It started with a howl (from the record company) and ended with latex, zombies and beansprout sandwiches. Twenty-five years after Michael Jackson turned into a werewolf, Peter Lyle talks to members of his inner circle about the making of a classic album - and the video that changed pop history
In April 1982, Michael Jackson was the former Motown child star who would sporadically reunite with his brothers for tours and albums, had famous friends and collaborators, and had one hit solo album, 1978's 'Off the Wall', to his name. That month, recording began on an untitled follow-up which was to alter for ever Jackson's career, the concept of the pop video, and the record industry itself. Jackson has said that his inspiration was Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker Suite' because 'every song was a killer', and claimed last year that 'My dream was for it to be the biggest-selling album ever.'
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Bruce Swedien (engineer) When we started 'Thriller', the first day at Westlake [the studio on Santa Monica Boulevard where the album was recorded], we were all there and Quincy [Jones, the producer] walked in followed by me and Michael and Rod Temperton and some of the other people. Quincy turned to us and he said, 'OK guys, we're here to save the recording industry.' Now that's a pretty big responsibility - but he meant it. And that's why those albums, and especially 'Thriller', sound so incredible. The basic thing is, everybody who was involved gave 150 per cent … Quincy's like a director of a movie and I'm like a director of photography, and it's Quincy's job to cast [it]. Quincy can find the people and he gives us the inspiration to do what we do.
Brian Banks (synthesisers) [Michael] was definitely the star, he didn't interact a whole lot with us. I mean, he was around a bit, he did interact a bit … he would usually be practising his dance steps if he was in the studio, in the corner. When he got to singing, nobody was around - it was just him and Bruce Swedien and Quincy.
Bruce Swedien I tried all sorts of things with Michael - for instance, he would sing the main vocal part and we'd double it one time and then I'd ask him to step away from the mic and do it a third time and that really changed the acoustics in the room so it gave Michael's vocals a unique character … We recorded some of those background vocals in the shower stall at Westlake.
Quincy Jones (producer) Michael wrote Billie Jean - and that stuff, you know, it was just highly, highly personal. According to him, he said it was about a girl who climbed over [his] wall and he woke up one morning and she was laying out by the pool, lounging, hanging out with the shades on, bathing suit on... and Michael said she had accused him of being the father of one of her twins [laughs]. And Michael, on Billie Jean, he had an intro you could shave on it was so long. I said, 'It's too long, we gotta get to the melody quicker.' He said, 'But that's the jelly! That's what makes me wanna dance.' Now, when Michael Jackson tells you that's what makes him want to dance, the rest of us had to shut up.
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Bruce Swedien When Michael liked a groove, he'd call it 'Smelly Jelly'. Also Michael doesn't curse, and when he wants to say a bad word, he'll simply call it 'smelly'.
Rod Temperton (songwriter/arranger) Originally, when I did my Thriller demo, I called it Starlight. Quincy said to me, 'You managed to come up with a title for the last album, see what you can do for this album.' I said, 'Oh great,' so I went back to the hotel, wrote two or three hundred titles, and came up with the title 'Midnight Man'. The next morning, I woke up, and I just said this word... Something in my head just said, this is the title. You could visualise it on the top of the Billboard charts. You could see the merchandising for this one word, how it jumped off the page as 'Thriller'.
Bruce Swedien [Temperton is] more like a classical composer than a pop composer - when he arrives, nothing is left to chance, and it's the same with his demos... When we were recording, Michael went home, stayed up all night, and memorised every one of [Rod Temperton's] demos, never had a piece of paper in front of him. Can you believe that?
Brian Banks It was late in the evening one night when we were working, and Quincy came to us. We all knew how Thriller was going, they were trying to get Vincent Price, they were doing all this stuff, but he wanted this huge chord sequence - he said, 'There's this sound that I've got in my head, there's this underground, this new artist, that nobody's ever really heard of but he's great, he's hot, he's got this great song.' And he pulled out the album and it was Prince, '1999'. And you know the opening sound on that? Duh-da da, Dur-duh-duh? Well that was the sound - that big, bitey chord sound at the opening of '1999' - he wanted that, but bigger, for Thriller.
Rod Temperton When I wrote Thriller I'd always envisioned this talking section at the end and didn't really know what we were going to do with it. But one thing I'd thought about was to have somebody, a famous voice, in the horror genre, to do this vocal. Quincy's [then] wife [Peggy Lipton] knew Vincent Price so Quincy said to me, how about if we got Vincent Price? And I said, 'Wow, that'd be amazing if we could get him...'
quelle: Michael Jackson's monster smash - Telegraph
^^da gibs noch 3 Seiten zu lesen 
aber es war wirklich die geilste Party die ich je erlebt habe 
mein erstes Prince Konzert überhaupt, es war wie gesagt der Hammer! 
Bei uns hat er "Nothing compares 2 U" gespielt und mit Musicology begann es 
die NPG war da und er war Backstage dort! Wir konnten ihn sehen 
) Marva King und Shelby J. haben hammer gesungen:ehre