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发表于 2008-2-12 19:47:57
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Jackson hit a trip down memory lane
By Rashod D. Ollison |Sun Pop Music Critic February 12, 2008I was cool just for a day. Any other time, my classmates, most of whom were suburban white kids, ignored me. But on that spring day in second grade when I brought in Michael Jackson's Thriller LP for show-and-tell, seemingly everybody in class wanted to be my best friend. Some gladly sat near me at lunch and invited me to play at recess, which had never happened before. Even as I waited for the school bus that morning, standing alongside the potty-mouthed brats who lived in the projects with me, I was king.
"Look! He got Thriller!"
At the time of my show-and-tell, Thriller had been a monster album on the pop charts for more than a year, spending 37 weeks at No. 1. For a solid two years after its 1982 release, singles from the album, seven of which were Top 10 smashes, dominated radio. In front of the class, I showed off the LP's gatefold picture, which featured Jackson reclining in a sharp ivory suit, a tiger cub resting on his knee. "Oohs" and "aahs" rippled through the class. Then Mrs. Mathis, my teacher, put the record on, and the room briefly turned into a grade-school disco. After that day, of course, I went back to being the invisible black boy who sat near the back of the class and hardly said a word.
Thriller brought a lot of happiness to the Ollison household between 1982 and 1984. Even outside our apartment, I heard cuts from the album around the clock: blaring in the park down the street during summer night jams, booming from a neighbor's window, piping through the sound system at K-Mart. The vivacious beats and Jackson's spirited, idiosyncratic vocals made Thriller a revelation every time the needle dropped on the record.
In a way, the album was therapeutic for me. The year after it hit the streets and Jackson debuted the moonwalk on Motown 25, my parents bitterly divorced. I was crushed and missed my father, especially our weekend trips to the record shops in downtown Hot Springs, Ark., where I spent my first 11 years. Mama knew music was important to me even then. And after she came home with Thriller tucked under her arm, the exuberant music helped lighten my often somber mood.
It was the only record in my collection - which mostly consisted of Daddy's hand-me-down blues, funk and soul 45s - that my hip eldest sister liked. Dusa, who was eight years older than me, usually went out of her way to treat me like a filthy wad of gum stuck to the bottom of her shoe. But when she wanted to hear my Thriller album, her voice turned to honey, and she'd almost croon her request: "Little brother, let me play that Michael Jackson album. Please?"
Because my family moved often, a lot of things - photos, clothes, various toys and trinkets - were lost, thrown away or broken. During a move in the summer of '87, my Thriller LP was somehow nearly cracked in half. I was furious; tears even burned my eyes.
"Shut up!" Dusa shouted. "Don't nobody care about Michael Jackson no more."
By that time, the public had had its fill of Thriller, and Jackson was about to release Bad, a moodier album that didn't quite match the infectious glory of its predecessor. Popular tastes were moving toward more aggressive sounds. Hip-hop was beginning to edge its way into the mainstream. Years later, I replaced my Thriller LP with a clearer sounding CD version. I still put it on from time to time, and always remember that spring day when Thriller made me cool, and when musically, Michael Jackson ruled the world.
Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertai...,2326314.story
25 years later, Jackson's 'Thriller' remains the one to beat
By Steve Jones, USA TODAY
Michael Jackson thrilled the world 25 years ago with Thriller, and he's ready to do it again, this time with help from some friends.
He celebrates the lasting success of his masterpiece with the release today of Thriller 25, an expanded anniversary version of the nine-song original that includes seven bonus tracks. Among them: remakes featuring collaborations with Akon, will.i.am and Fergie, and updated vocals and production by Jackson. Kanye West contributes a remix, Billie Jean 2008. The set closes with For All Time, a song recorded but not finished during the 1982 Thriller sessions.
Also included is a bonus DVD with the Thriller, Beat It and Billie Jean videos and Jackson's Emmy-nominated performance of Billie Jean from the NBC special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever.
The set comes in three versions: one with original cover art, one with a new "zombie" cover and a deluxe edition with a booklet.
Thriller sold more than 27 million copies in the USA, and Jackson earned a record-setting eight Grammys and 12 nominations in 1984. The album transformed pop music with its groundbreaking videos and an unprecedented seven top 10 singles.
Producer Quincy Jones says he's amazed the songs are still club staples.
"I'm astounded by it," Jones says. "I just went around the world — Cambodia, China, Brazil, Africa — and at (midnight), they're playing Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' or Billie Jean. It blows my mind that a record stands up that long."
Fledgling MTV, which until Thriller hadn't played videos by black artists, took off once Billie Jean and Beat It hit the airwaves. "Michael and MTV rode each other to glory," Jones says.
Then came the 14-minute Thriller video. "That defined the standards for video."
Will.i.am, who produced new versions of Beat It, The Girl Is Mine and P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing), says the album inspired him as a youngster.
"It was the first time you saw things that were happening in the ghettos, and kids in the suburbs were copying it," he says. "It was like Broadway fused with street performance, and his wardrobe was fly. He made it possible to be yourself, and be free, and just do you."
The new album is part of a year-long celebration. Legacy Recordings today launches a 40-episode Thrillercast podcast available through iTunes, Zune, RSS and michaeljackson.com, featuring celebrities talking about hearing the original album. Also, XM Satellite Radio will launch a new channel, XM Thriller, dedicated to Jackson's music, which airs in March.
Source: USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/n...ler-25th_N.htm
25 'Thriller' facts
By Patrick Day and Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
February 12, 2008
"Thriller," the biggest-selling album ever, wasn't the only Michael Jackson work released in November 1982. A few weeks before it was set to hit stores, MCA Records released an album of Jackson reading the story of "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" and performing the original song "Someone in the Dark." The album promotion, which featured posters of Jackson and E.T. looking very friendly, angered CBS Records, which felt it was stealing the thunder from "Thriller." Lawsuits ensued. Both albums ended up winning Grammys the following year.
"Thriller's" phenomenal success led to a breaking down of traditional racial barriers on FM radio at the time. New York's WPLJ, a "white" station, played Jackson's "Beat It" because of Eddie Van Halen's appearance on it. The song caused a wave of protests from some listeners who didn't want "black" music on their station. MTV also had a reputation for favoring white performers at the time, and its heavy rotation of Jackson videos helped alleviate the criticism.
The music video of "Thriller" played in a Westwood theater for one week in 1983 to qualify for an Oscar nomination. It opened for Disney's "Fantasia," much to the dismay of unsuspecting parents.
After the success of the "Thriller" video, a Hollywood production company began serious work on turning "Billie Jean" into a feature film. (In 1985, Helen Slater starred in the teenage drama "The Legend of Billie Jean," although there is no connection.)
In 1984, the National Coalition on Television Violence classified more than half of 200 MTV videos surveyed as too violent, including the videos for Jackson's "Thriller" and "Say, Say, Say." Dr. Thomas Radecki, chairman of the coalition, was quoted as saying, "It's not hard to imagine young viewers after seeing 'Thriller' saying, 'Gee, if Michael Jackson can terrorize his girlfriend, why can't I do it too?' "
Brooke Shields was Jackson's date to the 1984 Grammys, when he won eight awards.
"Thriller" video makeup artist Rick Baker already had an Oscar on his resume. He won the award for best makeup in 1981 -- the first time the award was handed out -- for his work on "An American Werewolf in London."
Baker actually appears in the video: He's the zombie seen stumbling out of the mausoleum.
Dance choreographer Michael Peters also had a role as a zombie in "Thriller," and shared a Tony Award with Michael Bennett for his choreography work on Broadway's "Dreamgirls." Before his death in 1994, he was an advocate of adding a choreography category to the Academy Awards.
Jackson's girlfriend in the video, Ola Ray, was Playboy magazine's Miss June in 1980, telling the publication that her favorite entertainers were "Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Ben Vereen, Emry Thomas." She also listed her turn-ons as "music, men, dancing and romancing, health and nature" and turnoffs as "waiting for something that never comes."
Just as Van Halen's guitar solo begins in "Beat It," there's a noise that sounds like someone knocking on a door. According to rock 'n' roll myth, the knock is someone walking into Van Halen's studio. Another story claims it's simply the sound of Van Halen knocking on his own guitar.
"Thriller's" opening cut, "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," is also the longest track on the album, clocking in at over six minutes. The radio version, however, is about two minutes shorter.
The movie theater seen in the beginning of the video was also seen in director John Landis' "The Kentucky Fried Movie." The posters seen in the theater are for the movie "Schlock," also directed by Landis.
Jackson's disclaimer at the beginning of the video, in which he discounts any belief in the occult, was prompted by his status as a Jehovah's Witness at the time.
The 1988 movie "Return of the Living Dead Part II" features a zombie dressed as Michael Jackson.
Forrest J. Ackerman, creator of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, can be seen sitting behind Jackson in the theater at the beginning of the video.
The video that popularized Jackson's "Moonwalk," 1983's "Billie Jean," was directed by Steve Barron, but it may not be the clip he's best known for. That would be the live-action comic book treatment he gave to A-ha's "Take on Me."
The song "Thriller" was originally titled "Starlight."
Producer Quincy Jones wanted "Billie Jean" to be titled "Not My Lover," so people wouldn't think the song was about Billie Jean King.
During the "Thriller" era, Jackson's plastic surgery became noticeable. His face changed from the time the photo was taken for the album cover to the filming of the "Thriller" video.
Real gang members were brought it to be extras in the "Beat It" video.
Although "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' " was one of the biggest singles off "Thriller," no video was ever made for the song.
The man who wrote the song "Thriller," Rod Temperton, also wrote songs for Boyz II Men, Herbie Hancock, Karen Carpenter and Michael McDonald.
The "Thriller" album has sold more than 104 million copies.
At the height of the song's popularity, MTV would run the 14-minute "Thriller" video twice an hour.
Source: LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...ck=2&cset=true |
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发表于 2008-2-11 20:39:08
显身卡
发表于 2008-2-11 21:29:38
February 15, 2008 @ 5:10 pm
The New Jackson Five: VIBE's Favorite Mike Jack Wannabes
by: Tracy Garraud
