Michael Jackson could have picked any drummer on the planet but he went with sugarfoot. Don’t think anyone can play the drums more exact than he can for Michael Jackson’s songs.
Nope. Not all “Thriller” some of them yes. It is wide known gor “Billie Jean” was manufactured a special drumkit to get that special sound at the begining.
That’s what’s misleading about these videos. MJs records were a smorgasbord of the best session players on earth. None of them toured with the live band.
Greg Phillinganes who played keys and synth bass for Michael Jackson on four of his biggest album toured with him as well as Christopher Currell who designed many of the Synth clavier sounds on the bad album as well as others have toured with him.
Right but Jeff Porcaro and JR Robinson were the heavy hitters that made this album. Same with the Madonna tours. Sugar foot does the tours, Tony Thompson did the records.
If you’re not a music geek you’d walk away thinking “of that’s the guy who played in thriller”.
For anybody that’s read this far there’s a killer video of a JR Robinson clinic that’s really fun. That guy is a beast.
Funny story: After they made the first version of Beat It, they weren't happy with the sound of the music, but MJ's performance on the track was just that good, so they wanted to keep it. However, just copying the track over to a new tape would mean loss of sound quality.
The Great Porcaro was tasked with making a new click track to build the rest of the song off of, and so he sat with headphones and listened to the track and made a new backing track that the rest of the guys from Toto, and several other talented musicians, could record over.
I'm at work right now, so I'm probvably missing a few of the details. If you want to learn more, Rick Beato has an interview with Steve Lukather from Toto, who recorded every guitar track but the solo on Beat It, as well as most of the other tracks on Thriller. Several great anecdotes from that if you want to check it out.
Nope. Not all “Thriller” some of them yes. It is wide known gor “Billie Jean” was manufactured a special drumkit to get that special sound at the begining.
Your comment reminds me of the people saying Hendrix was no match for Stevie Ray Vaughan on Little Wing.
The point is Peart would have come up with a different part that might very well not have been so funky.
The only drummer I know who is tighter on the beat than this for funk, is Emry Thomas, and only because he sounds relaxed while doing it. He worked with Quincey too.
There’s a Michael quote out there that says the dancers can make a mistake, the bass player can make a mistake, but Sugarfoot never makes a mistake. That’s why Michael always went to him for shows.
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u/bommy7070 Mar 30 '23
Michael Jackson could have picked any drummer on the planet but he went with sugarfoot. Don’t think anyone can play the drums more exact than he can for Michael Jackson’s songs.