Love Survives: Michael Jackson's * Stranger In Moscow

"I'm living lonely... I'm living lonely, baby
Stranger in Moscow"

"Stranger in Moscow" the fifth and final single from Michael Jackson's HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, is one of my most favorite songs from Michael's catalog. This R&B ballad, has a such a beautiful chorus, striking, slow tempo beat and the lyrics are like a sorrowful lament from ones soul, and that's where it reaches out and grabs me, in my soul, because Michael is a true soul singer. His vocal harmonies and background vocals, during the climax of the song are the quintessence of Soul.

'I was on tour and it seemed like I was in Armageddon — Armageddon in the brain … All these horrible stories were going around about me. None was true. It was unbelievable" ~ Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson, penned, Stranger In Moscow in Sept. 1993 while on the Dangerous World Tour stop in Moscow, at the height of highly publicized accusations made against him. It's Probably one of his most autobiographical songs as it was during this time, Michael far from home, was feeling very depressed, isolated and lonely. Although he was never charged with a crime, Jackson was subject to intense media scrutiny while the criminal investigation took place. He felt alone and betrayed. A few months after the allegations became news, Jackson while on tour, had lost a lot of weight, he was dehydrated and had stopped eating. Worried that all that he had worked for, his career, his carefully crafted image, was being destroyed, He became dependent on pain killers, to sooth the physical, as well as the emotional pain. His health had deteriorated to the extent that he canceled the remainder of his Dangerous World Tour and went into rehabilitation.

"The word pictures Michael paints with the verses are so vivid – narrating a life of pain against mental images and feelings of cold war Russia: “Here abandoned in my fame/ Armageddon of the brain/KGB was doggin’ me/ Take my name and just let me be”. That last line harmonizes with biographies stating Michael’s loneliness had reached such a point that he would roam the streets to hold conversations with strangers – only to return home unfulfilled. With all of his fame and greatness, he was alone, cold and misunderstood...

We must understand that beneath the internationally deified super stardom, beyond the allegedly physical transformations and on past our memories of moonwalks and screams – there was a fragile human being. A human being who, when all was said and done, simply longed to be loved." ~ The couch sessions.

Stranger in Moscow single CD Cover

Originally written as a poem, Jackson later adapted it into a song. A background guitar was played by Steve Lukather while keyboards, synthesizers and bass are credited to David Paich and Steve Porcaro. Jackson used elements of Russian imagery and metaphors to portray a story of alienation, fear and loneliness in the track. The song ends with a narrative, spoken in Russian, by a KGB interrogator. The narrative, translated into English is, "Why have you come from the west? Confess! To steal the great achievements of the people, the accomplishments of the workers..."

Stranger In Moscow single was released November 4, 1996 Worldwide and in August 28, 1997 In the USA, by Epic Records. The song was praised by critics at the time of release and today it remains one of his most critically acclaimed pieces and has been compared favorably alongside the likes of “Billie Jean”. But Commercially the single saw mixed results by Jackson’s standards.

The short film directed by Nick Brandt, was shot in Los Angeles, depicting the lives of six individuals, including Jackson, who are left isolated and disconnected from the world around them. The video appears on Jackson's video album HIStory on Film Volume II, The Visionary Singles and Michael Jackson's Vision.

“a visual narrative in which the lives of six isolated strangers play out as the world moves around them in slow motion. Jackson is identified with these regular people, he too is alone, and wanders the streets in a black trench coat like a ghost, unacknowledged. About midway through the short film, he and the other characters step out into the pouring rain. As they are individually baptized by the water, something changes. It is as if the aching alienation they each feel is temporarily washed away. they are cleansed and connected by a common experience, their suffering.”

~ Joe. Vogel

Michael first performed the song during his HIStory World Tour, which also turned out to be the last live performance of the song. Jackson always performed the song wearing his gold jacket and pants. The song was always lip synced, in order to focus on his beautiful robotic and gliding dance moves. It was also one of the few songs where Jackson did the moonwalk.

Michael Jackson - Stranger In Moscow - Live Munich 1997- HD

Reviews by music critics and producers

Chris Willman of Los Angeles Times stated "'Stranger in Moscow; Jackson imagines himself alone and adrift in a psychic Russia, pre-glasnost, hunted by an unseen KGB: 'Here abandoned in my fame / Armageddon of the brain', he sings in the somber, constricted verses, before a sweeping coda kicks up four minutes in and the stalkee suddenly breaks his cool to wail about a desolate, inconsolable loneliness. Here, in this song, is the real genius—and probably real personhood—of Michael Jackson"

Fred Shuster of the Daily News of Los Angeles described it as, "a lush, gorgeous minor-key ballad with one of the album's catchiest choruses"

Longtime collaborator Bruce Swedien, has described "Stranger in Moscow" as one of the best songs Jackson had ever done.

Patrick Macdonald of The Seattle Times described "Stranger in Moscow" as "a pretty ballad interspersed with sounds of rain."

Further praise came in 2005 when it was felt that the song had successfully portrayed "eerie loneliness" and was characterized as beautiful by Josephine Zohny of PopMatters.

Tom Molley of the Associated Press described it as "a ethereal and stirring description of a man wounded by a 'swift and sudden fall from grace' walking in the shadow of the Kremlin"

Rod Temperton, one of Jackson's songwriters from his earlier career, believes that this is his best song.

Lyrics

"Stranger In Moscow"

I was wandering in the rain
Mask of life, feelin' insane
Swift and sudden fall from grace
Sunny days seem far away

Kremlin's shadow belittlin' me
Stalin's tomb won't let me be
On and on and on it came
Wish the rain would just let me

How does it feel (How does it feel)
How does it feel
How does it feel
When you're alone
And you're cold inside

Here abandoned in my fame
Armageddon of the brain
KGB was doggin' me
Take my name and just let me be

Then a beggar boy called my name
Happy days will drown the pain
On and on and on it came
And again, and again, and again...
Take my name and just let me be

How does it feel (How does it feel)
How does it feel
How does it feel
How does it feel
How does it feel (How does it feel now)
How does it feel
How does it feel
When you're alone
And you're cold inside

How does it feel (How does it feel)
How does it feel
How does it feel
How does it feel
How does it feel (How does it feel now)
How does it feel
How does it feel
When you're alone
And you're cold inside

Like stranger in Moscow (Lord have mercy)
Like stranger in Moscow (Lord have mercy)
We're talkin' danger
We're talkin' danger, baby
Like stranger in Moscow

We're talkin' danger
We're talkin' danger, baby
Like stranger in Moscow
I'm living lonely
I'm living lonely, baby
like a Stranger in Moscow

[KGB interrogator - Russian to English Translation]

"Why have you come from the West? Confess!

To steal the great achievements of the people,

the accomplishments of the workers..."

Stranger In Moscow Single CD