Michael Jackson - Shout! (2001)

When Michael Jackson recorded his last studio album he employed 10 producers and over 100 musicians, including Carlos Santana, The Notorious B.I.G., and Slash, and it was reported to have cost $30 million to record, making it the most expensive album ever made. Prior to the release of 'Invincible', Jackson had not released any new material since the remix album 'Blood On The Dance Floor: HIStory In The Mix' in 1997, and his last full studio album was 'HIStory' in 1995. 'Invincible' was therefore viewed as his "career comeback", and recording began in October 1997, and finished with 'You Are My Life' being recorded only eight weeks before the album's release in October 2001. The music encompasses R&B, pop and soul, and even included a couple of tracks that featured (deliberately) unknown rapper Fats, and it was reported that the album had a budget of twenty five million dollars set aside for promotion, but despite this, due to conflicts between Jackson and his record label, little was done to promote the album, and there was no world tour to promote it. The album received mixed reviews from professional critics, although fans loved it, and it has sold between 8 and 10 million copies. However, in retrospective reviews, 'Invincible' has gained more positive acclaim, and the track 'Heartbreaker' has even been cited as an early development of dubstep. Producer Rodney Jerkins has commented that there was stuff they didn't put on the album that he wishes was on there, and since the out-takes have started to surface from the sessions we can now hear some of these tracks. Whether their inclusion over some of the songs that made it would have improved it's critical reception is open to debate, but when you listen to these tracks on their own stand-alone record you realise that there is some great stuff on here, including guest appearances from Lenny Kravitz and Ice Cube which didn't really deserve to be cut.  

Track listing

01 Another Day (feat. Lenny Kravitz)
02 Fall Again       
03 Beautiful Girl  
04 Shout
05 What More Can I Give
06 Save Our Galaxy?
07 In The Back
08 People Of The World
09 We Be Ballin' (feat. Ice Cube & Shaquille O'Neal)
10 Get Your Weight Off Me
11 We've Had Enough

Michael Jackson - Nite Line (1982)

Michael Jackson's 1979 album 'Off The Wall' received huge critical acclaim and was a commercial success, having sold 10 million copies at the time, but the years between 'Off The Wall' and 'Thriller' were a transitional period for him, which saw him become increasingly independent. It also saw him become deeply unhappy, in particular about what he perceived as the under-performance of 'Off The Wall', which he felt deserved the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. He also felt undervalued by the music industry, and so for his next album he wanted to create a record where "every song was a killer", as he was frustrated by albums that would have "one good song, and the rest were like b-sides ... Why can't every one be like a hit song? Why can't every song be so great that people would want to buy it if you could release it as a single? ... That was my purpose for the next album." He reunited with 'Off The Wall' producer Quincy Jones to record his sixth studio album, and they worked together on 30 songs, nine of which were included on the album. The recordings commenced on 14 April 1982, with Jackson and Paul McCartney recording 'The Girl Is Mine', and it was completed five months later in November 1982. Jackson wrote four songs for the record - 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'', 'The Girl Is Mine', 'Beat It' and 'Billie Jean', with the others being provided by Rod Temperton, James Ingram/Quincy Jones and John Bettis and Steve Procaro of Toto, who also played on the record with his band. 

'Billie Jean' was very personal to Jackson, who struggled with obsessed fans, but Jones wanted to shorten the long introduction, but was over-ruled by Jackson, who insisted that it remain because it made him want to dance. The ongoing backlash against disco also made it necessary to move in a different musical direction from the disco-heavy 'Off The Wall', and so Jones and Jackson were determined to make a rock song that would appeal to all tastes, and spent weeks looking for a suitable guitarist for the song 'Beat It', eventually settling on Steve Lukather of Toto to play the rhythm guitar parts and Eddie Van Halen to play the solo. When Rod Temperton wrote the song 'Thriller', he wanted to call it 'Starlight' or 'Midnight Man', and demos of 'Starlight' do exist, but he settled on 'Thriller' because he felt the name had merchandising potential. While it's probably a foregone conclusion that the best tracks were chosen for 'Thriller', of the 30 songs worked on with Jones, there are a number which deserve a hearing, and these include 'Nite Line', 'She's Trouble', 'Can't Get Outta The Rain', and 'Hot Street', all of which have a great 80's dance feel to them, although Jones felt that they just weren't up to the standard of some of the other recordings. 'Scared Of The Moon' is a lovely piano ballad, which might not have fitted in with the rest of the high-energy songs, and another ballad, 'Someone In The Dark', was recorded in 1982 for the film 'E.T.', and so while not strictly a 'Thriller' out-take, it does fit the timeline of these other songs. 'There Must Be More To Life Than This' is known as a duet between Jackson and Freddie Mercury, but here we have Jackson's solo take on the song, with muffled encouragements from Mercury, and lastly we have two co-writes with Paul Anka, which weren't without their own issues. 

In 1983 Jackson worked with Anka on demos for the songs 'Love Never Felt So Good' and 'I Never Heard'. The original versions only featured Jackson's vocals, finger snaps and a piano, played by Anka, and in 1984 Anka sent 'Love Never Felt So Good' to Johnny Mathis, who recorded a new version with revised lyrics by Anka and Kathleen Wakefield, and added it to his 1984 album 'A Special Part Of Me'. In 2006 Jackson's demo leaked online, and then during the 2013/2014 recording sessions for the 'Xscape' album it was given a revision as a disco-infused track. The other song fared no better, as 'I Never Heard' was written by Anka and Jackson, and a demo was recorded at Anka's California recording studio, with the intention of adding it as a track on Anka's 1983 duets album 'Walk A Fine Line'. However, later in the 80s, Anka accused Jackson of stealing the tapes, and threatened to take legal action if the recordings were not returned. Jackson's version of the song was reportedly found in a box of tapes with only Jackson's voice and a piano accompaniment, and although he subsequently returned the tapes, Anka insisted that Jackson had made a copy of the recording of 'I Never Heard', and had re-recorded and re-titled the track to 'This Is It', later giving its name to his documentary film. The cover for this post is what would have graced the original release had the title track remained 'Starlight', but when it was renamed 'Thriller' the cover was re-shot to the one we know and love today. 

Track listing

01 Nite Line

02 Carousel

03 Got The Hots

04 Scared Of The Moon

05 Can't Get Outta The Rain

06 There Must Be More To Life Than This

07 Hot Street

08 This Is It

09 Somewhere In The Dark

10 She's Trouble

11 Love Never Felt So Good

Slash - ...and on guitar (2008)

Saul Hudson was born in Stoke-on-Trent on July 23, 1965, and was immersed in music from the outset. His father, Anthony Hudson, was an artist who created album covers for musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, while his mother Ola J. Hudson was an African-American fashion designer and costumier from the United States, whose clients included David Bowie (whom she also dated), Ringo Starr, and Janis Joplin. During his early years, he was raised by his father and paternal grandparents in Stoke-on-Trent while his mother moved back to her native United States to work in Los Angeles, and when he was around five years old, they both joined his mother in Los Angeles. Following his parents' separation in 1974, Hudson became a self-described "problem child", living with his mother, but often being sent to live with his beloved maternal grandmother whenever she had to travel for her job. He sometimes accompanied his mother to work, where he met several film and music stars, and was given the nickname "Slash" by actor Seymour Cassel, because he was "always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another". In 1979, Slash decided to form a band with his friend Steven Adler, and although the band never materialized, it prompted him to take up an instrument, and since Adler had designated himself the role of guitarist, Slash decided to learn how to play bass. Equipped with a one-string flamenco guitar given to him by his grandmother, he began taking classes with guitar teacher Robert Wolin, but during his first lesson he decided to switch from bass to guitar after hearing Wolin play 'Brown Sugar' by the Rolling Stones. In 1981 he joined his first band Tidus Sloan, and a couple of years later he reunited with Alder and formed Road Crew, named after the Motörhead song '(We Are) The Road Crew'. He placed an advertisement in a newspaper looking for a bassist, and received a response from Duff McKagan. They auditioned a number of singers, including one-time Black Flag vocalist Ron Reyes, but they couldn't find one that suited them and so the band broke up the following year. Slash and Adler then joined  local group Hollywood Rose, which featured singer Axl Rose and guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and after that he played with Black Sheep, and also unsuccessfully auditioned for glam-metallers Poison. 

In June 1985, Slash was asked by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin to join their new band Guns N' Roses, along with Duff McKagan and Steven Adler, replacing founding members Tracii Guns, Ole Beich and Rob Gardner, respectively, and they began playing Los Angeles-area nightclubs‍ ‌such as the Whisky a Go Go, The Roxy, and The Troubadour‍. Before one of the shows in 1985, Slash shoplifted a black felt top hat and a Native American-style silver concho belt from two stores on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, combining them to create a piece of custom headwear which would become his trademark. After being scouted by several major record labels, the band signed with Geffen Records in March 1986, and they released their debut album 'Appetite For Destruction' in 1987, eventually selling over 28 million copies worldwide. However, as their success grew, so did interpersonal tensions within the band, and in 1989, during a show as opening act for the Rolling Stones, Axl Rose threatened to leave the band if certain members didn't stop "dancing with Mr. Brownstone," a reference to their song of the same name about heroin use. Slash was among those who promised to clean up, but the following year Adler was fired from the band because of his heroin addiction, being replaced by Matt Sorum of The Cult. In May 1991, the band embarked on the two-and-a-half-year-long Use Your Illusion Tour, and the following September they released the long-awaited albums 'Use Your Illusion I' and 'Use Your Illusion II', which debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 respectively on the U.S. chart. In the four years since the release of 'Appetite For Destruction', Slash had gained an enviable reputation as a guitarist, and so it was no surprise that he was asked to guest on albums from other artists, and one of the first that he accepted was an invitation from Iggy Pop, adding his guitar to Pop's 1990 'Brick By Brick' album, followed swiftly with a guest appearance on Bob Dylan's 'Under The Red Sky' album (even though Dylan later cut his solo), and collaborations with Alice Cooper, Motörhead, Michael Jackson, and Spinal Tap, and even though Spinal Tap don't take themselves too seriously, Slash pulled out all the stops for his contribution to their 'Break Like The Wind'. In November 1991 Izzy Stradlin abruptly left the band, and was replaced by Gilby Clarke of Candy and Kill for Thrills, and after the Use Your Illusion Tour had ended in 1993, the band released 'The Spaghetti Incident?', a cover album of mostly punk songs, which proved less successful than its predecessors. Slash then wrote several songs for what would have become the follow-up album to the 'Use Your Illusion' double set, but they were rejected by Rose and McKagan, and so with the band's failure to collaborate resulting in no album being recorded, Slash announced in October 1996 that he was no longer a part of Guns N' Roses. 

In 1994 he added his guitar to band-mates Gilby Clarke's solo album, and then formed Slash's Snakepit, a side project that featured his Guns N' Roses bandmates Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke on drums and rhythm guitar respectively, as well as Alice in Chains' Mike Inez on bass and Jellyfish's Eric Dover on vocals. Their 1995 album 'It's Five O'Clock Somewhere' included Slash's rejected material that was intended for Guns N' Roses, and was critically praised for ignoring the then-popular conventions of alternative music. Faring well on the charts, the band toured in support of the album, before disbanding in 1996. Slash then toured for two years with the blues rock cover band Slash's Blues Ball, as well as adding his guitar to albums from Sammy Hagar and Insane Clown Posse, before deciding to regroup Slash's Snakepit in 1999, with Rod Jackson on vocals, Ryan Roxie on rhythm guitar, Johnny Griparic on bass, and Matt Laug on drums. Their second album 'Ain't Life Grand' was released in October 2000 through Koch Records, but it didn't sell as well as the band's previous release, and its critical reception was mixed. In 2002 Slash reunited with Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum for a Randy Castillo tribute concert, and realizing that they still had the chemistry of their days in Guns N' Roses, they decided to form a new band together. Izzy Stradlin was initially involved, but left after the others decided to find a lead singer; a task that took many months listening to demo tapes, before former Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland got the Velvet Revolver gig. In 2003 they released their first single 'Set Me Free' followed by their debut album 'Contraband' in June 2004, which crashed in at No. 1 on the U.S. chart, eventually selling two million copies. In July 2007 Velvet Revolver released their second album 'Libertad', and embarked on a second tour, but during a show in March 2008 Weiland announced to the audience that it would be the band's final tour, following which he was fired from the band, with Slash insisting "chemical issues" had led to his departure. Despite the loss of their singer, the band did not officially disband, and in early 2010 they began writing new songs and auditioning new singers. By January 2011 they'd recorded nine demos, and was reportedly due to make a decision on their singer, but Slash eventually admitted that they had been unable to find a suitable vocalist and that Velvet Revolver would go on hiatus for the next few years while its members focused on other projects. So that's the perfect place to end this collection of Slash's extra-curricular work between 1990 and 2008, so settle down and listen to some superb rock guitar on a wide variety of genres from a stellar group of artists. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Home (from 'Brick By Brick' by Iggy Pop 1990)
02 Wiggle Wiggle (from 'Under The Red Sky by Bob Dylan 1990)
03 Always On The Run (from 'Mama Said' by' Lenny Kravitz 1991)
04 Hey Stoopid (from 'Hey Stoopid' by Alice Cooper 1991)

05 Give In To Me (from 'Dangerous' by Michael Jackson 1991)

06 Break Like The Wind (from 'Break Like The Wind' by Spinal Tap 1992)

07 You Better Run  (from 'March Ör Die' by Motörhead 1992)

08 I Don't Live Today (from 'Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix' by Various Artists 1993)

09 Tie Your Mother Down (from 'Resurrection' by Brian May & Cozy Powell 1993)

10 Hold Out For Love (from 'Colour Of Your Dreams' by Carole King 1993)

11 Believe In Me (from 'Believe In Me' by Duff McKagan 1993)

Disc Two

01 Cure Me...Or Kill Me... (from 'Pawnshop Guitars' by Gilby Clarke 1994)

02 Where You Belong (from 'Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus' by Carmine Appice 1995)

03 Communication Breakdown (from 'Stairway To Heaven' by Various Artists 1997)

04 Moja Mi Corazón (from 'Azabache' by Marta Sánchez 1997) 

05 Little White Lie (from 'Marching To Mars' by Sammy Hagar 1997)

06 Hall Of Illusions (from 'The Great Milenko' by Insane Clown Posse 1997)

07 Human (from 'Human' by Rod Stewart 2001)

08 Over, Under, Sideways, Down (from 'Birdland' by The Yardbirds 2003) 

09 The Blame Game (from 'Hollywood Zen' by Matt Sorum 2003)

08 Street Child (from 'Street Child' by Elan 2003)
09 Mustang Nismo (from the soundtrack to the film 'The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift' 2006)
10 Gioca Con Me (from 'Il Mondo Che Vorrei' by Vasco 2008)

Michael Jackson - Joy (1990)

After the success of his seventh album 'Bad' in 1987, Michael Jackson wanted more independence and control over the creative process, so he separated from longtime producer Quincy Jones to avoid the perception that his success depended on him. Jackson began working on new tracks in 1989 for an album that was conceived as a greatest-hits collection, 'Decade', with a handful of new songs, similar to Madonna's 'The Immaculate Collection'. It was scheduled for a late 1989 release but was delayed several times, and after a November 1990 release date failed to materialise it was dropped entirely, and Jackson determined that his new material would constitute a full album, to be called 'Dangerous'. He enlisted Bryan Loren to co-produce, and throughout 1989 he recorded rhythm tracks with Loren at Westlake Studios, where they taped 'Work That Body', 'She Got It', 'Serious Effect', 'Do Not Believe It', 'Seven Digits', and 'Man In Black'. Loren wanted to recapture the organic R&B feeling of Jackson's albums 'Off The Wall' and 'Thriller', while Jackson was keen to add hip-hop to the record, and so invited LL Cool J to rap on 'Serious Effect' and 'Truth About Youth'. Although Loren's material was strong, it was not up to Jackson's standards, as he was searching for a newer sound that would be as compelling as 'Rhythm Nation' by his sister Janet, and so in the end none of Loren's recordings made the album. Jackson discovered new jack swing, a more aggressive and urban sound, and in June 1990 he hired Teddy Riley to co-produce, and work carried on at Ocean Way Record One in Sherman Oaks, reworking some of Loren's work such as 'She Got It' and 'Serious Effect', and continuing work on 'Jam' and 'Dangerous'. The release date was set for 28 November 1991, Thanksgiving Day, and of the roughly 60 to 70 songs that were recorded for for 'Dangerous', fourteen ended up on the record, while some were released later, including the environmental anthem 'Earth Song', and 'Superfly Sister', 'Ghosts', and 'Blood On The Dance Floor' were released in the remix compilation 'Blood On The Dance Floor: HIStory In The Mix'. Another Loren co-write that was recorded in 1989 was 'Mind Is The Magic', which was written for magicians Siegfried & Roy's 'Beyond Belief Show' in Las Vegas. When they released their German album 'Dream And Illusions' in 1995, Jackson gave them permission to include the song, and it was later released as a single, reaching No. 80 in France in 2010. By adding that to the other Loren out-takes mentioned earlier we can make up an album that would have slotted in perfectly between 'Bad' and 'Dangerous', featuring songs that carried on the sound of 'Bad' and 'Thriller', before Jackson reinvented it to give 'Dangerous' the new jack swing that he wanted.  

Track listing

01 Bumper (Intro)
02 Mind Is The Magic
03 Serious Effect (feat. LL Cool J)
04 Work That Body
05 Someone Put Your Hand Out
06 She Got It
07 Joy
08 If You Don't Love Me
09 For All Time
10 Monkey Business

Michael Jackson - Smile (1997)

In 1997 Michael Jackson recorded the Charlie Chaplin-penned classic 'Smile', for inclusion on the 'HIStory' compilation, with the intention of releasing it as a single to promote the album. The release was cancelled at the last minute, and all of the pressings of 'Smile' (both CD maxi-singles and 12" records) were withdrawn and destroyed just days before the release date, save a few that managed to escape, making this one of the rarest Jackson collectors items of all time. The Dutch 12" single (EPC 665130 6) is probably the most sought after record by Michael Jackson collectors, as a very limited number of these records briefly reached Dutch retail stores and were sold before the rest were withdrawn and destroyed by Sony. Original copies have been known to fetch up to £1,000.00 when they appear on eBay, although that is quite rarely these days. There was also a CD maxi-single, which included remixes of 'Is It Scary' which were not on the vinyl 12", and so in total there were nine tracks spread over the two releases, including a full length and short version of 'Smile', and a radio edit of 'Is It Scary', as well as five other mixes of that song. Seeking to capitalize on the rarity and incredible demand for this record, bootleggers began to reproduce counterfeit versions, flooding the marketplace with worthless (and cheap to manufacture) copies. In fact, the Smile 12" is easily the most bootlegged Michael Jackson record in the world, and the vast majority of the listings that have appeared on eBay are worthless fakes. To save you a bit of money, here are all the tracks from the two releases, with the exception of the short version of 'Smile', which just edits out the piano at the end, and with an added bonus of yet another mix of 'Is It Scary' by Deep Dish. Tracks 1 - 5 are from the 12" single and tracks 6 and 7 were exclusive to the CD maxi-single. Track 8 is the bonus remix.   

Track listing

01 Smile  
02 Is It Scary (Deep Dish Dark And Scary Remix)  
03 Is It Scary (Eddie Arroyo's Rub-A-Dub Mix) 
04 Is It Scary (Eddie Arroyo's Love Mix) 
05 Off The Wall (Junior Vasquez Remix)  
06 Is It Scary (Radio Edit)  
07 Is It Scary (Eddie Arroyo's Downtempo Groove Mix) 
08 Is It Scary (Deep Dish Double-O-Jazz Dub)