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From album
Bad
Michael Jackson · 1987 · Track 3
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The story behind
This song isn't just another track from Bad: it's the sound of a moment when pop music dared to play with speed. The opening riff, that bassline advancing like a revving engine, doesn't ask for permission to hook you. It's not a song you listen to: it drags you in. And while the lyrics talk about driving fast, the real race here is Michael Jackson's to stay one step ahead of everything around him, from the paparazzi to his own ideas.
They recorded it in 1987 in Los Angeles, in a borrowed studio where time was running out. According to accounts, Jackson arrived late to the session because he'd been fined for speeding, and Quincy Jones suggested he turn that frustration into music. The result is a track that oscillates between raw funk and the futuristic synthesizers of the era, as if the studio itself were pressing the accelerator. Though planned as an official single, it ended up as a promo for the film Moonwalker, whose claymation video turned it into a visual icon: Jackson as a fugitive rabbit transforming into movie stars to evade his pursuers. The song didn't even appear on his world tour, but the video remains as a testament to that instant when pop became cinema, rhythm, and madness all at once.