BM has gone on record stating that if it wasn't for HS, MJ would never have made Thriller. I find this interesting as nothing I've read on Thriller from MJ's point of view has actually backed up BM's claims. Even the Special Edition of Thriller fails to mention anything of HS or Queen as an influence. Furthermore, I can't really hear any parallel between the two albums(though I'm interested to know if anyone else can). As much as I love Hot Space, it's four white Englishmen and a German havin' a dabble at early 80s funk. And that's where it gets confusing: Thriller is the real deal, real funk and disco made by a black musician (well, at the time he was) and a black producer.
Seems like a case of reverse engineering to me!
Seeing as Hot Space only came out a few months before Thriller, and bombed terribly, I'd have a hard time it strongly influenced Thriller.
By all accounts, Jackson had more influence on Queen, recommending Another One Bites the Dust be released as a single, and, because they worked together, getting Freddie more interested in funk and disco.
The truth is that Queen were never so popular in States. It never could happen with HS!!! Funk took EVERY musician's mind at that time! Many many bands influenced that time by funk. Staying Power - it's funky, Thriller is funky. Of course Staying Power sounds like Thriller and vise versa. It's like Brit Pop who rules the nowdays rock'n'roll. The most part of nowdays rock music is Brit-Popy.
I don't think BM is "a gigantic liar", but he has a tendency to, shall we say take a rather revisionist approach to history, which just happens to emphasize his importance and that of his and his band's work.
For example .... on page # 134 above:
"These pictures are of the Jazz tour of the USA in 1978. Note the News Of The World robot face on Roger' s bass drum, never used in Europe."
Who Cares at this point, I could see Jackson being influenced by The Game more than Hot Space. Stuff like AOBTD and Dragon Attack, mixing funk with rock. It could be the reason why he hired Eddie Van Halen for the Beat it guitar solo. It Has that Dragon Attack feel. Not that I care, I'm personally not a fan of Jackson. Biggest selling artist of all time or not.
Sebastian wrote:
Bob gave me a great idea for a meme, which I now unashamedly plagiarised and tweaked.
I wonder if there's a way to make a stereo version of it...
I hear this guy Brian May, Ph.D. knows a lot about that kind of stuff. Maybe he could help you ;-P
thomasquinn 32989 wrote:
I don't think BM is "a gigantic liar", but he has a tendency to, shall we say take a rather revisionist approach to history, which just happens to emphasize his importance and that of his and his band's work.
I don't think it's that nearly as much as it's whatever he needs to say at the time to market a current project. It's pretty standard music biz stuff that most of the big artists do.
When the Zeppelin remasters came out, in an interview Jimmy Page angrily and categorically denied that he was on heroin in the late 70s, with his argument being "it says I was the producer, so therefore I must've been together."
Around the time of MJ's death in 2009, I came across an article that was purportedly written in 1982 as the Thriller album was being finished.
It contained a line that was something to the effect of, "...strains of...(album title I can't remember), (album title I can't remember), and Queen's Hot Space filter throughout the studio.
I'm still kicking myself for not taking a screenshot.
Also, I just found this: link
Rough translation:
Michael Jackson acknowledged recently that the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky was one of its references to assemble Thriller. It was "a work in which each song was an ACE", says. But the Hot space of Queen was even more present during the recording
It's from 2007.