TS: Billie Jean vs. Little Red Corvette

Fuck michael jackson LRC all the way for being a much weirder song/single

― Οὖτις

"Billie Jean" has the creepier bass line, strings, and lyrics by any stretch.

Billie Jean is creepier because MJ is creepy, but that wasn't what I was getting at. Structurally Billie Jean is quite conventinal - common time rhythm, hook-verse-chorus etc. - as noted it's a dancefloor filler. LRC's drum track is bizarre, it builds up and recedes throughout the song (not a dance track at all), then the Eddie Hazel guitar solo in the middle and in the refrain (a good deal more interesting than BJ's four-note guitar solo bit), then the song more or less stops to give Prince room for some more squealing vocal acrobatics and goofy double-entendres, and then it glides along for another minute-and-a-half with the vocal call and response. This is just a strange way to arrange a hit single, it doesn't bear much resemblance to anything else at the time nor have any real clear precedents.

a good deal more interesting than BJ's four-note guitar solo bit

I'd contest that.

this is actually really hard but in the end i had to give the nod to Prince. you really can't go wrong with either song but have changed the station on MJ's song (not again) and not Price's song.

billie jean is so good that even the pepsi version is awesome. on the other hand little red corvette was the first prince song i ever heard and i still find it just as haunting as ever -- all that whispering and squealing, eerie silences, crazy tempo changes, and prince managing to make the line 'girl, you got an ass like i never seen' sound weirdly eloquent. but there really is no wrong answer here.

guess i shoulda known
by the way you parked your car
sideways that it wouldn't last

― resulting post (rogermexico.), Tuesday, September 16, 2014 1:59 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sheer giddiness

prince ftw

love both but "billie jean" easily. lrc sounds sluggish smushy and flat in comparison. drums aren't loud enough.

does billie jean even have chord changes? lrc has a regular chord progressions.. its "strangeness" is due to its shitty diy sound. it's good shitty, though!

chord progression in LRC is def conventional, but the arrangement and execution are bizarre

does billie jean even have chord changes?

don't forget the pre-chorus!

Ha, i actually just remembered the pre-chorus as i was eating lunch and thought to myself "damn, what a jam".

I definitely would've picked LRC ten years ago, another ten years and i'll probably flip again

We should poll several Prince/MJ pairings:

Bad vs Sign o' the Times
PYT vs Take Me with U

this is the only one that's even a contest

despite the fact that i just had a wonderful little moment with my son teaching him to moonwalk and sing the chorus to "Billie Jean," this is so easily forever "Little Red Corvette" for me

nothing touches Billie Jean

Was out for dinner tonight with some friends and put this question to them. All four of us say LRC.

nothing touches Billie Jean

except for MJ, who then refused to take responsibility

"Corvette" is awesome wtf is up with you people

Was out for dinner tonight with some friends and put this question to them. All four of us say LRC.

― MaudAddam (cryptosicko), Wednesday, September 17, 2014 7:20 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the four wisemen

the four tin eared men

prince is about even with kate bush in terms of annoying "omg bacon" style overreaction these days. it's like if you don't get all speaking-in-tongues foaming at the mouth about them you're a total poser.

the "people always told me..." prechorus is the best part of BJ, whereas there are 100 best parts of LRC.

lrc has no bass, thumbs down. i can't dance to this compressed new wave shit

the "people always told me..." prechorus is the best part of BJ, whereas there are 100 best parts of LRC.

― replacements gustafsson (get bent), Wednesday, September 17, 2014

OTM

people going with Prince here, is there any Michael Jackson song you would have voted for over LRC? is there any Prince song that people voting against LRC think is better than Billie Jean?

Gotta go with Billie Jean. I love both songs but sometimes Little Red Corvette will come on and I don't feel like listening to it, whereas I always, always want to hear Billie Jean.

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

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.

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.

she did a little squat at "jockeys"

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d55_1248476389

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.

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.

people going with Prince here, is there any Michael Jackson song you would have voted for over LRC?

nah I hate MJ

http://rankings.gawker.com/prince-madonna-and-michael-jackson-singles-ranked-1635961045

(BJ just barely over LRC.)

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.

Will take LRC over "When Doves Cry," at any rate.

nah I hate MJ

― Οὖτις,

you need a love that's gonna last

"When Doves Cry" vs. "Billie Jean" would have been a much closer call for me, but I still think LRC > both.

"I Would Die 4 U" vs. "Wanna Be Startin Somethin"

always thought "When Doves Cry" was a lifeless dirge

Maybe it's just like your mother.

ha

Verses of LRC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> chorus of LRC

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.

imagine it sounding boring and you're done

Billie Jean easily

is there any Prince song that people voting against LRC think is better than Billie Jean?

maybe Controversy!

dog latin its cool if dancefloor efficacy is important to you but by that measure calvin harris > paul mccartney so hmm

Billie Jean is great. But not many songs are better than Little Red Corvette.

^^ QED

BJ. I feel the better comparison would have been between BJ and When Doves Cry tho.

Prince's 1982 run is pretty unfwithable imo, three dope albums under three different guises/fronts

WHY IS THE WOMAN IN LITTLE RED CORVETTE WALKING AROUND WITH A POCKETFUL OF USED RUBBERS THATS REALLY GROSS PRINCE

you'd better be drinking ersatz coffee if you are reusing rubbers

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I dunno how anyone can listen to "Bad" (the song) and not hear it as a totally desperate, almost comically inept manifestation of masculine insecurity. Everything from that point onward became by turns hamfisted and/or disturbing, whether he was singing about skin color not mattering (hmm gee wonder what's going on there) or fantasizing about fucking Diana Ross. Delivered by a manchild in a military uniform that builds giant statues of himself. Even typing this out makes me lol at the baldly ridiculous (and ultimately very sad and tragic) insanity of this guy's output. He was not a happy guy working through his problems; his catalog is a funhouse mirror of denial, delusion and solipsism. I don't really get how people relate to it.

― Οὖτις, Thursday, September 18, 2014 4:20 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, posts like this are why ilx rules

seriously why do i have to relate to mj

"almost comically inept manifestation of masculine insecurity" vs. "intricate, electric failure of masculinity that is also totally funky, who gives a shit"

i agree with you, i love mj's music, but it's pretty disturbing and the sadness is hard to comprehend. this quote from before thriller came out: "Even at home, I'm lonely. I sit in my room sometimes and cry. It's so hard to make friends ... I sometimes walk around the neighborhood at night, just hoping to find someone to talk to. But I just end up coming home."

*the full scope of its sadness is hard to comprehend

is Michael Jackson outsider music?

absolutely

I dunno how anyone can listen to "Bad" (the song) and not hear it as a totally desperate, almost comically inept manifestation of masculine insecurity. Everything from that point onward became by turns hamfisted and/or disturbing, whether he was singing about skin color not mattering (hmm gee wonder what's going on there) or fantasizing about fucking Diana Ross. Delivered by a manchild in a military uniform that builds giant statues of himself. Even typing this out makes me lol at the baldly ridiculous (and ultimately very sad and tragic) insanity of this guy's output. He was not a happy guy working through his problems; his catalog is a funhouse mirror of denial, delusion and solipsism. I don't really get how people relate to it.

― Οὖτις, Thursday, September 18, 2014 4:20 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If the content of his music strikes any kind of chord in you its has to be because on some level it does resonate with you. The lack of filter on his presentation of these themes can be pretty jarring but you can't be looking very far inward if you've never felt comically inept in your posturing masculinity (I mean, that to me is a big part of what makes "Bad" so fun), or found your own conception of race and skin colour disturbing, caught yourself fantasizing about weird or inappropriate sex (maybe not Diana Ross...) and built edifices of yourself in your dreams (ymmv with that one).

I mean of all the ways in which a human being can manifest as outlandishly weird, unhappiness, denial, delusion and solipsism strike me as pretty universal (outsider music is an interesting tag I'd never considered). You may not necessarily be able to relate directly to it, but is it really that much of a stretch to see where it comes from and empathise with it?

voted "Little Red Corvette" I love how the song builds tension, climaxes, and then fades. In truth, I'm way too biased for this poll.

I appreciate "Billie Jean," but I think it mostly relies on the great sound it has. It has that moody/haunting vibe going on throughout the song.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow! Everyone came out for this one, huh?

Clearly songs that generate strong feelings in all of humanity. Impressed with how close this was.

Simple: I called my relatives and asked them to vote. Black Panther guards protected them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlY0H6PTIrc

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/obituaries/leon-ndugu-chancler-versatile-drummer-is-dead-at-65.html