I'm burning up, burning up for your VOTES! — ILM Artist Poll #31 is Madonna

xpost DJP: ah! thank you. I thought that was probably what it was but I wasn't sure if I was missing something

"I Love New York" is so full of terrible throwaway lyrics, but I think that makes me like it more.

JUST GO TO TEXAS
ISN'T THAT WHERE THEY...GOLF

still dunno how I feel about "Jimmy Jimmy" and "Love Makes the World Go Round" but it's closer to "let me stomp on babies."

Lyrics of "I Love New York" >>> "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down."

otfm

btw any consideration of Madonna albums has to rank You Can Dance high.

Is that the 12" collection?

yep

it's certainly her best compilation album.

my fav confessions on a dancefloor deep cuts are push which flips like a prayer's melody and let it will be because "JUST WATCH ME BURN!"

man, Madonna listened to a lot of Soul II Soul before recording the song "Erotica"

"JUST WATCH ME BURN" is such an incredible moment yeah

Cosign the Confessions Tour version of "Erotica" and the Man With Guitar remix of "Sorry" - some of JLC's finest work.

Erotica deep cut no 1 is "Waiting", unbelievably sultry and unexpectedly heavy. But "Thief of Hearts" and "Secret Garden" and even "Fever" are all amazing too.

I'd also like to rep for "Something to Remember" from the Dick Tracy album, one of her most convincing straight ballads.

I find that incredibly difficult to believe, mostly because it comes from the Dick Tracy album

"waiting" is filled with so much great real talk and it rhymes together so well too

i'll forever read it as a song to a closeted lover - "what happened? what do I remind you of? your past, your dreams, or some part of yourself that you just can't love?". it's so easy to queer erotica's text, but i guess that's part of the reason it's so dear to my heart. i will never not have a million ~feelings~ about "deeper and deeper".

I don't know if it was even in the film, so it may be an inclusion on the order of "Vogue".

I might sing "Bye Bye Baby" at karaoke tonight.

Have never understood 'Open Your Heart'. I thought it kind of mediocre as a kid and since I found out that discerning adults rate it have listened intently with no joy. Something like 'Causing a Commotion' sounds the same to me but much much better. I should be excluded from this poll for this I realise.

I feel that way about "Papa Don't Preach."

"Open Your Heart" is just a perfectly arranged song, a pure, if perhaps sentimental, expression of joy.

Wrote this years ago about her two diamond-certified albums: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/diamond/madonna-like-a-virgin-the-immaculate-collection.htm

Another great angle in the Nile Rodgers book was how hard he pushed, and Madonna agreed to, a live band sound for "Like a Virgin," which set it apart from programmed stuff and put it more in line with (at the time) black music (enough so that the label pushed back a little). But I think "True Blue" is really live band plays top 40 pop perfection. It's all put together so well it might as well be programmed, but there's a real groove to the stuff that machines, in this instance, might not have provided.

oh yeah -- it's Chic backing her on that track.

i.e. "Virgin"

Chic is all over the album, no?

Yeah, it's mostly all Rodgers, Edwards, Thompson and Sabino on that disc, with a few other ringers involved. The Chic guys were so far down the cocaine line that Nile was the most in control of the bunch. He apparently struggled to keep Thompson and Edwards involved despite their self destruction.

One of the best things about Madonna ballads like "Live to Tell" and "Oh Father" is how the drums have a little bit of a swing to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYc2jR5yGDs

VOTED, went w/ first thought best thought, didn't think about it, could submit another ballot of twenty different songs very very easily

s/t - 2
lav - 2
tb - 3 (! i usually regard this as her weakest album til american life)
lap - 3
ib - 1
e - 2
bs - 1
e - 0
rol - 0 (!)
m - 1
al - 0
coadf - 2
hc - 0
mdna - 0
multi-artist soundtracks, standalone singles, compilation add-ons, etc - 3

didn't vote for this vid (went w/ a mix of faves now plus 'historic' faves ie the ones that provoked the most discussion in jr high and hs) but do want this noted somewhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iloMBY5cjAk
the winner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVPxKtdRRVI

would like to go back to the "greatest collective body of singles" discussion. who is in her league? Elvis, James Brown, the Stones, Prince.

Is that it?

Chuck Berry, Al Green...

michael jackson...

The other examples that occur to me (Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson as solo artist) don't have such a sustained run.

Amazingly, Madonna made 9 albums in a row with at least one great single, and all of those except I'm Breathless and Music at the end actually had two or three singles that would be career-best for anyone else.

Thing with "Papa Don't Preach" is that these days it's a total club-banger, the synth-strings and general mid-80s-ness mean it doesn't sound early-to-mid-00 revival obvi in the same way that her earlier work does (not knocking her earlier work which is amaze but it fits into sonic trends of the last ten years more neatly).

not on my ballot and too blatant a 'don't tell me' cop but for an american life single this is pretty decent i think!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUtvUFsPA6Y

I thought about the body-of-work (singles) question driving home, and I was surprised to realize that, subjectively, the only people I'd place ahead of her would be the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Could not think of anyone else with a greater number of singles I love/like a whole lot.

More objectively, I thought of James Brown, Stevie Wonder, maybe Aretha Franklin, Prince, Michael Jackson, and Elvis. Possibly Chuck Berry--his greatest is greater, but maybe too concentrated in a short time frame. Ditto Al Green and the Who.

remember this like it was yesterday
http://vimeo.com/38684862

two ballots already in. be an early voter! don't stand in line for 7 hours next Thursday!

american life really isn't a total dud (tho maybe it just sounds much better in hindsight relatively after her last two albums) - "nothing fails", "x-static process" and "easy ride" are all keepers (and obviously "die another day" is brilliant).

it's completely embarrassing and gauche but that's kinda charming?

no sale

would toss New Order, Pet Shop Boys, and George Jones in there too.

Another favorite Madonna on SNL moment was the Coffee Talk sketch when Roseanne was hosting and Barbra Streisand made a surprise cameo. Roseanne and Madonna looked genuinely shocked.

prolego otm about american life

Saw the "American Life" tour and was impressed that despite its weak reception, she played a lot of the album, and I didn't mind the songs I heard. I've still played that record a total of zero times, though.

here's that coffee talk - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ms6m_saturday-night-live-coffee-talk_fun#.USQMUKWsiSo

love that coffee talk sketch!

Her singing "Happy Birthday" to Hartman/Clinton was pretty great too (I think that was a real sketch...I'm not wishing it into existence, I hope).

Another question: who was Madonna's best collaborator?

Patrick Leonard?
Stephen Bray?
Shep Pettibone?
Babyface?
William Orbit?
Mirwais?
Stuart Price?

Only the most notable; she's got a half dozen more.

I'm big on all of them besides Shep and Babyface, but especially Patrick Leonard and Stuart Price.

BESIDES SHEP???????????????

talking of snl here's her only ever live performance of "bad girl"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCnNb41UoE8

i'd wager she's written it out of her history because out of all her songs it cuts too close to the bone