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Never knew until recently, that the amazing guitar solo on Michael Jacksons Beat it was played by him. I can't find any transcripts, but in an interview on the
by woodpanel 6y ago
Never knew until recently, that the amazing guitar solo on Michael Jacksons Beat it was played by him.
I can't find any transcripts, but in an interview on the Howard Stern show, van Halen said (if I remember correctly) that the infamous knocking at the beginning of his solo was him knocking on his guitar, like a professional who is giving his workhorse a friendly tap before the race - and that he was amazed Michael and Quincy left it in.
- anonAndOn 6y agoIIRC, the solo is also completely improvised and totally off-script.
- woodpanel 6y agoYes! And he was neither credited nor payed for it!
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y agoHe wanted no credit for it - he didn't want other Van Halen members to know about it because they agreed to never do side projects. He wanted no payment for it except a case of beer and Michael teaching him to dance "sometime".
- woodpanel 6y agoAnd according to VH, he may in the end have bought the six pack of beer himself [1] [1] http://www.vhnd.com/2012/11/30/eddie-van-halen-deconstructs-his-collaboration-on-beat-it/ http://www.vhnd.com/2012/11/30/eddie-van-halen-deconstructs-...
- anthonygore 6y agoI find that weird, his style is so distinct any fan would immediately recognize it
- AdmiralAsshat 6y agoWikipedia disputes this story, although it does not cite any sources on the "real" story: > Right before Van Halen's guitar solo begins, a noise is heard that sounds like somebody knocking at a door. It is reported that the knock was a person walking into Eddie's recording studio. Another story has claimed that the sound was simply the musician knocking on his own guitar.[25] The sound, however, is that of Jackson knocking on a drum case, as he is credited in the album's liner notes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_It#Eddie_Van_Halen's_guitar_solo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_It#Eddie_Van_Halen's_guit... So I suppose if you've actually got a source from Van Halen's mouth, that's probably more authoritative. I also enjoyed this tidbit: >The engineers were shocked during the recording of Van Halen's solo to discover that the sound of his guitar had caused the monitor speaker in the control room to catch fire, causing one to exclaim, "This must be really good!"[26]
- woodpanel 6y agoSo I suppose if you've actually got a source from Van Halen's mouth, that's probably more authoritative. Yes, that's exactly why I was searching for that transcript. Maybe Howard Stern will re-air it or re-publish the interview in his app (I don't live in the US, so I don't have proper access to the show's content sadly). Thats why I added the IIRC. But whatever VH said in that interview clarified were that knocking came from.
- toyg 6y agoBecause musicians never lie or self-aggrandise, of course ;) i bet it’s one of those things where half the people in the recording studio have a different story to tell.
- Klinky 6y agoYeah, some of these stories you should take with a grain of salt, probably a 51/50 chance they're true.
- woodpanel 6y agoI agree, but there were conflating stories about the knocking for decades. That MJ is listed as "drum case beater" in the credits is surely not helping. However this HS interview was done at least 15 years after, a time after which I assume any secret joke they conspired must have worn off. I've listened to a rerun from that interview, which might was recorded in 1998 (http://marksfriggin.com/news98/3-16-98.htm http://marksfriggin.com/news98/3-16-98.htm)
- strictnein 6y agoFor the curious, the knocking is at ~3:05 in the music video: https://youtu.be/oRdxUFDoQe0?t=185 https://youtu.be/oRdxUFDoQe0?t=185
- xdrone 6y agoThere's David Lee Roth interview (maybe on joe rogan) where he explains some tricks they used to write solos. They'd record multiple different solos, then switch between the tracks to come up with unexpected progressions. Clever idea.
- vict00ms 6y agoGilmour used to do the same: record multiple solos, pick the best parts, re-record.
- michaelmarion 6y agoHe didn't just contribute the solo—he rearranged part of the song! [1] > Michael [Jackson] left to go across the hall to do some children's speaking record. I think it was "E.T." or something. So I asked Quincy [Jones], "What do you want me to do?" And he goes, "Whatever you want to do." And I go, "Be careful when you say that. If you know anything about me, be careful when you say, "Do anything you want!" > I listened to the song, and I immediately go, "Can I change some parts?" I turned to the engineer and I go, "OK, from the breakdown, chop in this part, go to this piece, pre-chorus, to the chorus, out." Took him maybe 10 minutes to put it together. And I proceeded to improvise two solos over it. I was just finishing the second solo when Michael walked in. > And you know artists are kind of crazy people. We're all a little bit strange. I didn't know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, "Look, I changed the middle section of your song." > Now in my mind, he's either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he's going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, "Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better." I can't think of a more innovative and imaginative musician in history. [1] https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/30/showbiz/music/van-halen-jackson-thriller/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/30/showbiz/music/van-halen-jacks...
- trey-jones 6y agoI love his music, and this kind of story makes me think very highly of this approach to life.
- woodpanel 6y agoI've read the same article, but as a non native speaker wasn't sure, whether he just rearranged his part or the whole song. It did read like the latter, but, after all, this was not just a random song from some random musician, but from Micheal Jackson and Quincy Jones. Amazing.
- m463 6y agoWow, awesome peeks behind the scenes at how stuff is really done. It's also really interesting when really talented people - who are usually isolated by the law of numbers - get together. A fascinating movie about music from way before van halen/michael jackson era I watched recently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(2008_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(2008_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(music) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(music)
- MrGando 6y agoSteve Lukather from Toto actually played the whole album and he's alive. Please do check him out as well, brilliant player that played at least a riff in every single important album produced in LA during the late 70s and 80s ;). Eddie was the man though, sad times.
- olivermarks 6y agohttps://youtu.be/-mMHCNTAsTQ https://youtu.be/-mMHCNTAsTQ
- scns 6y agoI heard that Eddy was asked to to play on Beat It and thought to himself "Nobody will notice". His Bandmates were pissed because VH were on No 1 before Beat It came out. The MJ bought it and the VH fans too.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]