Who is it?

[StefyB85]

I'd like to try to strip this lyrics, because I think it has a something related to the hoax. Maybe I'm wrong, but here you are. I'd also like you listen to the acappella version below, especially the part from 2:33 to 2:56. He says some sentences that usually you can't hear in the CD version with all the music in the background.

I know this song was written a long time before the hoax start, but I think it's quite easy to anticipate people reactions regarding his death or is fake death... I'm not sure you can understand what I mean. If you read my analysis you could say it makes no sense, because "Who is it" is from 1991, but I think that if he planned all this thing since years he wrote this song guessing how people would react to the hoax itself.

[youtube:44u0rfex]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruVhMi1xZyQ&feature=related[/youtube:44u0rfex]

I Gave Her Money
I Gave Her Time
I Gave Her Everything
Inside One Heart Could Find
I Gave Her Passion
My Very Soul
I Gave Her Promises
And Secrets So Untold

As you said into the other topics, maybe when MJ talks about a "she" or a "lady" he could refer to the public, to the world, to the fans... so in this first verse he says he gave everything he had, even "secrets so untold" -> maybe the hoax? or maybe all the conspiracies? Anyway that's so true, he gave a lot of money to charity, he gave his time, pratically his entire life and everything he said in this verse.

And She Promised Me Forever
And A Day We'd Live As One
We Made Our Vows
We'd Live A Life Anew
And She Promised Me In Secret
That She'd Love Me For All Time
It's A Promise So Untrue
Tell Me What Will I Do?

I think here he's frustrated about people that still didn't get the big message he wanted to share with the world and he's afraid about his fans that maybe loved him before the hoax, but will not love him during and after it ("and she promised me in secret - because the hoax is a secret - that she'd love me for all time - before, during, after the hoax)... so "tell me what will I do?"

And It Doesn't Seem To Matter
And It Doesn't Seem Right
'Cause The Will Has Brought
No Fortune
Still I Cry Alone At Night
Don't You Judge Of My Composure
'Cause I'm Lying To Myself
And The Reason Why She Left Me
Did She Find In Someone Else?

This is a great paragraph! I think he's talking about the hoax, at the beginning nobody got the messages so it doesn't seem to matter, we were all focused on mourning his death and then it doesn't seem right because we worried about the consequences it could bring to MJ and because it's hard to believe a person is doing that. "'Cause the will has brought no fortune, still I cry alone at night" I think he's telling us that we must make the change because the will of do that is not enough; if we wait for a lucky day when things will change, that day will never come, we must act and follow him and make him stop to cry alone at night for that.
"Don't you judge of my composure 'cause I'm lying to myself" - Maybe he's talking about himself not telling the truth (make the world believe he's dead), but creating the big lie, lying to himself as well to make it more real. If you convince yourself that a thing is true, you can convince others the same.
"And the reason why she left me, did she find in someone else?" - the fans who think MJ is really dead, they left him, but did they find another reason to believe in someone else?

(Who Is It?)
It Is A Friend Of Mine
(Who Is It?)
Is It My Brother!
(Who Is It?)
Somebody Hurt My Soul, Now
(Who Is It?)
I Can't Take This Stuff No More

Here we go with the chorus. "Who is it?", who's telling the truth? A friend of him? His brother?
"Somebody hurt my soul now, I can't take this stuff no more" - He can't wait people to wake up, he has to do something for real = fake his own death!

I Am The Damned
I Am The Dead
I Am The Agony Inside
The Dying Head
This Is Injustice
Woe Unto Thee
I Pray This Punishment
Would Have Mercy On Me

Interesting verse, "I am the damned, I am the dead (LOL), I am the agony inside a dying head" - No need to explain the first two. The agony... I think he means the doubt inside the minds of who is manipulated by the media, they can't think by themselves (so they're like dying head(s)) and if someones tell them another story they don't really know what to believe, so it's a sort of agony...
"This is injustice, woe unto thee, I pray this punishment would have mercy on me" - He talks about all the injustices in the world and he prays that he won't be punished or at least people will have mercy on him when he'll come back.

And She Promised Me Forever
That We'd Live Our Life As One
We Made Our Vows
We'd Live A Love So True
It Seems That She Has Left Me
For Such Reasons Unexplained
I Need To Find The Truth
But See What Will I Do!

"It seems that she has left me for such reason unexplained, I need to find the truth, but see what will I do!" - Pretty clear here, he talks about the fans who left him without any good reason, but he needs to find the truth, about the world, about the media, about everything that has been covered with lies and we just have to see what he will do = fake his death! :lol:

And It Doesn't Seem To Matter
And It Doesn't Seem Right
'Cause The Will Has Brought
No Fortune
Still I Cry Alone At Night
Don't You Judge Of My Composure
'Cause I'm Bothered Everyday
And She Didn't Leave A Letter
She Just Up And Ran Away

(Who Is It?)
It Is A Friend Of Mine
(Who Is It?)
Is It My Brother?
(Who Is It?)
Somebody Hurt My Soul, Now
(Who Is It?)
I Can't Take It 'Cause I'm Lonely

"Somebody hurt my soul now, I can't take it cause I'm lonely" - He can turn down the people who hates him because he's lonely, he needs our help.

Well, that's it! Too complicated? Maybe... but I wanted to try this way.

Also the few sentences I mentioned above... I think he says:

"Don't try to make me
don't try that or I could quit (not so sure)
I never was
We never were
It just won't stop
Don't bother me x 2 (not sure about this)"

Ok, if you think I should call the ambulance and go into a psycho hospital... well maybe you're so right! :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[jacilovesmichael]

"Don't try to make me
don't try that or I could quit (not so sure)
I never was
We never were
It just won't stop
Don't bother me x 2 (not sure about this)"

I hear this:

"Don't try to make me
Don't try to make me quit.
I never was...
We never were...
Don't bother me"

I'm just using my imagination here...but for some reason this part reminds me of him and Lisa Marie. I remember her talking about that convo they had about her father's death and how he clearly was planning on doing the same. "Don't try to make me quit"...maybe that means, don't try to make me quit these plans of faking my death. "I never was, we never were"... He's going to be "out of sight, out of mind". And "Don't bother me"...give him some peace, he's supposed to be dead.

Haha..okay.. I'm going to the nut house with you!

But seriously, good interpretation. I have always thought these lyrics were about the hoax as well. But I also think its about multiple identities in some way. Lots of interesting things in the video...

[MissG]

I think it is about LMP as well.
And She (LMP) Promised Me Forever
And A Day We'd Live As One
We Made Our Vows (they married)
We'd Live A Life Anew
And She Promised Me In Secret
That She'd Love Me For All Time
It's A Promise So Untrue (They ended up divorced)


Cause The Will Has Brought
No Fortune

Is his refering to a will of pre- marriage economical agreement?

[truthprevails]

I think it is about LMP as well.
And She (LMP) Promised Me Forever
And A Day We'd Live As One
We Made Our Vows (they married)
We'd Live A Life Anew
And She Promised Me In Secret
That She'd Love Me For All Time
It's A Promise So Untrue (They ended up divorced)


Cause The Will Has Brought
No Fortune

Is his refering to a will of pre- marriage economical agreement?

I'm guessing it should be WHEEL, not WILL.
I would also say that not everything in people's songs (or poetry, for that matter) has to do with a personal experience. One can be inspired by nature, metaphors, stories they hear or things they see... Even is there's a "she", it doesn't necessarily have much to do with Michael or his life, IMO.

[MissG]

Michael said that he meant what he sang. That song is reflecting upon something bugging him.

[Sanity]

I think he meant that the emotion is genuine, not that everything he sang about had something to do with his real life. But we may argue...

"Who Is It" talks about a woman cheating on him. However, I believe the music video or the short film speaks more than the lyrics.

[dragonflylilies]

I'm not sure how the lyrics would relate to the hoax, but for some reason I believe that the song or the nature of the song is related.  This video was banned in the US because they thought it was about prostitution.  I never got to see the video until youtube came out.  However, now this video is going to be on the DVD set that is coming out soon.  It is almost like a slap in the medias face. Like MJ is telling them, you can't ban something that I wrote and worked hard on.  I, in fact, can't wait to buy this dvd set.  I am also excited that the prison verson of TDCAU, is going to be on there.  Yippee!!!