Doctor J Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Just listening to Off The Wall and I'm once again struck by how much it [i]swings[/i], you know what I mean? Real drums, real bass, you just can't beat it [size=1][i](sorry)[/i][/size]. Jacko got heavily into electronic rhythm and left bass riffs behind as he went on but this stuff is where it truly is at as far as I'm concerned. Dangerous onwards just leaves me cold. In fact, I even struggle with Bad. Any fans of the later material out there? Help me out, I just don't get it. With a kicking band behind him he really was operating at an entirely different level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I know what you mean by it 'swings', and it does. Quincy Jones and his boys were 'on it' back in the days. I read somewhere that QJ thought 'Off the Wall' was a better album than 'Thriller' in his opinion. Garry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judo Chop Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I agree that he sounds better with a real band, but some of his later songs, like Speed Demon and Leave Me Alone wouldn't work as well without the synths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTractor Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Dangerous got bought only so I could try and get it. I didn't. So yes, I think I understand what you mean. But as to Bad, it has Smooth Criminal. That's enough for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
risingson Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I love Off the Wall, I rate it as one of my favourite albums of all time for a few of the reasons you mentioned. Jaco was a big trendsetter though with a lot of what he did. I did like a lot of his very synthy stuff but by the end of Dangerous his production team was a shadow of its former self, and Jaco as far as I'm concerned was always best when he was writing with real instruments in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike257 Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 I'm a fan of the later stuff too, and think the Jam/Lewis production on Dangerous is great, but Off The Wall is the MJ album I play more than any other. Great songs and absolutely outstanding playing across the board. The CD reissue with his home demos is great too, the rough cut of "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" with all the family members chipping in on percussion is great and shows how fully formed the song was before the production team got involved - the man doesn't get enough credit as a writer IMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pietruszka Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Yeah, big +1 for Off The Wall. That album really got me into groove writing. One of my personal favourites is burn this disco out, I think it's one of MJ's finest vocal performances. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Just been listening again to this album this morning. There is some fantastic arranging and Orchestrating going on. It seems there was amazing input from all involved. Garry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyf Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 [quote name='mike257' timestamp='1339460762' post='1688903'] The CD reissue with his home demos is great too, the rough cut of "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" with all the family members chipping in on percussion is great and shows how fully formed the song was before the production team got involved - the man doesn't get enough credit as a writer IMO [/quote] +1 It's such a fabulous insight into how talented they all were to throw that onto a tape and make it sound so good, so fast. Like you say, it's the tune as it is and the role of the production is to simply add a bit of polish. The old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
originalfunkbrother Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 +1 for Off The Wall from me. I think its the best music he made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 (edited) Amazing, amazing team behind MJ on OTW and Thriller (and Bad). QJ is a ridiculously amazing arranger, well known stories of him writing out arrangements the night before on a plane to a TV studio without any way of hearing them, and they were perfect etc. Dont forget Bruce Swedien either though, he had a massive massive input into the sounds of those albums, google for "The Acusonic Recording Process", a method invented by BS to allow him virtually unlimited tracks on a couple of analogue tape machines whilst playing the original master tape thefewest possible times before mixdown. Or his selection of ribbon mics for the metallic percission on Billie Jean or Beat It (cant remember which off the top of my head right now, could have been a completely differetn track) as ribbons dont reproduce transients as accurately (the ribbon itself has too much mass to respond quickly to that fast a transient) effectively becoming a physical limiter,. smoothing out the sound and allowing for them to be louder in the mix without dominating when it came to mix time. Another cracking story is that they went through something like 90 mixes of Billie Jean before going back to mix 2 and going with that one! Outside the world of mix engineers and sad pale be-ponytailed sound engineer geeks he doesnt get nearly enough recognition IMO.... Edited June 12, 2012 by 51m0n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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