On Music

"Michael was embodiment of music."

Slash, guitarist (Guns´n´Roses)

"He was music. He embodied the music."

Kenny Ortega, director

"Indeed, in Jackson´s case he literally embodied the music. It charged through him like an electric current. He mediated it through every means at his disposal - his voice, his body, his dances, films, words, technology and performances. His work was multi-media in a way never before experienced."

Joe Vogel, The Misunderstood Power of Michael Jackson´s Music www.truemichaeljackson.com/on-music/the-misunderstood-power/ 

"Michael Jackson showed me that you can actually see the beat. He made the music come to life!! He made me believe in magic. I will miss him!"

Sean "Diddy" Combs

"Music is a mantra that soothes the soul..., something our body has to have. It´s important to understand the power of music."

Michael Jackson

What I hear is never the same. A walk through the woods brings a light, crackling song: Leaves rustle in the wind, birds chatter and squirrels scold, twigs crunch underfoot and the beat of my heart holds it all together. When you join the flow, the music is inside and outside, and both are the same. As long as I can listen to the moment, I’ll always have music."

Michael Jackson in his book Dancing the Dream

"The songwriting process is something very difficult to explain, because it's very spiritual. It's, uh...You really have it in the hands of God, and it's as if its been written already - that's the real truth. As if its been written in its entirety before were born and you're just really the source through which the song come. Really. Because there is...they just fall right into your lap in it's entirety. You don't have to do much thinking about it. And I feel guilty having to put my name, sometimes, on the songs that I - I do write them - I compose them, I write them, I do the scoring, I do the lyrics, I do the melodies but still, it's a...it's a work of God."

Michael Jackson, online audio chat, October 21st, 2001

"I don't think it’s necessary to read music. I don't, neither did Lennon and McCartney… Each time I hear chords, any type of chord progression, I hear a million different melodies in my head." ¨

Michael Jackson (Dangerous Deposition, 1994)

“Painting the image you have in your head on the sonic canvas.  You translate the sounds in your mind to tape, and make the listeners a partner of your own created soundscape.’ 

Michael Jackson

"One morning MJ came in with a new song he had written overnight. We called in a guitar player, and Michael sang every note of every chord to him. “here’s the first chord first note, second note, third note. Here’s the second chord first note, second note, third note”, etc., etc. We then witnessed him giving the most heartfelt and profound vocal performance, live in the control room through an SM57.

He would sing us an entire string arrangement, every part. Steve Porcaro once told me he witnessed MJ doing that with the string section in the room. Had it all in his head, harmony and everything. Not just little eight bar loop ideas. he would actually sing the entire arrangement into a micro-cassette recorder complete with stops and fills.

His beatboxing was without parallel, and his time was ridiculous.

His sense of harmony was incredible. Never a bad note, no tuning, even his breathing was perfectly in time."

Rob Hoffman (Sounds Engineer)

“Michael Jackson may be the purest talent I’ve ever seen. He’s incapable of a false moment.” 

Sidney Lumet

Michael Jackson - Beatboxing Tabloid Junkie:

"Jackson had an extraordinary vocal range. He could easily sing bass, baritone and tenor. He always chose the tenor range, delineating his umistakable high, angelic tone. Michael was willing to make any sacrifice (for his voice). During the summer tours in the stifling heat of the south, he turned off the air conditioning and threw open windows, saying that the humidity and heat were a cure-all for the vocal cords. When you passed his room you would hear him practicing at any hour. After and exhausting rehearsal session and still covered in sweat, he would start vocalizing again. He pushed himself to exhaustion, beyond all limits, and he was very disciplined. He didn´t drink, he didn´t smoke, he didn´t do drugs. He had zero tolerance for swearing and cursing, sexually explicit or racist jokes. he lived in a dimension of ideal purity. 

Seth Riggs, vocal coach

Michael Jackson & Seth Riggs Vocal Training Session:

"I love to write songs. It´s one of my favourite things to do. It´s very spiritual. It´s a connection. I´m just a source through which it comes. I´m inspired by a lot of things but it´s done in the heavens. I listen to the music and I just create from there."

Michael Jackson

“Writing a song is like standing under a tree and trying to catch a leaf. Everything comes as a package. It’s the most wonderful, most spiritual thing …”

Michael Jackson, 1993

“I wake up from dreams and go “Wow, put this down on paper.” The whole thing is strange. You hear the words, everything is right there in front of your face.”

Michael Jackson

“The lyrics, the strings, the chords, everything comes at the moment like a gift that is put right into your head and that’s how I hear it.”

Michael Jackson during the deposition of ‘Dangerous’ court case in 1994

Michael Jackson - Beat it (Demo)

"I wrote ‘Will You Be There’ at my house, Neverland in California… I didn’t think about it hard. That’s why it’s hard to take credit for the songs that I write, because I just always feel that it’s done from above. I feel fortunate for being that instrument through which music flows. I’m just the source through which it comes. I can’t take credit for it because it’s God’s work. He’s just using me as the messenger…"

Michael Jackson in Ebony Jet interview, May 1992

“I compose them. I write them. I do the scoring.  I do the lyrics. I do the melodies. But still, it’s a work of God.”

Michael Jackson

“Sometimes you feel like something’s coming, a gestation, almost like a pregnancy.  You get emotional and you start to feel something gestating and, MAGIC, there it is!  An explosion of something that’s so beautiful, you go, WOW!  There it is!  That’s how it works through you.  It’s a beautiful thing.  It’s a universe where you can go with those 12 notes.”

 MJ in Ebony Interview 2007 

“I’ll just sing the bass part into the tape recorder. I’ll take that bass lick and put the chords of the melody over the bass lick and that’s what inspires the melody,” 

Michael Jackson explained, before beat-boxing in court in 1993

Michael Jackson about creating music at the Dangerous Court Case Deposition 1994

Question: "Where do you look for inspiration when you write your songs. Does inspiration come from a variety of different places?“

Michael Jackson: "Well, the best songs that are written write themselves. You don't ask for them, they just drop into your lap. Then there are those songs that, you know, you kind of uh, incubate. You know, you plant the seed, let the subconscious take its course, and within time you hope something comes, and most the time it does. I don't believe in the concept of writer's block -- that is a bad word. You create it when you say it. There's no such thing. Um, like any painter or sculptor, they paint... they do their best work when they're in the 60s and their 70s. Fred Astaire did his best dancing when he was in his 70s. Angelo [Michelangelo] sculpted late into his 60s and 70s, doing brilliant ingenious work. But in the music business some of these great artists have become stumped because they self-abuse themselves at a young age, with all these crazy things they drink and pills and things, and uh, that's just not good -- just not a good thing. I hate to say that to hurt anybody, but we should take care of our bodies a little more.
Online audio chat Oct 26th 2001

"We would work on a track and then we’d meet at his house, play what we worked on, and he would say, ‘Smelly, let it talk to you.’ I’d go, ‘OK.’ He’d say, ‘If the song needs something, it’ll tell you. Let it talk to you.’ I’ve learned to do that. The key to being a wonderful writer is not to write. You just get out of the way. Leave room for God to walk in the room. And when I write something that I know is right, I get on my knees and say thank you. Thank you, Jehovah!"

Michael Jackson about working with Quinci Jones, Ebony Magazine 2007

Question: How do you channel your creativity?
Michael: I don’t force it, I let nature take its course. I don’t sit at the piano and think, I’m going to write the greatest song of all time. It doesn’t happen. It has to be given to you. I believe it’s already up there before you are born, and then it drops right into your lap. It’s the most spiritual thing in the world. When it comes, it comes with all the accompaniments, the strings, the bass, the drums, the lyrics, and you’re just the medium through which it comes, the channel. Sometimes I feel guilty putting my name on songs — written by Michael Jackson — because it’s as if the heavens have done it already. Like Michelangelo would have this huge piece of marble from the quaries of Italy, and he’d say, “Inside is a sleeping form.” He takes a hammer and chisel, and he’s just freeing it. It’s already in there. It’s already there.

Vibe Magazine, March 2002

Michael Jackson in studio. They talk about "Beautiful Girl", and about creating songs:

"I´m committed to my art. I believe that all art has as its ultimate goal the union between the material and the spiritual, the human and the divine. And I believe that that is the very reason for the existence of art and what I do. And I feel fortunate in being that instrument through which music flows…

Deep inside I feel that this world we live in is really a big, huge, monumental symphonic orchestra. I believe that in its primordial form all of creation is sound and that it’s not just random sound, that it’s music. You’ve heard the expression, music of the spheres? Well, that’s a very literal phrase. In the Gospels, we read, “And the Lord God made man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.” That ‘breath of life’ to me is the music of life and it permeates every fiber of creation.

In one of the pieces of the ‘Dangerous’ album, I say: “Life songs of ages, throbbing in my blood, have danced the rhythm of the tide and flood.” This is a very literal statement, because the same new miracle intervals and biological rhythms that sound out the architecture of my DNA also governs the movement of the stars. The same music governs the rhythm of the seasons, the pulse of our heartbeats, the migration of birds, the ebb and flow of ocean tides, the cycles of growth, evolution and dissolution. It’s music, it’s rhythm. And my goal in life is to give to the world what I was lucky to receive: the ecstasy of divine union through my music and my dance. It’s like, my purpose, it’s what I’m here for."

Michael Jackson, Ebony/Jet Interview, May 1992
 

"I think music soothes the savage beast. If you put cells under a microscope and you put music on, you’ll see them move and start to dance. It affects the soul… I hear music in everything."

Michael Jackson Ebony/Jet Interview, May 1992

"Once the music plays, it creates me. The instruments move me, they control me. Sometimes I´m uncontrollable and it just happens. Boom, boom, boom - once it gets inside of you."

Michael Jackson

Brad Sundberg, April 2019: www.instagram.com/inthestudiowithmj/

“I like songs that touch the heart and that stay with a person for a lifetime. And that’s what’s important to me and to the people. That’s what I’m here for. I get things done the way I want them to be done.”

Michael Jackson in his 1979 interview with Sylvia Chase youtu.be/fTTl4Vaow5Y

“Don’t ever impose your thoughts on the music. The music will tell you what it wants to do.” 

Vincent Paterson remembering advice given to him by Michael Jackson

Question: ‘Invincible’ was several years in the making. Does your perfectionism slow the process?
Michael: It did take a while because I’m never happy with the songs. I’ll write a bunch of songs, throw them out, write some more. People say, “Are you crazy? That’s got to go on the album.” But I’ll say, “Is it better than this other one?” You only get 75 minutes on a CD, and we push it to the limit.
Question: Did you approach ‘Invincible’ with a single theme in mind?
Michael: I never think about themes. I let the music create itself. I like it to be a potpourri of all kinds of sounds, all kinds of colors, something for everybody, from the farmer in Ireland to the lady who scrubs toilets in Harlem.
Question: Has it become easier to write songs over time?

Michael: It’s the most effortless thing in the world because you don’t do anything. I hate to say it like that, but it’s the truth. The heavens drop it right into your lap, in its totality. The real gems come that way. You can sit at the piano and say, “OK, I’m going to write the greatest song ever written,” and nothing. But you can be walking down the street or showering or playing and, boom, it hits you in the head. I’ve written so many like that. I’m playing a pinball machine, and I have to run upstairs and get my little tape recorder and start dictating. I hear everything in its totality, what the strings are going to do, what the bass is going to do, the harpsichord, everything.
Question: Is it difficult translating that sound to tape?
Michael: That’s what’s frustrating. In my head, it’s completed, but I have to transplant that to tape. It’s like [Alfred] Hitchcock said, “The movie’s finished.” But he still has to start directing it. The song is the same. You see it in its entirety and then you execute it.
  

From Interview by Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY, 2001
 

“Michael was so effective at communicating the emotion.  I mean, sometimes, we would just swell up with emotion when we would hear Michael’s vocal delivery.  There were many times he would sing and it would cut you to the bone.  He would bring you to the edge of tears.”
Matt Forger

"I always want to do music that inspires or influences another generation. You want what you create to live, be it sculpture or painting or music. Like Michelangelo, he said, ´I know the creator will go, but his work survives. That is why to escape death, I attempt to bind my soul to my work.’ And that’s how I feel. I give my all to my work. I want it to just live."

Michael Jackson

“There's no use creating music that people don't want. The object is to bring joy to other people's lives.”

Michael Jackson

"I try to be very positive in my songs when I write them and look at the bright side of things and I’m not totally happy with the situation of the world. But I always try to write something with a positive message in it to convey hope to people to make things better and to not look at the downside all the time."

Michael Jackson

"For me, he was the largest figure in music, I was inspired and entertained by his ability to reach all walks of life. It's a legacy of creating great music that appeals to people without compromising yourself." 

MC Saleem Heggins

"There is no question that Michael Jackson is one of the greatest talents the world has ever known. That when he sang a song at the ripe old age of eight he could make you feel like an experienced adult was squeezing your heart with his words. That when he moved he had the elegance of Fred Astaire and packed the punch of Muhammad Ali. That his music had an extra layer of inexplicable magic that didn’t just make you want to dance but actually made you believe you could fly, dare to dream, be anything that you wanted to be.(...)"

Madonna, MTV VMA 2009

Earth Song - Live Brunei 1996 - The Royal Concert

Heal The World Live in Argentina 1993

"It [my music] breaks all barriers. I don't have to make a political statement. I do all of that with music."

Michael Jackson

"I love great music — it has no color, it has no boundaries."
Michael Jackson

"Great music and great melodies are immortal. Fashions change, culture changes, customs change. Great music is immortal. We still listen to Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.  Any of them. Great music is like a great piece of sculpture of a great painting. It's forever. For generations upon generations to appreciate forever."

Michael Jackson Talks About His Classic Favourite Music

Michael Jackson: "Well, I think.. Ah, I don't think people thought the Rap music would last as long as it has. And it has gone through evolutional stages -- there's more melody in it now, it's more acceptable, because melody will never die. Will never die. And the rhythm-- things are a little more rhythmic now. Because people want to dance. It's part of the human condition; it's part of our biological makeup. Our cells dance when we hear beats. You notice a.. a one year old child will start moving hearing music. How do they know to move? 'Cause it's biological. It's not just hearing of the ear, it's feeling, you know. And playing music, the grass and the trees and the flowers... They're all influenced by music. They become more beautiful and more vibrant in how they grow. Music is a very important and powerful substance, and all the planets in the universe make music. It's called music of the spheres. They all make a different note; they make harmony. So there's harmony even in the universe as we speak."

Online audio chat, October 26th 2001

"Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it — my music, I know I will live forever."

Michael Jackson

"I always wanted to do music that influences and inspires each generation. Lets face it, who wants mortality?"

Michael Jackson, Ebony interview, 2007

"When you want to be close to me, listen to the music. The love is stored there and will not die!"

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson ♥ღ Just Call My Name And I'll Be There | Fan Video:

Giving Tree:

"I had this tree that I call “My Giving Tree.”

“I called it my giving tree because it inspires me. I love climbing trees in general but this tree I loved the most because I climb up high and look down at its branches and I just love it… So many ideas. I’ve written so many songs from this tree. I wrote “Heal the World” in this tree, “Will you be there”, “Black or White”, “Childhood”. I love climbing trees. I think water balloon fights and climbing trees.. those are two of my favorites.” 

 Michael Jackson