"Thriller" by Michael Jackson

Strong Songs

Kirk Hamilton

Music Commentary, Music, Musicreviews

4.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Darkness falls across the land, and it's the right time for Michael Jackson's "Thriller." STRONG SONGS ON PATREON Strong Songs has a Patreon! If you liked this episode (or, you know, any of them), we hope you'll consider supporting the show. Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/strongsongs STRONG MERCH! Visit the Strong Songs merch store for some very cool t-shirts, mugs, totes, and more: store.strongsongspodcast.com IT'S CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT Kirk picks apart Rod Temperton's dance floor classic in all its groovy, corny, sound effect-y glory. Band/Artist: Michael Jackson Album: Thriller, 1982 Composed by: Rod Temperton, produced by Quincy Jones Listen/Buy: Apple Music | Amazon | Spotify ------ A NOTE FROM KIRK: It’s been a couple months since I produced this episode, and just a few days since I watched the first part of “Leaving Neverland,” a devastating new HBO documentary in which two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, detail their alleged childhood sexual abuse at the hands of Michael Jackson. It’s an intense and difficult documentary to watch, but I recommend that everyone listening to this episode do so. Jackson’s estate denies it all, but watching people on camera relaying such painful memories, in such excruciating detail, is both wrenching and convincing. It’s impossible to separate an amazing song like “Thriller” from the man who sang it. I still think Thriller is a great song and admire the many people involved in making it, but hearing Robson and Safechuck’s accounts, on top of the similar stories I and the culture at large brushed aside or shrugged our shoulders at when they first surfaced many years ago, has certainly changed the way I hear Jackson’s voice. I’m leaving this episode as is, but I wanted to add this note, as well as to link to this New York Times editorial on Jackson’s legacy by Wesley Morris, which says so much, so well. ~KH 3/6/2019

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and
0:05.0	I'm your host Kirk Hamilton and I'm so glad that you join me to talk about music
0:10.0	about music and songs and what makes good songs good.
0:14.0	A couple things before we start.
0:15.8	First of all, thanks so much to everybody who said something nice or shared the show.
0:19.2	It really means a lot and it's cool to see it getting out there.
0:22.1	I'm just glad that you've all been listening and enjoying the show.
0:24.8	We are about to pass 100 ratings on the Apple Podcast app, which I think if you pass 100 ratings, like you're
0:32.8	officially a real podcast or something? I don't know.
0:34.8	Anyways, thanks everyone who's rated it. If you haven't rated it and you have time,
0:37.9	go ahead and do that. That would be super cool.
0:40.2	I have been thinking a little bit about some bonus episodes that I might do or some off-format things.
0:45.4	Obviously this is a new show and I'm experimenting with, you know, how I do what I do.
0:50.2	But a couple things I've been thinking about.
0:51.7	One is just a sort of a music primer. A couple of people have written in to suggest or ask for this.
0:57.0	Just an episode where I explain some of the terms that I use. I try not to use too much music, like high level music terminology on this show, but there are a few things, you know, song form and meter and chord types, you know, a few things that it might be kind of cool to break down. Not totally sure how I want to do that, but I'm thinking
1:14.3	about that. The other one involves listener questions and here's where you can get
1:17.8	involved. If you email me at Strong Songs Podcast at gmail.com That's the email address you can send me questions
1:24.7	feedback anything but if you send me a question there what I'm looking for are
1:28.9	questions just about small specific things in songs that you've always wondered about that I can maybe
1:34.0	try to answer and if we get enough of those I could do a whole episode out of them.
1:37.6	So some examples these are actually from my former boss Stephen from Kotaku he suggested a couple questions.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kirk Hamilton, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kirk Hamilton and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.