Brian:
"What do the songs with Michael sound like?"
"At least one dancey, at least one ballady one. There's sort of three main contenders at the moment, possibly four."
It hadn't occurred to me what the fourth song could be; knowing only of 'There Must Be more to life than this', 'victory', and 'state of shock'....
UNTIL I just got around to reading Jim Hutton's book.
Page 126:
One story always trotted out as a so-called exclusive about Freddie's time in America concerned his working with eccentric singer Michael Jackson. They spent only a short time together in a studio, working on collaborations which never saw the light of day because they were never actually finished.
Freddie told me they had worked on a rap number. More memorable for him was an unusual invitation from the singer. Although he had liked Michael Jackson as far as their brief friendship went, he felt he didn't understand Freddie's sense of humour and had even frowned on his liking of cocaine. The most memorable part of the experience was suitably wacky. Jackson offered Freddie an unusual invitation - to visit his llamas. Freddie was dressed, typically, in white trousers, but agreed.
'That was a mistake,' Freddie said. 'When we got there I was up to my knees in llama shit.'
Anybody else notice that?
A "rap" song?
Never mind that this is from the pen of Jim Hutton. I'm sure that although very British/Irish, he knew what rap was and this doesn't refer to something like state of shock.
Odd thing though. .. I know of so few Michael Jackson rap tracks.
Being that this was 1982 or so. .. it would have been the nascent style of grandmaster flash etc.
I'm inferring from the book that the fourth track is this aborted rap number
Maybe "Freddie" labels "State of shock" as a "rockRAP" number. But who knows. Brian mentioned a possible fourth MJ/FM track in an interview, but wasn't convinced to much about that track..
Edit: in my german version of "Mercury and Me" it is on page 136
andyb1968 wrote:
The mystery fourth track could be a remix of one of the tracks we know of ?
For example there must be more to life than this
Why would they issue a New compilation with two versions of the same song?
Asking about the fourth unknown collaboration
Tmbmtltt, victory, sos are already known. Which is why I prefaced it with all that chatter and the quote
Being that the only mj tracks I know of that qualify as rap are "we be ballin" (probably an aborted nba commercial tie in) and "no friend of mine"
And possibly the song "jam" (it's delivery is qualitatively fast rhyme, but the artist doesn't put on a "yo yo, hoodie" front to qualify it)
But all of those are at least a decade later. The song he did with run dmc was like 87
So. As it was the Reagan administration I'll do one and take a wild guess.
The song is a MADD rap (mothers against drunk driving) and will probably never see the light.
If I were to make a rap song, Freddie would probably be my LAST choice. However, great atmospheric rock song? Bring him in.
So nobody has any idea what that fourth song may be then?
^ There is something in the back of my mind from years ago, that I *think* I may have read or heard somewhere that there were two versions of Victory. I wish I had taken notes lol.
Wasn't Michael supposed to sing Man Made Paradise with Freddie? I've heard some rumours that Tito Jackson said that in an interview shortly after Jackson's death.