how could you not understand the impact of this album? it came out when I was 7 years old, and I still was able to recognize that it was the best thing ever (at the time). of course, back then it was a lot easier to recognize the best thing ever. bazillion copies sold, Grammys and MTV awards won (back when those things mattered). Also MJ was beloved across generations and genders, which doesn't happen as much today I don't think.

that album was fucking everywhere when i was in 2nd grade. and the Thriller video itself was a phenomenon. i remember hearing it and seeing it (and the making-of) on the radio, in department stores, at roller skating rinks.

it was my first taste of the macabre and i haven't looked back.

can agree to this

Just don't ever discuss Bad. That's his bondage record down to the album cover, and the first lyric being "your butt is mine", and pretty much every snare having a whip-like sound.

Boring, long-winded Thriller story #168:

My dad recently asked me to teach him Human Nature on guitar. Steve Lukather, at the time most recently of Toto, played guitar on almost all of Thriller. I knew enough about Toto to know their history: they essentially formed over Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees, they slogged it out as a real band for like 4 years, and then swept the grammies in 81 for Roseanna and Africa, mainly because the committee is largely composed of industry insider friends of theirs. They then realized they actually hated being a real band and were in it only for commercial/critical success, amicably broke up, and all went back to studio work. Lukather went right into the studio to record Thriller directly afterwards. Not a bad transition.

Anyway, my dad and I are listening to the song, which is actually a complex beast of a song on guitar with lots of steely dan chords. I ask him "hey you know who this is on guitar" and give him the hint that it's a guy in one of his fave 80s bands. He guesses Toto (not knowing Lukather's name) correctly, and my dad has a rare moment of guitar knowledge coolness (not bad for a guy now in his mid 60s). So we continue talking and musing about who probably wrote the Thriller stuff as I'm showing him the song. I always thought it was Jones with Jackson doing the lyrics, along with pro songwriter Rod Temperton doing most of the singles. My dad retorted that he thought Jackson wrote some music too, and it turns out he was right: Jackson wrote all of Beat It and Billie Jean, and I later found out he was able to dictate the parts by tape/recording his voice miming every part and playing it back to each session dude, which is nothing short of absolutely amazing (Jackson did admit that he lifted the bass from Billie Jean from I Can't Go For That).

Anyway, in browsing through the songwriting credits I came across the familiar name of (Porcaro) on the credits of Human Nature, and it turns out that Steve Porcaro wrote and played keys on this song.

So essentially, Human Nature is Toto fronted by Michael Jackson.

How validating.

billie jean would probably be in my top 20 best songs ever.

thriller and p.y.t. are great too.

Man, for a cheezy love song, the lady in my life is a killer melody. I love human nature too. Maybe I'll cover it on my solo album just to tick y'all off