Michael Jackson’s Road To ‘Dangerous’ | Scrapped Album & Failed Collaborations
If ‘Off the Wall’ made him a superstar, ‘Thriller’ a phenomenon, and the ‘Bad’ album taking that to a global status, then where else can you go once proving yourself to be the most celebrated artist of a generation.
As Michael Jackson would begin to navigate a new decade at the top of the pop universe, whatever musical direction he chose next would have inevitably been met with intrigue and scepticism. For an artist who made such an indelible mark on the music landscape the decade before, the question persisted, could lightning strike again for the 1990s?
After his final show of the ‘Bad World Tour’ in January 1989, which effectively meant the end of the ‘Bad’ album cycle, Jackson made it clear that there was a change in the air. He proclaimed that he would never tour again, that a big movie career was on the horizon and that he would still create music but his long-time producer, Quincy Jones, was out.
It has since surfaced that the two had come to loggerheads several times during the recording of ‘Bad’. As Jackson matured and star power strengthened, his confidence grew as a producer, and he had no problem disagreeing with some of Jones’s methods throughout the album’s recording. Larry Williams, a musician in the sessions, revealed “There was definite friction there. Michael was very eager to prove he could produce, as well as sing and dance.” Jackson passed comment on issues he had while working with Quincy in his 1988 autobiography, ‘Moonwalk’; “We fight. We disagreed on some things. If we struggle at all, it’s about new stuff, the latest technology. I’ll say, ‘Quincy, you know, music changes all the time’. I want the latest drums sounds that people are doing. I want to go beyond the latest things.”
Contrary to popular belief of a falling out, Jackson and Jones mutually ended their decade-long partnership. “Michael was not angry with Quincy,” collaborator Brad Buxer recalled, “He always had an admiration for him and an immense respect. Michael was always very independent, and he also wanted to show that his success was not because of one man, namely Quincy.”
Many thought he was crazy to part ways with Jones, given the pair’s unprecedented success together. Yet Jackson was driven by the challenge and invigorated by the idea of acting as executive producer and working with a fresh canvas. He began experimenting with a group of talented producers and engineers he had developed relationships with previously, including Bill Bottrell, Matt Forger, and Bryan Loren. Later in the process, he also brought back long-time engineer, Bruce Swedien, who claimed that Jackson had been crafting songs for his next musical output as far back as 1987. “Michael started the day we finished Bad,” he said, “The next day he was doing more demos.”
The first project? Well after achieving the biggest selling album of all time as well as a decade full of ground-breaking hits, Michael Jackson and his record label were keen to commemorate his impact on music during the 1980s through a series of award show appearances and glitzy showbiz photo calls, where press and public would be reminded of Jackson’s trailblazing accomplishments. As part of this effort, a compilation of his greatest hits, plus some brand-new material, was planned and an album title was even chosen, ‘Decade’.
Michael Jackson signed off on the idea in early 1989, receiving $18 million as an advance with test pressings made by Epic Records. Recording took place primarily at Record One (a branch of Ocean Way Studios in Sherman Oaks) where Jackson had executive control over the facility for $4,000 per day. Known as the “rock guy”, Bill Bottrell was forced out of the production of ‘Bad’ by Quincy Jones, but Jackson brought the producer and songwriter back. Creating demos for tracks that would eventually become ‘Give In to Me’ and ‘Black or White,’ as well as parts for ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Who Is It.’
For most of the rhythm tracks, Jackson worked with Bryan Loren at Westlake Studios. Together they recorded a series of demos that included ‘Work That Body,’ ‘She Got It,’ ‘Serious Effect,’ ‘Don’t Believe It,’ ‘Seven Digits,’ and ‘Men in Black.’ Loren’s motivation was to recapture the organic R&B feeling of Jackson’s past albums, ‘Off the Wall’ and ‘Thriller’. LL Cool J was invited to rap on ‘Serious Effect’ and ‘Truth about Youth’, because Jackson wanted to add hip-hop to the record. LL Cool J had been critical of Jackson but praised him after their collaboration.
Decade was originally scheduled for a late 1989 release but was delayed several times. A mock-up of the album artwork was even commissioned with Jackson immortalised etched into stone like an ancient prophet, this premise later utilised in visualising 1995’s History album. The artwork also reveals its working track list, that the compilation was never intended to be chronological. This list includes ‘Billie Jean’, ‘Beat It’, ‘It Doesn’t Really Matter’ (which would later be renamed ‘Who Is It’), ‘The Girl Is Mine’, ‘Rock With You’, ‘She’s Out Of My Life’, ‘Thriller’, ‘Say Say Say’, ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, ‘Dirty Diana’, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Black Or White’, ‘Bad’, ‘Come Together’ (a Beatles cover that Jackson performed in his film ‘Moonwalker’), ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’, ‘Heal The World’, ‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’, ‘Smooth Criminal’, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (another Beatles cover) and then ending with ‘Man In The Mirror’.
However, Jackson became preoccupied with ongoing changes in his management team while also attempting to realise his film-making ambitions. Another release date was set for November 1990, but in June of that year, the artist collapsed while dancing in his home studio due to a possible panic attack, with symptoms of chest pains, dehydration and inflammation of the ribs. With ‘Decade’ at a standstill, Michael’s baby sister, Janet, led pop into new territory with the release of her ‘Rhythm Nation 1814’ album, a masterful fusion of R&B, funk, and rock music.
The newly emerging sounds of hip-hop, grunge rock, and new jack swing captivated the nation’s attention with Public Enemy, Nirvana, as well as sister Janet as the torchbearers. They had a natural appeal for younger audiences, brought new levels of complexity and politics to their respective genres. With a keen desire to top himself and stay current, Jackson’s follow-up record had to exceed his towering achievements and capture the zeitgeist of America in the 1990s.
Soon after, the concept for ‘Decade’ was dropped entirely, Jackson switched focus to creating a striking new album. Although the tracks Michael Jackson and Bryan Loren’s created were strong, Loren’s desire to take Jackson back musically in order to recapture the magic of his previous recordings no longer resonated with the artist. Jackson was in search for a new sound and wanted to take elements from all of the latest innovations, bend, contort, and meld them into his own creative vision.
By 1990, Michael had become enamoured with new jack swing, a more aggressive and urban sound. By then, new jack swing had already taken over radio waves and rocketed up the charts, namely through crossover hits Bobby Brown’s ‘My Prerogative’ and ‘Every Little Step’, Janet Jackson’s ‘Miss You Much’ and ‘Love Will Never Do (Without You)’, Keith Sweat’s ‘I Want Her’ and Babyface’s ‘It’s No Crime’. In other words, Jackson was pretty late to the game, even beaten by his closest rival, Whitney Houston, who embraced the sub-genre in 1990 with her third studio album, ‘I’m Your Baby Tonight’.
Michael reportedly reached out to Janet’s producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who pioneered her new funk-driven sound on both ‘Rhythm Nation’ and her previous album, 1986’s ‘Control’, to work on his new record. But they declined out of loyalty to Janet — with whom they were on a roll with at the time. According to his brother, Jermaine, Michael then reached out to producers L.A. Reid and Babyface, after Jermaine mentioned how excited he was for them to produce his next album while visiting Michael in the hospital. Jermaine then proclaimed that Michael went behind his back by flying the hot production duo out to Los Angeles to work on his own album instead, causing months of delays while Jermaine waited around to record his own record. This would cause a deep rift between the two brothers, eventually motivating Jermaine to release the diss track, ‘Word to the Badd!!’, in protest against Michael in 1991.
Ultimately the Reid/Babyface collaboration with Michael was fruitless and in June 1990, Jackson hired a 23-year-old Teddy Riley. At the time, Riley was part of the R&B soul group ‘Guy’, and also working with Heavy D, Big Daddy Kane and Bobby Brown (with a co-writing credit on ‘My Prerogative’). The Jackson camp wanted a producer who had his ear to the street. It wasn’t like the new wonder of MTV could be exploited again as with Thriller. What Jackson needed was a ‘hot’ sound, and a producer who understood what the icon needed to avoid becoming irrelevant in the wake of the scores of young, black and urban artists stepping up to fill Jackson’s sequined glove.
By the time Riley got on board, Jackson had already recorded over 50 songs and unlike Loren, Teddy Riley wanted Jackson to sound completely different from his earlier work. Jackson challenged Riley to create new instrumentals without relying on stock synth and drum machine sound. “We talked regularly before I produced the album and he described everything he was looking for, sound-wise. He pulled out one of my songs from the Guy album, which I sing, and he said he wanted that sound. He wanted something driving like that”.
Riley came into the studio with the hook for ‘Remember the Time’ already in mind, a track that Jackson loved from the outset and worked tirelessly on to perfect. Riley reworked some of Loren’s productions such as ‘She Got It’ and ‘Serious Effect’, and then continued work on ‘Jam’ and ‘Dangerous’.
By early 1991, Michael Jackson had finished the track list, which included several songs he recorded with Riley: ‘Remember the Time’, ‘Dangerous’, and ‘In the Closet’. But Jackson was relentless and would continue to produce more tracks or spend endless hours tweaking and revamping others. “When the deadline came, he wanted to do more and more songs,” Riley told Rolling Stone in 1992. “And his manager came and said ‘Teddy, you and Michael, you’re not up to your sneaky stuff. Do not write another song.’”
Executives at Sony set a hard deadline for the album, wanting it released before Thanksgiving, 1991. Acting for the first time as an executive producer with a revamped team of collaborators, Michael no longer had the structured parameters Quincy Jones implemented in which to create music. For the last two months of recording, Jackson and Swedien rented hotel rooms located four minutes from Record One, so they could get back to work as soon as possible. Riley said, “When the deadline came, Jackson wanted to do more and more songs… And then when Michael saw the commercial for Dangerous, the David Lynch thing, we started working hard to get it finished.”
Time strapped and riddled with self-doubt, Michael Jackson brought in his former producer to hear the final record — as a quality controller for the project. Quincy Jones complimented Riley on his production, and he said to Jackson it was “a masterpiece, and that it’s ready to come out”.
The final album, now titled ‘Dangerous’, was completed and fully mastered by Halloween, with a worldwide release date of November 26th, 1991.