) because it would give it a short early reflection quality. The main percussion sound on the song "Beat It" was Michael beating on fiberboard drum cases with 1x3 inch pieces of wood in the mirrored room of Westlake Studio A. This was all normal.

Prima della tecnologia digitale, bisognava essere molto creativi nel relizzare dei suoni innovativi. In Billie Jean quando Michael canta verso la fine del terzo verso "Do think twice" hanno usato un tubo di cartone dove Michael cantava al suo interno. Spesso registravano suoni nei bagni, perchè l'acustica era migliore. Le percussioni principali che si sentono all'inizio di Beat it sono realizzate da Michael che batte sul bordo della cassa di una batteria con un pezzo di legno nella stanza a vetro di Westlake Studio A. Era tutto normale a quel tempo. (spero di averlo tradotto correttamente, fiberboard non la trovo come parola ndDBG)


Qui si parla del "dramma" per ET story book... traduco veramente molto sommariamente perchè è una palla di pezzo... non c'è molto da dire...

Just as Michael and I were about to get started on a second album, I met Steven Spielberg, who was doing E.T while I was doing "Thriller"...

After a while, Spielberg said, "Q, lets intern each other."He gave me a viewfinder and a director's chair and I gave him a synthesizer. I took him into the studio in Westlake, where we were in the process of recording "Thriller". At Laird studios, where he was shooting E.T, he made me out on a mask to protect me from the kerosene smoke. He also told me, "Q, come look in the camera: this is what winds up on the screen." HE had been instructed by John Ford to study the master painters for the best insight on lighting for film.

After ET came out and conquered the world, Steven asked me to do an ET storybook song with Michael. I was already behind with scheduling on "Thriller". We had only four months to do it, but I said okay, because initially the ET storybook involved only one song. I asked Rod Temperton [and others] to write the song, which Michael sang, and Steven loved it. He said, "This is great! Why don't you guys do the whole E.T album." This was quite a challenge given that we has to boil down a two-hour-long visual experience - one of the most successful films in history- to forty minute listening experience.

Steven had no idea of the kinds of time involved in putting together this kind of record. Plus, Epic was getting antsy for "Thriller" at that point. As in a situation comedy, right at this point, in walked Kathy Kennedy [Steven's producer] and his film editor, with a huge box loaded with E.T's footsteps, sound effects, Johnny Williams' entire score, and all the spoken dialogue from the picture. I got started right away, assuming that the Universal lawyers would work out all the details.

We started the project and it was a rocky road. They had this so-so narrative, and we had to rewrite it so a listener who had never seen the movie could clearly undertand the story by listening to the record. We didn't even have time to put it on a separate reel, it was just one forty-minute spiral-band reel of continuous dialogue, music, and special effects. There was no digital editing then, which would have saved us time and grief. It was a nightmare. It took us six weeks to put it together, while working on Thriller at the same time, and now I had only two months to finish Thriller.

In the meantime, Epic has gotten wind of what Michael was doing and fit hit the shan. MCA records at Universal Studios, where Steven was headquartered, didn't even bother to get clearances with Epic for the biggest black artist in the world. Their actions appeared to reflect the attitude that 'Michael Jackson is working with Steven Spielberg. He should be happy." They had no respect for Michae whatsoever.

Walter Yetnikoff, the president of Epic Records, came out with both barrels blazing. He said, "The hell with Quincy. The hell with Steven. The hell with Sid Scheinberg and Universal." He dropped off an injunction. He wanted half a million dollars cash or the E.T storybook was not coming out. Somehow someone must have convinced Steven and Kathleen Carey that I was the one who should've straightened it all out. Straightened out what? The people at Universal read the trade papers. They had to know Michael Jackson was one of the biggest recording artists in the world. Off The Wall was on its way to selling 10 million records. There was nothing to straighten out. Universal remained complacent and appeared unconcerned. they didn't care. Understandably, Steven was loyal to Universal because of his long relationship with Sid Scheinberg, who gave him his first gigs doing Jaws and Night Gallery. Steven didn't want to hear about it.

I was getting faxes and conference calls all day during the session and in the middle of the night about the E.T storybook album while trying to work on Thriller. It went on for months, corporate lawyers yammering back and forth as only they can. Finally Clarence Avant, the master fixer and my best friend, was brought in. They don't call him the black godfather for nothing. Clarence was asked to go to Yetnikoff and fix it. He knew all the players, including me and Steven... He came in the day after Thanksgiving for a meeting with all of us: [Michael's lawyer, managers, Rod Temperton, attorney's at CBS] and myself. By the end of the day it was worked out. Walter Yetnikoff demanded that a $500,000 advance be paid to CBS which owned Epic. They kept every cent of it. Neither Walter nor CBS paid me or Michael one dime- ever. In the end, Universal released half a million records of ET, a beautiful deluxe package, a box set, which was the all the deal allowed. The records became collectors' items immediately and the album won a Grammy.

Steven and I fought like two children over the thing and didn't talk to each other for a year because of the conflict with CBS and Universal.


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L'ET story book è stato realizzato da Quincy durante il mixaggio di Thriller. Come abbiamo già letto in precedenza erano fumentatissimi per via dei ritardi e il progetto di ET non era proprio quello che ci voleva. Inizialmente Quincy aveva accettato nel fare una sola canzone visto che Michael ci teneva molto, ma dopo che Spilberg ne aveva sentito il risultato ha convinto Quincy nel confezionare tutto il progetto.
Segue con una serie infinita di problemi tra la casa discografica CBS (per Thriller) e l'Universal (per ETstory book) problemi, burocratici, organizzativi, di profitto e bla bla bla concludendo che il progetto fu realizzato tra mille difficoltà con Spielberg che per non perdere il posto (o profitti futuri vari) gli ha anche mezzo voltato le spalle. Il progetto cmq ottiene un buon successo e ottiene vari riconoscimenti tra cui un Grammy. Per un pò Quincy e Spielberg dopo questa storia non si sono più parlati.


In questa parte Quincy racconta di quando ha incontrato Michael, faccio notare che la fan che ha trascritto i pezzi, è partita dai più recenti fino al più vecchio... lo scrivo tante volte qualcuno non sapesse le uscite dei vari progetti...

I first met Michael Jackson when he was 12 at an afternoon party at Sammy Davis' house in LA in 1972 as we all watched an Ed Sullivan Show with the Jackson 5, which Sammy had pre-taped on a precursor to home video. Michael is still a genius of pop music, but his greatness is still misunderstood, even to himself. He started as a boy wonder at Motown under Berry Gordy in the 60's. Few people realise what a pitiful place Michael's hometown, Gary, Indiana, was: Michael and his family had built in incentives to escape. I felt he had the potential to go way beyond the wonderful trademark bubblegum he's done on Motown with the Jackson 5, such as 'Dancing Machine', and 'Ben', the love song about the rat. As he said on the Motown 25 television special: "I love working with my brothers, but..." Most child stars never make it beyond kid stardom, but Michael was different. I'll always love him. Today the writers and critics seem determined to try to write him out of history, but it ain't gonna happen. That's why they call it history. Elvis got so strange; so did others, later on in their careers. Michael Jackson has his place in pop history - at the top, no matter what anybody says about the Eagles surpassing him in domestic sales or how eccentric he's become. When it comes to worldwide sales, Michael is the man to beat.

We first worked together on The Wiz, for which I was musical supervisor. I really did not want to work on that movie. With the exception of three of the songs- "Home", "Ease on Down the Road", written by Charlie Smalls, and "Brand New Day", written by Luther Vandross- I was not feeling the songs from the show, despite the Broadway versions enourmous success. i did it because Sidney Lumet, who gave me my first US film scoring break... wanted me to do it. I felt I owed him more than one; I owed him a lot.

Michael was the best thing that came out of The Wiz for me along with finally getting to work with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson.

By the time I met Michael Jackson, he'd been in the music business 15 years , and they didn't even have a featured song for him in the movie. Most of the people involved with the film had no idea what Michael Jackson was about. With Lumet's support, we shoehorned the song for the scarecrow and crows, "You Can't Win", in there for him. At age 19 he had the wisdom of a sixty-year-old and the enthusiasm of a child. He was a genuinely shy, handsome kid who had amazing intelligence with small smiles and giggles. But beneath that shy exterior was an artist with an amazing desire for perfection and an unlimited ambition to be the biggest entertainer in the world, make no mistake. James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly- these are the people Michael really admired and studied. He would watch tapes of gazelles and cheetahs and panthers to imitate the natural grace of their movements. He wanted to be the best of everything- to take it all in. He went to the top model in each category to create an act and a persona that would be unequalled. Sammy Davis did exactly the same thing.

It started with just role models, but somehow later on the line between reality and the fantasy got blurred. Michael is a total sponge, a chameleon. He has some of the qualities as the great jazz singers I'd worked with: Ella, Sinatra, Aretha, Ray Charles. Each of them had that purity, that strong signature sound and that open wound that pushed them to greatness. Singing crushed their pain, healed their hurts and dissolved their issues. Music was their release from emotional prisons. The press likes to make fun of Michael for his Captain Marvel outfits and odd lifestyle, but I don't know how anybody could expect him to end up like Mr. Joe Next Door, given that he's been in the public eye since he was five years old. How do you ever get used to more than a dozen teenaged girls being at your door, watching and waiting, 24/7? It was the same thing Presley had to deal with. When I asked Michael about the girls, he said "They've always been there, as long as I can remember". In fact, according to Michael, the song "Billie Jean" was based on an incident in which a young lady allegedly climbed over a wall enclosing Michael's property and lounged at his pool. Later she tried to sue him, claiming he was the father of one of her twins.

The first time he came to my home, he said to me, 'I'm getting ready to do my first solo record for Epic Records. Do you think you can help me find a producer?" I said, "I've got my plate pretty full right now trying to get this movie's preproduction going, but I'll think about it." As we rehearsed the musical scenes for The Wiz, I became more and more impressed. He was always super-prepared. He showed up at 5am for his scarecrow makeup call and had every detail of what he needed to do memorised and ready for every shooting. He also knew every dance step, every word of dialogue, and all of the lyrics of every song by everyone in the entire production. Part of his role was to pull little slips of paper with proverbs from famous philosophers out of his straw chest. One afternoon as he rehearsed a scene, he kept mispronouncing the name of the Greek philosopher Socrates, which was one of his lines. He kept referring to him as "Sow-cray-tees." After three days no one had corrected him, so I pulled him aside during a break and whispered, 'Michael, before it becomes a habit, I think you should know that the name is pronounced 'Sock-ra-tees'."

He said, "Really?"

What a reaction! He was so sweet about it. Those big eyes opened wide and right then and there I committed: "I'd like to take a shot at producing your new record."

After the movie finished, he went back to his label, Epic Records, with his managers, and told the honchos there that he wanted me to produce his album. Black and white, they balked. After all, this was 1977 and disco reigned supreme. The word was: "Quincy Jones is too jazzy, and has only produced dance hits with the Brothers Johnson." Those were the same words that Michael's A&R people at Motown had used to describe me years before when Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye would call me and say, "Let's do somethin' together". When Michael shared his concern about it, I said 'If it's meant for us to work together, God will make it happen. Don't worry about it."

Michael's a devout Jehovah's Witness- he even used to dress up occasionally like a normal person and walk through neighbourhoods to spread his gospel- but he wasn't leaving that one up to religion. He marched back into Epic [with his managers] and said, "I don't care what you think, Quincy is doing my record," and they agreed. We rehearsed the record at my house. He was so shy he'd sit down and sing behind the couch with his back to me while I sat there with my hands over my eyes with the lights off. We tried all sorts of things I'd leaned over the years to help him with his artistic growth, like dropping keys just a minor third to give him flexibility and a more mature range in the upper and lower registers, and more than a few tempo changes. I also tried to steer him to songs with more depth, some of them about relationships. Seth Riggs, a leading vocal coach, gave him vigorous warm-up exercises to expand his top and bottom range by at least a fourth, which I desperately needed to get the vocal drama going.

Michael and I got along well. When he was ready to record, I got my killer Q posse together: Rod Temperton, Bruce Swedien [and musicians] Greg Phillinganes, Jerry Hey, Louis Johnson, John Robinson, Paulinho DaCosta, and many others. I've always been blessed to work with some of the best in the business, and these guys were not only like a family of friends but like my own musical mafia: every one was a black belt master in his own category. We attacked that record. Michael did most of his vocals "live", with no overdubs. The resulting record, Off The Wall, sold ten million copies. How's that for jazz? ironically, the naysayers at Epic, black and white, kept their jobs because of the success of Off The Wall, the biggest selling black record in history at that time.


Dicevamo... in questa parte Quincy racconta del suo incontro con Michael, aveva 12 anni e l'incontro avvenne durante un party pomeridiano nella casa di Sammy Davis. Jones afferma che tutti si erano sempre resi conto delle grandi capicità di Michael e anche a lui non erano sfuggite nonostante la giovane età di Jackson. Le sue pontenzialità erano uniche agli occhi di tutti fin da subito. Molte persone, specialmente ultimamente hanno cercato di sradicare Michael dalla storia della musica, ma lui è la storia della musica, ne fa parte e nessuno riuscirà mai a cancellare il nome di Michael Jackson.

Il primo lavoro che fece con Michael fu "The wiz". Quincy non voleva lavorare a quel film se non per tre canzoni, il resto a suo dire non sarebbero mai stati dei buon pezzi, se non per la versione presentata a Brodway. Accettò cmq il lavoro perchè Sidney Lumet ci teneva che se ne occupasse lui e non poteva così rifiutare.

La cosa migliore che ne uscì dall'esperienza del film The Wiz, per Quincy fu Michael. Quando fu chiamato per realzzare il film, nessuno aveva un brano adatto per Jackson. Nessuno aveva capito con chi avevano veramente a che fare. I miti di Michael erano (sono) James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly tutte persone che ammira di cui ha studiato ogni movimento. Quincy racconta che Michael al tempo 19enne era giovane e sexy, ma allo stesso tempo pieno di quell'entusiasmo che solo un bambino potrebbe avere. Nonostante questo però dentro di lui si nascondeva un grande perferzionista, un genio che voleva sempre dare il meglio di se in tutto. Studiava il comportamento degli animali per poter ottenere dei movimenti fluidi e avere la capacità di sapersi muovere in ogni situazione. Voleva essere il migliore in tutto, in ogni categoria. Ero lo stesso atteggiamento di Sammy Davis.

Continua raccontando come sul set tutto fosse iniziato in modo apparentemente lineare, ma poi Michael si è "evoluto" piano piano, essendo come una "spugna" sa assorbire il meglio di tutto e trasformarlo subito in qualcosa di suo. Quincy ha trovato queste capità in poche persone.
Quincy poi dice che un giorno ha fatto delle domande a Michael sulle ragazze e lui gli ha risposto che sono sempre ovunque, che lo seguono in ogni luogo e da quello che ricorda è sempre stato cos'.
Anche Quincy racconta della storia del perchè Michael scrisse Billie Jean, la stessa storia che ha raccontato Bruce S.

La prima volta che Michael è stato a casa di Quincy gli confessa che si sentiva pronto per realizzare un album da solista e che stava cercando un produttore. Quincy gli risponde che avrebbe pensato come aiutarlo nel trovare quello di cui aveva bisogno. Ci racconta della professionalità di Michael nel sapere ogni battuta di tutti i personaggi del film, tutti i passi di danza, della sua dedizione, insomma di quanto si dedicasse senza grilli per la testa al suo lavoro. Un giorno sul set stava facendo una delle sue battute, quella dove legge il nome di "socrate". Michael lo pronunciava in modo errato, ma nessuno sul set osava dirglielo. Dopo un pò Quincy lo prende da una parte e gli rivela l'errore. La reazione di Michael fu dolcissima e di graditudine. Quincy gli rivela poi che avrebbe piacere nel produrre il suo album.

La prima reazione della Epic Record dopo che Michael aveva comunicato di voler Quincy nell'album, non fu delle migliori. Per loro Quincy era troppo "jazz" non adatto per una produzione anni 70.

Alla fine Michael insiste e inizia il suo lavoro con Quincy.
Ci racconta che ha forgiato Michael la dove mancava, ha cercato di insegnarli tutti i trucchi che sapeva, di spingere la sua voce su tonalità più mature, di fargli cantare canzoni che parlassero anche di relazioni. Fargli esplorare tutte le sue parti creative.

Quincy chiama vicino a se il suo team di amici e professionisti musicali con i quali amava lavorare tra questi Rod Temperton, Bruce Swedien, Greg Phillinganes, Jerry Hey, Louis Johnson, John Robinson, Paulinho DaCosta etc. Michael ha cantato praticamente tutte le sue parti vocali "live" senza troppi effetti. Il risultato di Off The Wall furono 10milioni di compie vendute, al tempo era l'album black più venduto della storia.


Nota del 05/08/2009: L'origine del soprannome Smelly, come ha spiegato Quincy Jones, non voleva assolutamente dire che Michael Jackson puzzasse, ma deriva dal fatto che spesso al posto di dire una parolaccia, diceva "smelly-jelly" oppure per descrivere una canzone "che prende" invece di dire "funky" come si diceva negli anni 80 (come dire "figo" per noi) usava l'espressione "è smelly-jelly".

Grazie mille... la maggior parte di queste notizie le sapevo, ma mi giunge nuovo il fatto che Michael e Lionel volessero cantare le strofe di We are the World da soli...e gli altri solo i cori...ma come...erano così presuntuosi? no, non penso... non so darmi una spiegazione....

Avevo visto un filmato tratto da non ricordo quale intervista a Quincy, e al telefono in diretta c'era Michael, e Jones aveva spiegato chiaramente che il soprannome era dovuto solo al fatto che Michael diceva proprio smelly jelly , e non per offenderlo ,quindi la storia della puzza è un'altra delle solite bufale, tra l'altro Michael avava la nomina di profumare molto..

katia75 ha scritto:Avevo visto un filmato tratto da non ricordo quale intervista a Quincy, e al telefono in diretta c'era Michael, e Jones aveva spiegato chiaramente che il soprannome era dovuto solo al fatto che Michael diceva proprio smelly jelly , e non per offenderlo ,quindi la storia della puzza è un'altra delle solite bufale, tra l'altro Michael avava la nomina di profumare molto..

Ho messo la correzione del significato e cmq si quando era preso dal suo lavoro non perdeva tempo a lavarsi  

Adesso ho letto tutto con piu' calma ed ho notato la correzione.Sinceramente non credo alla storia che non si lavasse,penso che sia una bufala , ma è solo la mia opinione, grazie tante della risposta.  

I giovani si lavano poco da sempre . Poi col tempo sarà diventato il tipo profumato che tutte le fans raccontano. Ma al tempo di smelly aveva 20 anni, l eta' a cui si da poca importanza a certe cose (forse sarebbe più sui 15, ma si sa che lui in fatto di crescita era in difetto). Per quanto riguarda il primeggiare in We are the world, io ci credo. Scherzava poco sul successo e voleva essere in primo piano sempre. È non ci trovo proprio nulla di male, la canzone l'avevano scritta loro mica gli altri!

Hai ragione Lila. Questa cosa di We are the world non la sapevo, probabile che sia vero, ma rimane il fatto che poi, soprattutto a Lionel non è che abbiano dato grandi parti nella canzone.
Non sapevo nemmeno che fosse sua la melodia