FC2Video

"It is quite different from everything I've ever recorded or ever written. It's a bold statement to say, but I mean it in all good will so don't take it to seriously *laughs* Yeah I'm saying....it's like a way of saying you're cool, you're alright, you're tough. I'm not saying I'm like criminally bad! Of course, that's how people would take it...The short film is a true story we have taken from Time or NewsWeek magazine about this 17 year old kid who was from the ghetto and that went to school up state and tried to make something of his life. When he came back his friends became so jealous of him that they killed him. And he is a black kid like me and it's a sad story...Something like that is so negative and wrong. I think that's life, to wanna grow and become more, like you plant a seed and it grows into something beautiful and it never dies really.... I think people should be more that way." MICHAEL JACKSON, Ebony JET Interview, 1987 Michael's full music video for "Bad" is an 18-minute short film written by novelist and screenwriter Richard Price. The video was directed by Martin Scorsese during a period of 6 weeks in the fall of 1987. The video has many references to the 1961 film West Side Story, especially the "Cool" sequence. Not only does it show a street gang dancing in an urban setting, but there are also some parts of the choreography that were influenced by it. The choreographer [Gregg Burge] confirmed the influence, although they intended to do a more contemporary version of it. Assistant choreographer Jeffrey Daniel commented "It's like a train coming across the screen and that's the effect I was looking for and it worked" The music video to the song used an audio track different from the original album recording, using another instrumental organ solo in the middle of the song. This version hasn't been commercially released. The video premiered on primetime on the CBS Television Network, on August 31, 1987, on the primetime special Michael Jackson: The Magic Returns.