June 2009 Offering Of The Month: "Black & Blue" Written by Michael Jackson & Edward Jerlin Original version "Black or White" © 1991 Michael Jackson, Published by Ignorant Music New recording "Black & Blue" © 2009 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved Update June 25, 2009 7:37pm EST: I just heard of Michael Jackson's passing. I had uploaded this music & web page just two days ago. For now, I've decided to leave it intact as a tribute to the "King of Pop" My condolences to his family, friends & all who enjoyed his music over the years. Whatever else is said about him, he certainly was a supremely talented artist & entertainer from a very young age & also a humanitarian who contributed to a number of worthy causes. Certainly, I'd like to thank him for writing this catchy piece of music upon which this recording is built. Also, his recording of "I Want You Back" remains to this day one of my favorite songs. Rest in peace, Michael. This month's offering has been a long-standing earnest request from a few people who have heard it & enjoyed it. For some time I resisted sharing it due to copyright restrictions, but I've been told as long as it's a "parody" & we make no money from it, it's okay to share. In the early 90's, my buddy John D played me a tape he had of the B-Side of Michael Jackson's "Black or White" which was an instrumental version of the song. The arrangement was quite stark, consisting primarily of the guitar, a drum machine pattern, & an occasional bass part. John challenged me to "jam" to it. "Certainly you can make this a little more interesting to listen to." I took him up on his challenge. :-) As the song begins with a couple of "fake starts", I ask, "No wait, what are you doing?" "Hey, where's Ed?" "I'm right here." "Well, let's go!" I had a lot of fun adding all kinds of cheesy bits to it, starting with the horns & slap bass, then bell-like pads & strings, then synth leads, leading to some piano bits, which trade with the synth leads, culminating in a nifty unison fill at around 1:05. A brief string line leads to 1:21 where my drums kick in along with a funky repeating ascending bass-guitar unison line under Slash's guitar leads. It sure was fun jamming with Slash. ;-) Then a quick sequenced synth break at 1:38 (which was the original recording, not me) leads to the "rap" section... I'm particularly fond of the "rap" section; I changed it from this empty repeating drum pattern, to... a ragtime piano number. ;-) I also added some incidental percussion to that section. I then return to the synth-piano interplay which leads to them agreeing in unison. The horns pay another brief visit along with a choir-like sound, then a unison bass/drum fill at 2:21 leads to me pretty much taking over with the original being overwhelmed by all the layers I added. I just had to end it with the ubiquitous 80's "Digital Native Dance" sound from the Roland D-50 synth -- the ultimate cheesy touch. If I remember correctly, this was all recorded in one night, no road map, just making it up as I went along, trying sounds out, jamming away, right on through to sunrise... I think this piece almost comes across as one of those cheesy "demo sequences" that come with synthesizers that show off the synth's sound capabilities. (If you've ever bought or gone shopping for a keyboard or synthesizer, you know what I'm talking about.) I hope you enjoy this little musical excursion as much as I did. Comments & feedback are always welcome at our guestbook. Thank you & God bless! To download the music, RIGHT CLICK and choose "Save Target As": "Black & Blue" MUSIC 3:11