Just to be boring, here's the quote: "Michael Jackson, who we cited earlier on for not being that adept at coming up with the killer Number One hit choruses, CAN come up with the bass lines. "Billy Jean" was the turning point in Jackson's career. That song, on his own admission, took him into the mega strataspheres where his myth now reigns. The fact is, "Billy Jean" would be nothing without that lynx-on-the-prowl bass line; but he wasn't the first to use it. It had been featured in numerous dance tracks by various artists before him. Jackson and Quincy must have been hanging out around the pool table in their air conditioned dimmed light atmosphere, L.A. studio one evening wondering: "What next?" when one of them came up with the idea of using the old lynx- on-the-prowl standby. Without making that decision back in 1981 there would have been no Pepsi Cola sponsored jamboree in 1988." Don Gagen wrote:
I seem to remember Bill or Jimmy pointing out in one of their books that Billy Jean itself samples or copies another song. I think it might have been in the Manual when they discuss the importance of an infectious bass-line.
"There is no greater joy than soaring high on the wings of your dreams, except maybe the joy of watching a dreamer who has nowhere to land but in the ocean of reality."