The Bad Album

30 years ago today (1987), Michael Jackson released his seventh studio album, Bad  in this case, cool). The album was a critical and commercial success, selling about 35 million copies. Of the 11 songs, 9 were written by him (the only ones that were not Just Good Friends and the classic song Man In The Mirror). 5 of them reached # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (I Just Can not Stop Loving You, released July 20, 1987, before the other 10 songs, Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Man In The Mirror and Dirty Diana). With the exception of Just Good Friends and Speed Demon, all the songs were released as singles; Leave Me Alone (which was only a bonus track on the CD) and Liberian Girl were not released in the US, Speed Demon was planned as an official single, but in the end it became promotional. Technically, Just Good Friends is the only song that was not released as a single in any way.

This album was the third and final collaboration between him and Quincy Jones, who had produced Off the Wall and Thriller, the last so far the best-selling album of all time (over 65 million copies). Jackson was the co-producer of all the songs.

The album originally in the versions of vinyl and cassette, had 10 songs, in the version in CD, the last track was: Leave Me Alone. The order is as follows:1. Bad2. The Way You Make Me Feel3. Speed ​​Demon 4.014. Liberian Girl 3.545. Just Good Friends (with Stevie Wonder, written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle) 4.066. Another Part of Me (first appeared in the movie Captain EO from 1986) 3.557. Man In The Mirror (written by Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard) 5.208. I Just Can't Stop Loving You (with Siedah Garrett) 4.25 (original version) 4.12 (version without intro, found in later releases)9. Dirty Diana 4.52 (original version) 4.41 (edited version, found in later releases)10. Smooth Criminal11. Leave Me Alone 4.39 (originally it only appeared on the CD, then it was added officially.As you have noticed, some songs were changed in the copies of the album after the original release, these were the changes:Bad: It was changed to the 7-inch vinyl version, the difference being that it is faster and there are fewer trumpets soundsThe Way You Make Me Feel: It was changed in a way similar to Bad, this version is somewhat more upbeat and has more fingersnaps and voicesI Just Can not Stop Loving You: The original version has an intro spoken by Michael, because this one was shy with respect to this, it was removed in the edited version, an edited version exists with the introductionDirty Diana: It was replaced with the edited version, that in the last choir, the voices of choir were removedSmooth Criminal: It was changed twice, the original version, has a respite by Fran DiLeo, his manager, the second version; found in one of the versions of the single Black or White, has the strongest instrumentation, and the most well-known version, has no respite.Leave Me Alone: ​​As previously mentioned, it was only on the CD, and then addedWith the exception of I Just Can not Stop Loving You and Just Good Friends, all songs had music videos, or short films, as he called them.The Bad video, which runs for 18.05 (the full version, the short version lasts 4.20), was directed by the legendary Martin Scorsese, and filmed in New York for a period of 6 weeks between November and December 1986. In this the change in his appearance is noticeable

The video of The Way You Make Me Feel, directed by Joe Pytka; whose full version lasts 9.22, is seen trying to conquer a girl, played by Tatiana Thumbtzen, after several attempts, with a group of friends through a dance, manage to conquer it, when it was launched, there were criticisms regarding the dance by be provocative. This is the first video we can see with tied hair.

The video for Man In The Mirror, directed by Don Wilson, uses the edited version and lasts 5.04. This video is a compilation of problems in the times, also contains clips of several famous ones, like Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, John Lennon, etc. Apart from a clip of him, he does not appear at all in the video, although there is an alternative where he sings the song live in the tour of the album, and was used for the Moonwalker film of 1988.

Don Wilson has said that he traveled the world to make the video, he indicated that if seen from end to beginning, it shows that the world is not well.

The video of Dirty Diana, also directed by Joe Pytka, shows him singing the song in front of the audience, also the legs of a woman are seen, those legs were from  the late Lisa Dean, who was chosen to him from many women . There is an alternative video where he sings the song live on the Bad Tour.

The video of Another Part of Me, directed by Patrick T. Kelly, is shown to him singing live at his concert at Wembley Stadium on July 16, 1988, with footage of live shows in Paris on the 27th and June 28th. It starts with showing various clips.

The videos of Speed Demon, Leave Me Alone and Smooth Criminal are part of the movie Moonwalker, released in October of 1988.

Speed Demon continues to finish the Badder segment (where children make their version of the video), was directed by Will Vinton. In it, tries to escape the fans on a bicycle, which later turns into a motorcycle, a scooter and a jetpack, makes them chase more when wearing a rabbit named Spike. During the video he transforms into Sylvester Stallone, Tina Turner and Pee-Wee Herman. When arrested by the police, he and Spike, who later comes alive, dance. It ends with him smiling to Spike, whose face is on a crag.

The Leave Me Alone video, directed by Jim Blashfield and Paul Diener, is seen at an amusement park, built around it. His chimpanzee Bubbles, appears in the video, the video ends with him rising from the park and flying in a rocket.

The Smooth Criminal video, directed by Colin Chilvers, is famous for the anti-gravity lean, a method he co-patented. This made him and his dancers able to lean without moving their feet.

The segment itself lasts for over 40 minutes, the song part lasts about 10 minutes. There is the edited version only with the part of the song and the version of 4 minutes that is shown in the credits of the film.

And finally, to conclude with the videos. Liberian Girl, directed by Jim Yukich and dedicated to Elizabeth Taylor; his best friend, starts in black and white where she seems to be an African people, after the model Beverly Johnson says the part (rather moves her mouth to the par that you hear the phrase) in swahili, it becomes all colored and he sees that his friends are there to film the video, some sing parts of the song, when they wonder where he is he discovers that he was filming them all the time. In the credits (in the full version) they are credited to all by order of appearance, including Bubbles and a mummy with a question mark. It was his last video of the 80s.

The album was promoted with a tour, seen by 4 million people, beginning on September 12, 1987 in Yokohama, Japan and ending January 27, 1989 in Los Angeles, USA.

The concert at Wembley on July 16, 1988, was released in the Deluxe version of Bad 25, on CD and DVD, on September 18, 2012.

Regarding Bad 25, many songs not previously heard were released, but apart from 4 of them, I can not say much since I have not listened to all the other songs

In August 2012, the film of the same name was released, directed by Spike Lee, who directed the videos of They Don't Care About Us and This Is It.

To conclude, I really like the videos, maybe Bad is my favorite, but the funniest is Speed ​​Demon, it shows the effort he put in them and the album. In 2003, Rolling Stone placed it in # 202 of the 500 best albums. With respect to the songs:
Bad: The album starts well, and the choir is good.
The Way You Make Me Feel: It starts with good percussion, I think version # 2 of the song is something more joyful.
Speed ​​Demon: It's interesting in how it is, but I understand that it was not as critically successful.
Liberian Girl: It's slower than the previous ones, but the tone is good and the way she sings is good.
Just Good Friends: When you listen, you can tell it's 80, it's good, but definitely not the best
Another Part of Me: Perhaps it could have been more successful, after the # 5 # 1, it came merely to # 11, but in itself is good.
Man In The Mirror: Very good, with an excellent message, in which we have to change and then change the world. You should definitely / should listen to it sometime.
I Just Can not Stop Loving You: For a love song, it's good in itself, it's smooth and the intro is interesting and has a good rhythm.
Dirty Diana: It's what Beat It is for Thriller, a rock song, Steve Stevens solo (the middle between him and Quincy Jones) is good and the lyrics are very good at telling something different.
Smooth Criminal: Start well and continue with a good rhythm and part of Annie, Are you OK? is what paramedics use when doing RPC, he took an RPC course, unfortunately still does not know what happened to Annie.
Leave Me Alone: ​​Before Scream, we had this song, maybe it's not the strongest, but it's entertaining.
In conclusion, this is an excellent album and I recommend listening to it. Sorry if my reviews are not so good, I still learn with time.
Rest in peace, MJ!