Mojo - The Music Magazine

Disc of the day

Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement

From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!

Disc of the day cover image

New issue

Click For CONTENTS

Features Disc of the day

Michael Jackson
Thriller

(Epic, 1982)

Why it's even better than they say.

Michael Jackson

It seems absurd to suggest that Thriller has been underrated. It has not been underrated by the 110 million-plus people who have shelled out hard-earned on what must be one of the best-value pop records ever made. What I suppose I mean by that is that Thriller has been underrated by music journalists. And I suppose what I really, honestly mean by that is that it has been underrated by me.

This sorry state of affairs has a lot to do with who I was and what I was up to in 1982, the year of Thriller's release, and 1983, the year of its chokehold on popular culture. While others moonwalked, I wrapped myself in Murmur, Power, Corruption & Lies and - oh f--k it - The Hurting, and glanced, with furtive longing, over to the corner of the playground where the Smash Hits girls giggled and rustled their ra-ra skirts. I wasn't having Michael Jackson at all.

And that remained the case, by and large, until June this year, when my four-year old son - made vaguely aware that something momentous had happened regarding someone called Michael Jackson - dug out my CD copy of Thriller (a still-shrinkwrapped freebie from an Invincible media beano) and started playing the shit out of it. It's the first real pop music record he's totally dug, so I've rolled with it and not tried to deflect him with this or this, records he's probably not, for different reasons, quite ready for.

The period of being irritated by this enthusiasm was surprisingly short. The heavy rotation that had so alienated me in 1983, has had the reverse effect in 2009. I am now officially obsessed by the breadth, energy and weirdness of Thriller, and to be specific, the spooked, paranoiac miasma of Billie Jean. I have become a Billie Jean stalker.

Because is Billie Jean ever weird. A transatlantic Number 1 single with an unreliable narrator, played with fierce, spluttering ire by Jackson, it's callous and unnecessary, especially all those "the kiiiid is not my son"s. You can't help feeling the protagonist protests too much, and reflect how often Jackson must have heard those very words from his oft-estranged father. The music, that ominous lope punctuated by luminous synth/string stabs, is ridiculously perfect, and (for all that producer Quincy Jones did to shape the remainder of Thriller's patchwork tour-de-force) all the essential elements can be found in Jackson's revealing demo version on the CD reissue.

Jones says that Jackson fought tooth and nail for Billie Jean and its suspenseful 29-second intro; Q, in a rare lapse of judgment, cared for neither. The case for Jackson's greatness as a writer and an artist - not just as a singer or a dancer - is made right there. It only took 27 years and the advocacy of a four-year-old for it to sink in.

Danny Eccleston

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 10:57 AM GMT 01/09/2009

Further Listening

Michael Jackson – Off The Wall (Epic, 1979)

Prince – Purple Rain (Warner Bros, 1984)

Scritti Politti – Cupid & Psyche 85 (Virgin, 1985)

Related MOJO content:

Michael Jackson , Thriller

Comments

Comment on this post


Click here for House Rules

Comment on this post

end of body content back to top

Footer

Home

News

Features

Disc of the day

Newsletter Sign Up

Gallery

Tickets

Mojo Shop

Message Boards

Subscribe

Covers

About

Our pals:

We Like

Join us on:

  • myspace
  • youtube
  • twitter
  • facebook

© Copyright Bauer - all
rights reserved.
Reproduction of this
website, in whole or in
part, in any form or
medium without express
written permission from
Bauer is prohibited. All
use is subject to our
Terms of Use

end of footer back to top

Back to top