Thriller: The Musical Life of Michael Jackson by Nelson George

Author:Nelson George [George, Nelson]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Composers & Musicians, Music, Individual Composer & Musician, Entertainment & Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780306819070
Google: wDURQh4FuHsC
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2010-10-15T21:18:33+00:00

THE TALE OF EDDIE VAN HALEN’S involvement with “Beat It” starts with a funny tale of miscommunication from the era before cell phones. “The phone in my house wasn’t working too well,” the guitar legend told Musician magazine in 1984. “I could tell the person on the other end of the line couldn’t hear me. Quincy called and asked ‘Eddie?’ I say ‘Who’s this?’ He didn’t say anything ’cause he couldn’t hear me. So I hung up. He called back. Same thing—he couldn’t hear me. Third time he calls back, he goes ‘Eddie?’ And I said, ‘What the fuck you want you asshole?’ He says ‘This is Quincy. Quincy Jones.’ ‘Oh my God. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I get so many crank calls that I didn’t know.’”

Once that comic confusion was straightened out, Van Halen had his regular engineer, Donn Landee, pick up the tape of “Beat It” from Westlake and bring it over to his house. After a listen, Van Halen asked for some changes, primarily over which part of the track he’d solo. He spoke with Quincy, and the alterations were made. On the day he recorded his historic solo, Quincy and Jackson stood behind Eddie as he made two passes at a guitar part that has become an air guitar classic.

At the time Van Halen cut that solo, he wasn’t paid for it. “I didn’t care,” he told Musician magazine in 1984. “I did it as a favor. I didn’t want nothing. . . . Maybe Michael will give me dance lessons someday. . . . People don’t understand that. I was [a] complete fool, according to the rest of the band and our manager and everybody else.” Just as Michael was given rock cred by Eddie Van Halen, the performance on “Beat It” helped Van Halen become a bigger pop group, with the band’s single “Jump” making the black singles’ chart and receiving black radio play. “I’m obsessed with music,” Van Halen said, “and I get off on playing and I don’t care how much money someone makes off it. Put it this way: I was not used. I knew what I was doing. I don’t do anything unless I want to do it.”

Despite the success of “Beat It” for Jackson, the song did not open the floodgates for black rock. But I do believe the acceptance of “Beat It” in particular, and Thriller overall, made it easier for America to accept Prince, an androgynous cult figure, as a pop star. He had been making rock records way before the 1984 Purple Rain album (such as “Bambi,” from Prince in 1979, and “When You Were Mine,” from Dirty Mind in 1981). And each of Prince’s pre-Purple Rain albums (Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999) sold more than 1 million copies and the supporting tour for each had hit larger venues. But Thriller showed Prince’s label (Warner Bros.), the retail community, and radio programmers the growing possibilities of a young black pop performer.

Of course, the movie Purple Rain worked for Prince in the same way videos did for Jackson, giving a modern visual dimension to his music.

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