邁克爾去世幾天後，我的一個朋友正好在看TMZ，上面發佈了一首未發行的邁克爾•傑克遜歌曲片段，於是他把連結發給了我。
我很驚訝，那首歌正是我參與制作的，而且不僅擔任錄音師，還是貝斯手，是1998年在洛杉磯的“唱片工廠”（Record Plant）錄音室錄製的。這首歌叫《無名之地》（A Place With No Name），是對70年代搖滾樂隊“美國”（America）的經典歌曲《無名之騎》（A Horse With No Name）的翻唱，是邁克爾和製作人“冰凍博士”（Dr.Freeze）的沉思之作。我不清楚是“冰凍博士”還是邁克爾先想到的點子，但我知道邁克爾喜歡“美國”樂隊的這首歌。他做了許多其它的音樂嘗試只是為了好玩，或者至少心裡沒有得出什麼成果，除了在這過程中有點驚喜。
邁克爾在這個情況下參與制作幾百首歌，我相信自己看到的只是冰山一角！那個片段肯定是剛開始的粗混音，沒有經過優化的混音。對於那些不清楚什麼是粗混音的人，那是來自錄音控制台的多音軌錄音帶，很快地或者“粗糙地”混音後錄在CD或DAT錄音帶上，因為邁克爾喜歡。而且，我的貝斯音軌聽起來很粗糙，只進行了簡單地壓縮，所以只可能來自那個階段，但我不能確定。
無論如何，給邁克爾和“冰凍博士”錄歌很有意思，但最有意思的是在歌曲上面彈貝斯，讓我清楚看到邁克爾堅韌的音樂能量。在我參與錄製貝斯前，“冰凍博士”說他和邁克爾想在歌曲裡加入“貝斯吉他”的聲音。我告訴“冰凍博士”我會彈，很願意給他彈點東西，並且把自己的貝斯帶到了錄音室。幾天後，“冰凍博士”準備好錄音了。問題是，MJ在周圍時，我有點擔心，不敢彈。我不想因為自己在邁克爾的音樂上彈了幾下而影響到自己的“錄音師”位置。但最後，這只是我沒有根據的多疑。前一天晚上，我們等到很晚，一直等到邁克爾溜回家。
等我確認邁克爾離開錄音室後，我插上貝斯，開始和“冰凍博士”弄這首歌。但我剛插好，就看見邁克爾從錄音室的休息室走了出來，穿過主錄音區進入控制室。我“額”了一下，感覺被當場抓住。邁克爾突然說：“你倆幹嘛呢？”我不好意思地說：“彈了點貝斯，邁克。”他說：“讓我聽聽。”於是我彈了一點，他一下子很興奮，說：“你是在錄音嗎？”“嗯，不，邁克。我只是在找感覺。”邁克說：“都錄下來！”於是我投入了進去，大膽彈起來。邁克爾把主揚聲器開到最響！他喜歡我彈的音樂。
過了幾秒鐘，邁克爾在我面前手舞足蹈，無論我彈什麼貝斯創意。每次到最後，他都說再來一個，我們就再來一遍。邁克爾一邊跳舞，一邊假裝在彈吉他，我們在控制台前擺出各種搖滾造型。他說：“Oh yeah CJ，真臭！太臭了！（邁克爾說“臭”，指的就是“好”）咱們再來一個！”我彈了5、6遍，最後變成了有料的節奏，這樣我們就不用把一堆貝斯的創意剪輯到一起使它具有可聽性了。《無名之地》片段裡的貝斯聽起來就是這樣的。跟邁克爾彈了半個多小時的搖滾後，又大聲地重放了幾遍錄音，我整理出了一個粗混音，發了一個DAT錄音帶給他聽。他親切地再次感謝了我，然後就回家了。
非常感謝你，邁克爾。安息吧。
Working with Michael Jackson
Songworx.com – In 1998 I was fortunate enough to engineer for Michael Jackson after he asked me to record several of his vocal sessions and track a few of his producers. His passing is some pretty sad news and my memories of those studio sessions has compelled me to share a few of my experiences and observations about Michael so here’s one of a few i’ll post.
Several days after Michael’s passing a friend of mine came across a TMZ entertainment news exclusive of an unreleased Michael Jackson song and sent me a link to a short mp3 clip at the TMZ website.
To my surprise it was a song I worked on as a recording engineer and bass player as well in 1998 at the “Record Plant” in Los Angeles. The song was called “A Place With No Name” which was a re-make or more like a flip of “America”, the 70′s rock band’s timeless hit “A Horse With No Name” It was a muse track for Michael and producer Dr. Freeze, writer/producer for “Bell Biv DeVoe” and “Color Me Bad” hits. I’m not certain if it was Freeze or Michael who kicked off the idea first, but I know Michael loved the “America” song, though he did work out lots of other music explorations for the fun of it, or at least with no specific outcome in mind other than finding a surprise in the process. An observation.
Actually Michael has hundreds of songs worked up on that premise and I’m certain what I saw was only the tip of that iceberg! That sound clip is definitely a session rough mix since it doesn’t have a mix and master polished sound on it. For those unfamiliar with what a session rough mix is, it’s from the session multitrack tape that was up on the recording console that day for whatever work was being done to it, which was quickly or “roughly” mixed and recorded to a recordable CD or DAT tape as Michael liked it. Also, my bass track sounds raw and loosely compressed so it just may be from that very bass session, but I can’t be certain.
Anyway, of course I had a lot of fun recording Michael and Freeze, but what was most fun was playing bass on the track and how it showed me Michael’s relentless musical energy so vividly. A few days before my bass session, Dr. Freeze expressed that he and Michael wanted to have a “bass guitar” sound on the track. I told Freeze I can play and would be happy to lay something down for him. I brought my bass down to the studio, and a few days later Freeze was ready to record it. The problem was I was a bit concerned to play on MJ’s tracks while MJ was around. I just didn’t want to jeopardize my position as an “Engineer” goofing around on Michael’s music, but in the end it was unfounded paranoia on my part. Regardless, we waited till late in the eve when Michael usually slipped out for home long before that, at least based on his MO from the previous few weeks.
When I was certain Michael had left the studio I plugged in my bass and started to play around with the track with Freeze. But the very second I plugged in, I saw Michael emerge from his studio lounge through the vocal booth glass and into the control room, so I was like; Uh oh!, since I kind of felt busted in a way. Michael immediately said; “what are you guys doing”? I replied sheepishly; laying down some bass Mike. He said; let’s hear it. So I played a few bass licks and he immediately got excited and said; are you recording!!? Umm, no Mike, I’m just trying to find a vibe. Mike said; play and record it all! So I dropped in (hit record) and jammed on the song. Well, Michael turned up the big main speakers LOUD! and was loving what I was playing.
After several seconds Michael was in my face rockin out while I pulled off all kinds of bass ideas. At the end of that pass he said to do another and off we went again. Michael was poppin and lockin, playing air guitar while we pulled out rock poses in front of the console. He would say; Oh yeah CJ, that was stinky!, sooo stinky ( a good thing for Mike ) Lets do another! Ok Mike, I dropped in a total of five or six times with the last one being a solid groove track so we didn’t have to comp a bunch of bass ideas to make the song listenable right away. Which sounds like that bass pass in the “A Place With No Name” mp3 clip if my memory serves me. After more than a half-hour of rockin with Michael and a few more loud playbacks, I put together a quick rough mix and made him a dat tape to listen to. He graciously thanked me again and then went home for the day.
Thank you so very much Michael. Rest in peace.
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