Reports today from London about a clutch of recordings made in 1983 between Michael Jackson Queen’s Freddie Mercury. Let’s straighten this out fast. There were just two recordings. One was a demo of “State of Shock,” which Michael later recorded and released with Mick Jagger. The other is a ballad, written by Mercury, called (approximately) “Is There More to Life?” According to the Jackson estate, the surviving members of Queen asked if they could fix it up for release. The estate says officially: “We are aware that Queen is working on the track. But no decision has been made about releasing it. We’ll consider it after we hear it.” As for “State of Shock,” that will never– so says the estate– come out from Queen. If it’s used as a rarity or an extra track on album of unreleased materials, it would come from Sony as a Michael Jackson release authorized by the estate. Anyway, one of the classic singles of all time is Queen with David Bowie on “Under Pressure.” Maybe the Michael collaboration will be cool, too. We’ll have to wait and see how they do, if the Jackson estate approves it.
Friday, April 19, 2024
