― bingo (Chris V), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 11:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 12:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― Andy_K (Andy_K), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 12:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 12:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 12:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― jermaine (jnoble), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 12:57 (eighteen years ago) link
ROFL...
The line is "If this town is just an apple, then let me take a bite."
Classic, BTW
― R. Greene, Tuesday, 11 October 2005 18:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Lion-O (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 18:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Lion-O (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 18:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― deej.. (deej..), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 18:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― brianiac (briania), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 18:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 18:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― bingo (Chris V), Wednesday, 12 October 2005 09:11 (eighteen years ago) link
what do michael jackson and santa claws have in common? they both leave small boys rooms with empty sacks.
what did michal jackson say after he was found not guilty? im so happy i feel like a kid again.
― 5yearoldkid, Wednesday, 12 October 2005 10:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― wakojacko, Wednesday, 12 October 2005 10:56 (eighteen years ago) link
i love this fucking song
― max, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 17:42 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mkZqMWp7Xo
― hey trader joe's! i've got the new steely dan. (Jordan), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 17:49 (fourteen years ago) link
This is one of the best parts of "This Is It"
― lift this towel, its just a nipple (HI DERE), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 17:51 (fourteen years ago) link
def in top 5 all time mj songs
― sexual alien v. sexual predator (m bison), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 18:31 (fourteen years ago) link
I love this song too. It was elegantly creepy when I was eight years old, and it remains so today. "Electric eyes are everywhere."
― Yah Kid A (Euler), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 19:26 (fourteen years ago) link
His falsetto in it is so heartbreakingly gorgeous. Synths are awesome too.
― mascara and ties (Abbott), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 20:11 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbb0q4QNPW0
Evidently it's the original Porcaro demo.
I love MJ's version so much, one of the best songs ever.
― Euler, Monday, 18 October 2010 15:57 (thirteen years ago) link
The opening post of this thread is on of my favorites ever. "lift this towel, its just a nipple...then let me take a bite."
― 17th Century Catholic Spain (Abbbottt), Monday, 18 October 2010 16:02 (thirteen years ago) link
^ lol
this song really is terrific though, one of my favorite mj songs. it was my ringtone for ages and obviously that speaks VOLUMES about how good it is
― teledyldonix, Monday, 18 October 2010 22:26 (thirteen years ago) link
that toto version is some serious proto-chillwave biznis.
― ed chilliband (max arrrrrgh), Monday, 18 October 2010 22:54 (thirteen years ago) link
this song is the best
― straight outta furnace (The Reverend), Monday, 18 October 2010 22:59 (thirteen years ago) link
At the club I hit on Saturday night the DJ dropped this between Tribe's "Award Tour" and TTT's "Feels Good." The place went apeshit.
― raging hetero lifechill (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 October 2010 23:06 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8if4LV_SzE
― reallysmoothmusic (Jamie_ATP), Monday, 18 October 2010 23:07 (thirteen years ago) link
still love it.
― definatelypoopsmcgee (chrisv2010), Tuesday, 19 October 2010 13:13 (thirteen years ago) link
This song has been on my mind since I heard a busker playing a sax version on Thursday.
― corey, Tuesday, 19 October 2010 13:18 (thirteen years ago) link
never gets old.
― thebingo2010 (chrisv2010), Tuesday, 19 October 2010 13:20 (thirteen years ago) link
youngbl00d brass band version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mkZqMWp7Xo
― bows don't kill people, arrows do (Jordan), Tuesday, 19 October 2010 13:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Absolutely classic and one of MJ's best. I think the tune will live forever - I used to listen to it a lot when I was 12 or 13, just kind of wandering around the city at night with a Walkman, and the song was so ridiculously powerful that it was almost hard to listen to.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 19 October 2010 14:03 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGBPSx1Zxlo
― raging hetero lifechill (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 19 October 2010 14:05 (thirteen years ago) link
neither of those covers seem to get what makes this song so good imo
― corey, Tuesday, 19 October 2010 14:18 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah i can't really see any cover doing this justice. unless it was teddy pendergrass...
― thebingo2010 (chrisv2010), Tuesday, 19 October 2010 14:19 (thirteen years ago) link
the best "Human Nature"-related track is SWV's "Right Here":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOKd_et0A4o
― MC Tramp Stamp (HI DERE), Tuesday, 19 October 2010 14:19 (thirteen years ago) link
I LOVE THAT SONG!! not as good as mj's but still AWESOME
― teledyldonix, Tuesday, 19 October 2010 17:03 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Wk3Cv02oQ
― bows don't kill people, arrows do (Jordan), Tuesday, 19 October 2010 17:08 (thirteen years ago) link
I really love this jazz piano version, it fucking moves my heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmquNyYBCqg
― never say goodbye before leaving chat room (Crabbits), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 02:26 (nine years ago) link
it's kind of better if you DON'T know what song it is and then halfway through get to think 'hey is this HUMAN NATURE?'
― never say goodbye before leaving chat room (Crabbits), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 02:29 (nine years ago) link
this is one of those songs where you hear the original demo and almost wonder what jones and jackson heard in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWdy5i_44sQ
not that it's BAD, per se, it's still got a strangely alluring melody... but the details of the arrangement and vocal that jones and jackson added to it are essential IMO.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 02:33 (nine years ago) link
balearic!
― wizzz! (amateurist), Sunday, 29 November 2015 13:17 (eight years ago) link
a couple years back I was working on a song that was considerably harder and more complicated than a lot of my stuff and I showed it to a friend who teaches piano, I was especially proud of this alternating major/minor 7ths walkdown thing in the chorus and when he saw it he smiled and said "oh, yeah, Quincy Jones, right?" and showed me how the instrumental walkdown after the chorus in Human Nature -- which I think is a QJ interpolation on the Porcaro composition -- does the same thing, which really just leads to this beautiful smooth resolve. really fun revelation for me
― tremendous crime wave and killing wave (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 29 November 2015 14:18 (eight years ago) link
Oh wow, I'd never known that the song came to MJ and Q almost fully formed. I thought it was collaborative from the start.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 29 November 2015 14:48 (eight years ago) link
the melody is there but QJ and MJ added so many grace notes to the arrangement that it's almost a different song, no?
― wizzz! (amateurist), Monday, 30 November 2015 00:44 (eight years ago) link
no, I don't think so - I mean, you're comparing a demo to a tracked, mixed and mastered song. pretty much any song at this level of pop has a similar "the demo is the chords and lyrics, in the studio it was brought to fruition" feel. the Toto version has a scratch rhythm track and a pretty "close enough for jazz" vocal - it's the blueprint, any arranger is going to hear a lot of possibilities in a tune like that. it's our good fortune that the people who caught it were a couple of the biggest musical minds of the century.
― tremendous crime wave and killing wave (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 30 November 2015 03:14 (eight years ago) link
i take your point, but there are plenty of demos for soul/pop/r&b songs that are about 80% there... this is more like 50%.
given that QJ began his career in the days of R&B big bands, it's sort of incredible how well he took to layering synthesizers. although i think he arranges them a bit like horn charts here and elsewhere.
― wizzz! (amateurist), Monday, 30 November 2015 03:54 (eight years ago) link
although QJ was always interested in new sounds... he uses moogs etc. all over his early 1970s records, and as far back as the early 60s he was doing some stuff with vocalese and musique concrete elements.
― wizzz! (amateurist), Monday, 30 November 2015 03:55 (eight years ago) link
what the demo is missing is the 16th note riff thing. that's practically what makes the track. and it's such a toto/porcaro kind of thing that I'm surprised it's not there!
― chinavision!, Monday, 30 November 2015 04:04 (eight years ago) link
this takes a while to kick into gear but once it days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eJPEwI-jXY
― wizzz! (amateurist), Monday, 30 November 2015 04:06 (eight years ago) link
er, does
hahahaha the original post
― just knocked me cold and left me on the sidewalk (some dude), Monday, 30 November 2015 04:07 (eight years ago) link
Not as good as Baby Be Mine― Andy_K (Andy_K), Tuesday, October 11, 2005 7:05 AM (10 years ago)
This is exactly the sort of thing I'd say (because I believe it) right before telling myself to just shut up.
― thread of getting sw0le and lena jokes (Eric H.), Monday, 30 November 2015 04:30 (eight years ago) link
I'd tell myself to shut up before believing that.
― The Reverend, Monday, 30 November 2015 06:21 (eight years ago) link
Also worth noting that Quincy called in John Bettis to rewrite the lyrics.
― The Reverend, Monday, 30 November 2015 06:22 (eight years ago) link
such a fantastic track. one of those that I can still listen to with pleasure and wonderment on Thriller (which was the biggest thing in my life as a kid !).together with "startin' somethin'", "baby be mine", "PYT" and "lady in my life"... well, that's still more than half of the album actually !thinking of it, the closest thing to a dud on the album is "the girl is mine". and that's mainly because of the silly collab. cos the basic track and groove are great.
the Toto demo is very detailed. I could have easily imagined only basic guitar or piano chords with some humming of the melody, like many demos.
― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, 30 November 2015 11:28 (eight years ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/harringtone/michael-jackson-human-nature-dave-harrington-edit
― ArchCarrier, Wednesday, 2 December 2015 14:54 (eight years ago) link
I've been listening to the Easy Star All stars version of Thrillah lately and it's really grown on me.
― canoon fooder (dog latin), Wednesday, 2 December 2015 16:41 (eight years ago) link