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

damn, nice turnout.

never woulda guessed this poll would match the Pavement poll's turnout

This has been a pretty busy thread by voting/hype thread standards too. Over 1500 posts.

yeah felt like a really rare confluence of an artist that EVERYBODY has an opinion about but hasn't really been discussed to death on ilm in the past

I'm glad I ended up getting to do this one. I was originally going to do her (lol!) at #8, but switched to Guided By Voices. Then there was some kind of kerfuffle between parties who will go unmentioned, a rogue poll, an abandonment, and a re-opening. The drama befits a Madonna poll, imo.

lol

i will say that at the time all i really knew was some cabal had decided polls had to be authorized (ag has gotten past this thru sheer maniacal will, emphasis on maniacal) and that the first authorized one was the beatles so my first reaction was disgust on two levels ie. fuck the beatles - MADONNA! that i ended up trolling a certain party was "regrettable". have to admit top down administration of poll rollouts has worked out fairly well, sometimes think maybe two polls could be going at once, more often don't really have time to engage w/ one poll (eg i'm gonna have to skip miles poll despite him probably being the musician i've listened to most in my life cuz daunting catalogue and irl business).

Regrettable is the best parody Madonna album title possible.

Also, Madonna covering Vic Chesnutt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i852nyVxTtU

Can't decided if I'm more excited for the results, or to see the individual ballots.

*decide

I kind of wish there were a "5 Least Favorite" sub-poll. Guessing "Where Life Begins" and maybe "Express Yourself" would make both.

yeah definitely was making a 'least favorite' list in my head while putting together my ballot

there are some really canonical revered Madonna songs that i just loathe

did JF get my ballot? I didnt get a confirmation

Least faves: American Life, Mother and Father, Love Don't Live Here Anymore, 4 Minutes, Spanish Lessons and, yeah, In This Life.

People don't like Express Yourself?

pre-emptive go fuck yrself on that front btw

yeah re: that vic chesnutt cover (and i have to for an athens boy it was very surreal to be sitting in a dentist's chair in italy and suddenly hear madonna singing vic chesnutt coming over the radio), here's the original (sorta, madonna heavily reworked it) of 'don't tell me':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uaoDLcqo9I

go fuck yourself, hey hey hey hey

xpost lol

'express yrself' is a huge one that hasn't really gotten much discussion in this thread, wouldn't be surprised if it placed kinda low for such a big part of her iconography (hopefully not gaming results at this point saying that). love love love the vid (sideboob was pretty novel and interesting to me in 1989), as singles go it's one of a few ('like a prayer' falls here too) that don't really hit me anymore. if i thought about it it would probably be different (i'd probably have to cede 'like a prayer' best status) but in my heart right now i probably rank like a prayer singles: cherish>oh father>keep it together>>like a prayer>express yrself (w/ dear jessie after keep it together i guess but even knowing that was a single in the uk or whatever it seems such an album cut, pure set up for oh father).

it was pretty high up on my ballot, if i had to pick anything to be THE madonna song that goes in a time capsule or something, it'd be the shep pettibone video mix of that song

I really regret not voting for "Sidewalk Talk", but I'm hoping some of you did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrr9mJ2AVwY

D.A.M. I've counted your ballot and sent a reply. Odd if you still haven't received it.

I'm still adding ballots, so if you don't have a reply yet, don't sweat it. If you don't have one by Sunday, definitely let me know.

SPOILER ALERT: this was my #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv4nCDbdBV8

I really like Express Yourself, its a little baffling that it's only got lukewarm accolades so far itt

express yourself is great! I guess it's overplayed and maybe that's the yawn factor...but idk, it's actually a great song to dance to and even when I think, 'uh maybe I'm kinda over that song' as soon as Madge says C'MON GIRLS and I'm like YES MADONNA? OH HEY THAT'S ME! SURE LET'S GO!

Maybe I'm the only "Express Yourself" contrarian!

Kinda ridic how much better the Shep Pettibone version of "Express Yourself" was, made the album version sound so little and limp by comparison.

How futuristic that percolating synth and the machine gun snares must have sounded. And that piano vamp in the second half!

Yeah Pettibone's version is killer

Word! I don't much care for the album version and was surprised to see some animosity early on in this thread regarding Shep's remix.

I can't stand Express Yourself. She sounds so full of herself.

If I was full of Madonna I'd sure as hell sound it.

Kinda ridic how much better the Shep Pettibone version of "Express Yourself" was, made the album version sound so little and limp by comparison.

Ugh this is so so so so wrong. I fucking hate that remix with the fury of a thousand suns.

Otm

I agree, the album version is joyous and full of life, the remix is really static.

Polling now officially closed. Only 56 ballots in the end, as one of the emails was from someone asking if they could still vote. Never followed up with an actual ballot, though.

I'll probably get this rolling on Tuesday, when the Springsteen poll will (maybe?) be done with its reveal.

Ha! Make that 57. It came while I was writing that post.

My "Express Yourself" vote was implicitly for the Pettibone remix, but I have no objections to it going to either version. My "Like a Prayer" vote was implicitly for the album version, and I'd pitch a fit if I thought it was going toward the Immaculate Collection mix. More or less, I think Celebration went with the definitive versions.

The last 10 songs I cut from my ballot:

Borderline
Everybody
Causing a Commotion
Oh Father
Sooner or Later
Where Life Begins
Love Tried To Welcome Me
Impressive Instant
Hung Up
Gang Bang

58? Just discovered mine was sitting in my drafts folder :(

The clichéd horns are way too prominent in the mix in the LP version of "Express Yourself." I'm fairly surprised that anyone prefers that mix. Yeech.

Great turnout for an 11-12 day polling window. I think these things live or die on the energy and participation of the poll-runner.

You guys realise that the Shep remix is the one used on the video, played on the radio etc. etc.

I can understand people railing against Shep's "Like A Prayer" remix with its unexpected rave-whistle breakdown, but the "Express Yourself" one is a case where I'm constantly surprised that the original is a thing that exists.

Certainly the Shep remix was all I heard in the summer and fall of '89, and it took on enough life on its own to wind up on TIC, but it sounded garish to me.

I'll probably get this rolling on Tuesday, when the Springsteen poll will (maybe?) be done with its reveal.

― Johnny Fever, Saturday, March 2, 2013 11:02 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

aw c'mon no overlaps, let it breathe a day or somethin'

i submitted a ballot, but only 12 cuts. i don't have a particularly strong opinion about madonna but the 12 songs i picked are epic jams (albeit probs predictable picks.)

It's probably not a debate worth pursuing but the idea that the Shep remix sounds more garish than the original is an astonishing proposition to me.

The arrangement of the original sticks fairly close to eighties ideas about R&B/soul.

Possibly my position on this is influenced by the fact that "Express Yourself" was one of the first videos to really have an effect on me (this is due to seven year old me being weirdly obsessed with Metropolis), and so the video plays an outsized part of what I think of when I think of the song. If they'd matched the video to the original version the result would have been comical, the song needed the slightly menacing propulsive undercurrent of house in order to sell its vision.

otm

A large part of what's made this nominations thread among the best I've read is learning how the rest of you experienced Madonna: radio first, video/radio, Erotica, ROL.

The big surprise for me is learning how early Borderline came. It was on the first ever tape I made of the chart countdown, which lasted me for years, and I'd always assumed she was well into her imperial phase by then. Instead it's like her third or fourth single. I guess it's because she never dipped below the radar again, for me she's just always been there.

1. 8th grade, was in Rochester, NY, for my cousin's bar mitzvah and in the motel room watched Madonna co-host an episode of New York Hot Tracks, speaking some Spanish. They showed the "Lucky Star" video.

2. Must've heard her on the radio and saw her on Friday Night Videos, etc.

3. 10th grade, my mom came home having driven by the big arena in town and said she saw all these girls on the street dressed in t-shirts that said The Virgin Tour. She asked if I knew what they meant.

4. Age 18, saw her on Broadway.

5. I realized one day that my college roommate only owned CDs that had gone platinum. Only CD of a woman in his collection was The Immaculate Collection.

6. Age 20, danced a lot in all-ages clubs. Getting to see the "Justify My Love" video in a club felt like getting to see something taboo. Also remember hearing that song on headphones for the first time and it was like Madonna was talking dirty in my ear.

7-15. Almost all of the songs I like most were after these stories, but nothing special about how I heard them.