Scraping The Barrel.

Controversy is swirling around a leaked Michael Jackson single, with some of his family claiming the vocals on the cut aren't actually  him.  Whatever the case it made me think of the posthumous albums of Jimi Hendrix.  After his death a lot of material would be dredged up and released.  Probably most notorious amongst Hendrix fans are the albums put together by Alan Douglas, which included considerable overdubbing on unfinished tracks.  Then there was the rerelease of material Hendrix recorded while an R&B sideman with Little Richard and the obscure Curtis Knight amongst others.  Is a similar fate in store for Jackson?  Unlike Hendrix Jackson wasn't the kind of artist who would jam with anyone and end up being recorded as a result, nor did he have the kind of sideman period Hendrix did.  On the other hand there is likely a lot of demo material and tracks rejected as too weak for release in the Sony and Jackson family archives, and as anyone who keeps an eye on cheap CDs knows a lot of artists have oddball compilations in their discography put together from material of questionable provinence and ownership.