Fair on all counts, but as a pedant (and former producer), I would ask you to point some praise to Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton who produced and wrote most of Thriller's content.
Oh goodness yes. Both were true collaborator on this. Without them Thriller (and Off the Wall) would not have been what they were... at all. Quincy Jones was was a genius. Without him Jackson never sounded as good. Some are even aware of this. Rod Temperton is worse because very few remember him, and yet he wrote Thriller and many others for Jackson.
Have often wished he'd just retired after Thriller.
IMO the tugged in two directions thing is part of the territory. Consider Ike Turner, Phil Spector - or Richard Wagner, for that matter. I think of how many times musician friends have said of one person or another, "The guy's a musical genius and I'm glad I worked on his album, but man, is he one crazy !#$@$#er!"
It's true, although some of them remain nice, regular folks. Many of these get the f*ck out of the business, this is true, but some seem to keep their feet somewhat on the ground.
I never got into the Michael Jackson phase. The Jackson Five, yes--but by the time he went solo, I was heavily into hard rock, space music, blues and not so much the top 40s pop. Earth Wind and Fire, Van Halen, the Stones, Pink Floyd, Heart--that was pretty much my soundtrack of the time.
On the other hand, I knew people who were heavily into his music. Me, I preferred Prince to Michael Jackson.
Heh. One person's alternative music (for whatever version of alternate you might choose) is another person's pop. In South Africa, Earth Wind and Fire, Van Halen, the Stones, Pink Floyd, Heart and Prince were all top 40s pop. They were marketed like pop, were as popular as pop, sold like pop and were found in all the same venues (radio, music stores, concerts, etc). The Jackson Five too. I liked much of that myself, but not all by any means. They were all huge-selling artists so I'm sure the same is true here. Others too, like Dire Straits, Talking Heads, Bowie, etc
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I remember when he was adragonet2June 26 2009, 21:57:17 UTC
cute black child with enormous, natural talent. I even used to have a "record" (45) of the ABC / 123 song that was pressed onto the back of Alphabets Cereal boxes. (I'm ancient...)
He's had a sad, strange life. I hope he rests in peace.
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Plus, he recorded Soul Bossa Nova- genius!
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Rod has also kept busy... but not like Quincy.
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IMO the tugged in two directions thing is part of the territory. Consider Ike Turner, Phil Spector - or Richard Wagner, for that matter. I think of how many times musician friends have said of one person or another, "The guy's a musical genius and I'm glad I worked on his album, but man, is he one crazy !#$@$#er!"
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On the other hand, I knew people who were heavily into his music. Me, I preferred Prince to Michael Jackson.
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He's had a sad, strange life. I hope he rests in peace.
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