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Michael Jackson's "Thriller" turns 30! Thoughts?

S

Strat-Mangler

Inactive
Aug 15, 2010
157
2
#1
Loved this album as a kid and even more now.

The 2 weaker numbers for me are The Girl Is Mine (minus the bridge which is awesome!) and Human Nature which doesn't go anywhere, really.

The underrated gem for me is the last song, The Lady In My Life. Stunning, especially the last 1/3!

The dancing, the videos, the performances, the singing, the nice subtle guitar parts (except for Beat It, lol!), and of course that awesome bassline on Billie Jean, etc... everything was awesome! Except maybe the chipmunk voices at the end of P.Y.T.

Can't believe the impact this album alone made!
 
#7
I was sort of anti-pop in high school. I was into Genesis, Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull... you know, the progresive thing. It was more complex than the pop stuff on the radio, and I was proud to listen to it.

When Thriller came out, Michael and the rest of them who promoted that album were very smart. The first single was Beat It with the famous Eddie Van Halen solo. Adding Van Halen gave that song some legitimacy to the rock world. I remember loving the whole album, but I never bought it. It came out around the middle of my sophmore year, when MTV was young and playing music videos. When I graduated, it was still the most listened to album. I remember waiting to march out to the football field to graduate. Someone had the song Thriller blasting out of their car. For some reason, I've never forgotten that.
 
#9
Bassmanbob said:
The first single was Beat It with the famous Eddie Van Halen solo.
Click to expand...

That was actually the third single, after "The Girl is Mine" and "Billie Jean", but you're right, Quincy Jones has said that their intention was to establish some kind of rock credibility with a song in the vein of "My Sharona".

IMO, after "Thriller" and with every new offering MJ tried, but could not improve, on the formula of that classic album. He also became this weird, cartoon-like, unreachable pop star.
 
#12
Quincy Jones is a great music director and producer and he used absolute top notch musicians for the sessions. Mix down and final touches were flawless...oh, and by the way, the late Michael Jackson sang the lead lines.
 
#16
Bassmanbob said:
I was sort of anti-pop in high school. I was into Genesis, Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull... you know, the progresive thing. It was more complex than the pop stuff on the radio, and I was proud to listen to it.
Click to expand...
Me, too...except I always had a Pop-side goin' on (still do). The 1st 3 'real' LPs I owned were Jackson 5, Led Zep, & Santana albums. I am older than you, so I was already out of college when Thriller (& Off The Wall) saw the light of day. Quincy Jones & The Brothers Johnson were also omnipresent on the Pop charts...and Heatwave's Rod Temperton composed a lot of these tunes for Jackson...plus MTV's promotion...

Anyway, I was playing in a Top-40 club band...and you had better been covering 3-4 tracks from Thriller. IIRC, we even looped "Billie Jean" & "Thriller"...making each tune about 9-10 minutes. Gave those dancers a workout.

"Human Nature"? That's a well-played Pop tune, IMO.
 
#18
A college aged youth said this:

"I can see the disconnect with Michael Jackson.
There are those of you old enough to know him as little Michael in the Jackson 5. Just a cute incredibly brave talented singer. You all followed him through his career with early fond memories. Some of us grew up when to us he appeared as a freak who only grew freakier with the publicized deviant behaviors."

While both are true and I'm not a fan of pop music, he remains to me an amazing entertainer. The rhythmic intensity and creativity and stories that are told in his tunes are unparalleled.

It is tragic when one's parents push to the point of one not having a childhood and one becomes a superstar in film, sports whatever.
 

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