I hadn't realised till I was listening to 'Thriller' for this post, and really trying to assess it and think about what I really thought about it, how my perception of Jackson was so utterly affected by the child abuse allegations against him in the early 90s. I remember when they came out, I was on holiday in a place with lots of tabloids around (I never read tabloids at home) and so followed the story from a sensationalist angle for days.
I was an impressionable teen then, and one never wants to look back and think one's an impressionable anything, but I did not like this story, did not like it one bit. But then, really, it wasn't just the allegations, it was the kerfuffle of 'HIStory', the outrageous, brazen egotism of all that, the statue down the Thames, the Messianic imagery, the Pied Piper shit, the Brits performance where i'd have done worse than Jarvis Cocker if I'd been there, the weird marriages, the veil of lies, the millions and millions whom it seemed he'd hynotised into denial. Appalling. I was a stern teenage Christian with a burgeoning addiction to indie rock, and to me, Michael Jackson, in the mid-90s, was the Antichrist. What I mean by that is I gave serious consideration to the notion that this man was the Antichrist. The actual Antichrist.
So, Thriller was a great album, eh? ...
Michael Jackson's not that epitome of evil any more, not in my mind or anyone else's. He's tragic victim Michael, lost genius, never convicted of any crime worse than irresponsibility, wild extravagance, addiction, self-destruction, egotism. Imposssible to imagine what kind of old man he'd have become, now.
So, Thriller, then, the best selling album of all time. What do I think of it? I actually got rid of my zealous loathing of Michael Jackson many years ago, I bought his three classic solo albums in about 2001, I was able to disassociate man from music to some extent a while back. Maybe not fully, but I'll give it a go.
I don't think Thriller is the best album of all time, but I can't quite make my mind up about it. Some things about it bother me. Why has it only got 9 tracks? That's always bothered me. Unless there's a very good excuse, albums should have 10 tracks or more, and I don't think the excuse is good enough here. There must have been other songs available as good as Baby Be Mine or The Lady in My Life.
It's cheesy, almost comical at times. Schmaltzy too. And here's the main thing. You might suggest I'm not the person to make this judgement, I don't get Michael Jackson, I'm not a Michael Jackson fan. But if I measure the esteem in which I hold the rest of the songs on Thriller against the esteem in which I hold Billie Jean, there's a massive chasm. I think Billie Jean is flat out one of the greatest songs ever, on every level. That's how good I think Michael Jackson can be, but I don't think anything else is as near as good.
Oh, they're good, don't get me wrong. I've listened to Thriller all the way through a few times recently, and did I enjoy it? Of course I did. Wanna Be Startin' Something is far more substantial than I'd remembered. The Girl is Mine is one of the naffest songs ever but a real joy from start to finish. Beat It and the title track, well I know a lot of people think those are great great songs, on a par with Billie Jean. Maybe thinking that is the key to the album's greatness - they're right at it's heart, and if you think tracks 4, 5, 6 is a show of unstoppable strength, fair enough. All I can say is I want them to finish so I can hear Billie Jean.
Then, yes, I love Human Nature and PYT, those are crackers, but The Lady in My Life is quite a weak finish, as far as I'm concerned, just a standard 80s ballad.
Thriller doesn't keep me up there, I don't stay on the adrenaline ride all the way through. I'd probably listen to Tracks 6, 7 and 8 over and over again if it came to it and ignore the rest.
You know what, Bad is better, isn't it? No? 11 tracks. When you've got 11 tracks you're allowed a tiny bit of comedown here and there, whereas with 9 tracks you're not (just checked, Bad was originally 10m but Leave Me Alone was added for the CD version). What a run of hits! Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Liberian Girl, Man in the Mirror, Can't Stop Loving You, Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal, Leave Me Alone. I loved those songs when they were coming out and even now, most of them hold up. And nothing dwarfs, like Billie Jean dwarfs Thriller.And he wrote more of Bad himself. To me, Bad may be his greatest achievement
A few things strike me about Michael Jackson. Firstly, the best Michael Jackson voice was the voice of I Want You Back and I'll Be There. That was a voice of almost impossible wonder. When it broke, it was extraordinary still, but somehow ... not loveable. I'd rather listen to the younger voice everytime.
Secondly, there is something I don't quite get. I know there is. There's something in STAR POWER and its value I don't quite get. Something in how people view Elvis, Sinatra, Michael Jackson as geniuses I just don't get.
My mother, not a pop music fan in general, watched a doc on Michael Jackson shortly after his death and said to me "He really was a genius" in a tone I hadn't heard her use since she's described Leonardo Da Vinci as a genius to me 20 years earlier. Well, I suppose he was, as showman, dancer, pop king, star. I'm a bit boring. I break things down to things like body of work, consistency, boring, boring, boring. That's not pop music, is it? Thriller is the biggest album ever, the most enjoyed album ever. What I have to say on it matters not the tiniest bit.
Thirdly, Thriller, this album, played all the way through my life. I remember it when I was 5 all the way through. Those songs were just there. And Michael Jackson was the most famous man in the world all through my conscious life. That's obvious too. But I suppose it means that, despite what I felt about him in the mid-90s, I, like millions of others, ok, a lot less than millions of others, and in a far more dispassionate way, I felt a little bereft when he died. The benchmark of fame was gone.
OK, a Michael Jackson compilation. There'll be very few surprises here...
Don't Stop Til You Get Enough
I'll be There
Can You Feel It?
I Want You Back
Billie Jean
Dirty Diana
Ben
Thriller
Will you Be There
One Day In Your Life
She's Out of My Life
PYT
The Girl Is Mine
Rock With You
Give in to Me
Human Nature
Smooth Criminal
Liberian Girl
I Just Can't Stop Loving You
Man in the Mirror
Hell, he was pretty good, all told.
Your playlist could use a lot more Dangerous. Dangerous was the album I listened to over and over when I first discovered pop music. Late starter, me.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Bad is better than Thriller. Who cares if your lines of reasonong are boring, they're still correct.
Interesting to learn that MIchael himself was behind more of the songs on that one, too. It seems to coincide with the era when he was also clearly very creatively in charge of his look, publicity and gerenal public image. And we surely know he was in charge because he needed people to say "No, stop, you're being an idiot" but was so successful that no one dared...