black or white

The King of Pop broke records and courted controversy with this funky call for tolerance and racial equality. Michael Jackson wrote and produced 'Black or White' with Bill Bottrell, with whom he had worked on his 'Bad' album. It was the leadoff single for 'Dangerous' and it made music history when it went to number one in the US in only three weeks (the quickest climb since the Beatles' 'Get Back'), spending seven weeks there. It made Jackson the first artist to have number one hits in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. In the UK, the song debuted at number one, the first time an American artist had done so since Elvis did it with 'It's Now Or Never'. 'Black or White' was an international smash, hitting number one in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Euro Chart Hot 100, the US, the UK, and Zimbabwe.

The ten minute video, directed by John Landis, made its debut on a worldwide simulcast to twenty-seven countries with over half a billion viewers, the largest audience ever for a music video. It features Tyra Banks, Macaulay Culkin, Tess Harper, and George Wendt; and utilizes a morphing technique that blends people of diverse racial backgrounds into one another. A four minute coda depicts Jackson dancing, smashing windows, and grabbing himself in a suggestive manner. Racial epithets were later added to the windows to make the violence more understandable; but most subsequent airings did not include the coda.




http://www.michaeljackson.com/

I took my baby
On a saturday bang
Boy is that girl with you
Yes we're one and the same

Now I believe in miracles
And a miracle
Has happened tonight

But, if
You're thinkin'
About my baby
It doesn't matter if you're
Black or white

They print my message
In the saturday sun
I had to tell them
I ain't second to none

And I told about equality
An it's true
Either you're wrong
Or you're right

But, if
You're thinkin'
About my baby
It doesn't matter if you're
Black or white

I am tired of this devil
I am tired of this stuff
I am tired of this business
Sew when the
Going gets rough
I ain't scared of
Your brother
I ain't scared of no sheets
I ain't scared of nobody
Girl when the
Goin' gets mean

[l. T. B. Rap performance]
Protection
For gangs, clubs
And nations
Causing grief in
Human relations
It's a turf war
On a global scale
I'd rather hear both sides
Of the tale
See, it's not about races
Just places
Faces
Where your blood
Comes from
Is where your space is
I've seen the bright
Get duller
I'm not going to spend
My life being a color



Don't tell me you agree with me
When I saw you kicking dirt in my eye

But, if
You're thinkin' about my baby
It doesn't matter if you're black or white

I said if
You're thinkin' of
Being my baby
It doesn't matter if you're black or white

I said if
You're thinkin' of
Being my brother
It doesn't matter if you're
Black or white

Ooh, ooh
Yea, yea, yea now
Ooh, ooh
Yea, yea, yea now

It's black, it's white
It's tough for you
To get by
It's black , it's white, whoo

It's black, it's white
It's tough for you
To get by
It's black , it's white, whoo