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.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 18:23 (nine years ago) link
guess i shoulda knownby the way you parked your carsideways that it wouldn't last
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Tuesday, September 16, 2014 1:59 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
sheer giddiness
prince ftw
― B.L.A.P. (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 20:49 (nine years ago) link
love both but "billie jean" easily. lrc sounds sluggish smushy and flat in comparison. drums aren't loud enough.
― brimstead, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 21:16 (nine years ago) link
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!
― brimstead, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 21:19 (nine years ago) link
chord progression in LRC is def conventional, but the arrangement and execution are bizarre
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 21:37 (nine years ago) link
does billie jean even have chord changes?
don't forget the pre-chorus!
― example (crüt), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 21:51 (nine years ago) link
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
― brimstead, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 23:26 (nine years ago) link
We should poll several Prince/MJ pairings:
Bad vs Sign o' the TimesPYT vs Take Me with U
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 23:39 (nine years ago) link
this is the only one that's even a contest
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 00:31 (nine years ago) link
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
― some dude, Thursday, 18 September 2014 00:52 (nine years ago) link
nothing touches Billie Jean
― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 18 September 2014 01:40 (nine years ago) link
Was out for dinner tonight with some friends and put this question to them. All four of us say LRC.
― MaudAddam (cryptosicko), Thursday, 18 September 2014 02:20 (nine years ago) link
except for MJ, who then refused to take responsibility
― mookieproof, Thursday, 18 September 2014 02:29 (nine years ago) link
"Corvette" is awesome wtf is up with you people
― nova, Thursday, 18 September 2014 02:33 (nine years ago) link
― MaudAddam (cryptosicko), Wednesday, September 17, 2014 7:20 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
the four wisemen
― nova, Thursday, 18 September 2014 02:43 (nine years ago) link
the four tin eared men
― brimstead, Thursday, 18 September 2014 06:26 (nine years ago) link
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.
― brimstead, Thursday, 18 September 2014 06:30 (nine years ago) link
the "people always told me..." prechorus is the best part of BJ, whereas there are 100 best parts of LRC.
― replacements gustafsson (get bent), Thursday, 18 September 2014 06:31 (nine years ago) link
lrc has no bass, thumbs down. i can't dance to this compressed new wave shit
― brimstead, Thursday, 18 September 2014 06:38 (nine years ago) link
― replacements gustafsson (get bent), Wednesday, September 17, 2014
OTM
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Thursday, 18 September 2014 06:55 (nine years ago) link
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?
― soref, Thursday, 18 September 2014 07:07 (nine years ago) link
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.
― The Velvet Fog called me a motherfucker (Sandy), Thursday, 18 September 2014 07:25 (nine years ago) link
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
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
― ET sippin the wig (spazzmatazz), Wednesday, 8 October 2014 03:36 (nine years ago) link
seriously why do i have to relate to mj
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 8 October 2014 03:39 (nine years ago) link
"almost comically inept manifestation of masculine insecurity" vs. "intricate, electric failure of masculinity that is also totally funky, who gives a shit"
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 8 October 2014 03:40 (nine years ago) link
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."
― ET sippin the wig (spazzmatazz), Wednesday, 8 October 2014 03:54 (nine years ago) link
*the full scope of its sadness is hard to comprehend
is Michael Jackson outsider music?
― example (crüt), Wednesday, 8 October 2014 05:05 (nine years ago) link
absolutely
― ET sippin the wig (spazzmatazz), Wednesday, 8 October 2014 05:15 (nine years ago) link
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?
― tsrobodo, Wednesday, 8 October 2014 11:10 (nine years ago) link
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.
― nicky lo-fi, Wednesday, 8 October 2014 12:01 (nine years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 9 October 2014 00:01 (nine years ago) link
Wow! Everyone came out for this one, huh?
― MaudAddam (cryptosicko), Thursday, 9 October 2014 00:03 (nine years ago) link
Clearly songs that generate strong feelings in all of humanity. Impressed with how close this was.
― Free Me's Electric Trumpet (Moodles), Thursday, 9 October 2014 00:12 (nine years ago) link
Simple: I called my relatives and asked them to vote. Black Panther guards protected them.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 9 October 2014 00:13 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlY0H6PTIrc
― wizzz! (amateurist), Friday, 4 December 2015 02:20 (eight years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/obituaries/leon-ndugu-chancler-versatile-drummer-is-dead-at-65.html
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 7 February 2018 23:09 (six years ago) link