lrc has no bass, thumbs down. i can't dance to this compressed new wave shit― brimstead, Thursday, September 18, 2014 7:38 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― brimstead, Thursday, September 18, 2014 7:38 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
OTM. I like the song just fine but I'm not sure how I'd react, dancing-wise, to it playing in a social setting. The chorus is kind of anti-climactic, 'litt-le red cor-VETTE / baby you're much too fast', like you expect it to really kick in but it just rises up and diminishes, ahem, much too fast. The production could definitely do with being tweaked - there's something thin and plasticky about the overall sound that just doesn't quite hit me in the chest like BJ.
― monoprix à dimanche (dog latin), Thursday, 18 September 2014 11:17 (nine years ago) link
I like Prince more, and "Corvette" is probably one of his top 5 singles for me. but "Billie Jean" just never really rated as one of my favorite MJ songs.
― some dude, Thursday, 18 September 2014 11:32 (nine years ago) link
she did a little squat at "jockeys"
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d55_1248476389
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 18 September 2014 12:06 (nine years ago) link
I voted BJ and imo the only Prince that is on par with it is When Doves Cry. Maybe I've a preference for sparse and funky.
― DISMISSED AS CHANCE (NotEnough), Thursday, 18 September 2014 12:08 (nine years ago) link
I think most of my friends don't know LRC, but EVERYBODY knows BJ. Doesn't mean it's better, but I think "When Doves Cry" would've made a better comparison.
― LeRooLeRoo, Thursday, 18 September 2014 14:32 (nine years ago) link
people going with Prince here, is there any Michael Jackson song you would have voted for over LRC?
nah I hate MJ
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:25 (nine years ago) link
http://rankings.gawker.com/prince-madonna-and-michael-jackson-singles-ranked-1635961045
(BJ just barely over LRC.)
― a guy named Christian White who represents the typical white Christian (Eric H.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:33 (nine years ago) link
I've been thinking about all of Prince's Revolution-era singles and almost every time I stack one up against Little Red Corvette, the challenger is better. I don't dislike LRC by any means, but it's midgrade Prince at best.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:52 (nine years ago) link
Will take LRC over "When Doves Cry," at any rate.
― a guy named Christian White who represents the typical white Christian (Eric H.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:53 (nine years ago) link
― Οὖτις,
you need a love that's gonna last
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:53 (nine years ago) link
"When Doves Cry" vs. "Billie Jean" would have been a much closer call for me, but I still think LRC > both.
― MaudAddam (cryptosicko), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:54 (nine years ago) link
"I Would Die 4 U" vs. "Wanna Be Startin Somethin"
― a guy named Christian White who represents the typical white Christian (Eric H.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:55 (nine years ago) link
always thought "When Doves Cry" was a lifeless dirge
― Darin, Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:56 (nine years ago) link
Maybe it's just like your mother.
― a guy named Christian White who represents the typical white Christian (Eric H.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:57 (nine years ago) link
ha
― Darin, Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:58 (nine years ago) link
Verses of LRC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> chorus of LRC
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 18 September 2014 15:58 (nine years ago) link
Strangeness and "thin and plasticky" sound are a large part of what attracted young new-wave me to Prince. Now I'm trying to imagine LRC with big, glossy Quincy Jones production.
― Dick Clownload (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 18 September 2014 16:18 (nine years ago) link
imagine it sounding boring and you're done
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 18 September 2014 16:22 (nine years ago) link
Billie Jean easily
― example (crüt), Thursday, 18 September 2014 16:24 (nine years ago) link
is there any Prince song that people voting against LRC think is better than Billie Jean?
maybe Controversy!
― example (crüt), Thursday, 18 September 2014 16:26 (nine years ago) link
dog latin its cool if dancefloor efficacy is important to you but by that measure calvin harris > paul mccartney so hmm
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 17:03 (nine years ago) link
Billie Jean is great. But not many songs are better than Little Red Corvette.
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 18 September 2014 17:08 (nine years ago) link
^^ QED
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 17:17 (nine years ago) link
BJ. I feel the better comparison would have been between BJ and When Doves Cry tho.
― Now you're messing with a (President Keyes), Thursday, 18 September 2014 17:21 (nine years ago) link
Or between LRC and Rock with You or Don't Stop til You Get Enough
― Now you're messing with a (President Keyes), Thursday, 18 September 2014 17:22 (nine years ago) link
everybody comparing parts of LRC or judging it as a dance track are on the wrong track entirely. that song does it's own thing and it's breathtaking
― g simmel, Thursday, 18 September 2014 17:26 (nine years ago) link
you must be a limousine
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, 18 September 2014 17:32 (nine years ago) link
― DISMISSED AS CHANCE (NotEnough), Thursday, September 18, 2014 12:08 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
...then surely you should also acknowledge Kiss (which I prefer to either, though it was an acquired taste, and it's possible I've largely missed what makes WDC great, which I don't think it is)? I don't regard BJ as the best on Thriller (nor LRC the best in 1999, necessarily), and admit to generally favoring Prince as the less creepy of the two weirdoes (and perhaps the more "rock" of the two "r&b"ers), and to having slightly disliked BJ since hating 2nd grade or whenever it was circa my first exposure to both megapop and its corporate (fast) food cognate, but I was ready to vote either way, and a re-listen confirmed that my vote is still for LRC.
I think I dislike now the same things I did then about BJ, even if I didn't know it, starting with the synthesized (?) strings that are just one sign of a taste-challenged overproduction that at times includes MJ's voice itself (though he does have some fine moments as well - I isolated the "People always told me" passage even before I saw JBR's post), and from which the relatively dinky-sounding guitar solo actually comes as something of a relief. I mean, I recognize that it's a different kind of song, but imagine if you hadn't put all that extra stuff on top of the great beat, the way (t)he(y) hadn't on Off the Wall (or Destiny) or even Thriller's better tunes - still-disco WBSS of course, Beat It (which I have taste problems with as well, extending from the guitar pyrotechnics to the vocal ones - the semi-unintelligible "no one wants to be defeated" part of the chorus tastes in my memory exactly like terrible soda), and above all the title track that absolutely flattens any such quibbles. Instead, a potentially great dance tune was subsumed within the weirdo's encroaching cinematic fantasies/paranoid delusions. LRC, otoh, seems to be very much the product of a recognizable human being, and that's my bottom line.
Incidentally, who thinks "Stan" was (un?)consciously modeled on BJ?
― benbbag, Thursday, 18 September 2014 18:22 (nine years ago) link
If you take all of the extras, including paranoia, off Beat It, you might end up with a dance tune like the B-52's' Mesopotamia. I'm not going to claim that it's a more socially useful song, but I definitely like it better.
― benbbag, Thursday, 18 September 2014 18:24 (nine years ago) link
Also, can someone explain why, on WBSS, MJ keeps calling me a vegetable? That doesn't seem very nice.
― benbbag, Thursday, 18 September 2014 18:39 (nine years ago) link
This is the only time I intend to vote for MJ over Prince
― he talks in meths (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 18 September 2014 18:50 (nine years ago) link
i dunno why but somehow it's mildly startling to see someone say 'i hate MJ,' seems like there's more agreement on his at-least-occasional-classicness than any other artist i can think of -- whereas i wouldn't blink an eye if someone said they hated the beatles, stones, elvis, etc.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 18:53 (nine years ago) link
there's a deny thy father thing going on with the boomer hate. sort of looking forward to a day when 80's music is less revered.
― Darin, Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:12 (nine years ago) link
my loathing of pop music's most overrated egomaniac is p well documented around here but I'd be happy to go into it further if you like.
I am not a baby boomer.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:14 (nine years ago) link
I meant hating stones/beatles/etc typically has "screw you grandma you don't know me" undertones aimed at boomers
― Darin, Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:16 (nine years ago) link
oh, i've got no problem with anyone hating MJ but it's interesting to me that he's become something of a sacred cow post-death -- i can remember a time when he was seen with a lot more ambivalence. i recall a lot of ppl expressing extreme disgust at the idea of him owning the lennon-mccartney catalog, way more intensely revulsed than i think they would have been if some random faceless corporation had owned the rights.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:18 (nine years ago) link
lots of people have always hated michael jackson
― example (crüt), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:25 (nine years ago) link
it's pretty easy to hate any omnipresent pop star. just look at their smug mugs.
― example (crüt), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:26 (nine years ago) link
I don't think anything changed post-death (great term, post-death). He was a joke for years, decades practically.
― brimstead, Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:28 (nine years ago) link
MJ is kind of like the Star Wars franchise - something I loved as a small child that has since become grotesque and unenjoyable after decades of overexposure, hysterical adulation, and the bloated weight of self-importance. I can't really locate anything to enjoy in the music itself. I've heard it all so many times and its subtexts - abuse, narcissism, Peter Pan syndrome, paranoia, delusions of grandeur - are all singularly unattractive, not sentiments I enjoy reveling in. As dance music there's a million things I would prefer, primarily from the eras immediately prior to his peak (funk/disco) and immediately afterward (hip hop). As 80s synth-funk/R&B goes MJ's weirdo obsessions (circa Thriller we have horror movies, pedophilia, illegitimate children, and an ode to either masturbation or gang warfare who can be sure) just gross me out and lack any sense of fun. In light of the arc of his life enjoying this stuff seems morbid and depressing in the extreme, sort of like how I feel listening to Nirvana. As an "innovator" eh what the fuck ever - he leaned on a lot of people sonically and stayed with the times for the most part. He owes a lot to the Motown machine and to Quincy Jones. I don't hear a lot of crazy formal innovation in his stuff that wasn't already happening in the late 70s and early 80s (Moroder, Prince, copping basslines from Rick James etc.). And I'm not really convinced that his vocal schtick of screeches and grunts accompanied by crotch-grabbing are any improvement over James Brown (or, since we're on this thread, again, Prince). Where he was unique was in the level of his stardom. But I don't give a shit about that.
xp
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:34 (nine years ago) link
the way this clip morphs over 14 minutes is kind of mindblowing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5qm8Nu_JjI
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:36 (nine years ago) link
i have watched the motown 25 billie jean clip a million times but for some reason i'd never seen bit just before that, the jackson 5 reunion thing. why were they wearing baseball uniforms/stirrups?
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:38 (nine years ago) link
He owes a lot to the Motown machine and to Quincy Jones.
If Jackson's home demos are anything to go by, he doesn't owe Jones anything. The vocal and instrumental arrangements are complete, absent only a few horn stabs or string swirls (which, I'm told, Jones wasn't even responsible for anyway).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:40 (nine years ago) link
pop stars being egomaniacs, heaven to betsy, leave me with some illusions
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:42 (nine years ago) link
also why do you guys insist on putting two great things in competition all the fucking time
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:43 (nine years ago) link
If Jackson's home demos are anything to go by, he doesn't owe Jones anything.
Jackson only has four individual writing credits and co-producer credits on Thriller. Other people wrote and produced PYT, Thriller and Human Nature (and no one gives a shit about the other songs on the album). Similarly Jones produced all Off the Wall, and most of that is written by other people too. Jackson knew how to craft some of his biggest singles, but he constantly relied on other people, he was not some singular genius doing it all himself a la Todd Rundgren or Prince, despite the way he's often depicted. Not that this is necessary to be a great artist (see also James Brown or David Bowie or Dr. Dre or any number of huge figures), but I think it's bullshit when people make him out to be some kind of all-powerful creative force.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:52 (nine years ago) link
A truly great songwriter would have more to his resume than a half-dozen (however giant) singles. and that's all MJ has.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:53 (nine years ago) link
Because putting mediocre movies into countdowns got old.
― a guy named Christian White who represents the typical white Christian (Eric H.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:54 (nine years ago) link
wait seriously? He wrote everything on Bad and from that point forward wrote or co-wrote everything.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:58 (nine years ago) link
Shakey, I don't mind your not liking MJ so much as you're using the rockist songwriter argument when in MJ's case it is flat-out wrong, especially when so many demos exist.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 September 2014 20:00 (nine years ago) link