I figured whilst most of the planet is in some sort of Covid Lockdown or restriction, rtaher then only reading heavy historical blogs(which still is very important) I thought it to be nice to lighten the load a bit with some nice guitar music, Justs a random choice of great guitarists from across the globe
The guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s “Beat it” could have sounded completely different and perhaps it would not have become the massive hit it was if it wasn’t for Quincy Jones’s persistence.
Eddie van Halen was relaxing at home one day in the summer of 1982, where he suddenly received a call, The caller claimed to be Quincy Jones. Eddie thinking it was a prank, kindly told to caller to leave by using 2 words including 3 f’s. One at the start of the first word and 2 at the end of the 2nd word(I don’t mean Funny Stuff). He then put down the phone.
However he caller called 4 more times, van Halen then realized that it was indeed the legendary music producer Quincy Jones.
Quincy had just working with Michael Jackson on his mega selling album “Thriller” and he wanted Eddie van Halen to play the solo on “Beat it”
Quincy Jones and Michale Jackson took a skeleton version of Beat it up to Eddie van Halen’s place. After Eddie van Halen did some minor adjustment to the part of the song, he recorded the solo and he did it in one take.
He did not charge anything for it either, no fee no royalties, totally free. Well kind of, legend has it he did ask for a six pack of beer.
Eddie van Halen wasn’t the only legendary guitarist involved in the project, Steve Lukather from the rock band Toto also worked on the Thriller album.
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Have one great musician come up with a cool tune is one thing, but have another great musician enhancing that tune is just something else.
I don’t think there is any one on this planet who doesn’t know Michael Jackson’s classic album ‘Thriller”.
The 3rd single from that album was ‘Beat It’ it includes one of the finest guitar solo’s ever played, performed of course by Eddie van Halen, although his name is not on the credits.Not only was he not credited he also did it for free, well sort of, his fee was a Six pack of beer.
Quincy Jones the producer of the album(and so many others) approached Eddie van Halen to contribute to the song.Eddie agreed and following day he met with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson in the recording studio.
Michael Jackson went out to take a break from recording or 30 minutes or so. Eddie asked the sound engineer if he could make some changes. this took 10 minutes Eddie then improvised 2 solo’s both in one take, and one of the solo’s was finally used in the song. The rest as they say is Rock N Roll history.
“Wait a minute” I can hear you say “You mentioned Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bowie in the title” and you’re right I did. Stevie Ray Vaughan has nothing to do with Beat It or Michael Jackson.
He did however contributed on David Bowie’s classic Album “Let’s Dance” produced by Nile Rodgers Vaughan plays lead guitar on several tracks, including two of the album’s many mega-hits “Let’s Dance” and “China Girl” and on the less-famous “Cat People (Putting Out the Fire).”
Vaughan met Bowie at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. After SRV’s performance, Bowie was so impressed that he later said, “He completely floored me. I probably hadn’t been so gung-ho about a guitar player since seeing Jeff Beck with his band the Tridents.”
Of Bowie, Vaughan said, “To tell you the truth, I wasn’t very familiar with David’s music when he asked me to play on the sessions. David and I talked for hours and hours about our music, about funky Texas blues and its roots. I was amazed at how interested he was.
It is just so sad to realize that 3 of these 4 musical giants have shed their mortal coil and are now gigging in that concert hall in the sky.
Donation
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you.
To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.
History of Sorts 
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