In honour of the release of “Thriller 25” – the 25th anniversary special edition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, I thought I would offer my thoughts/reviews of some of the album. Of course since most of the content has been around for 25 years, I won’t bother reviewing the original tracks (besides, there’s too much to say) but rather the new “bonus tracks”. To get things started I want to look at the new 2008 “remix” of my personal favourite track, Billie Jean. (And I warn you now… it’s a long one!)
Billie Jean 2008
How do you go about remaking the signature song from Thriller? A song so synonymous with it’s original performer that it becomes a signature? A song that for all intense and purposes is perfect? Well if you’re smart, you don’t. Few have tried (The Bates, The Sound Bluntz) and all have failed. So naturally who would have the balls to mess with this piece of perfection? Kanye West that’s who! After all, Kanye seems to have gotten the crazy idea that he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread – so it’s only natural for him to take on a project of this size. This is probably the only track on the album that is a true remix, rather than a cover or half remix/half “new track”. There are no new lyrics, no annoying rap sequences: in fact the only time Kanye is present is a few “uh!”s and “yeah!”s and the begining and end. Admittedly I have to give props to Mr. West for not entirely butchering the track… that is to say, the opening was pretty awesome.
The track opens with strings and Michael’s plea “People always told me, be careful what you do” – West adds some snaps and other little bits of instrumentation. When I first heard this I thought to myself “Self, this may actually be worth listening to”. I need only wait a few more seconds to find out I wouldn’t be…
To understand why the “remix” is so dawg-gone awful you first have to look at (or listen to) the original. Billie Jean could be considered Michael Jackson’s signature song. It has been a staple of every live performance/tour since Thriller’s release, and if you ask anyone in the world to name a Michael Jackson song they will most likely say “Billie Jean” or possibly “Thriller”. For those of you who aren’t totally familiar with the original Billie Jean (of course if you aren’t, where the hell have you been!?) there are essentially 4 main pieces that make up this classic:
- The Opening Drum Kicks – the minute you hear those drums – be it at home, in a club, on the road – you know you better get your dancin’ shoes on, because Billie Jean is about to start. It is the perfect way to start a song, because it is so distinct.
- The Bass Line – the driving bass line of the song is quite possibly it’s signature. Everyone knows that “bom ba bom ba bom bom bom bah”. It’s part of what makes Billie Jean Billie Jean.
- The Whoo Whoos- to finish of the opening is the “whoo whoos” – this is sort of that last bit to really get people ready for the song. Once this comes in there’s no turning back.
- The Strings – probably one of my favourite elements of this track is the incredible string arrangement. It is what separates this song from an 80s pop track, to a timeless classic.
So what does Mr. West do? He decides “well I gotta make this track mine and unique from the original so lets do away with the opening drum kicks and the bass line, throw in some new “beats”, and change the Whoo Whoos to some newer 2008 style whoo whoos”. Thankfully the guy wasn’t high enough to do away with the string section – though you gotta wonder why not? At least then it could have been something completely different, something daring.
When you get right down to it you can’t help but ask “Why?”. I mean why mess with perfection? Billie Jean is one of those songs can be described as perfect (and it isn’t until you listen to the original 12″ mix that you can fully appreciate just how perfect it is). There is not a single thing wrong with it. If you were to listen to it, you would not immediately think it was written back in 1982. It sounds just as fresh today as it did 25 years ago. The fact that a high-school dance doesn’t go by without playing this track is a testament to just has great it is. So once again I must ask, why mess with perfection?
Don’t get me wrong, there are remixes of Billie Jean that I like. However, the reason that I like them is they are something entirely different – be it a house mix, or a club mix, or an augmentation of the original. But in this case it feel more like an “updating” for a modern audience, to appeal more to the Hip-Hop crowd of 2008 who might listen to Kanye. But this is not Kanye, it’s Michael Jackson, and making Michael Jackson sound like Kanye seems entirely pointless. If you want Kanye, listen to Kanye – don’t listen to Michael Jackson.
Perhaps it is because of my fondness for the track (after all it is my favourite track on Thriller, and possibly my favourite track of Jackson’s) that I detest this new mix so much. Perhaps I’m biased. Or perhaps, it just isn’t very good. The fact is, Billie Jean need not be updated. It is timeless. It is as fresh today as it was 25 years ago. It will still be played 30 years from now, 40 years from now, hell, 50 years from now. Much like the songs of The Beatles, or Led Zepplin, yes, even the Beach Boys, this song is a classic and will always have a place on the shelves of any true music lover. And you do not mess with perfection.
Overall if I had to rate this song, I’d give it a 2 out of 5. After all, when you’re working with a song that is perfect to begin with it’s pretty tough to ruin it completely, so long as you keep some elements of the original – which thankfully this does. Having said that it’s still pretty terrible, but at least it’s no Beat It 2008 – but thats another review for another day.
So do yourself a favour – dust off your original vinyl of Thriller and put on the second track of side two (or better yet, track down the 12″ mix) and listen to a truly perfect song.
Billie Jean is not my lover.
[...] you can’t help but feel that time would be better spent doing school work then writing a 6 page essay about Billie Jean that will never get read by anyone other than yourself, and possibly Bill. And after John [...]
i am iranian.i like M,J now.wish see M.J
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