'Thriller' at 25: A Pleasure Still
By Dan Charnas
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, February 12, 2008; C05
The 25th anniversary edition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" comes with a CD of digitally remastered tracks and newfangled remixes, a DVD with all of the album's classic videos and a 48-page color booklet, all bound in a lustrous gold cover emblazoned with the tag line "The World's Biggest Selling Album of All Time." It's fitting that "Thriller" isn't being commemorated as great art, though some of it is. After all, the album was recorded in a two-month rush at the tail end of 1982, born as a desperate measure to save CBS Records' fiscal year. It ended up rescuing the entire recording industry from the post-disco doldrums, spawning seven Top 10 singles, spending more than two years on the album charts and selling 104 million copies globally.
Ah, those were the good old days. But not even the ghost of "Thriller" -- risen from the grave like Jackson's video zombies -- can save the music industry now, although resurrected by the savior himself, Kanye West. In 2008, "Thriller 25" is really a requiem for the record business.
Forget the reconfigured songs by West and Will.I.Am, the guest appearances from Fergie and Akon. The one unreleased track from the "Thriller" sessions that appears here, "For All Time," was wisely left off the original album.
All of these extras pale against the simple pleasure of hearing the chunky opening drums of "Billie Jean"; or better yet, seeing the audience's reaction to them at the start of Jackson's performance on the "Motown 25" NBC TV special from 1983, available on the DVD.
It's amazing to recount just how many of "Thriller's" contributions have become a part of our collective cultural consciousness: Jackson's "moonwalk" across the Motown stage, his red leather jacket, the instantly recognizable choreography from John Landis's epic "Thriller" video, even phrases like "I'm not like other guys" and "I'm a lover, not a fighter."
(Inexplicably missing from this edition are some of the better features from a 2001 "Thriller" reissue, including an amazing "Billie Jean" home demo recorded by Jackson before he'd ironed out the lyrics and melody.)
"Thriller" was the second of two significant collaborations between Jackson and producer Quincy Jones. The first, 1979's "Off the Wall," was pure pre-nose-job Michael, soul and showmanship brought to their apex. Even in the midst of a serious radio backlash against black music, "Off the Wall" was irresistible. But "Thriller" finally breached that wall of musical segregation with careful, calculated concessions to the rock gods like "Beat It." ("Billy Jean" was the first video by a major black star to be played heavily on MTV.) The cost was Jackson's soul, literally and figuratively, which went the way of his old nose.
But M.J. achieved nothing less than a reintegration of American music, and he helped pave the way for all who followed, from Prince to Public Enemy.
It's that cultural revolution for which "Thriller" will be remembered 25 years hence, long after we've forgotten that there were once things called records and CDs, or that special stores sold them by the hundreds of millions, or that people bought music at all.
DOWNLOAD THESE:"Billie Jean," "Thriller," "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"
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