Michael Jackson P.Y.T. Pretty Young Thing Original Studio Multitracks (Listening Session & Analysis)

yes we have the original studio multi-tracks for  Pretty Young Thing this song I think this is just my opinion but the arranging the way Michael  does his rangy and super free improvisations the songwriting the melody I think that this song  laid the foundation for bands like Maroon 5 and a lot of what Bruno Mars does and I don't know  there may be some arguments against that and probably valid ones but I really feel like this  Vibe set the stage for so much of what we're hearing today and I'm s

uper excited because  in these multi-tracks there are quite a bit of doubles that we don't hear at all or alternate  takes that we don't hear at all in the studio mix and there's also this vocal track that starts  as the same as the lead track but then towards the end it totally diverges and there's all sorts  of these improvs and noises and cool things that I'd never heard before and you wouldn't  unless you had this session I absolutely love doing videos like this because having a  singing Cha

nnel I really feel like there's no better way to learn about your own voice than  studying great vocalists in contexts where you can hear the rawness so much music that we  consume consists of Highly produced material where everything's sort of covered up so to  hear the vulnerability to hear things without effects without the masking of other instruments  in the arrangement is super valuable to your own Pursuits as a vocalist if you'd like more help  with your voice or maybe you're just startin

g to learn how to sing you'd like some help click  the link below and join my free voice course I'll help you with lots of little details  that'll help you get started in the right direction all right let's do this as this become  tradition let's explore the music a little bit before we dive into the vocals I love the very  acoustic nature of the kit the primary kit I mean hear the bleed this is an acoustic performance and a lot  of Michael Jackson stuff particularly later stuff you you don't ge

t this it warms me  to have the the acoustic drum presence what a great simple Groove more percussion here this claps I also think it's interesting  just right here on the uh on these Toms like this is the only thing  on those tracks is just just these Toms open and then and then we go into  the the rest of the drums only only fill in the whole song really key  when it comes to pop arranging especially these drums are so simple so just groovy on  this base we have an actual bass guitar with a pe

rfectly matched synth base do foreign thing is here you can tell they're different  performances and what I love about arranging like this is that there's this balance that  the artists have to create and that because these are performed and not programmed even  though one's you know played on in a acoustic electric instrument and the other one is on you  know a keyboard you really have to know the line and you really have to know how to complement the  other line that you're playing with especi

ally in something like this where it's filling the same  role in the same space and each instrument is playing off of one another to provide something  that sounds like one unit I never would have guessed that this bass sound was the product of  two different performances some amazing guitar go Kansas foreign s and listen here some of the different layers  though you got the clean foreign distorted sounds realizing this is a big deal having the same  part or almost the same part recorded clean a

nd recorded messy and not not necessarily  messy from a performance standpoint but from a tone and production standpoint you get  this bite and presence and definition that you couldn't possibly get out of just one guitar  tone I take the same approach and Michael takes the same approach with vocals as well if you  have slightly different performances slightly different tones slightly different characters  coming out of your voice when you're layering it opens up a whole new world of depth oh  y

eah listen to that the Shimmer of those high it's so cool foreign and then here again foreign we have very different things happening  right you've got the got this more moving line filling out chords and that percussive  Rhythm and then you've got then you've got this which is a riff in and of itself and they're  complementary of each other we're not just playing the same thing anymore so having that  delineation earlier in the song where you've got things played the same way with different  to

nes versus very different parts using those same different tones it's it's just part  of how these genius Arrangements unfold and we would do a lot to learn from these types of  things it's sort of like composers from way back when where they're extrapolating upon a  theme they might bring in a particular sound a particular instrument a particular melody  in one way at the beginning of a piece and then by the end there's the Perfect Blend of  familiarity and newness to keep things fresh and stri

ng The Listener along giving them  exactly what they don't even know they want brilliant and some showcasing  of the wonderful Center ranging fill in little holes well amazing foreign conversations happening just within the context  of the synths I wouldn't have heard it quite this way had we not had the the isolated tracks to  listen to the fact that there's characters and conversations and little like bleeps and and  things happening that pull your attention to different directions even just w

ithin the sense  then you listen to what the guitars are doing and then you add the vocals it's amazing there's  room for anything but this is what I'm talking about when I say that this kind of arranging  conversational storytelling variations on a theme those kind they're all present in this song and  so much of what we hear today is built on stuff like this give me some vocals where did you come  from Lady and oh won't you take me in there by the way won't you maybe tender Rooney you've got t

o be  spunk my name just sugar fly with me you can hear some cut breaths here and there those are likely  you know these were recorded to tape and they were comped together and not always perfectly so  sometimes you get these you know switches in the middle of breaths and they are composited into one  track uh for us people listening in the digital domain what's interesting though and I mentioned  this at the beginning these two tracks are the same where did you come from Lady and oh won't it  c

ame in there by the way won't you maybe you can tell that because there's this phasing they're not  exactly the same but you can tell those aren't two separate performances but the same performance  with slightly different processing on them live with me don't you know now until we get to the  this second part here these first couple lines the same tender Rooney now sugar fly with me  don't you know now is the perfect time you can tell that they diverge one is a different  performance now than t

he other and you can see as we go towards the end of the song they become  completely different there are little sections where they're the same I just find that very  interesting in how these tracks were organized why that would be the case I don't know but it's  cool and it snuck up on me because I thought oh that's just the same track I'm gonna throw that  out and then as I started listening more oh wow there's some new interesting things going on  that aren't present on the Final Mix maybe t

he Final Mix is a is is this maybe there are aspects  of of improvisations in here I've I haven't gone through and been oh that's from the final and  that's not and but nevertheless it's it's fun to hear there's definitely way more here  than in the Final Mix and you don't hear a double and once in a while you hear a double  in the in the original mix but not like this if I if I solo this primary track and these  listen to this sound where did you come from you've got to be spunk my need your su

gar fly  with me don't you know now is the perfect time we can make it right in the city lights  then the night is the love and pain let me take it to the max I want to love you  pretty young thing you need some loving I want to love you pretty young thing you need  some loving so the variants that we're hearing is a huge departure from what we hear on the studio  mix in that you know we've got eq'd and compressed in place with Reverb just right and it's this  composited take and here we've got

this looser possibility camp I don't know any other way to  describe it it's so fun to hear this stuff and it gets even more fun as we go to the end of  the vocals and we hear Michael just Cutting Loose in all sorts of different directions more  to come listen to these background vocals here headphone bleed what a line and I love hearing headphone  bleed because I think we obsess in our recordings over like oh yeah I better not use  those headphones because I'll get too much headphone bleeding t

he mic or whatever there  and all the multi-tracks I've ever heard the vocals have a good degree of headphone bleed  whatever makes you comfortable I like open ear semi-open anyway like these so you can  hear what's in the room it doesn't matter so much that they bleed into the mic especially  if you're comfortable and here's some more background vocals that are just amazing and  if we just throw all of these on with these improvs brought up for for this section minus  this track because for thi

s particular section it mirrors this track but let's listen here  this is fun Pretty Young Thing yo foreign these could be demo vocals take it back oh yeah you need some loving listen  to this low voice in there yeah you need some loving it's cool now I want  to give you the opportunity to listen out in isolation to some of these improvs that Michael  does towards the end some of them you're going to recognize some of them you're going to not but  it's really interesting to just sort of try to g

et into his mind space as he's performing you  know if you're performing yourself this can be very meaningful because you can tell that he's  just sort of losing himself in the Rhythm and the performance in something that maybe doesn't  even have anything to do with exactly what he's singing about but it's it's really profound  to hear you know especially in the context you know you had the headphone bleed and you hear him  moving around a little bit so cool I'm also going to include some of the

se vocoder tracks because I  think it provides some interesting context to the organic nature of his improvs here towards the  end so here is the the first take that we have with the improvs and then we'll go back and  we'll listen to um some of the other take that there I want them to do yeah and I'll check it there you hear how much  of the room you hear when he really starts opening up his his vocals it's also  very surprising to me every single time I've heard dozens and dozens of Michael  J

ackson isolated tracks but how dull the mic sounds right I mean he's likely singing into a  dynamic mic an sm7 sm7b or some variant of that and it just shows you like I mean  great mics are really fun to sing into but some of the best musical moments  ever were done on on very basic equipment whoa baby tender there oh you know I  think it would be real nice if you and I could uh you know just get together  uh it's such a PYT to me a pretty young thing here the different microphone proximity to 

you like he backs away from the mic he leans into the mic especially he's doing that sort of  narrator thing but also he's so rhythmic even in that sort of casual conversation thing he can't  get away from being that Rhythm performer guy really leaning in there oh I just want to love  you you know it's I give you all that I got it's pretty young thing you know TLC oh baby I'll give you all that I got I'll give you  all that I got it's interesting to juxtapose the talking sections with and you'll

hear  it in the next section here you're such a huh yep there's some there's this  beatboxing stuff coming out right now he's in a Groove listen to that sigh right there take you there  it's hey I love that kind of thing come on girl oh the inhales and the and the way he's percussively  bringing himself into this this next line here don't necessarily try to sing along  with him but can you breathe with him that alone is going to completely change  the way you approach singing foreign I'm just a

mazed by the many characters of Michael  Jackson within a single performance within just a number of bars he goes from this you know sort  of conversational timid or maybe not timid but laid back sounding and then he kicks it  in there's a confidence factor for sure but there's also this willingness to to go  different places in your mind and let those be uncensored when it comes to them coming out  your mouth and expressed rhythmically with your body while you're performing let's listen to a  s

ection of that that other that alternate track where he's in the first track doing the sort  of narrative stuff and it's a whole other world take you there oh I want to love you baby is such a pretty young thing you  know TLC oh man I want to live like I said some of this you recognize  and some of it you don't but Hearing in isolation like this when not all of it has been  included in the studio mix it's pretty special foreign it's neat to hear him go into different  stages of different charact

ers at different times based on the inspiration he had at  the moment thanks for hanging out for this Michael Jackson Break Down I plan to  do more as long as you keep watching him let me know what other songs you'd like  me to try and track down we'll see for more