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

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

patrick leonard over shep, jellybean needs to be on the shortlist i think

Andre Bettis helped her with the most tonally dark Erotica tunes.

jellybean needs to be on the shortlist i think

Absolutely.

I always loved her response to the question "Why don't you have any solo songwriting credits after 1985?" -- "I got lazy."

Same show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlijD0OZsps

part of me wonders how much of erotica's relative lack of success was due to the actual music, due to its tie in w/ SEX, or due to madonna just being overexposed after nearly three years (including the months of hype in leadup to erotica/SEX) of nonstop unavoidable madonna from like a prayer-dick tracy/blonde ambition-truth or dare-league of their own.

yeah she's had several imperial phases: 1985-1987, 1989-1992, and 1998-2001. I'd totally negotiate over the dates though.

in retrospect it was a canny move to disappear for 15 months between "Causing a Commotion" and "Like a Prayer." Like U2 claimed they did, she rested to dream it all over again.

xps ALL of these things.

in Bill Flanagan's U2 book he and the band hold her up for ridicule in '92 and '93 -- at one point Flanagan calls her a "nightclub act" of the kind you used to watch on Ed Sullivan while anticipating The Beatles.

By 92 and 93, people were just tired of her because she was always on the radio, on tv, on the news, in the magazines, in the movie theaters, the bookstores....EVERYWHERE. Erotica could've been her finest album (I know some people here think it is), but people had reached their saturation point.

btw I didn't think it was her finest album at the time.

I wrote a bit about that overexposed early-'90s period reviewing Music. I don't know if "Erotica" would sound any better to me today--will give it a try, and see if I can get the Wayne's World parody out of my head. But I basically agree with fact checking cuz way above: her command of pop music on the likes of "Holiday" is a thousand times more compelling than she herself is. I used to find her provocations clunky and/or embarrassing, and sometimes I still do. Like when she started out supporting Hillary in '08--hope I'm remembering correctly--latched onto Obama at one point, and promptly said something about McCain that was ridiculously over the top. "Please, sit this one out" I thought at the time.

I remember getting into an ill-advised debate about this album and the general sound of early 90s house around here a few years ago. It's still a style that I really just can't stand—the drum sounds/beats, the piano rolls, the snare fills—but that's really the only thing that turns me off about her early 90s material. If the songs had come earlier with the True Blue/Like a Prayer arrangements and production, I'm sure I'd like them just fine. Shep Pettibone's influence is just a total dealbreaker for my ears.

I VOTED IN THIS LIVE TO TELL FOR THE WIN!

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

― balls, Tuesday, 19 February 2013 11:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^^^^

But yeah also the three tunes she did with Andre Betts on Erotica all sound amazing and forward-thinking and I always wish she'd done more with him, in my head there's a secret 1993 transition album which is halfway between "Waiting" and "Secret" and is all throbbing dusty grooves and throaty spoken word interludes, and it's basically the greatest album of all time.

that's a terrific review, clem. I wish you had the space to elaborate on: "It was disappointing last year to see "Beautiful Stranger" lose year-end polls to a pleasant bit of nothing like "No Scrubs." I count it as Madonna's masterpiece, her own "Erotic City," with a hypnotic abandon that a friend correctly identified as rooted more in Creedence Clearwater than "Ray of Light" 's electronica."

Thanks. I was actually swoods who clued me into "Beautiful Stranger"'s CCR resemblance--it really does sound like "Born on the Bayou." I was already in love with it, but that cast it in a whole new light.

Thinking about the comments re loving her music but not her image etc. Maybe it's an age thing? I think I was at the right/marketable age because I bought into her hook line and sinker right up until post-Erotica.

I always found her completely intriguing. God I think back to when I was little, I think I wanted to BE her before I even knew about her songs. I was NINE when I bought Like A Virgin. I think about that now and I'm like, that's kinda O_O.
But each phase of her image choices, from Borderline up through Erotica were totally compelling to me. There was Madge, there was Michael Jackson, and Cyndi Lauper maybe a close third, at least for a little while.

I mean, I didn't WORSHIP her like some of my friends did. But it wasn't til later that I'd be like, "ugh Madonna wtf sigh."
Again, I dunno if I was just wide-eyed and naive enough to buy in, but she was always pretty fascinating to me growing up.

The problem with "Beautiful Stranger" for me is its vocal, the nadir of her Opera Snob phase -- the vibrato, the elongating of syllables. A flip because I loved it at the time.