Can't describe the hair-raising excitement of reading the studio session rap's phenomenal one The Notorious B.I.G had with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson...
Thank you Resonater...here we go...
27th June 2009, 10:26 PM #14
Lives for gear
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 2,560
I was fortunate enough to work with MJ early in my career.
He was an incredible artist. Talented beyond your wildest dreams. Extremely
generous, and a hard worker. I actually went from a staff assistant at the Hit
Factory in NYC to freelance engineer under Swedien and MJ. They were due to
start in Los Angeles when the Northridge earthquake hit so they moved to New York.
One room was all Bruce, the second room was the writing room. I started
assisting Bruce's writing partner Rene Moore. I would track stuff with Rene,
and Bruce would come in and tell me what I did wrong, sit in for a few hours
and set us straight. After a couple months MJ arrived and the entire tour rig
was moved in along with Brad Buxer, Andrew Scheps, and Eddie Delena. I
continued to assist them until the whole crew moved to L.A., they decided to
take me with them. I would assist Bruce during the day, and help out every
where else at night - assisting, engineering, programming, and on one song
playing guitar. We had two rooms at Record One, and two rooms at Larrabee where
I met John. At one point in NYC we had just about every room at the Hit Factory.
The crew was great, and I learned so much from all of them. I learned to
engineer from Bruce Swedien, John, and Eddie, and got to sit in with producers
like MJ, Jam And Lewis, Babyface, David Foster, Teddy Riley, and Dallas Austin.
I was actually asked to leave the project early on because there were too many
people around and MJ didn't know me. Luckily, I was rehired about 10 days
later. At the wrap party MJ apologized profusely, and expressed his gratitude.
Truly the most sincere man you will ever meet.
Some random memories:
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.
At one point Michael was angry at one of the producers on the project because
he was treating everyone terribly. Rather than create a scene or fire the guy,
Michael called him to his office/lounge and one of the security guys threw a
pie in his face. No further action was needed . . . . .
During the recording of "Smile" on HIStory, Bruce thought it would be
great if Michael would sing live with the orchestra. But of course, we didn't
tell the players that. We set him up in a vocal booth off to the side. They
rehearsed a bit without vocals in, then during the first take Michael sang,
just about knocked them out of their chairs.
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.
Once, while we were taking a break, I think we were actually watching the OJ
chase on TV, there was a news program talking about him being in Europe with
some little boy. I was sitting next to the guy while the news is making this
crap up. He just looked at me and said this is what I have to deal with.
I spent close to 3 years working with him, and not once did I question his
morals, or ever believe any of the allegations. I wasn't even a fan then. I saw
him interact with his brothers kids, other people's children, and at one point
my own girlfriend's kids. I got to spend a day at Neverland with them. A
completely incredible human being, always looking for a way to make all
children's lives better. Every weekend at Neverland was donated to a different
children's group - children with AIDS, children cancer, etc., and most of the
time he wasn't there.
He was simply living the childhood he never had. In many ways he never grew up.
I was assisting Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis while they recorded the background
vocals for "Scream" with MJ and Janet. The two of them singing
together was amazing. Super tight, no bad notes. One part after another. When
they took a break they sang the showtunes they used to sing as kids. Again,
perfect harmony. Mj refused to sing the "stop f*ckin' with me part"
because he would NOT curse.
I was the tape op for the recording of the background vocals on "Stranger
in Moscow". Scared the hell out me. Michael was dropping in and out on
syllables, rearranging the notes and timing as he put it down. No Pro Tools at
the time, just 2" tape, and my punches.
I erased a live keyboard overdub that he played one night. He came in the next
morning, replaced it, and never uttered another word about it.
I was there when Lisa Marie was around. They acted like two kids in love. Held
hands all the time, and she hung out at the studio for quite a while. I never
questioned their love for each other.
We recorded a Christmas song during the summer of '94 that needed a children's
choir. Michael insisted that the entire studio be decorated with xmas lights,
tree, fake snow and a sled for their recording. And he bought presents for
everyone.
The last weekend of recording on HIStory he came to me and Eddie Delena, and
said "I'm sorry, but I don't think any of us are going to sleep this
weekend. There's a lot to get done, and we have to go to Bernie on Monday
morning". He stayed at the studio the entire time, singing, and mixing. I
got to spend a couple quiet moments with him during that time. We talked about
John Lennon one night as he was gearing up to sing the last vocal of the record
- the huge ad libs at the end of "earth song". I told him the story
of John singing "twist and shout" while being sick, and though most
people think he was screaming for effect, it was actually his voice giving out.
He loved it, and then went in to sing his heart out. . . .
Later that night, while mixing, everyone left the room so MJ could turn it up.
This was a common occurrence during the mixes, and I was left in the room with
ear plugs, and hands over my ears, in case he needed something. This particular
night, all the lights were out and we noticed some blue flashes intermittently
lighting up the room during playback. After a few moments we could see that one
of the speakers (custom quad augspuergers) was shooting blue flames. Mj liked
this and proceeded to push all the faders up . . . .
MJ liked hot water while he was singing. I mean really hot !!!!! It got to the
point that I would melt plastic spoons to test it.
Bruce and I were talking about walking to the studio everyday in NYC, and what
routes we took. Michael looked at us and said we were so lucky to be able to do
that. He couldn't walk down the street without being harassed. It was a sad
moment for all of us.
The studio crew got free tickets to the Janet show so we all went right from
work one night. About halfway through the show we see this dude with a long
beard, dressed in robes dancing in the aisle behind. I mean really dancing . .
. it was Mj in disguise. Kind of like the costume Chevy Chase wears in Fletch
while roller skating.
He got one of the first playstations from sony in his lounge . . . we snuck in
late at night to play the games that hadn't been released yet.
A couple people on the session hadn't seen Jurassic Park while it was out, so
MJ arranged a private screening for us at Sony.
He was a huge fan of Nine Inch Nails Downward Spiral . . . .
I was lucky enough over the course of 3 years to have access to the multitrack
masters for tour prep, videos, and archive purposes. To be able to pull these
tracks apart was a huge lesson in production, and songwriting. A chance to look
into the minds of geniuses.
Of all the records I've worked on, MJJ was the only company to give platinum
award records.
One day we just all sat in the studio listening to his catalog with him for
inspiration. He loved the process, he loved the work.
__________________
Rob Hoffman
--------------------------
http://www.elicitmusic.com
28th June 2009, 02:00 AM #43
Lives for gear
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 850
By the way, to elaborate a bit on the Notorious B.I.G.
session, it was kinda like this. Michael used to call people to ask them to
participate on albums. It was interesting knowing that nearly anyone on the
planet would come to the phone if it were Michael calling. Anyway, I heard
rumors that B.I.G. was going to come, and I was excited about that! I knew that
I would be the one to record that, as I had recorded nearly all of that tune,
"This Time Around".
So, Dallas and I were expecting him any minute, and pretty much on time,
Notorious strolls in. He was quite an imposing figure when he walked in, as he
was quite popular at the time. I had no idea what to expect from him in terms
of attitude, but he seemed nice when he walked in. No problem. But almost
immediately, he blurted out, "Yo, Dallas, can I meet Mike?" To which,
Dallas replied that he thought so. Biggie went on to talk about how much this
opportunity meant to him, as Michael was his hero. Anyway, Dallas tells him
that we're going to lay down the rap first, so Biggie heads in the booth, we
get some headphone levels and get ready to start recording.
So, we hit the big red button (on a Sony 3348 machine), and away we go. During
his first take, Dallas and I looked at each other, because it was spot on. wow.
I was impressed, and so was Dallas. We listened back, and Dallas was like,
"Wow, I think we got it". As I recall, we took another take for good
measure, but I'm fairly certain that we ended up using the first take. So,
Notorious comes in, and asks if he can meet Michael now. We sent word to the
back room where Michael was working that Biggie was finished and wanted to meet
him.
Simply for security, Michael's security would enter and make sure that no one
was in the room that shouldn't be, and once that was confirmed (it was just me,
Biggie and Dallas), Michael came in. Biggie nearly broke out in tears...I could
tell how much this meant to him. Well, Michael could have this effect on
anyone, even the most hardcore rappers! Biggie was tripping up on his words,
bowing down and telling Michael how much his music had meant to him in his
life. Michael was, as always, very humble and kept smiling while Biggie just
went on and on how much he loved Michael. I watched Biggie just become this big
butterball of a man, and it was really very sweet to witness. After all, we are
all just people.
Michael finally asked to hear what we had done, and we popped it up on the big
speakers and let her go. Michael LOVED it and was excited to tell Biggie that!
"Oh, let's hear it again", I recall Michael saying, and we listened
again. Michael just loved it...and thanked Biggie for coming all the way from
Philadelphia. Biggie asked rather sheepishly whether he could get a photo, and
Michael agreed. A shot was taken, we listened again, and Michael thanked
Biggie. Michael said goodbye and stepped out, leaving Biggie standing there
looking completely stunned.
It will always remain a great, great memory.
__________________
The Resonater
