1 Hidden Gem From Every Michael Jackson Album
5. Bad - Leave Me Alone
Bad’s final track, Leave Me Alone is almost overlooked by design. It didn’t even make the vinyl or cassette release of the album and despite being a hit single around the world, Jackson didn’t release it back home in the United States. Nor did he ever perform the song live.
Leave Me Alone has a similar, compulsive, synthetic groove to another of the album’s highlights, The Way You Make Me Feel. Both tracks also boast a strong vocal melody. However, the mood couldn’t be more different. In fact, Leave Me Alone plays like The Way You Make Me Feel’s evil twin.
The song reeks of the paranoia and that would dominate much of Jackson’s later music but is perhaps the strongest musical expression of his persecution complex. An angry, defiant take on the pressures of fame, he sounds edgier here than he does playing a would-be street tough on the album’s title track.
While the preoccupation with press intrusion and public criticism would become suffocating, here the same theme is delivered with verve. It doesn’t hurt that the accompanying video pokes fun at the rumours swirling around Jackson, implying a self awareness instead of the self pity that would follow.