Michael Jackson's 'Bad': 34 Years Later*

Hear! Hear!

Throw in the non-Jones produced Dangerous as well (which would have been even better stripped down to tracks 10 or so IMO) , and you have four excellent consecutive albums. Few, if any, artists have ever been able to pull off four albums in a row that are both great and commercially successful on release.

Bought Bad the day it came out and still remember how the production blew me away. It was a radical departure from how most pop music sounded at the time. Very few albums have had me lean back and go 'wow' just based on the sonic landscape alone.

Was lucky to see the Bad tour the following summer in Gothenburg, Sweden. Still one of my favorite concert experiences to this day.

 

Was that one of those cd bonus tracks that were so common back then?

I love that song and feel this album is heavily back end loaded with Dirty Diana and Smooth Criminal right before it.

 

Thanks Bobby.

Enjoyed reading the Stevie concert review too... I wonder if that is the same one that was replayed on the BBC in the late eighties?

If so, it has this golden moment - near the end of this clip is Stevie's hilarious homage to Bad!

 

I hear that MJ was very into cutting edge synthpop artists like Art of Noise and Propaganda at the time. I wonder if this was the period that he approached Kraftwerk for a collaboration? (Spoiler: They said no).

 

BAD raises many questions. Why wasn't "Just Good Friends" the CD bonus track instead of "Leave Me Alone"? If you strip off the synthesizers, what is "The Way You Make Me Feel" but a prime slice of pre-Beatles pop? How many bad jokes did the line "If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change" in "Man in the Mirror" spawn? Why does "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" induce vomiting? Did the title track deserve the fat jokes "Weird Al" grafted on? How is "Speed Demon" not on my mixtape?

Either way, it's three in a row for The King of Pop and Quincy and one of the best albums of the 80's.

 

Here's my take: while both Thriller and Bad are so ridiculously hit-stuffed that it's comical, for some reason Thriller plays better; it's a "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" thing. Bad works the opposite way. Each individual track is great, but the album experience is for some reason overall weaker.

I've never said this before in my life, but the cumulative strength of each song probably actually tops Thriller. But I turn to Thriller way more often. Weird.

"The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Liberian Girl" are the highlights for me.

 

'bad' was pretty bad 30 years ago, and not much has changed

 

The best song was Leave Me Alone which was only available on CD.

 

Yes, it has happened plenty of times. Rubber Soul/Revolver/Sgt. Pepper's. Bowie's Berlin trilogy. Beggar's Banquet-Let It Bleed-Sticky Fingers (or Exile on Main Street). Led Zeppelin II-III-IV. And so on.

Bad, while still filled with some excellent and unforgettable tracks, definitely marks the beginning of the decline for MJ, when his character oddities and the gimmicky 80s production elements started to outshine the actual music. And that cover? The jacket just looks utterly ridiculous, like a Halloween costume. His creative (and psychological) grip was slipping.

 

totally agree.......many many many more times.

 

'thriller' was everything they said it was and more, deserving of all the accolades it received.

'off the wall' got much more credit post- thriller, people wanted more michael jackson...no 'thriller' and 'off the wall' sells like it did before 'thriller'

"bad' sold because people wanted 'thriller 2" and that was THE main reason.

and the next one 'dangerous' just bombed, did it sell upon release...absolutely.....and once people knew there would never be another 'thriller' they dumped 'dangerous' in droves.....the store i worked in had tons of 'dangerous in our used bins, literally tons....we were giving away a copy of 'dangerous' with any used purchase.

'

 

Talking Book through Songs in the Key of Life (4 albums)
Bringing It All Back Home through Blonde on Blonde (3)
Blue through Court and Spark (3)
Can't Buy a Thrill through Pretzel Logic (3)

 

I don't think I agree on Bad sold because people wanted another thriller 2. Bad sold because it had a lot of hit singles on it. Looking back on that record, it definitely went into different territory than Thriller. There were some sappy ballads on like like Liberian Girl and I Can't Stop Loving You.. but some of the pop songs on it covered ground that pop and R&B songs at the time didn't sound anything like it. Smooth Criminal and Speed Deamon are good example IMO.

But ultimately, I think Bad did well because MJ was a constantly touring artist and always in the media. Had he just released the record and not toured and just done a few TV show performances, it would not have done as well. I remember media coverage of him and his Bad tour and Jennifer Batten spaltered all over every pop music media outlet at the time. That tour lasted years.

Bad (tour) - Wikipedia

 

i respectfully disagree:

'can't buy a thrill" through 'gaucho".

 

i think thriller plays like a cohesive album, and Bad almost sounds like a greatest hits. It has larger elaborate scope with the songwriting, Songs coming from all directions

 

Clearly the impossibly long shadow of Thriller shaped everything associated with Bad.

Considering that, the LP was about as good as it could be expected to be. If Thriller didn't exist, Bad would be regarded as his career highlight.

I mean compare Bad to other followups to epochal 1980s albums. Is it better than Around the World in a Day? Tunnel of Love?

I think so.

 

Really?
Thanks, we didn't know that about one of the biggest selling albums of the 80's...

 

Did you guys know that Bad got an 8-Track release?



You had to be a member of the Columbia House Record Club to get it though since it wasn't available in stores on 8-Track.

Here's the Discogs listing for it:

Michael Jackson - Bad

 

Who had 8-tracks at that time??

 

I'm waiting for 8-tracks to make a comeback. If vinyl can do it...

 

and people will swear by them, the sound will be magnificent.

 

Had to do it!

 

Sorry i'm not into MJ at all but I won't be (too) nasty.

Just a question.

Was it during the "Bad" era or was it more around "Dangerous" that Michael started to put more and more hiccups, breaths, hee hees and so on in his singing ? I seem to remember it was during the "Bad" era ("Smooth Criminal" has quite a few from the top of my head). It only got worse overtime (you'd have to pay me to listen to "Invincible"). I found that very annoying because the guy could sing "straight" and do it well. But hey maybe that's what fans like so I shouldn't criticize it so harshly.

By the way, MJ played in my town during the Bad Tour. An open air place you wouldn't even guess now as buildings have replaced it. Many locals don't even know there were shows in their neighborhood one upon a time (Springsteen, Pink Floyd, U2 and MJ between 86 and 88).

 

Best Michael Jackson solo album?

 

There's so many great stories in Bad25 that I urge you to watch it on iTunes, one snippet is that the C'mon/Shamone was MJ's nod to Mavis Staples.
My favourite story is where Annie came from in Smooth Criminal, it really is a great documentary and covers everything they did in the studio for the recording of the album.