Behind the Mask

[ScottR]

I see there is a Sakamoto - YMO cover on the new Michael Jackson album. It contains a huge sample from the original. This track was originally slated for Thriller but for legal reasons never made the cut. I have a feeling this will be one of the better received tracks on the new album and should get decent airplay. Its kind of funny hearing a 30 year old YMO track on the radio.

[natsume]

From the shamelessly spreading hearsay department;

A quick scan of reviews shows a consensus that this is one of the better tracks on what appears to be a pretty uneven and highly questionable album. This song was probably fairly fully realized, so it probably avoids the general feeling of producers cannibalizing the dead that the rest of the album reportedly has. Looks like there will be years of this to look forward to.

Anyway, if it gets YMO/Sakamoto some current press attention in the west, that's a good thing.

[swordofdestiny]

Clips of this track are up on Youtube and I can safely say it won't be on my shopping list. But the melody remains cool regardless of the noise.

[billster]

Jackson and Rod temperton were big fans of Tin Drum whilst making thriller. They even contacted barbieri at the time to ask for programming tips.

[swordofdestiny]

.

[baht habit]

I see there is a Sakamoto - YMO cover on the new Michael Jackson album. It contains a huge sample from the original. This track was originally slated for Thriller but for legal reasons never made the cut. I have a feeling this will be one of the better received tracks on the new album and should get decent airplay. Its kind of funny hearing a 30 year old YMO track on the radio.

Thanks for making us aware of this, Scott. I gave "Michael" a listen and this track, along with Much Too Soon, sure does stand out as a bit more superior to the rest of it all - which may not necessarily be styles that I personally prefer but nonetheless, I can hear that the execution is solid. In regards to any sort of downside to Behind The Mask, I just can't get why the producers would throw in that annoying canned audience on a studio track ?

Behind The Mask has quite a backstory, doesn't it? There's plenty of conflicting information out there, with credit for the song being spread around and not always accurately attributed. So if I have it wrong, please correct me:
YMO wrote the music for the track, with words on the chorus by a lyricist named Chris Mosdell.
Quincy Jones dug it and suggested that Jackson come up with additional words and melodies in order to have proper verses to the song...then record it for the next record.
So Jackson and Greg Philliganes (a fine keyboardist/vocalist - who I just so happened to see perform live with Herbie Hancock this past summer) collaborated together on a new arrangement.
Since Jackson's version was not released, Philliganes recorded and released the new arrangement on one of his solo albums.
A few years later, Philliganes is a member of Eric Clapton's band and they record a less funk / more rock version of Behind The Mask for one of Clapton's mid 80s albums.
Then it all strangely seems to come full circle when Sakamoto records his updated version of the song, which is surprisingly a lot more faithful to Clapton's take on the song than to YMO.
And now that Jackson has passed, a tweaked version of his rendition has finally been released for the enjoyment of his fans....complete with annoying canned audience noise. I suppose that is intended to replicate the enjoyment of his fans.
Do I have all of that right?

[karnsculpture]

Behind The Mask actually goes back to 1978 when Sakamoto submitted it to be used for a Seiko watches advertising campaign.
From October 78 it was in the YMO live set, as an instrumental initially, before the vocoder vocals were added and then in Summer 79 it was recorded by YMO. The YMO version was a single in Europe and the USA but not in Japan, although it remained a staple of their live show. Sakamoto has also performed it live on several tours including 2005 with Steve Jansen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtecIJCWj-c
(this audio is from 2005 but interestingly its similar to the 1978 Seiko version which I couldn't find on YouTube)

You are right about the erroneous credits. The music was written by Sakamoto, but on some pressings of YMO's "Solid State Survivor" Yukihiro Takahashi gets a co-writing credit, which was a mistake. Chris Mosdell wrote the lyrics to the YMO version, some of which Michael Jackson expanded on for the full lyric during the "Thriller" sessions.

Following on from the Greg Philliganes version in '85 (the 12" by the way includes an instrumental which is almost identical to the YMO version!) Sakamoto started to perform the track with the Jackson vocals ("Media Bahn Live"), which is probably closest to the Clapton version but speeded up, before releasing a rocky single version (awful IMHO) just after Clapton's hit version came out. I was astounded about a week ago to hear the Eric Clapton verison on radio and it sounds pretty good compared to Sakamoto's, very warm with some nice synths.

According to my partner, who is slightly obsessed with MJ, he worked on Behind The Mask again during the "Dangerous" sessions, which may account for the sound being more 90s than 80s IMHO.

[Adrian]

I haven't heard the track nor the album. From what I read here this seems like Jackson's 'Ride' - is it worth getting the album for if I'm not in the slightest a Jackson fan?

[ScottR]

Hi Adrian - not worth buying in my opinion. I am sure someone can help with this. Worst case just download the individual track at amazon.

What I would try to track down is YMO's more recent work. Thy released a single under the HASYMO moniker a couple of summers back that I think is as good anything they have done. The City of Light/Tokyo Town Pages single shows a much more mature sound, it's very tranquil to my ears. I was hoping that this was a precursor to a bigger project, but no such luck. Fennesz has a cameo guitar bit that fits quite well into the mix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48I48nQCn5Q

[Adrian]

Thanks Scott. I never heard any YMO (and only some Sakamoto), so that's the rest of my evening sorted...

[natsume]

I really hope I get a chance to see YMO while I am still in Japan, another year and a half. They play shows here and there, seems like about 1 or 2 a year. Missed last summer because I was out of the country, missed three summers ago because I didn't know about it. Sakamoto's site is worse than Samadhisound as far as getting updated, as is the official YMO site, both had NO news on the festival they played last summer. Hosono's as well. Come on, guys! (I think Takahashi's did mention it...)