Wanna be startin somethin – The Dangerous Tour Rehearsals – Michael Jackson

“Michael Jackson rehearsing “Wanna be startin somethin” for his Dangerous Tour”

We’re continuing with our review and analysis of Michael Jackson’s 1992 Dangerous Tour Rehearsals and specifically, his second song on in the show “Wanna be startin somethin”. We’ve already had a look at his opening song Jam, after our introductory article, which you can find here. This is a song which Michael performed on all of his live tours and he opened his Bad tour with the song on his previous tour.

Starting the rehearsals with a joke

Michael Jackson performed this song in the hundreds and at the beginning of this rehearsal we hear Michael ask “who cue’s this?”. Michael obviously knows who has cued the song all the other hundreds of times – himself! Also, the actual cue is pretty iconic, with MJ triggering the drummer with 3 loud cracks, into the song.

They actually (Kenny Ortega and band) reply with a little bit of sarcasm and it’s quite funny. They reply, “you do, Michael” and the band giggle. Michael responds; “How do they see me?” to which Ricky Lawson the drummer replies “I’m looking at you”. This is quite funny a funny interesting exchange and it is also pitch black. When this song was performed in the show, they did have a small number of lights on so it wasn’t pitch black for the start of the song.

There is a small irony to the above exchange

The drummer actually made a mistake! After all that he didn’t actually take Michael’s cue because he counted it out loud “one” and hit the “three AND four”. Simple put, he was one beat out, as the cue has always been and is always is as soon as Michael’s arm reaches full extension, the drummer goes. I touched on this previously, in the “Jam” piece but I think that if you cut out the smart comments, joking, and cheering etc you’d probably cut down on these small mistakes. However, the final show was nearly perfect, so that can be excused, I think. As long as the final show is perfect, it’s all good!

Missing Bass part – keyboard being set up

We have six bars at the beginning with no bass part. It actually sounds like it is just very low volume and they forgot to had the keyboard volume up. They rectified that quickly and we really hear a fat bass sound. A really good sound actually, totally different from the original but really works well.

Tempo of the song

This feels very fast. In actually fact, it is no faster than they actually finally performed on the tour and it is the same tempo as the Bad tour. The song was slowed down on the History Tour and although, I really enjoyed the faster versions, I also enjoyed the slightly slower version too. I think that it just a case of Michael getting older and slowing the piece down so it’s easier to sing and dance. In the context of this show, the speed was pretty much perfect, although, it did vary over the course of Michael’s world tours.

E Major – The Key of the song

Michael Jackson’s original song was in the key of E Major. The key of the song is very important because it is an indication of what notes to sing or play. Michael Jackson had a 3 octave range (that’s just chest voice!), at least and he loved to sing in the upper parts of his register.

His vocal coach Seth Riggs often talks about how a studio artist can hit the notes in the studio when they are totally prepared and relaxed but after hours and days of travelling and touring, how are they going to hit the notes then, when they are tired and exhausted, with a high and tense throat and larynx?

Michael Jackson, as a human, was no exception. If we listen to this rehearsal, he is obviously not singing full out, as their is no need but we do hear two interesting things. We hear him sing the song, in parts, one full octave lower and we hear him sing it in falsetto. This song takes a lot of energy to sing in it’s original key and is we move forward and take a step to the opening night show in Munich we will hear that he was singing the song in it’s original key, E Major.

With that said, we also, hear that Michael is struggling with some of the notes misses’s some higher ones out completely. The opening night was the ONLY show on the tour that he sang “Wanna be startin somethin”, in it’s original key. In the next show and all subsequent shows they lowered the key, so it would be more comfortable for Michael to sing on the road. It still sounded very good, so it worked well. (Other songs on the tour were also lowered after the opening night, including “Beat it”).

Backing Vocals

The backing vocals on this rehearsals, as were all rehearsals and shows of this song, were all live, and performed very well. The vocalists were really on form this night and Siedah Garrett, the original writer of “Man in the mirror” sounds great. I don’t remember a single, comment or critique from Michael toward the backing vocalists during this rehearsal.

Musically – all live

This is one of the few songs which Michael always sang live and was always played live – as in – fully live. No click track, or pre recorded backing (just like songs like the “Jackson 5″ medley and “Human Nature”). I will exclude the “This is it” performance from this though. With regards to the music, it is essentially the same as it’s always been played live and sounded great. A little bit simple sounding, and much in need of the string section though. Subsequently, this song went past with no real comment as there wasn’t really much to change or to add, as it has been well performed and rehearsed in the past by nearly everybody on the stage. Special, attention should be given to the drums. They are played very well and they have a really great down beat, very hard, something which was missing from most of the songs of “This is it” (not the fault of the drummer but the fault of the mix)

Three musical changes from the actual final show

We have three changes between the rehearsal of the song and the final Dangerous tour performance. Firstly, just before the midway “hit” when they are doing their montage dance at the side of the stage we have a little horn cue. This is obviously temporary. It sounds like on the tour, the flourish, just before the hit were probably pre recorded and triggered at the right moment and could possibly be the only pre recorded element to the final song. I might be wrong about it on this tour but I am almost certain it was triggered on later tours.

The Horns!

Secondly, the horns! If you listen to the brass section keyboard line at the end, it is very different from the actual concert and later shows. This is because it was changed and changed for the BETTER. The newer horn line really creates height and a perfect build up before Michael “James Brown dance move“.

The horns on this occasion were trying to recreate the album brass section which is impossible to do from a keyboard, so it would be better to try something slightly different and recreate the FEELING, rather than the actual original line. This is what they did to great affect, as it didn’t sound so great on this rehearsal and was much improved for the show. The same problem arose during “This is it’s” version. They tried to recreate the original horn sounds and, for me, just doesn’t compare to the Dangerous Tour and the History Tour’s versions – they are lacking in that live magic, energy and height. There is a big difference between a live song being performed by a few musicians and an original album piece in the studio. Changed for the better for the show, so all good.

Finally, we also have a much extended “breakdown” section – much much better! It felt very short during the rehearsal and that is the part of the show which really gets the audience going crazy.

Michael Jackson’s Choreography and the Dance

Michael was just marking this song and was walking through the moves. He seemed to have forgotten the section of dance just after and during the montage section of the song. He was just getting the feel of the song. During the same musical section during “This is it”, we see Michael do an automatic turn to the left, like old times (take a close look), as it was rooted in his brain, during this song.

That’s basically it for this song! One of my favourite Michael Jackson songs and live performances. Next we move on to “Human Nature. See you for more at the weekend!

Wanna be startin somethin – The Dangerous Tour Rehearsals – (YouTube)

By Anthony King (c)

Related articles

DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON ANALYSIS AND REVIEW, INTRODUCTION
JAM – THE DANGEROUS TOUR REHEARSALS – MICHAEL JACKSON
MICHAEL JACKSON DANGEROUS TOUR MUNICH, JUNE 27, 1992
MICHAEL JACKSON HISTORY TOUR LIVE IN SEOUL, KOREA
MICHAEL JACKSON DANGEROUS TOUR BUCHAREST LIVE CONCERT/DVD
MICHAEL JACKSON AND FRIENDS 1999 CHARITY CONCERTS
MICHAEL JACKSON’S HISTORY WORLD TOUR 1996
MICHAEL JACKSON’S DANGEROUS WORLD TOUR 1992
MICHAEL JACKSON’S BAD TOUR 1988

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