SCHOOL OF ROCK - Thursday September 3rd: Thrillie Jean

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Last night (9/3), as Michael Jackson was finally laid to rest, the School of Rock really had no lesson to present, but rather a fascinating Show & Tell exhibit for your entertainment.

The process of recording songs can be a very long and drawn out process.  Frequently, what comes out of the studio after a recording or producing session is nothing like the result the artist might have intended going in.

The raw tapes of a recording session or a song in progress offer a glimpse into the creative process – so tonight, we heard a couple of MJ rarities.

The first thing in our exclusive mashup was the actual recording session where Vincent Price came in to do his spoken part of the song Thriller.  He interacted with Michael during the session, and we included the rare second verse to his poem that was not used in the final mix of the song.

That was mixed with a demo version of Billie Jean.  The music is not yet fully developed and you could hear Michael kind of following along, humming and improvising words to get the feel of the song…it’s almost as if he wasn’t done writing it.

It’s a little thing we called “Thrillie Jean”.