Vincent Price ' S Personal Script For Michael Jackson ' S Album " Thriller "




Item History & Price

Information:
Reference Number: Avaluer:1354305Autograph Authentication: COA by Vincent Price's daughter
Original/Reproduction: OriginalCountry/Region of Manufacture: United States
Original Description:
The Ultimate Holy Grail Nexus of Music & the Movies!1982 Studio Thriller Working ScriptVincent Price, Michael Jackson, PrinceVincent Price’s Personal Copy of His Famous Spooky Rap on Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” with Price’s handwritten notes/comments! (Read director John Landis’ comments following the manuscript description below about Thriller and Vincent Price’s remarkable work on the album!) It happens once in a lifetime when a document that intersects t...hree of entertainment’s biggest stars and the largest-selling album of all time: “King of Horror” Vincent Price, “King of Pop”Michael Jackson and Rogers Nelson, “The Prince of Funk” of Purple Rain fame. Everyone knows that Michael Jackson’s 1982 album “Thriller” became the biggest-selling album ever.  And everyone knows the voice of actor Vincent Price and his wonderful, great spooky rendition of the rap-poem on “Thriller” and his one-of-a-kind spooky laugh at the end. Some have even said Vincent Price’s participation on the album is what made the album appeal to so many people and made the album such a historicsuccess! Everyone has seen Vincent Price on YouTube recite the poem and give his memorable laugh on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show with Joan Rivers as guest-host.   (Joan Rivers and Price were close friends).  And thank God we have that Tonight Show episode that records that poem for posterity!  The acclaim is always the same, no one could have done that poem and laugh better than Vincent Price! Here, for the first and only time, is a document that brings three legends together in one place.  One is Vincent Price (younger readers will remember him in Edward Scissorhands; older readers will remember Price from the House on Haunted Hill, the House of Wax, and his hundred other film appearances.  He was also a star of the stage, a nationally-renown art expert, cook, etc.  He was also host of the popular BBC Mystery television series. Michael Jackson needs no introduction.  His career started as a child.  As an adult he set his own course and became, after Elvis Presley, the most popular music star in history, otherwise known as the “King of Pop.” His 1982 album and music video Thriller was a break-out success, setting records in every way and captivating a strong and loyal fan-base. Minnesota native Rogers Nelson was a talented (if not genius) artist who wrote his own music and played most of the musical instruments on his albums.  As“Prince, ” he came to be labelled as “The Prince of Funk, ” energizing his audiences with rock, pop, jazz and Rhythm and Blues.  He and Michael Jackson apparently had a friendly rivalry. Michael Jackson asked his favorite horror film star, Vincent Price, to narrate the rap-poem on the album Thriller, one of the—if not the first—Zombie music video.  (Price received a pittance to do this!).  And the album took the world by storm.  And the rest is history! DESCRIPTION The document is seven (7) page long, 8.5x11This is Vincent Price’s production copy used in the studio. Page1Atop page 1 are production assistant notes written in pencil directing Vincent on what page he would begin reading the rap-poem.  The pencil numbers have been changed at least once.  The pencil direction is “Vincent Dialogue on Page 6.” Michael Jackson sings all of Page 1. Page2Page 2 is a continuation of Page 1.   Michael Jackson sings all of Page 2. Page3Page 3 is a continuation of Page 2.  Michael Jackson sings all of Page 3. Page4Page 4 is a fascinating page.  Vincent Price is at the hotel which Jackson’s people provided for him.  Whether Price has already recorded the poem or has yet to do it is unclear.  But the remarkable thing is that Vincent references that the artist Prince has entered the hotel to meet with Michael Jackson.  In his own hand, Price has written in the lower left-hand margin: “Just had Prince here at the hotel. They told me he always came in and went out the back way.  I wouldn’t know him if I ran over him—he’s too new.” Prince was not a big star yet in 1982.  While he had two best-selling albums in the previous two years, he still was not as well-known as Michael Jackson.  That, coupled with the generational age difference, is why Price said “He’s too new” and that “I wouldn’t know him if I ran over him…” For Price, it was a media and artist observation.  For us, looking backwards, Price’s remark is absolutely hilarious! Price may not yet have recorded his part of Thriller when he wrote his remarks about Prince.  The fact that he crossed-out what he wrote may mean that he had the text to study in advance in his hotel room, wrote his observations of Prince, then crossed them out because he still had to take the script into the recording studio and did not want anyone looking over his shoulder to see what might be construed to be a negative remark about Prince.  Or have Jackson see it! Vincent Price, an author of severalbooks and a poet himself, comments that Michael Jackson’s Thriller text is poetry. Price, in his own hand, compliments the words of Thriller atop Page 4 as: “Not all poetry is that serious. Some is lighter.” Page5Page 5 is a continuation of Page 4.  Michael Jackson sings all of Page 5 and one more line on Page 6. At the lower bottom of Page 5, Vincent Price with a different pen writes remarks about Michael Jackson.  Vincent regularly made college and university readings and lectures, (over 800); not to mention performances.  But his remarks on the bottom of Page 5 were written later after the release and great success of Thriller.  Price often wrote notes and remarks prior to speaking on stage. His observations of working on history’s greatest-selling music album of all time showed his appreciation for being a part of the project.  While normally a very humble man, Vincent Price couldn’t but relish recapping what he did with Jackson two years before: “Just to show you I’m not an old-fashioned ham actor—a couple seasons ago I undertook a rock recording—everyone kidded me about it, but when it hit #1 on the charts and sold over 50 million albums—they sang a different tune—as I did—Michael Jackson.”  Page6Page 6 is a continuation of Page 5.  There is just one line left on this page of the script for Jackson to sing; then Vincent Price begins with the famous: “DARKNESS FALLS ACROSS THE LANDTHE MIDNIGHT HOUR IS CLOSE AT HANDCREATURES CRAWL IN SEARCH OF BLOODTO TERRORIZE Y’ALL’S NEIGHBORHOOD…” Vincent has circled his name above the first paragraph he is to recite; while also underlining all the words of the first paragraph.  Price has also handwritten, “Start this first” with a directional line going to the first paragraph. Price evidently admired the first paragraph, writing below it: “Now that’s class.” On the back of Page 6 are notes in Price’s hand, but at a much later time. Judging from his cramped hand-writing on this page, the paragraph is most-likely from the mid to late-1980s (he died in 1993).  Price was a serial hoarder of all his career material and paperwork!  So, either the Thriller text was later read at a Yale University reunion (his 50th graduation class reunion would have been 1983) or he was making an observation for his end-of-life autobiography, we do not know.  But Price is recognizing the daughter of a former Yale classmate at an event in which he is speaker and introducing her: “The success of the reunion of the class of 1933 has been guaranteed by the helping hand of Miss Judy Moore—she is really a part of us as her father Steve Buck was our class officer—to thank her somewhat for her help we would like to present her with a token of our gratitude—Judy Moore please come up.”  Page7Page 7 is a continuation of Page 6.  This is the conclusion of the rap-poem in Thriller. Price has circled his name again and underlined the text which he is to read: “THE FOULEST STENCH IS IN THE AIRTHE FUNK OF FORTY THOUSAND YEARSAND FRIZZLY GHOULS FROM EVERY TOMBARE CLOSING IN TO SEAL YOUR DOOMAND THOUGH YOU FIGHT TO STAY ALIVEYOUR BODY STARTS TO SHIVERFOR NO MERE MORTAL CAN RESISTTHE EVIL OF THE THRILLER.”This is Vincent Price's personal working studio script when he did the spooky rap poem on the album, Thriller!“Thriller”The Back Story Interview with John Landis                                                                                   by Tom Weaver                      March 19, 2011
    Pop star Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) was—and is—the world's best-selling album. And Michael Jackson's Thriller (1983), a 14-minute music video of the album's title track, is no slouch in the popularity department either; it's recognized by Guinness World Records as the most popular music video of all time. Surely anyone connected with either project made a quick, permanent relo to Easy Street.  Imagine being connected with both!

Vincent Price performed the ghoulish voiceover "Rap" for album andmusic video, but he never got a share of the mega-millions that accrued.  Others reaped rich rewards, but Price heardthe door slam, and wound up with total payments that were more like the funk of40, 000 cents. Michael Jackson's Thriller director JohnLandis reminisces about Price, in particular the actor's reaction to going fromRap-Off to ripped-off... * * *

JOHN LANDIS: The song"Thriller" was originally recorded for the Thriller album, which had been out for about a year before we madeMichael Jackson's Thriller.  When Michael asked me to do it, he wanted aregular rock video, a three-minute thing, which I wouldn’t do.  I thought I could exploit his celebrity and"bring back" the theatrical short; in fact, my deal with him was thatit had to be released theatrically. (And it did play theatrically, with Fantasia [1940] in Los Angeles, beforeit was on television.) When I told Michael that I wanted it to be a"two-reeler, " to bring back the shorts, he was very excited aboutthat idea.  Now, I certainly don’t wantto impugn Michael Jackson in any way, because he was brilliant and a greatperformer, and I actually quite liked him.  But so much has been written about how hecollaborated on it, wrote it—

Q: It says in the credits that heco-wrote and co-produced.
His contribution was, he said he wanted to turn into a monster [laughs].  He had seen An American Werewolf in London [1981] and he was fascinated withthe metamorphosis, and that's what he wanted to do.  And that was his contribution. Yes, on-screenit says "co-written, " "co-produced" [laughs]—Michael didn’tdo anything except he was the star.  Oh, and of course he worked with Michael Peters, who was a brilliant choreographer. A lot of the actual Thriller dance itself was choreographed by Peters, but a lot of thejust-dancing-around was Michael; I had him improvising stuff.
     Vincent Price had done his "Rap" on the originalThriller album.  In doing my film, Iremixed the song, so I needed the original tracks.  But the Vincent Price narration track was tiedinto some kind of rhythm track, so I couldn’t use it the way I wanted to.  I called Mr. Price and asked if he would comein and re-record it, and he was very kind and he said "Sure!" and hedid.  He came to Universal and we went toone of the ADR stages.  He was wearing avery beautiful sweater, a Missoni sweater that must have cost a fortune.  He did the Rap very quickly, he just read itcold.  Then I asked, "Would you giveme some creepy laughter?" and he said, "Sure!Ah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah!"  If youlisten to the song itself on the record and then listen to it on the video, it's quite different: I cut out a lot of the parts of the song I didn’t like, and I rearranged stuff.  I used theoriginal tracks of the original vocals except for Vincent.  But Vincent sounds almost identical [in both].Not exactly, but almost.

Q: Whose idea was it for VINCENTPRICE--THRILLER to be on the theater marquee in the video?
Oh, mine. And the film posters you see outside the theater [House of Wax, The Mad Magician, The Masque ofthe Red Death] were my posters. I started collecting posters in the '60s, when I was a kid; I used to send away to Canton, Oklahoma, to some place calledMovie Poster Service, a National Screen warehouse, and the deal was: any moviebefore 1960, the one-sheets were 50 cents, and anything after 1960, they were adollar.  I had quite a remarkable postercollection.

Q: According to a couple sources, thelast zombie we see in the video, the one who looks into the camera, is Price in heavy makeup.
[Laughs] Oh, no! No, that's a makeup artist, Greg Cannom.  Price was never on the set or anything.

Q: So, where the music video is concerned, re-reading the Rap was it, Price-wise.
Yes.  He read it, it was really fast and easy, and then we went to lunch at Musso & Frank. Fade-out, fade-in.  Quite a bit later, after the success of the video, I got a call from Mr. Price, who said, "John, I'm very embarrassed, but...would you please speak to Michael about something for me?"  I asked, "Well...why don’t you call Michael?"  Vincent said, "He won't take my calls"—which was very much like Michael.  I asked, "Why?" He said, "Well, I did a vocal on the biggest selling record of all time—and I've received no money.  And I don’t understand it...!"  I said, "Let me call and find out."
     I spoke to Michael, who didn’t want to know, and who said, "Talk to the lawyers." Basically, what happened was, when Vincent came in the first time [for the album], he was given a standard recording contract and he was paid—I'm guessing—three or four hundred dollars.  It was a buyout, which means that you get no residuals, no profit, nuthin'. And when he came in to do it again for me, for the video, he signed the same type of contract.

Q: And he ended up with two piddling payments.
I just felt the whole thing was terribly unfair, especially since (as I tried to point out to their lawyer), if you look at the video, we really exploit Vincent's name. Anyway, the bottom line is that Vincent didn’t get any realmoney, and he was very distressed about it, he really was angry.
     Okay, fade out and fade back in again, and it's now even later.  I couldn’t tell you the exactdate, but I'm in the Tower Records store on Sunset Strip with my son. It was about the time of the first scandal with Michael [the child sex abuse charges], when I was about to sue Michael myself because I hadn’t gotten my money for Thriller. (And still have not!) But thenthe scandal broke and I felt he had enough problems at the time, so I didn’tsue him.  Anyway, I'm in Tower Records and I hear this voice, "JOHN LANDIS!" It booms out—he had thatamazing Edwardian theatrical voice. I look up and there's Vincent Price, whowas quite a tall man, very imposing, two or three aisles over.  I go, "Hi, Vincent, how are you?"and Vincent booms out, "What do you think about our friend Michael?"—there'slike 300 people in the store, and now they're all listening [laughs]! I said, "Well, I think it's terrible what's going on...  it's a tragedy for everyone...I certainlyhope it's untrue—" And Vincent Price said in his best Edward Lionheartvoice, "Well, he CERTAINLY F****d MEEEE!"

Q: [Laughs] Still shouting from twoaisles over?
Yes! One, he was being funny, but two, he was really pissed off!  Which I understand; I'm involved still in alawsuit with them. It's ridiculous. Michael was always surrounded by crooks, and he was crazy, so [laughs] that creates a difficult situation.

Q: If Price had made a good deal forhimself originally, how much would he have gotten out of Thriller?
Oh, listen, he'd probably be like me and be in court [laughs]! When we made thevideo, the album was like the biggest selling album of all time—and then thealbum, I think, tripled its sales after the video. The video sort ofregenerated a huge interest.

Q: Was that the only time you met him?
No, I met him three or four times, including when we did The Horror Hall ofFame [1990], some kind of bogus TV award show where Rick Baker, Joe Dante and Igave Forry Ackerman an award. Vincent Price was the host, we spent time talkingto him then and he was really funny. But the Thriller video was my only time actually working with him.

Q: As a Monster Kid, what does it meanto you to have Vincent Price on the list of people you’ve directed?

I really didn’t direct him; he came in and it was all written down and I said, "Can you do this again?" and he did it. One take, and then I askedfor some Vincent Price laughter, and that was it. It couldn't have taken morethan 20 minutes! I've always been a fan.  He was a charming, interesting, elegant man, very, very funny, and a much better actor than some people givehim credit for.  A lot of the reason[that Price isn’t more highly esteemed] is because he did a lot of bullshitperformances [laughs], but he was capable of great work.  I'm thrilled to have actually worked with him.
About the Owner of this Manuscript:This manuscript is owned by noted author Edward Steinhardt who has amassed a Vincent Price collection of over 400 manuscripts and artifacts of the St. Louis born actor, the actor's father (who owned the National Candy Company (of St. Louis) and the actor's grandfather (who invented Dr. Price's Cream of Tartar Baking Powder).   He is also an avid collector of Tennessee Williams documents and collectibles.   This script of Vincent Price's performance of Thriller was purchased directly from the daughter of Vincent Price and is guaranteed authentic.  This script is not a copy but Price's actual script with original handwritten performance marks, comments and observations by the famous actor himself.Shipping:
Manuscript comes framed and insured.  International buyer, inquire as to shipping cost.





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