David Gest Has an Unreleased Michael Jackson Album
David Gest recently released the documentary “Life of an Icon” (Life of an Icon) in the UK. The documentary was met with great enthusiasm from Catherine, Michael’s mother.
In the next step, Gest has turned to songs by Michael Jackson that he says are written based on poems by Robert Burns (Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland in the 18th century with worldwide fame) and are being heard for the first time. Gest says that he collaborated with Michael on producing an album of songs based on Burns’ poems. In December, during a visit to Ayrshire in Scotland, he donated the mentioned music album to the museum of Robert Burns’ birthplace.
He says that the King of Pop was a prominent fan of Burns and turned the poet’s verses into songs for contemporary music. The existence of these songs was confirmed in 2008, but until now no one had heard anything about them. Gest has even claimed that Michael was inspired by a poem by Burns titled Tam O’ Shanter for a song and a short film trailer.
Gest, the former husband of the famous actress Liza Minnelli, said the following about this:
“We were both eager. I told Michael to come and work on a production of Burns’ life, and he said he would help me with the music production for the show. Michael took this project very seriously and gave it a lot of importance. He said he would let me use his studio in Los Angeles and would cover all the music costs. We went to his home studio in Haynehurst (the Jackson family home in Encino, Los Angeles) and chose about 8 or 10 of Burns’ songs, and we created contemporary music for him. Verses like A Red Red Rose, Ae Fond Kiss, the story of Tam O’Shanter.”
He also described how the two of them became familiar with Burns’ poems:
“I went with Michael to an old bookstore on Beverly Hills Boulevard in Los Angeles. The shop owner said he had a copy of the first edition of Robert Burns’ poems. The book was very expensive. I decided to take a look. At the time, I didn’t know who Burns was. Americans don’t know him very well. They sing Auld Lang Syne every New Year’s celebration, but they don’t know the poet.”
Gest says that the songs Michael made based on Burns’ poems were supposed to be part of the music for a musical theater production produced by Anthony Perkins and directed by Gene Kelly. But with the deaths of both of these artists (respectively in 1992 and 1996), the project failed.
A spokesperson for the Robert Burns Museum, while expressing enthusiasm, confirmed Gest’s remarks and said that they have received an album of Michael Jackson songs and are welcoming discussions and consultations about it.
The Michael Jackson Foundation has not yet reacted to the release of this news, and it’s unclear whether they were aware of the album’s existence or whether they approve of Gest’s actions.
But Nate Edwards, director of the Robert Burns birthplace museum, said:
“It would be great if we could play these songs inside the museum for visitors. We’ve prepared versions of these songs so we can put this idea into practice. We’re looking forward to the day when, with permission for these songs, we can produce CDs and sell them, so the museum can also earn income. That would be wonderful. In this way, we would attract more people to Burns’ poetry and expand his global legacy.”
Source: eMJey.com / Telegraph UK