Dangerous Demos - Original DAT Leak
The year was approximately 2002. It was a pretty interesting year to be a Michael Jackson fan. Jackson was insisting that Tommy Mattola was the devil due to the “failure” of his album Invincible. Blanket was born, and their was a great deal of controversy surrounding that. Jackson had made an cameo in Men In Black II. We even got a new album, although it wasn’t much more than a greatest hits compilation. However, it was also a special year thanks to some dedicated fans. We saw leaks of several brand new Jackson tracks, including Escape (often mistitled Xscape) and What More Can I Give. However the biggest leak was found on the site MJ Hideout. It seems one dedicated fan had leaked a collection of studio demos from the Dangerous sessions.
The set included “demos” of several songs from the Jackson album, Dangerous, as well as a few new previously unreleased tracks, as well as an early demo of Earth Song (which would later be released on the HIStory album). Two of the leaked songs, Monkey Business and For All Time, would later be released officially on The Ultimate Collection and Thriller 25 (though the version of For All Time found on Thriller 25 appears to be an earlier version with new vocal overdubs). A few of the other unreleased tracks found their way onto the second-disc of the Dangerous Special Edition, however in the end it was decided to not include the bonus disc. That bonus disc eventually found its way online, commonly under the title of “The Real Special Edition”.
Over the years these demos have circulated in varying quality, both in their original forms and with some fan made edits. What we present are the original demos as they were originally leaked. Please replace the versions you may have with these ones as they are as they were originally delivered online, with no edits, enhancements, or modifications.
Now remember, these were originally leaked as “Demos” however some say this is not a fair name, as they could in many cases be considered simply alternate takes. However I’m going by what the original leaker called them.
These are the ones that came from the DAT (digital audio tape) and as such contain some tape hiss (though not enough to make them listenable). In some cases they may sound almost identical to the originals, and some have subtle differences. As for the unreleased tracks, these are different from the ones that were eventually leaked with “The Real Special Edition”. Again, sometimes the differences are subtle but you can hear them. Again, this may be due to alternate takes.
Tracklisting:
01. Jam
02. In The Closet
03. Remember the Time
04. Black or White
05. Who Is It
06. Give Into Me
07. Keep The Faith
08. Gone to Soon
09. Dangerous
10. What About Us (Earth Song Demo)
11. MONKEY BUSINESS*
12. For All Time (Unreleased)^
13. If You Don’t Love Me (Unreleased)
14. Serious Effect (Unreleased)
* — NOT INCLUDED AS THIS HAS BEEN RELEASED OFFICIALLY (I hear no difference between the two, simply quality improvements for the Box Set)
^ — Yes, a VERSION of this was included on the Thriller 25 boxset, however this version is different. Some said the song was recorded twice, during the Thriller Era and then again for the Dangerous sessions. I don’t know what the truth is, however this is different and as such was included.
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 256kbs (The Highest Quality Currently Available)
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Note: there are two other compilations of demos out there, both of which are fan made and fake. A two disc “promo” disc featuring “studio demos” for songs not included in this release was being sold by several “fans” and contained homemade remixes. It should be avoided at all costs. The second disc simply compiled the tracks from this original DAT release and “The Real Special Edition”, although many of the tracks were transcoded to a higher bitrate, despite the original source files being 256 kbs. Again, this is the version to have.
