August 29th is Michael Jackson’s birthday, and it’s no secret that he is one of my favorite artists ever, as I’ve written about him more than once on this blog. So in acknowledgement of that, I wanted to write a post about a song that has really sparked some of my creative bulbs since 2010, and the release of it’s original version and the origins of that original verison. Does that make sense? It’s like a songception. Before I ramble about Michael Jackson, which I do like to do, I need to introduce you to a Japanese pop band named Yellow Magic Orchestra.
In 1979, three men–Haruomo Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Ryuichi Sakamoto–released Solid State Survivor, their second studio album. The album’s first song, Behind the Mask is one of their most well-known songs, because it was covered by many renown musicians such as Eric Clapton, Greg Philinganes, Orbital, The Huma League, and of course, the reason I am discussing this song today, Michael Jackson.
First, I think you need to experience the original before we get into Michael’s covers. So please, take a listen.
Michael most likely checked out the album since it was popular, and felt intrigued and inspired on his own, hoping to include his cover of the song on his then upcoming album, Thriller. While the cover was approved by Ryuichi Sakamoto and the lyricist Chris Mosdell, Michael and YMO’s management could not reach an agreement for royalty payments, so the song was scrapped from Thriller. However, in 2010, an updated and remixed version of Behind the Mask was released on his posthumous and scandalous Michael album. (Perhaps one day I will write about that album…but that’s for another day.) Listen to it below:
Now, let’s backtrack to 1982, and then let’s fast forward to 2022.
In 1982, the highly anticipated and much acclaimed Thriller album was released just three years after Michael’s Off The Wall. Thriller was and is a big deal, because it signified a new change and shift in Michael’s creative process toward not just songwriting, but artistic direction with music videos (what Michael loved to call “short films”) and the resurrection of short films being further extensions to the songs. Michael viewed music videos as stories, and this greatly appealed to newer and older generations being introduced to his sounds in the early 80s.
I was born in 1996, so I wasn’t even thought of (my mom was in high school) to even begin thinking of the cultural impact that Thriller may have had on the world at the time. However, my first time hearing the album was…probably in 2009 after Michael’s death, where I grew intrigued and interested greatly in his art and music after every channel aired his music videos for hours and hours to no end. And to this day, as I purchased this album in 2011, I can genuinely say that I enjoy this album and all that it entails. To me, it is versatile; a collection of songs that tell a story and all have a unique sound that blend perfectly together, even with the spooky titular track, Thriller. Fast forwarding to 2022, Thriller celebrated its 40th anniversary, and a mega album was released. (I wrote about my brief experience listening to the album here.)
I have linked a cleaner version of the song via Sven Nelson’s YouTube, where they specialize in preserving the quality of Michael’s songs. In my opinion, they are doing much better than his estate. If you’d like to listen to the original, click here.
Thriller 40 was received…but I am not sure if it was received well or not. I listened to it, and I rememebr being a little weirded out that we got Thriller 25’s horrid remixes on there. Why did we need those? Didn’t we already get them in 2008? I actually had heard most of the unreleased stuff already, so I just thought my review was good and called it a day. I haven’t watched the documentary yet, which I plan to do in the near future.
I am not sure why the demo verison on Thriller 40 is so….crunchy sounding, as thinking about this in retrospect, the 2010 verison on Michael was crisp and his vocals were clearly heard. Even where some lyrics were unclear, new sentences were placed, or another version of this demo was used. I am not sure. But besides the quality of the demo, it is still rich and exciting to hear as Michael adds his twist to a popular song from the late 70s.
Currently, this song is on my “repetition is key i guess” playlist in my Apple Music library. (iTunes no longer exists on newer Macs, but it’s been integrated into Mac’s Music app where I bought this song from iTunes.) It probably has about 50 replays on it, because it’s a wonderful sounding song that reminds me of Michael’s 1986 short film he did with George Lucas, Captian EO. It sucks the music from that hasnt been officially released outside of The Ultimate Collection, which I don’t even think is on iTunes anymore. It’s been a great song to fall asleep to (accidentally) and I’ve been using it to formulate storylines to. Hopefully, in the future, we get a better version of the song without the huge chunk of lyric missing in the middle.
Thnaks for reading!
Further reading:
Shanedra Writes Too Much 