micheal jacksons dead

[BrownEyedCat]

Thriller has Vincent Price's voice in it. That's always boggled my mind. If anyone doubts the importance of the famous pop song Thriller, then simple remember that it had the voice of a famous horror movie actor from an earlier generation in it.

Then again, I don't know how hard it was to get Vincent Price to do things at that point. By all accounts he was a pretty easygoing guy. Maybe I'm just a Vince fanatic.

But yeah, as usual McDuffies is wonderfully eloquent on the situation and I second his post!

[RPin]

[Brockway]

Skuld can be such a jerk sometimes.

I actually went to the store to see if they had any Michael Jackson cd's. I really liked his music as a kid before all the creepy stuff happened. They didn't have any (which disapointed me), so I bought an MXPX greatest hits disc in the hopes that it has a song by them that I like and don't know the title to (Lonesome town, I think).

[Dracomax]

Thriller has Vincent Price's voice in it. That's always boggled my mind. If anyone doubts the importance of the famous pop song Thriller, then simple remember that it had the voice of a famous horror movie actor from an earlier generation in it.

Then again, I don't know how hard it was to get Vincent Price to do things at that point. By all accounts he was a pretty easygoing guy. Maybe I'm just a Vince fanatic.

But yeah, as usual McDuffies is wonderfully eloquent on the situation and I second his post!

WHile i agree that thriller was a vitally important song, I disagree with your reasoning. Having important people in your stuff/around you does not make you important.

It's kind of like saying that since stephen hawking was on the simpsons, it's a vital resource for astrophysicists, or that since buzz aldrin was in that cartoon movie, it's important to the history of manned spaceflight. While having an important person increases the coolness factor of a work, the importance of the work is independent of the people involved in most cases.

[Jim North]

Lady BEC didn't say it was specifically important to the music scene, just that it was important. She could have very well meant important to horror movie buffs, to pop culture in general, or just to many people on an individual level.

It's kind of like saying that since stephen hawking was on the simpsons, it's a vital resource for astrophysicists,

It's not?!

the importance of the work is independent of the people involved in most cases.

Vincent Price's awesome-creepy voice would have been in Thriller and would have still helped make the video so awesome-creepy even with or without Vincent Price!

Somehow.

[IVstudios]

I can't say that Michael Jacksons' death "surprised" me. But Billy Mays? THAT came out of nowhere. And people will probably say I'm crazy, but Mays' death was far more upsetting to me. I can't deny Jacksons influence, but I was never really into him and could never understand what people liked about him (even when I was a kid).

[Jim North]

If you order the McMahon/Fawcett/Jackson 3-pack today, Billy Mays will throw in an extra celebrity death absolutely free!

[McDuffies]

Thriller has Vincent Price's voice in it. That's always boggled my mind. If anyone doubts the importance of the famous pop song Thriller, then simple remember that it had the voice of a famous horror movie actor from an earlier generation in it.

Then again, I don't know how hard it was to get Vincent Price to do things at that point. By all accounts he was a pretty easygoing guy. Maybe I'm just a Vince fanatic.

But yeah, as usual McDuffies is wonderfully eloquent on the situation and I second his post!

WHile i agree that thriller was a vitally important song, I disagree with your reasoning. Having important people in your stuff/around you does not make you important.

It's kind of like saying that since stephen hawking was on the simpsons, it's a vital resource for astrophysicists, or that since buzz aldrin was in that cartoon movie, it's important to the history of manned spaceflight. While having an important person increases the coolness factor of a work, the importance of the work is independent of the people involved in most cases.

Price was an inspired choice though, I don't think that back then such guest appearances were often. Perhaps more notable was that Eddie Van Hallen played guitar on "Beat it" so the song went high on rock charts. Going beyond his r'n'b niche, blending genres, getting crossover audience and all that.

[Dracomax]

Lady BEC didn't say it was specifically important to the music scene, just that it was important. She could have very well meant important to horror movie buffs, to pop culture in general, or just to many people on an individual level.

I said that the work was important to. My point is that it wasn't vincent price that made it important, as BECs argument suggested, but the awesomeness of Jackson's creative vision.

The Thriller video would have been as important even if vincent price was not in it. it just added a small touch of awesometo an already important piece.

[IVstudios]

I could be wrong, but it sounded to me like she meant that Prices' voice was proof of it's importance, not the cause. That only someone as influential as Jackson could get a big name like Price to be in his song.

[BrownEyedCat]

Yeah, I will happily testify that I know fuck all about the music scene, important musical influences, important events in musical history, and so on. I meant in a pop culture, social context - the ability to attract and incorporate a big name from a totally alien arena of pop culture is a big sign of notability.

In this context, the Stephan Hawking example works well - I don't know much about Stephan Hawking's personality, but I'll bet he would have declined the voice acting gig if it hadn't been offered by a show he was already aware of, and which had enough clout and respectability to appear to be a fun, secure experience as opposed to recording audio in someone's closet for a show that airs at 12:30pm on some channel no one's ever heard of.

So really I was using Vincent Price as an indicator of social visibility and appeal, and saying nothing at all about the quality of music or the subsequent impact of the specific cameo.

Then again, I wasn't being 100% serious, either. I mean, Vincent Price also lent his voice to Scooby Doo (which oddly only makes me love him more. Yeah, I'm a fangirl). So dismiss away!

If this makes no sense, I am playing the 'have-a-cold' card and take no responsibility for my words! Hooray!

[Heart]

Thriller wasn't Vincent Price's first musical appearance, he guested on Alice Cooper's "Welcome to my Nightmare" album seven years before that. Now that I think about it, Price and Cooper are such a natural pairing that I'm surprised they only collaborated once.

Then again, I wasn't being 100% serious, either. I mean, Vincent Price also lent his voice to Scooby Doo (which oddly only makes me love him more. Yeah, I'm a fangirl). So dismiss away!

He also took a 75% pay cut to appear as a regular on The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, a children's show which was never guaranteed to air outside of Hamilton, Ontario. I'd say that fame and influence weren't really necessary to work with Vincent Price.

[Killbert-Robby]

I can't say that Michael Jacksons' death "surprised" me. But Billy Mays? THAT came out of nowhere. And people will probably say I'm crazy, but Mays' death was far more upsetting to me. I can't deny Jacksons influence, but I was never really into him and could never understand what people liked about him (even when I was a kid).

I'll agree with you on this, but from a different angle. I haven't heard of so much as a mention of Jackson since the kiddie scandals. When a guy who don't know, who hasn't released an "important song" in decades, and who you haven't so much as heard mentioned outside of pop culture parodies, well, its just not that shocking.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

I can't say that Michael Jacksons' death "surprised" me. But Billy Mays? THAT came out of nowhere. And people will probably say I'm crazy, but Mays' death was far more upsetting to me. I can't deny Jacksons influence, but I was never really into him and could never understand what people liked about him (even when I was a kid).

I thought it was a hoax the first time I saw it, because I went on facebook and suddenly everyone's status was about that. Makes me sad, I was really enjoying Pitchmen, and he was one of those celebrities (I know he wasn't a Hollywood bigshot but he was a household name, counts as celebrity in my book) that I would have loved to meet someday. To paraphrase someone from another board: Billy Mays dies, but ShamWow Vince lives? *

Discovery Channel is airing a marathon of Pitchmen tomorrow in honor of him.



*I don't really wish death on Vince, but Billy Mays always made me happy, and Vince kinda stopped doing that, save for Youtube poops of his commercials which he didn't really have anything to do with

[Yeahduff]

This is not the Billy Mays thread. I will fucking kill people.

[Dracomax]

This is not the Billy Mays thread. I will fucking kill people.

YEAH> as someone so much more awesome and important than Micheal Jackson, Billy Mays deserves his own thread.

[Heart]

This is not the Billy Mays thread. I will fucking kill people.

Don't look at me, I was trying to turn it into the Vincent Price thread.

[Ahaugen]

This is not the Billy Mays thread. I will fucking kill people.

shut up! no one cares!

[McDuffies]

This is not the Billy Mays thread. I will fucking kill people.

YEAH> as someone so much more awesome and important than Micheal Jackson, Billy Mays deserves his own thread.

Who's Billy Mays?

[Rkolter]

I give Billy Mays credit for one big thing - he actually tested out the stuff he tried to hawk before hawking it. You could generally rely on what Billy said to be true, because his whole reputation rode on it.