Michael Jackson's most paranoid songs

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Of course, they're some of his best.

"Billie Jean"
"Leave Me Alone"
"In the Closet"
"Why You Wanna Trip On Me"

There are more. Help me out here. I'm making a special paranoid creepy mix.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Which was the one with the fabled "Jew me, Sue me, Everybody Do me!" line?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:13 (twenty-one years ago)

You could probably add "Scream" too.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know, but that makes the mix with a bullet.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:14 (twenty-one years ago)

(x-post)

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I looked it up....it's called "They Don't Care About Us".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"Wanna Be Startin' Something"

― Al (sitcom), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:20 (twenty-one years ago)

YES!

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"Stranger In Moscow", which features the lyric "Stalin's tomb won't let me be."

― Schwingung (Damian), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:30 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a rare track called "New York" that features the lyric "The Empire State building is following me."

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I made that up. But I had you for a second, right?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahahaha

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I would totally buy that he wrote "New York" for his last album and tried to get Jay-Z to guest on it

― rgeary (rgeary), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:35 (twenty-one years ago)

What about "Blood on the Dance Floor"? I've never heard it, actually, but I can only imagine.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"Smooth Criminal"!!!!!

ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE? ANNIE ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY ANNIE?

etc. etc. ad nauseum.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know if it's paranoid by strict definition, but it's certainly creepy.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 22 November 2003 08:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Dirty Diana

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 22 November 2003 09:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Where is Rockwell?

― Michael Patrick Brady (Michael Patrick Brady), Saturday, 22 November 2003 13:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm always watching him.

― pete from the street, Saturday, 22 November 2003 14:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw on Sky News or something similar when Jackson got arrested that he wrote a song about the lawyer on the Jordie Chandler case where the lyrics went "[x] is a bad man, [x] is a bad man, [x] is a bad man", where [x] is the name of the lawyer who I can't remember.

Or something similar, anyway.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Saturday, 22 November 2003 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

"I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE, SOMEBODY'S WATCHING MEEEEEEEEE"

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 22 November 2003 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"Who Is It?"

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Saturday, 22 November 2003 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

"Tabloid Junkie", obviously.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 22 November 2003 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, that fits, but I can't put that song on a mix. It's shit.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 22 November 2003 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

What about Beat It? ("they'll kick and they'll punch you and they'll tell you its fair" seems pretty paranoid)

― Matt Helgeson (Matt Helgeson), Saturday, 22 November 2003 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

well if this one does exist, could someone please remember it's name for me ? it's a good story if it's true .. i've lost touch with jackson, but the eventual over-all jackson story that will be written one day, i'd read that.

(i don't know whether it's "Tabloid Junkie", whatever that is. i've found jackson so un-listenable that i have never braved his music since Thriller). it might be good for a mix tape for me, because if the music is as bad as i expect it will be, i'll be able to talk throughout the entire song)

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 22 November 2003 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Reuters reports that a track from HIStory called "D.S." includes the lyrics "Tom Sneddon is a cold man" repeated over and over. Tom "Mad Dog" Sneddon (as he was then-known) is the DA who prosecuted the first case 10 years ago, and he's the same man prosecuting MJ today. The song continues:

"They wanna get my ass/Dead or alive/You know he really tried to take me/Down by surprise"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 22 November 2003 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)

That's the one, Tracer.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Saturday, 22 November 2003 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)

it might be good for a mix tape for me, because if the music is as bad as i expect it will be, i'll be able to talk throughout the entire song

No you won't! The production will be too good!

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 22 November 2003 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

holy shit, I always assumed Tom Sneddon was a fictional character!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 22 November 2003 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok, this is what I came up with, 80 minutes worth:

1. Wanna Be Starting Something
2. Beat It
3. Billie Jean
4. Dirty Diana
5. Smooth Criminal
6. Leave Me Alone
7. Why You Wanna Trip On Me
8. In The Closet
9. Who Is It
10. Blood on the Dancefloor
11. Scream
12. They Don't Care About Us
13. D.S.
14. Privacy
15. Unbreakable

It's a nice chronicle of a decent, actually. The opening tracks are killer, then gradually less so, until "D.S." and "Privacy" are just whiny, unaccomplished, schitzo nutbag shit that never should have seen the light of day. And then "Unbreakable" is either a ray of hope, or of hopeless dilusion.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 November 2003 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)

The song he did with the Jacksons -- "That's What You Get (For Being Polite)" -- sees Michael putting his paranoia into the third person, with complicated results.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 23 November 2003 06:32 (twenty-one years ago)

The "Tom Sneddon is a cold man" thing kills me.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 23 November 2003 06:37 (twenty-one years ago)

"Black or White," because Michael's not sure who he is and thinks Macauley Culkin is trying to confuse him by rapping in the video. That's why he takes out his frustration on that car with the axe in the video's original cut.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Sunday, 23 November 2003 06:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I few great ones that nobody seems to have mentioned: "Heartbreak Hotel," "Torture, "Speed Demon," "Give in to Me." And I honestly think "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell belongs; there's no way that anybody but Michael (who sings backup) could have written those words.

― chuck, Sunday, 23 November 2003 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I tried to download "Torture," to no avail. Seems the Jackson Victory album is not in many people's mp3 collections.

I toyed with putting "Somebody's Watching Me" on there, but it's quite a bad song. The lyrics apart from the chorus are unendurably stupid.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 November 2003 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Kenan, what are you talking about? Hearing Rockwell going "I can't enjoy my tea!" in that accent of his is some kinda genius.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 November 2003 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

what was the kid creole song he was on?

― cinniblount (James Blount), Sunday, 23 November 2003 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I was just gonna say his accent was even stupider than the words!

― chuck, Sunday, 23 November 2003 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

that song's the closest to a prince-mj duet we're gonna get

― cinniblount (James Blount), Sunday, 23 November 2003 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, more and more, I'm thinking that *Triumph* by the Jacksons might conceivably be his best album; I'm amazed that nobody ever seems to remember it. (*Blood on the Dancefloor,* though, is almost as underrated, I suppose.)

― chuck, Sunday, 23 November 2003 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

triumph has "can you feel it" right?

― cinniblount (James Blount), Sunday, 23 November 2003 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

It does have that insanely great cover, doesn't it? Like a Journey cover to the nth degree, sans scarab.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 November 2003 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"I wonder who's watching me now - the IRS?!?!"

― mike a (mike a), Sunday, 23 November 2003 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

>>triumph has "can you feel it" right?<<

Yep. And that's at BEST the fourth best track on it.

― chuck, Sunday, 23 November 2003 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

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