Soulflower

Michael Jackson's
Blood on the Dance Floor: History in the Mix


Michael Jackson's first official remix album was released on May 20, 1997 by Epic Records and is the second album released on Michael's own record label, MJJ Productions.

Producers: Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Bruce Swedien, René Moore, Dallas Austin, David Foster, Bill Bottrell, R. Kelly



Fun Fact: The album consists of 8 remixes of songs on MJ's HIStory album and 5 new songs

I am going to discuss the new songs on the album instead of the remixes.


Track 1: Blood on the Dance Floor

Written, composed and produced by: Michael Jackson and Teddy Riley
Engineered by Teddy Riley, Dave Way and Mick Guzauski
Mixed by Mick Guzauski




Fun Fact: The song was the leading single on the album and peaked at number one in several countries.

I LOVEEEE this song and I LOVEEEE this video!!! MJ rockin that french braid, YES!!! The song fuses rock, funk, electronic, and Hi-NRG. The song is about a a leading lady named "Susie". She seduces MJ although she is really plotting to kill him with a knife. The overall story that Michael sings angrily is about a tale of a back stabbing woman.

I think the song lyrics are haunting, dark and very revealing. Michael also mentions this "Susie" female character in another song on the album. I am curious who this lady really is in real life who inspired this "Susie" character. It is possible Susie might not even be a woman, it might be an experience...either way I am still curious and would love to know more about it or her because these are some deep deep lyrics by a angry hurt person that feels the need to warn the world of this "Susie" character.

Michael's vocals are seductive and eerie. He sings with a raspy voice but it goes well with the overall production. The music video is directed by Vincent Patterson and it has a latin/salsa club feel to it.

Fun Fact: At the time of it's released, many journalist suspected the Susie character was a metaphor for AID's


Album Photos:







Track 2: Morphine


Written by Michael Jackson


This is one of Michael's best songs and one of his best songs that he has ever written. Also, this is one of his most personal songs.

In this song Michael sings about his prescription dependency to Morphine and Demerol. This song reminds me a lot of how Bohemian Rhapsody is structured. However, unlike Bohemian Rhapsody, there is a chorus. The song does break up into many different genres throughout though.

The song fuses rock, classical, spoken word and dutch. The song features Slash from Guns N Roses on the track.

Michael is angry on this song. He sings "trust in me, put all your trust in me... you doing Morphine...your doggin bitch baby, you make me sick baby" I think this song was very therapeutic for him. I think he is actually singing "to the drugs" and venting his frustration on his dependency. At a certain point in the song towards the ending, it cuts into a classical piano piece.

He sings:

Relax
This won't hurt you
Before I put it in
Close your eyes and count to ten
Don't cry
I won't convert you
There's no need to dismay
Close your eyes and drift away

Demerol
Demerol
Oh God he's taking demerol
Demerol
Demerol
Oh God he's taking demerol

He's tried
Hard to convince her
To be over what he had
Today he wants it twice as bad
Don't cry
I won't resent you
Yesterday you had his trust
Today he's taking twice as much




I love this song because I respect the sincerity behind it. I mean C'MON what pop star OUT NOW would be as personal as MJ was on this song?!?! He basically aired his own laundry and he did it in such a creative and artistic way. I appreciate the song for what it is and I am happy that he really exposed himself on this song.

Fun Fact:"Morphine" is also titled "Just Say No" on some licensed editions of the album. Both "Is It Scary" and "Ghosts" share certain lyrics.

Track 3: Superfly Sister


Written by Michael Jackson and Bryan Loren

I LOVEEEEE this song!!! WHO IS SUSIE?!?!?!?! He mentions this Susie character alot lol I think MJ was inspired by Prince or Funkadelic on this song LOL The song is eclectic and fuses genres such as funk, new jack swing,salsa, etc.

In this song, Michael is enlightening us about the birds and the bees lol and the not so good things about that at times.

He sings:

Susie like to agitate
Get the boy and make him wait
Mother's preaching Abraham
Brothers they don't give a damn


He wanna do something keen to you
He wanna wrap his arms all around you girl
He wanna do it up keep it high
Deep in the night
He wanna eye ball
Get hard
Playing it right

He wanna turn the key
Hurt the sheets
Move to the left
He wanna hot scrub
Hot love
Making it wet

I love EVERYTHING about this song and I am loving these descriptive lyrics. It is a really good message for young girls and for young men. I love when MJ sings dirty *shrugs* BUT artistically of course!


Track 4: Ghosts
Written by Michael Jackson and Teddy Riley



I am first going to discuss the music video and than I am going to discuss the actual song.

Fun Fact: MJ Ghosts music video is 40 minutes long making it one of the most longest music videos ever made. MJ plays a total of 5 roles in the short film.

The Ghosts music video was written and co written by horror writer Stephen King. The short film was directed by Stan Winston.

The music video tells the story of a mysterious Maestro (Michael Jackson) with supernatural powers, who is being forced out of a small town by its mayor who is very judgmental and arrogant (also played by Michael Jackson who is made up as an overweight white male who resembles Tom Sneddon who was the leading prosecutor in Michael's 1993 child molestation accusation). The music video includes multiple choreography routines and songs that are featured on this remix album and Michael's HIStory album.

I really LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE this music video. Can you tell? I LOVE this video so much!! I LOVE the dancing and I love the story plot. The story plot really touches me because I know the overall message MJ was sending with it. Michael plays a mysterious scary person in the video. However, that is how his image was depicted in real life. In the music video, the mayor tells MJ's character that he has to leave town because he is a "freak" and is "strange".

Ironically MJ is actually playing the mayor in the music video. I think the mayor in the music video is a metaphor for the way society and the media depicted MJ. They depicted MJ as strange. As a result of his celebrity, it forced him to isolate himself which made him appear as a recluse to society. Once again, MJ is depicting alot of his own personal feelings about the way he is perceived by the public and the media in in this video.

I think the video teaches people to be accepting of others that are different from them. Also, it exposes how our society is judgmental and is quick to label and cast out those that are different rather than taking the time to understand why they are different.




Fun Fact: MJ wanted to make the scariest music video ever when he first scripted this story plot and created this music video. He wanted this video to be even bigger and scarier than Thriller!


Stephen King co writter of "GHOSTS" Remembers Michael Jackson:
Memories of Michael Jackson | Michael Jackson | EW.com
"STEPHEN?...Stephen King?...This is...ummm...Michael? Michael Jackson?'' The voice is high, anxious, hopeful, excited, elfin. ''I'm, oh my God, I am such a fan!''

I assure him that the feeling's mutual, but what I'm mostly feeling is flummoxed. It's 1993, I'm on the set of the Stand miniseries, and out of the blue someone's handed me a phone with the self-anointed King of Pop on the other end of the line. What he wants, it develops, is for me to write the scariest, the absolute SCARIEST, music video ever, called Ghosts. It will be like the old Frankenstein movies, he explains, only scarier! TERRIFYING! ''Stephen,'' he says, ''we must do this. We're going to shock the world.''

I gave it my best try, not because it was Michael Jackson and not because I thought we were going to shock the world, but because I'm always interested in trying something new, and for me, writing a minimusical would be new. The core story he described to me that day was about a mob of angry townspeople — buttoned-down suburbanites, not torch-carrying peasants — who want the ''weirdo'' who lives in the nearby castle to leave town. Because, they say, he's a bad influence on their children. I associated that with the view parents held toward rock & roll when I was growing up, and still held toward the odder artists of the breed, like Ozzy Osbourne and Marilyn Manson (who in 1995 would release an album called Smells Like Children). I didn't know that rumors about Jackson and child abuse had begun to circulate, but probably would have pressed ahead even if I had. When you're famous, everybody accuses you of everything, from petty theft to the murder of John Lennon.

The film shot for three weeks, then shut down for three years. I may once have known why, but if so, I no longer remember. My old pal (and Stand director) Mick Garris did the initial filming. One day during preproduction, I was in on a conference call about the choreography, and Michael fell asleep. On another occasion, he called my wife, wanting the phone number for wherever I was that day. She gave it to him. Michael called back five minutes later, on the verge of tears. He hadn't had a pencil, he said, so he'd tried to write the number on the carpet with his finger, and he couldn't read it. My wife gave him the number again. Michael thanked her profusely...but never called me.

Filming on the Michael Jackson Ghosts video recommenced as abruptly as it had stopped. Mick remembers getting a call from Michael in 1996: ''Mick, it's gonna happen! We gotta believe it's gonna happen!'' It did, but without Mick behind the camera. He was working on the miniseries version of The Shining by then, and Stan Winston took over the directing chores. The story had wandered a far distance from my original script, but that hardly matters. What does matter is that the video contains some of the best, most inspired dancing of Jackson's career. If you look at it, I think you'll see why Fred Astaire called Jackson ''a helluva mover.'' You'll also see Jackson's sadness and almost painful desire to please. Yes, I am strange, his eyes say, but I am doing the best I can, and I want to make you happy. Is that so bad?

This is a sadness that's all too common in people who possess talent in amounts so great it has become a burden instead of a blessing. Despite being extraordinarily beautiful (although he had probably already begun the elective surgeries that would ruin those amazing looks), Jackson was painfully shy, and difficult (sometimes impossible) to talk to, but watching that old video still makes me happy...and no, that's not bad.

It's worth noting that he was never convicted of anything in criminal court, and when I asked Mick — who hung out with Michael occasionally — he was emphatic in his belief that Michael Jackson was indeed innocent of the abuse allegations. In the court of public opinion, however, he was found guilty of Weirdness in the First Degree, and ended up secluded in one haunted castle after another. Finally, he died in one. Strange man. Lost man. And not unique in his passing. Like James Dean, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger, and a dozen others we could name, he just left the building far too soon.

Because, man oh man, that guy could dance".
- Stephen King



Fun Fact: Mos Def is featured in this music video. He is actually the guy that cries lol

The song "GHOSTS":

I LOVEEEEE this song!!!

Similiar to the video, I love the actual song for the same reason. The song fuses hip hop and funk. The production is CRAZZZZZZZYYY GOOD!! Teddy put his foot in it!! Michael is very paranoid in the song lyrics though. The song is very dark and eerie.

He sings:

And who gave you the right to shake my family?
And who gave you the right to shake my baby, she needs me
And who gave you the right to shake my family tree?
You put a knife in my back
Shot an arrow in me!
Tell me are you the ghost of jealousy
The ghost of jealousy

Once again, I think MJ is referring to the media, prosecutors of the 93 accusation and distractions. I think that is what is "haunting" him and who he feels is out to kill him. He feels these people are jealous and what to tear about his family and people he cares about. In real life, MJ did seriously believe people wanted to kill him

This is a great tune to dance to but it is also sad because MJ actually believed these lyrics. Thank goodness he is at peace now.





Track 5: "Is It Scary"

Written by: Michael Jackson, James Harris III, Terry Lewis


The song fuses rock, classical, spoken word, folk, dutch, goth music (if that is even a genre lol)

I LOVEEEE this song. This is another personal song by the King of Pop. At the time of its released critics compared this song to alot of the songs Marilyn Manson does. The song is very dark and errie. The song is similiar to Ghosts as far as the subject matter. In the song MJ asks questions to his audiences.

Am I amusing you?

Am I confusing you?

Am I scary to for you?


I think MJ is being condescending and patronizing his critics and his audiences. I love the overall creepy production and how MJ changes his voice throughout the song. He sings very soft in the beginning and then gets more intense throughout the song.