THRILLER - The Album Tribute Show
On a warm Sunday evening in January 2025, a small Adelaide venue hosted a spoken word tribute to Michael Jackson's Thriller album. Local poet and event organiser, Kerryn Tredrea, invited a band of poets to respond to individual tracks on the album, alone, as a couple, and in a group.
​
These are my allocated tracks and my responses to them.
The Girl is Mine (with Paul McCartney)
I couldn't get past the certainty with which these two blokes argued that "it's one or the other" when "neither" was a clear choice for any doggone girl.
​
​
Thriller
As the title track and centrepiece of the show, four performers combined for this tribute piece. Possibly the most famous spoken word element of any song ever forms the finale of this track, and so that was where the performance was focussed. But I felt the need to say something about the music.
​
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
OMG! Could this be more 80's? Could this be more sexist? What was once for me a jaunty little pop song has become problematic. But so have so many other things from The Eighties.

Shout Outs
to my cast mates:
Kerryn Tredrea
Matilda and Apolo
Sarah Pearce
Marty
​
the venue:
​
and a podcast that was incredibly helpful in deconstructing the music: