Michael Jackson's NEW SONG... This Is It...???

To be sure, this IS NOT a slap shot to Michael as a man nor his musical creativity (past, present or “future”)..but rather the result of feeling cheated by Sony.

To say that I’m a HUGE Michael Jackson fan would probably be an understatement, so you’d be safe to assume that I was more than thrilled to hear there would be a new MJ song released, and so soon too! But, and I think I’m not alone in having thought that, this NEW SONG from Michael Jackson was to be of his latest of works, something perhaps he’d created to title track his THIS IS IT TOUR. But boy was I wrong. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a good song, it can’t help but to be, after all, MJ did sprinkled a little of the “Michael Magic” on it. But it didn’t take long for me to find myself questioning, would Michael have released this song? Would he be happy that this is out as one of his final works? I don’t think he would, and here’s why.

After clicking on a link posted on Twitter about the new MJ song , I found myself on RyanSeacrest.com reading his post about the song. It was there, that I read the first bit of disappointing news about the song, it was recorded almost TWO decades ago! As it turns out, or at least certainly appears as such, “This Is It” was a song, no, a demo, recorded during Michael’s DANGEROUS sessions back in 1991. This is a song that Michael apparently didn’t deem good enough to make the DANGEROUS album or any album following it. And after plugging into YouTube to see if I could find comments on what others thought of the song, I see a comment, suggesting that the song was written by Michael, yes, but then given to another artist! So, as suggested by the comment, I put in “I Never Heard” by Safire in the YouTube search box, and guess what I found? You guessed it, same song, different artist, different title.

It seems to me, fairly clear that Michael had no intent in ever releasing this song as his own, he’d dismissed it as a possibility and then given it to someone else. Not to mention “This Is It” wasn’t even the intended title of the song. Seems to me, Sony heard the famous string of words “This Is It” in the opening lyric and decided to run with it. Then digging up the demo of the song “I Never Heard” that Michael recorded years ago, they changed the title to “This Is It,” tasked his brothers to sing back up vocals , threw together a “new” album (which is little more than yet another “hits” album) and ran to the bank with it. They’re not doing this for us fans, this “new” song and album serves for one single purpose. Money.

The only thing NEW about the album is the “new” song “This Is It” and a poem by Michael. Outside of that, its just a hits album, the songs are merely arranged in the order in which they appear in the film (a soundtrack of sorts). If you’re a fan like me, you’ve probably already got all of Michael’s music and the hits in duplicate (due to albums like “Essential Michael Jackson,” “HIStory,” “Number Ones,” & “Ultimate Collection”), so in buying the “new” album THIS IS IT, you’d be repurchasing the same old same old. Its been said that Michael has something like two hundred FINISHED songs that can be released, songs he intended to help secure his children’s financial needs. Songs that he does want released. So lets have some of THOSE, not another glorified hits album. I love the hits sure, but how many times does one need the same songs?

Just to reiterate, I’m a fan. I love Michael, man & music. But I’m truly disappointed that even after his death his label continues to mistreat him. They’d thrown him to the side after Invincible, and now they’re just out to squelch him for all he’s worth. They’ll take as much money from his fans as they can get out of us, not even making the effort to give us something we don’t already have. I think Michael said it best in his song “Money:”

“So you call it trust. But I say it's just. In the devil's game. Of greed and lust. They don't care. They'd do me for the money. They don't care. They use me for the money… Anything. Anything. Anything for money.”

Anyway, I suppose I’ve said my peace.

Peace, Luv & Oatmeal
Merita