http://entertainment.time.com/2012/0...history-of-badAn Oral History of Michael Jackson's Bad
As the 25th anniversary of the album approaches, we take a look at the creation and legacy of a record-setting release
Michael Jackson's Bad Turns 25
By Lily Rothman | @lilyrothman | August 22, 2012 | 4
Dave Hogan / Getty Images
Michael Jackson, whose album 'Bad' celebrates 25 years this August, on stage in 1987.
On Aug. 31, 1987, almost exactly 25 years ago, Michael Jackson released the album Bad. It had been five years since Thriller, the album that had arguably established the well-known pop star as a visionary—and that would go on, after Jackson’s 2009 death, to set the record for the most copies sold of a single album.
The quest to match Thriller would be a hard one. But despite (or perhaps because of) that burden, Jackson was more involved than ever in Bad‘s artistic process. “When you would work with him you could just see the way his mind worked,” says Matt Forger, who engineered the record. “He knew exactly what he was looking for.” Under the shadow of Thriller, and despite the backlash against his personal eccentricities that came to light around that time, Bad set records of its own. It was the first album to ever send five singles to the top of the Billboard charts, and it held that record until 2011.
(MORE: TIME looks back on the King of Pop’s life and career)
Bad’s quarter-century milestone will be marked with due pomp. Jackson’s estate and Epic/Legacy Recordings are collaborating on a three-CD release (BAD25, out Sept. 18), which includes the remastered original album, plus an album of additional tracks, including demos and remixes, and a live album. The package also includes a DVD of never-before-seen concert footage—Jackson’s own review copy of a July 16, 1988 concert at Wembley Stadium. In addition, a Spike-Lee-helmed documentary about the album, the similarly-titled Bad 25, will debut Aug. 31 at the Venice Film Festival. And starting this spring, Jackson has even found his way onto 1 billion Bad-themed Pepsi cans.
In honor of the seminal album’s anniversary, TIME spoke (in separate interviews, with the exception of Phillinganes and Forger) to people who were there and people living out the album’s legacy:
Greg Phillinganes, a musician who worked on the record and music-directed the Bad tour
Matt Forger, Michael Jackson’s engineer on Bad
Spike Lee, who directed Bad 25 as well as Jackson’s short film for the song “They Don’t Care About Us”
John Branca, Jackson’s lawyer and head of his estate
Nick van der Wall, a.k.a Afrojack , the DJ who remixed a new version of “Bad” for the anniversary release.
Meeting Michael: “He knew everything that had to happen in a song.”
By Lily Rothman | @lilyrothman | August 28, 2012 | 4
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
The Jackson 5, c. 1970
Michael Jackson began performing at the age of 11, with the Jackson 5. His first non-Motown solo album, Off the Wall, was released in 1979.
Lee: I followed Michael Jackson since he was the young kid with the Jackson 5. I was born in ’57 and he was born in ’58, so we’re literally the same generation.
Afrojack: I turn 25 in September. My mom used to own her own dancing school and she did a lot of choreography of the Michael Jackson songs. I used to be a little bit of a dancer myself, but just for fun. That’s when I first heard of it, through my baby years.
Phillinganes: Back in ’77, I believe, a friend of mine named Bobby Colomby, who was an executive at CBS at the time, was urging me to get more involved in arranging. He said, “You’re going to do more arranging and here’s who you’re going to do it with.” Next thing I know I’m in a room with Michael and his brothers, and I ended up doing the rhythm section arrangement for [the Jackson 5's] Destiny and Triumph albums. It was obviously a great feel for me to be in the same room as guys that I idolized in junior high school.
(MORE: TIME’s 1984 take on Thriller)
Forger: The first time I met Michael was on a Quincy Jones session. I was working with Quincy Jones and we were doing the Donna Summer album and we had to take a break in the middle of doing the record because that was the only time Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney were able to schedule free time to be in the studio. That was for the recording of the song “The Girl is Mine,” which was the first song for the Thriller album.
Branca: Michael and I first met in January of 1980. He was looking to have his own team. I think he was 21 at the time; I became his lawyer. He had just released Off the Wall so during that period I renegotiated his recording agreement and then he started to work on Thriller. It can be difficult at times to delineate creative from business and this was certainly true during the Thriller period. I wasn’t involved in the creative process but I was there helping to make the deals that made it possible the get the Thriller video made.
Forger: At that time he was reserved, he was rather quiet, but at the same time extremely focused. He knew everything that had to happen in a song. He was very directed, very in tune with where all the parts musically needed to be. He was very professional, very well-prepared.
Phillinganes: By the time we were working on Bad, Mike’s ideas became stronger and clear.
The Making of Bad: "He was the architect of the album in every sense of the word."
By Lily Rothman | @lilyrothman | August 22, 2012 | +
Amazon
Bad was crafted at Westlake Studio in Los Angeles and at Michael Jackson’s personal studio, Hayvenhurst. The formal recording process began at Westlake on Jan. 5, 1987.
Forger: After the experience of Thriller, I think that was something that really reinforced Michael’s confidence. He had written four of the songs off the Thriller album, and those songs turned into hit songs. Michael knew he was on the right track. By the time Bad came around it was just ready for him to step up and take a much larger role because it was his time. He was ready.
Branca: I remember having a conversation with him, we were in Hong Kong, and I was kind of kidding, and I said, “Michael, maybe for the next album, instead of trying to top yourself and compete with yourself, maybe you should go a little left of center and think about something a little different, like making an album of the songs that inspired you to become an artist. Songs by James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and others.” He looked at me like I was from Mars. He was intent on topping himself and he put a lot of pressure on himself to do that.
Lee: The greatest people, the greatest artists, whatever you want to call that category, they work at their craft for years and years and years. So often we think it comes, we don’t see the hard work that goes into all that. We see the creation, we see the beauty of the hard work but we don’t see the hard work, the blood, sweat and tears.
Phillinganes: There was the pressure mostly on Michael. We just were happy to know that we’d be in the studio all together again to have more fun. It’s not like we sat around like “We’ve got to do better!” It wasn’t that cinematic, “we’ve got to do one more for the Gipper” kind of thing. Just like with Thriller it was all predicated on getting the best songs possible.
(MORE: TIME’s 1983 take on Michael Jackson’s music videos)
Forger: We knew we were in the studio and we were going to have fun because that was the vibe, especially working with Michael and working with Quincy [Jones, who produced the album], too. You’ve got to realize that when you devote your life to making records you do it because you love being there. You love the experience. It’s one of those things where you get in the studio and [you think], “Oh my gosh, where did the last eight hours go?”
Phillinganes: We had family pet day, where he brought down Muscles the Boa and Bubbles the Chimp and we took pictures. There’s a group picture I have a couple shots of, it’s Studio D of Westlake and we’re all standing in a long row to accommodate Muscles. How long was he?
Forger: Well, he grew. I first met Muscles on Thriller and he was probably about 10 or 12 feet long, so he must have been at least 16 feet by the time Bad rolled around. He was a very nice snake.
Phillinganes: And during some downtime in the studio—there was a technical problem so we couldn’t go on until that was sorted out—Mike was getting restless and he asked me if I felt like going across the street to do a little shopping. What was across the street was a major, major, huge shopping mall called the Beverly Center. He puts on this wig and dark sunglasses and crooked teeth and we come out of the studio, just the two of us, no security no cops nobody, on La Cienega Boulevard and I remember thinking that time as we were crossing, “I’m crossing La Cienega with Michael Jackson and nobody knows.” We went all over the place and did a bit of shopping and he had slightly puzzled looks from cashiers. He looked like Sly Stone on crack and then he gets out the credit card and they go, “No!”
Forger: When you were with Michael you always had this sense of enjoyment, of energy and whatever it is Michael wanted to do he wanted to enjoy himself when he was doing it.
(MORE: Artifacts from the Michael Jackson Estate)
Branca: Michael was very involved creatively with Off the Wall and Thriller but he was even more involved on Bad. He did write nine of the 11 songs. Michael would create demos in his studio at Hayvenhurst. That would be the model for what was on the album. He was the architect of the album in every sense of the word.
Forger: Michael said “We’re going to start some new songs.” I never knew when we were going to do a song what the song was for, but the first song I started on with Michael was Dirty Diana. We started on Dirty Diana at Westlake Studios and then his home studio was completed, which was the Hayvenhurst studio, then we went into Al Capone, which transitioned later into Smooth Criminal and the next song after that I think was Hot Fever, which became The Way You Make Me Feel.
Phillinganes: By the time we were working on Bad, Mike’s ideas became stronger and clearer. Songs like Al Capone, titles like that, even as working titles, show that Mike had a tremendous cinematic approach to the making of his music.
Forger: Michael always wanted to be a storyteller. He wanted a beginning, a middle and an end, and he wanted it to be a story and it could be translated not only into a song but a terrific—what Michael always called “film shorts,” as opposed to “music videos.”
(MORE: TIME’s original review of Bad)
Afrojack: The sonic professionalism on the original Bad album was just next level. Nowadays they do it a lot but back then this was the newest of the newest, like crazy stereo effects, on a technical level of engineering and music production.
Lee: When it came to work, he was a perfectionist. He had a tremendous work ethic. He’s not going to say, “I’m tired,” he’s not going to say anything. Until it’s done, he’s like, “Let’s go, let’s get it done, let’s do the best we can, let’s not cut any corners.” Whether it’s creatively or financially, he was not cutting any corners.
Afrojack: You have a lot of music coming out and if you want to be the best everything has to be the best, including the technical production and the technical aspects of music production.
Forger: It wouldn’t be uncommon that a track would be recorded several times, either the tempo or the key or the arrangement, until you absolutely got the exact right thing. When you’re working with people of this caliber and you’re adjusting these parameters and when you get the right one it just feels like that’s it. Everyone understands right away when you’ve got the right formula.
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