defending yourself because someone decided it would make good copy and would force you to deny what they said,
thus creating another story. I've tried not to answer such ridiculous charges in the past because that dignifies them
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and the people who make them. Remember, the press is a business: Newspapers and magazines are in business to
make money - sometimes at the expense of accuracy, fairness, and even the truth.
Anyway, in the intro to "Pretty Young Thing," I sounded a bit more confident than I had on the last album. I liked the
"code" in the lyrics, and "tenderoni" and "sugar fly" were fun rock'n'roll-type words that you couldn't find in the dictionary. I got Janet and LaToya into the studio for this one, and they produced the "real" backup vocals. James Ingram and I programmed an electronic device called a Vocoder, which gave out that E.T. voice.
"Human Nature" was the song the Toto guys brought to Q, and he and I both agreed that the song had the prettiest melody we'd heard in a long time, even more than "Africa." It's music with wings. People asked me about the lyrics:
"Why does he do me that way . . . I like loving this way . . ." People often think the lyrics you're singing have some special personal significance for you, which often isn't true. It is important to reach people, to move them.
Sometimes one can do this with the mosaic of the music melody arrangement and lyrics, sometimes it is the
intellectual content of the lyrics. I was asked a lot of questions about "Muscles," the song I wrote and produced for Diana Ross. That song fulfilled a lifelong dream of returning some of the many favors she's done for me. I have
always loved Diana and looked up to her. Muscles, by the way, is the name of my snake.
"The Lady in My Life" was one of the most difficult tracks to cut. We were used to doing a lot of takes in order to get a vocal as nearly perfect as possible, but Quincy wasn't satisfied with my work on that song, even after literally
dozens of takes. Finally he took me aside late one session and told me he wanted me to beg. That's what he said. He
wanted me to go back to the studio and literally beg for it. So I went back in and had them turn off the studio lights
and close the curtain between the studio and the control room so I wouldn't feel self-conscious. Q started the tape and
I begged. The result is what you hear in the grooves.
Eventually we came under tremendous pressure from our record company to finish Thriller . When a record company
rushes you, they really rush you, and they were rushing us hard on Thriller . They said it had to be ready on a certain
date, do or die.
So we went through a period where we were breaking our backs to get the album done by their deadline. There were
a lot of compromises made on the mixes of various tracks, and on whether certain tracks were even going to be on
the record. We cut so many corners that we almost lost the whole album.
When we finally listened to the tracks we were going to hand in, Thriller sounded so crappy to me that tears came to
my eyes. We had been under enormous pressure because while we were trying to finish Thriller we also had been
working on The E.T. Storybook , and there had been deadline pressure on that as well. All these people were fighting
back and forth with each other, and we came to realize that the sad truth was that the mixes of Thriller didn't work.
We sat there in the studio, Westlake Studio in Hollywood, and listened to the whole album. I felt devastated. All this
pent-up emotion came out. I got angry and left the room. I told my people, "That's it, we're not releasing it. Call CBS
and tell them they are not getting this album. We are not releasing it."
Because I knew it was wrong. If we hadn't stopped the process and examined what we were doing, the record would
have been terrible. It never would have been reviewed the way it was because, as we learned, you can ruin a great
album in the mix. It's like taking a great movie and ruining it in the ending. You simply have to take your time.
Some things can't be rushed.
There was a bit of yelling and screaming from the record people, but in the end they were smart and understood.
They knew too; it was just that I was the first to say it. Finally I realized I had to do the whole thing - mix the entire album - all over again.
We took a couple of days off, drew a deep breath, and stepped back. Then we came to it fresh, cleaned our ears out,
and began to mix two songs a week. When it was done - boom - it hit us hard. CBS could hear the difference too.
Thriller was a tough project.
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It felt so good when we finished. I was so excited I couldn't wait for it to come out. When we finished, there wasn't
any kind of celebration that I can recall. We didn't go out to a disco or anything. We just rested. I prefer just being
with people I really like anyway. That's my way of celebrating.
The three videos that came out of Thriller - "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Thriller" - were all part of my original concept for the album. I was determined to present this music as visually as possible. At the time I would look at
what people were doing with video, and I couldn't understand why so much of it seemed so primitive and weak. I
saw kids watching and accepting boring videos because they had no alternatives. My goal is to do the best I can in
every area, so why work hard on an album and then produce a terrible video? I wanted something that would glue
you to the set, something you'd want to watch over and over. The idea from the beginning was to give people quality.
So I wanted to be a pioneer in this relatively new medium and make the best short music movies we could make. I
don't even like to call them videos. On the set I explained that we were doing a film , and that was how I approached
it. I wanted the most talented people in the business - the best cinematographer, the best director, the best lighting
people we could get. We weren't shooting on videotape; it was 35-mm film. We were serious.
For the first video, "Billie Jean," I interviewed several directors, looking for someone who seemed really unique.
Most of them didn't present me with anything that was truly innovative. At the same time I was trying to think
bigger, the record company was giving me a problem on the budget. So I ended up paying for "Beat It" and "Thriller"
because I didn't want to argue with anybody about money. I own both of those films myself as a result.
"Billie Jean" was done with CBS's money - about $250,000. At the time that was a lot of money for a video, but it really pleased me that they believed in me that much. Steve Baron, who directed "Billie Jean," had very imaginative ideas, although he didn't agree at first that there should be dancing in it. I felt that people wanted to see dancing. It
was great to dance for the video. That freeze-frame where I go on my toes was spontaneous; so were many of the
other moves.
"Billie Jean's" video made a big impression on the MTV audience and was a huge hit.
"Beat It" was directed by Bob Giraldi, who had done a lot of commercials. I remember being in England when it was decided that "Beat It" would be the next single released from Thriller , and we had to choose a director for the video.
I felt "Beat It" should be interpreted literally, the way it was written, one gang against another on tough urban streets.
It had to be rough . That's what "Beat It" was about.
When I got back to L.A., I saw Bob Giraldi's demo reel and knew that he was the director I wanted for "Beat It." I loved the way he told a story in his work, so I talked with him about "Beat It." We went over things, my ideas and his ideas, and that's how it was created. We played with the storyboard and molded and sculpted it.