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Michael Jackson Vs The Beatles - Come Together comparison

When the beatles wrote come together they had a differant meaning behind the song as to when michael jackson covered it many years later. Many people believe that when the beatles wrote it, you could argue that it could have been influenced by drugs, or perhaps that they were trying to promote coming together as people against war during a time when the vietnam war was happening. Or maybe even both.

The lyrics to the song are all descriptive of a man throughout the song, but the lyrics used to describe this man are very odd. For example one line is "He got joo-joo eyeball, he one holy roller", With lyrics like these a lot of people could easily think that this song was influenced during the beatles drug phase. For me personally I feel like the beatles enjoyed making songs where people were never sure what they really meant. So i believe that these lyrics were very simple, descriptive, but the Beatles knew it would get people talking as to what they mean.

The instumentation for come together by the beatles was slightly heavy for them, featuring distorted guitars. The bass line is the main hook on this track, with the distorted guitars coming in on the chorus to full effect. There is also small solos in the track, the main one being towards the end of the track. The bass line is also overlapped in the beginning of the track with John Lennon saying "shoot me", adding another layer to the bass line intro hook.

When Michael Jackson covered this track many years later, he modernised it and added his signature sound to the song. He did this by adding in a lot heavier instumentation to the track, featuring heavily distorted rock guitars, heavier drums, and his signature vocals. The way Michael Jackson took the exact same lyrics that the beatles had wrote and sung years earlier, he sung them with attitude, and some would say a certain sexual tone.

The instumentation for the song was really taken to a point to be made to sound like a heavy rock track with a lot of attitude behind the bass, guitar, drums, and of course the vocals. The snare drum really had a lot punch behind it, something you can't help but nod your head and/or clap along to. The bassline was played in a slapbass style, again another thing that would just add to that attitude the insturmental would give off. Lastly the Guitar, this is something that was taken to another level, There was some rearrangments into the guitar track that would give it that punchy feel to it.

Jackson really wanted to take this track and give an injection of 110% attitude, loudness, some may say a sexual tone involved also. However Michael Jackson definiltey made the track his own unique sound, and gave it a massive makeover. When you would hear this version it sounds like the track would come across with a "your gonna hear me whether you like it or not" vibe to it.

For me I really enjoy the rendition done by Michael Jackson over the original. I always appreciate the original versions of any songs i listen to. But being a person who is a hard rock guitar player, and rock music being my main genre of music. This version just resonates with me more, it's the loudness of the instruments, the attitude of Jacksons vocals that just give off an energy that the original just doesn't for me, and this being said is the reason that i choose the Michael Jackson version over the original.


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