Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song” and Pink Floyd

Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song” from his 1996 “History” album not only only has a musical connection to Pink Floyd (which we will look at) but also, as we touched on yesterday, a live performance inspiration from Pink Floyd too. We have looked at the wall of speakers being brought down on the stage and the array of pyrotechnics during Michael’s “Black or White” and how that was “inspired” by Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” live show back in 79.

The building of the speaker wall during “Black or White” was interesting but odd … I felt when watching it live, “Why are they building a massive wall and smashing it down 3 minutes later?”. I understand the point, I understand that the video has the massive speakers and the guitar and all the rest of and I also, from a logistical point of view understand that behind that wall they are preparing the stage for “Earth Song” and setting the staging set elements – That was my first impression! Then again, it’s a show and exploding things is always cool just for the sake of it, so it’s all good!

Right, before we look at the album version of “Earth Song” and the musical connection, let’s finish looking at Michael Jackson’s History Tour performance of the song and how it was inspired by Pink Floyd and also at another performance of Michael’s that was inspired by Pink Floyd’s, “The Wall”

Michael Jackson definitely watched Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”

There are many elements of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” in Michael Jackson’s stage elements. Let’s take a look at Floyd’s live performance of “Another brick in the wall P.2″ from PULSE:

The first 50 seconds of this were taken EXACTLY for Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song”

- Helicopter hovering sound
- Spotlights searching over the audience
- As discussed yesterday – “The Wall” coming down at the start of “Earth Song” and end of “Black or White”

Have a look at this video from 50 seconds and it will become a bit clearer:

What you don’t get from the video is the audience search lights but they are clear on the a clear HD version of the Munich History tour (from 5.20 below) – I also see that this youtuber has uploaded an alternate broadcast because the original live (kind of) Sat One German broadcast cut the beginning of “Earth Song” – video below:

So you have, search lights, helicopter sound effects, sirens and obviously a massive wall being smashed down, all from Pink Floyd and all inspired by the great group. They not only changed music “musically” but also live shows and concerts.

Michael Jackson did the same in the pop world. Earth Song is one of my favourite Michael Jackson songs and one of my favourite live performances of Michael’s. If you think about it, he has so many songs and classics to choose from, that that might be a surprise. In fact, History’s “Stranger in Moscow” and “Earth Song” would probably make it into my Top 6 Michael Jackson songs of all time – that show’s his range and consistency over the years.

They don’t care about us live and The Wall

You might be surprised to hear that it wasn’t only “Earth Song” (which we will wrap up tomorrow) that borrowed from “The Wall” and Pink Floyd but also performances like “They don’t care about us”, the marching, uniforms, soldiers and all the rest of it! Pink Floyd did it first. It’s best to go off and look at Michael Jackson’s performance of the song in “This is it” (here – 50 secs). Have a close look on the background and soldiers and then go and have a look at “Run Like Hell” and you are going to see that the theme of soldiers and marching and singing and where it all came from:

We’re going to wrap up our Michael Jackson and Pink Floyd little series tomorrow with a more musical link between the two!

One more thing!

I had a chance to work with Pink Floyd’s drummer and we had a good talk about all of this and we’ll touch on that too in our next post!

That’s it for today though … you’ve got enough to keep you busy!

By Anthony King (c)

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Related articles

MICHAEL JACKSON AND THE PINK FLOYD CONNECTION PART 1
MICHAEL JACKSON’S HISTORY WORLD TOUR 1996
MICHAEL JACKSON’S DANGEROUS WORLD TOUR 1992
MICHAEL JACKSON’S BAD TOUR 1988

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