3 posts tagged “michael jackson”
The campaign, in Canada at least, features shoddy, third-rate Michael Jackson and Madonna lookalikes explaining that they, respectively, want the "Jacko" and "Madge" Yahoo Mail addresses under the new domains. Even if you could get past the idea that you're supposed to identify with people who want to adopt the identity of insane 50-year-old pop stars, the worst part is that both "Jacko" and "Madge" are names bestowed upon the singers by the British tabloids, and both epithets are detested by the singers they've been applied to.
It's a win all around, really.
People always be messin' with me, and just keep pushing and pushing and not taking it seriously that I will mess you up! Well, now you've done it. Ladies and gentlemen, please witness BEAT IT 2008 WITH FERGIE.
That's the name of this song! BEAT IT 2008 WITH FERGIE. It's not "Beat It (2008 Remix featuring Fergie)" or "Beat It (Completely Beaten Mix with Fergie)". It's all right there, 2008 With Fergie.And my hope for the new year had been 2008 With No Fergie.
I had mentioned that they were doing a 25-anniversary re-release of the album in my last post on the subject, and sure, one expects the requisite Kanye West remix of Billie Jean, but who knew that things would get this dire? I did. I knew. And now I have to share my pain with you.
I will spare you all the reasons Fergie is horrible. It's not just the man-hands or the meth problem or the (admitted!) incontinence on stage or the fact that she turned what had formerly been at least a semi-credible hip hop group into a laughing stock. It's not merely her stint in Wild Orchid. There are so many things wrong with Fergie. But the latest indignity is that she's completely excised any trace of Eddie Van Halen from Beat It, and for what. For what?
(Update: That's not actually true. Eddie is still in there. I just hadn't been able to listen far enough along to hear his guitar solo.)
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right.
I was surprised how much reaction I got to Twittering yesterday about the 25th anniversary of the release of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". (The actual anniversary was December 2, if I remember correctly.)
I've been following the stories about the making of this record for decades now (it was a famously tortured process, during which Michael actually decided to completely restart the effort while halfway through), and I am surprised at how deliberate so many of the decisions about the record were. Granted, some of this is revisionist, like George Lucas asserting that he had a great mystical plan for Star Wars when it was created, but a lot of it is obviously not just a simple retcon, because the proof is in the music itself. That clip of Billie Jean is the best example.
Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention this quote, about Quincy Jones coming up with the really loud synth fanfare at the beginning of the song "Thriller":
It was late in the evening one night when we were working, and Quincy came to us. We all knew how Thriller was going, they were trying to get Vincent Price, they were doing all this stuff, but he wanted this huge chord sequence - he said, 'There's this sound that I've got in my head, there's this underground, this new artist, that nobody's ever really heard of but he's great, he's hot, he's got this great song.' And he pulled out the album and it was Prince, '1999'. And you know the opening sound on that? Duh-da da, Dur-duh-duh? Well that was the sound - that big, bitey chord sound at the opening of '1999' - he wanted that, but bigger, for Thriller.
Uh huh.
Update: Since Garth hadn't heard it in a while, I added in the album version of Billie Jean, as well as the instrumental. The part that still kicks my ass is the amount of space in the drums at the opening. Genius.
