A DIGITAL RECORDING
March 11, 2019 4:54 PM   Subscribe

One album changed pop music forever. Its confessional nature combined with brilliant songwriting [with composing partners Stephen Bray and Madonna's best ever partner Patrick Leonard] and a strong sense of the personal being universal, Madonna's album Like A Prayer [YT vinyl video, 53m, listen again like it's the first time!] burst apart all expectations about both her as an artist and pop music in general. March 2, 1989 saw the debut of Madonna's Pepsi commercial. March 3 saw the premiere of the music video for Like A Prayer, and the subsequent media storm helped drive the sales of the album, released on March 21, 1989 a few weeks later, through the roof. But nobody who bought the album the first week (sometimes nicknamed The Divorce Album) knew what to expect -- an introspective masterpiece (most of the vocals are first-take and unedited) full of pop hooks that would redefine pop music forever. The pachouli-scented vinyls and CDs also had an insert about AIDS prevention, something nearly unheard of in 1989. Side A: Like A Prayer [Blonde Ambition Tour performance, Live 8 (2005) performance, ridiculously extensive Wikipedia article about the song], Express Yourself [video (Ed note - there is a LOT going on in that video!), Live At The MTV Video Music Awards 1989, Blonde Ambition Tour performance, another ridiculous Wikipedia article], Love Song, Till Death Do Us Part, Promise To Try [video] posted by hippybear (46 comments total) 25 users marked this as a favorite
 
Madonna's Blonde Ambition Tour (filmed here August 5, 1990) may possibly be the best pop tour ever staged. This particular era of pop music was truly heady and Madonna really drove it forward.
posted by hippybear at 4:56 PM on March 11, 2019 [3 favorites]


I still get goosebumps when I hear (or do karaoke of) Like a Prayer. Which is a much different physiological reaction than I had when I was fourteen watching her videos :/
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:47 PM on March 11, 2019 [6 favorites]


I was exactly the right age, sex, gender, and sexual orientation as to be socially obligated in my youth to dismiss Madonna loudly and at every opportunity. I regret to say that I did not possess the integrity necessary to resist that pressure, and I succumbed. It's an error I haven't corrected, despite having had 30 years in which I could have. I'm going to take this impressive post as the impetus to do what I should have done a long, long time ago, and put Madonna into my regular rotation.
posted by Ipsifendus at 5:51 PM on March 11, 2019 [8 favorites]


Suddenly, I’m thirsty for a Pepsi.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 5:55 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


So I clicked into the last Blonde Ambition Tour link, skipped forward randomly, and was rewarded with a Madonna song that I hadn't heard for at least 30 years. And it's even in my iTunes library! *sigh* I think I'd been avoiding it because it was from one of the soundtrack albums and I didn't know the song's name from grade school dances and airplay. But that whole era was just hit after hit after hit, it shouldn't be a surprise I hit something familiar. (Causing a Commotion, FWIW.)

The entirety of the Like a Prayer album is a bit weird for me because I'm much more familiar with the shared songs from the Immaculate Collection where a lot of the life was scrubbed off the tracks in favor of a much more club oriented, post-Vogue grinding bass line. I'll have to sit down and listen to the original album one of these days.

I was a bit too young and non-religious to get what the fuss was about with Like A Prayer, but as an irony drenched protogoth I was obliged to like the Bigod 20 (probably NSFW) version more anyway.
posted by Kyol at 6:11 PM on March 11, 2019


WHO WOULD WIN?

an album mix of a timeless anthem about the importance of communication and action in any relationship, complete with a kickass horn bridge

OR

one bleach-bypassed drum-programmed ritzy-fritzy-dancy boi
posted by infinitewindow at 6:38 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


I mean, Express Yourself on Like a Prayer has a clipped rhythm guitar, synth bass digging deep into the pitch bend wheel, and a horn section? The hell you say! It's a damn teutonic masterpiece on the Immaculate Collection.

And she calls back to Love Song (with Prince!) 16 years later in Hung Up on Confessions?

I'll admit, I tend to lean more towards Club Madonna over emotionally vulnerable Madonna, but that's just how I'm wired.
posted by Kyol at 6:41 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


I never imagined Madonna would become this irrelevant in my lifetime. I take no pleasure in saying that.

When I was a kid she was SO big, and she reinvented herself so often, it just seemed like she'd find a way to stay front and center forever. And even as she entered middle age it did seem like she was still a big deal. She wasn't a dewy twentysomething anymore but that didn't matter. She was still Madonna, making music and saying outrageous things. But then she began a slow fade, and the last time I saw her she was at some awards show wearing a crazy dowager empress get-up and it all just seemed kind of sad. The biggest headline she got in years was when she performed someplace on NYE and she had a weird new butt.

That all sounds mean, and I don't mean to be mean. I never bought a Madonna CD but I kind of felt like I didn't have to because she was just everywhere. I wasn't a fan exactly but then again I wouldn't call myself a "fan" of the sky either. When I was a kid she was just in the air we breathed. Her new songs were events and I had a crush on her and I wanted to be her and she was just Madonna. How is Madonna still alive and not a big deal anymore? How did that happen?

I feel like Madonna's role as a cultural icon was kind of split, Dark Crystal-style, into Beyonce and Lady Gaga, and just like in the Dark Crystal the new incarnations were major downgrades and we all suffered for it. (I think Beyonce is the most overrated anything ever and she's kind of a dick while Lady Gaga is super talented but her actual songs kind of bore me and I mostly like her persona and her kooky outfits. So in my Dark Crystal scenario I guess Lady Gaga is an Urru and Beyonce is a big ol' Skeksis.) You can see Madonna's influence everywhere, but it's usually in all the worst ways. We have all these pop divas singing over-produced songs about empowerment while they shill soda and hop around in glittery corsets, and Madonna did all that but she did it so much better.

She never struck me as a very nice person at all. She seemed like kind of a weird, catty mean girl, but somehow she made that cool instead of annoying. (She had that in common with Prince.) I don't know if she deserves a comeback, karmically speaking, but I find myself rooting for her anyhow. I like to think she still has it in her to produce an album that will knock everybody out, that will reclaim her place as motherfreaking Madonna. And perhaps, when she does, Beyonce and Lady Gaga will fade from this world and the crystal will be healed at last...
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:44 PM on March 11, 2019 [23 favorites]


“Remember Madonna’s ‘Make My Baby’ Contest?”

(i spent a solid half hour looking for that bumper but to no avail)
posted by sourwookie at 7:25 PM on March 11, 2019


I never imagined Madonna would become this irrelevant in my lifetime. I take no pleasure in saying that.

I know, right? Like, Like A Prayer was revelatory and then Ray Of Light happened and it was entirely something else, and then Confessions On A Dance Floor which like a shot out of the dark, unexpected and entirely great, and then... um....

It's like the glowing streak of her meteor just petered out. I own her three albums after Confessions, but I can't name a single song off any of them. What happened? How did she slide off to the side of being meaningful? I still think it's her breakup with Patrick Leonard that led to this, although it's not like Leonard has had much influence after his break-up with Madonna.

She was so huge, and she's just sort of fizzled out. I wasn't expecting that. But what she did that had an impact, it was bigger than anything anyone might have expected at the time.
posted by hippybear at 7:41 PM on March 11, 2019 [3 favorites]


She didn't actually write those hit songs herself, right? I just don't believe she did.
posted by DMelanogaster at 7:44 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


She literally has song-writing credits for every track on Like A Prayer, and she did most of the lyrics and melodies from what I've gleaned from reading about the album, as well as co-producing credits for all the tracks.

She has always been very involved with her music. She's not just a performing figurehead, but she's actually a music artist who writes and creates her music.
posted by hippybear at 7:48 PM on March 11, 2019 [13 favorites]


I adore Madonna (the musician, have no real knowledge of her as a human) and always have. Thanks hippybear for the post!
posted by maxwelton at 8:07 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


She didn't actually write those hit songs herself, right? I just don't believe she did.

This is never a question that gets asked of male singers. I wonder why that is?
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:11 PM on March 11, 2019 [24 favorites]


Express Yourself yt [video yt (Ed note - there is a LOT going on in that video!),

Well, basically it's a good chunk of Fritz Lang's Metropolis smushed down into 3 minutes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:24 PM on March 11, 2019 [4 favorites]


She didn't actually write those hit songs herself, right? I just don't believe she did.

This is never a question that gets asked of male singers. I wonder why that is?


I'm not so sure of that. It's fairly well-known that many pop/dance artists have other people write their songs. That said, while I'm sure that Madonna has had cowriters, her lyrics are often so personal that I have never questioned that she wrote most of the songs herself.
posted by ashbury at 8:31 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


She didn't actually write those hit songs herself, right? I just don't believe she did.

Whenever I hear people discussing whether or not "Famous Person" wrote a song I remember that Elvis Presley (or at least his manager) would sometimes insist on getting a song writing credit for material which Elvis was going to record.

In that way Elvis (and his manager) would get a slice of the publishing. I presume the writers were disinclined to tell them to take a walk as having your song recorded by Elvis was almost certainly going to bring more money your way than any other outcome ... nevertheless not a very pleasant piece of business.

Not saying for one moment that Ms Ciccone was involved in the same thing but rather pointing out that in showbiz there's an awful lot that looks one way but is another.
posted by southof40 at 8:43 PM on March 11, 2019 [9 favorites]


She seemed like kind of a weird, catty mean girl, but somehow she made that cool instead of annoying. (She had that in common with Prince.)

I don't have the energy to make a mega-link rebuttal right now, but I surely take issue with this characterization of Prince. Weird, unabashedly. Catty, sure, mostly playfully. Mean? He cut one of the most joyous, inclusive, kaleidoscopic, all-embracing figures in pop, of his era or any other. He could be enigmatic and inscrutable for sure, but I never saw Madonna's calculated iciness in him. (I hang a caveat here that we are discussing the commercial peak period for both artists. Things got weirder in Princeland later on, mostly due to the Internet and religious conversion.)

Anyway, back to Madonna ... she was part of my DNA growing up, like all kids in the U.S. in the '80s. I rollerskated to "Borderline" as a young kid and spun "Into the Groove" at grade-school parties and later participated in eight zillion obligatory lip-syncs in collegiate gay bars. Weirdly, despite having so many formative memories with her, I think the Ray of Light era probably has the greatest emotional resonance for me, again probably because of that whole coming-out, early-20s, first heartbreak type period going on.

I may not listen to her with any regularity nowadays, but I do keep a permanent playlist with my favorite tracks spanning her entire career (up to Confessions, anyway) and it occasionally finds its way out on long sunny road trips.
posted by mykescipark at 10:20 PM on March 11, 2019 [7 favorites]


No no, really, you're right on target. Ray Of Light is an album of unexpected transcendence and I have no idea why all that came together for that specific moment but jeebus holy fuck goddamn that is one of the best albums!
posted by hippybear at 10:33 PM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


Like A Prayer/Blonde Ambition Madonna is Peak Madonna.
posted by wabbittwax at 10:43 PM on March 11, 2019


I assume Madonna is no longer big because she didn't die young and got older instead, as it usually works for women. Sigh.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:50 PM on March 11, 2019 [10 favorites]


There's a lot of sloppy/unexamined misogyny in these comments, and it's dissappointing.
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 11:54 PM on March 11, 2019 [6 favorites]


I’m honestly very surprised whenever I’m reminded that “Like A Prayer” came out as late as 1989. That particular kind of exuberantly bouncy post-fusion Moog bass funk (which I am obsessed with) heard in the song’s chorus, and all over the album (particularly the other singles), just screams very specifically mid-eighties. Like, other than this album, literally the entire genre only existed from ‘84-‘86. Before “Like A Prayer,” funky Moog bass’s last great hurrah seems to have been “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” which came out in 1987, but was recorded in ‘86.

“Like A Prayer” is an indisputably great song and album, so I don’t mean this as a diss or even a critique. It’s just that it really doesn’t sound the slightest bit like 1989 at all. Pop music had long since moved on to digital synths, samplers, and New Jack Swing by then. “Like A Prayer” is the style of — again, very specifically — almost-post-Bobby Brown New Edition (1985), and it’s not even remotely related to that of post-New Edition Bell Biv DeVoe (1989).

And don’t even come at me with, “But Sys Rq, Bobby Brown’s ‘Every Little Step’ came out in 1989 and it’s full of bouncy Moog bass!” No. The remix single came out in ‘89, the album version came out in ‘88, it was recorded in ‘87, and besides, that’s a Sequential Circuits Pro-One. Nice try, though. “But what about ‘On Our Own (Theme from Ghostbusters II)’?” Fine. You win. You’re wrong, and I hate you, but sure. Whatever.

So anyway, if you’ve read this far and not watched that last music video, go ahead and do that now. You can keep it muted, but do watch it. It’s totally worth it. I’ll wait.

. . .

...doot de doot de doot de doo...

. . .

...dum de dum de dum de dum...

. . .

...deet de deet de deet de dee...

. . .


Ah. Welcome back.

So, how far did you throw your work computer when you got to the one minute mark?
posted by Sys Rq at 12:34 AM on March 12, 2019 [6 favorites]


The somewhat ott 'exuberance' of the presenters aside, I recommend this track by track breakdown of Borderline - a good insight into how the different elements of a well-crafted pop song come together (as well as some seriously of their era sounds in the raw).
posted by srednivashtar at 1:29 AM on March 12, 2019 [5 favorites]


Life hack for owners of restaurants/event venues: if at any point while visiting your establishment a Madonna song is played, I will forever remember your spot as "that place with the good music." No matter what else was played while I was there.
posted by solotoro at 4:39 AM on March 12, 2019 [3 favorites]


MetaFilter: Beyonce is a big ol' Skeksis
posted by Foosnark at 5:15 AM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


My ex-father-in-law, who was mostly a gun-safe-owning classic-car-fixing dad-joke-telling hetero stereotype, fucking loved this album and didn't mind who knew, and it's sort of silly and maybe narrow-minded of me but it was one of the first things that made my barely-closeted ass feel good about being part of a family with him. A straight dude who can rock out in the car to Like A Prayer is a straight dude with reasonable odds of having his insecurities under control.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:38 AM on March 12, 2019 [5 favorites]


I saw the Blonde Ambition tour in Toronto when I was 10 years old. It was my very first concert.

She was only 32 years old. It kills me now to think about.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 5:42 AM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


Like A Prayer and Ray Of Light are both *fantastic* albums. My wife and I have also been listening to You Can Dance a lot lately, too.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:20 AM on March 12, 2019


I was a too-cool-for-school rave/club kid when Ray Of Light was released. I’ll never forget, at the height of its success, talking to some of my friends at a party and the 3-4 of us at first VERY. BEGRUDGINGLY. CONCEDING. that the album was “ok”. Of course, once that over-cautious approval was out of the way, we started gushing about how the production was “amazing” and how some of the deep cuts were even better than the singles, especially “Sky Fits Heaven” (which I enjoy to this day).
posted by tantrumthecat at 8:09 AM on March 12, 2019


WHO WOULD WIN?

an album mix of a timeless anthem about the importance of communication and action in any relationship, complete with a kickass horn bridge

OR

one bleach-bypassed drum-programmed ritzy-fritzy-dancy boi
posted by infinitewindow at 6:38 PM on March 11
[1 favorite +] [!]


Uh, can’t I like both for different reasons?

The album mix of “Express Yourself” has the undeniable funk, while the Shep Pettibone remix has a slightly dark pop-house groove that better suits the Fritz Lang throwback of the song’s video. In either case, the instrumental beds work beautifully as a backdrop for Madonna’s vocals.

Also, “ritzy-fritzy-dancy boi”???
posted by tantrumthecat at 8:28 AM on March 12, 2019


listen again like it's the first time!

This WAS the first time I've listened to it with headphones. The production! The bass!
posted by kozad at 9:10 AM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


Ah, this is a nice little taste of my early teens (tho tbh I probably listened to True Blue more than this one, which hit just as I was heading into my first New Wave phase); I'm listening to the whole album with a smile on my face.
posted by epersonae at 1:42 PM on March 12, 2019


Uh, can’t I like both for different reasons?

There are a gazillion totally 80s remixes for all the singles for this album. Extended mixes, 7" mixes, dance mixes, dubs, bonus beats... I didn't get into them in this post, but they are all out there and available.
posted by hippybear at 3:14 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


“Remember Madonna’s ‘Make My Baby’ Contest?”

....I remember a contest that was about making one of her videos, could that be what you're thinking of? (I think it was "True Blue.")
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:35 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


Also, “ritzy-fritzy-dancy boi”???

There is an entire YouTube celebrity contained in that phrase, I swear. And I don't even do YouTube celebrities. But it's all right there.
posted by hippybear at 7:56 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


Also, “ritzy-fritzy-dancy boi”???

It's a meme thing, and I hope the entire phrase communicated the Fincher-Pettibone-Weimar-Lang-Expressionist-queer vibe of the video. And I apologize for coming off like I'm trying to force anyone to choose between versions. I love them both too! (I faked being sick to stay home from school so I could watch the premiere when I was young.)
posted by infinitewindow at 11:17 PM on March 12, 2019


One of my favourite things about Madonna (and there's a long list) is that she's never fussed much with being perceived as likeable.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 12:40 AM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


Not a fan myself, but I like her production, luv that Moog bass.
'Truth or Dare' seemed kinda awkward at times..
posted by ovvl at 5:38 PM on March 13, 2019


Express Yourself Non-Stop Express Mix
Express Yourself Stop + Go Dubs

Oh, 80s remixes! Never stop being you!
posted by hippybear at 8:31 PM on March 13, 2019


'Truth or Dare' seemed kinda awkward at times..

Truth Or Dare is such a fascinating document to me. First, Madonna gets all transparent and personal (and really sexually aggressive) for Like A Prayer, then she does Dick Tracy where the villain she portrays literally has no face, and then she does this Blonde Ambition Tour and releases Truth Or Dare.

Truth Or Dare. Probably a bit MORE personal than Madonna intended, but she let it be released anyway. She had a pretty much "fuck it, this is who I am" attitude which even today comes across (forgive me if I word this incorrectly) as being typically male behaviour in our culture. Her aggression, her "I'm the one running this show" attitude, her willingness to get in people's faces...

I dunno. I think it's an interesting film. Either she's ignoring the patriarchy to get done what she needs to get done, or she's participating in it by using its tropes. Either way, I saw it repeatedly in the theater mostly because the musical performances were so thrillingly filmed with surround sound even.
posted by hippybear at 8:42 PM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


then she does Dick Tracy where the villain she portrays literally has no face,

Huh? She played a night club singer named Breathless or something, and definitely had a face. She wasn't the villain, she was more like "vamp who's trying to tempt Dick away from his girlfriend" or something.

Speaking of Dick Tracy, though, I've always wanted to know why she gave a shout-out to Gen. Schwartzkoff when she performed the movie's torch song at the Oscars that year. (And I remember her visibly trembling through the whole performance.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:26 AM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


I'm afraid that Breathless Mahoney in the 1990 film Dick Tracy was also the movie's main enigmatic villain, The Blank. (Yes, it's a stupid plot twist, but that's how it went.)
posted by hippybear at 6:08 AM on March 14, 2019


.....Wait, then what was Al Pacino's character? Because he's the one I remember being the most "villainy".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:51 AM on March 14, 2019


Dick Tracy had a lot of villains. That was kinda the whole thing about Dick Tracy.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:53 PM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


Big Boy (Pachino) didn't kidnap Tess Truehart and drug Tracy, and Mahoney condemned Big Boy with her final breath after being fatally wounded and revealed as The Blank. Big Boy was just a MacGuffin, of giant chin and dramatic eyebrows.

Aside from the color scheme (which was truly remarkable, and apparently done mostly in-camera (not through color grading because was that even possible in 1990?), the design of the deformed villains (a specifically phrenological presentation of the tendency toward criminal behavior) was one of the more interesting parts of Dick Tracy. Even given that it was directly reflective of the source material, they really went all out with that. That so many big actors were interested in playing the cadre of villains in Dick Tracy is reflected in the current trend of giant actors in today's comic book movies. Different comics, though.

Maybe it's time for a new attempt at a Dick Tracy franchise.

Madonna basically can't act, though. She's "good" in Evita because it's an hours-long music video and she knows how to make music videos. Acting... yeah, not so much.

She's really only interesting on-camera not performing music during the later sections of Truth Or Dare when she's forgotten a camera is on her. There are moments of candid self-ness that happen that are honest and revealing in a way that no actress and no performer could ever hope to achieve. She is truly just herself, for a little moment, and it's sometimes touching and sometimes infuriating.

I find I oddly care about Madonna's career. It's like, I've never seen her live, but I seem to have kept track of her career across the decades in a closer way than I have other artists of her emergent era... She hasn't done an album that I've found to be seminal since Confessions, and even that was the least of her Sacred Three (in order: Light, Prayer, Confessions) [Ed. note: Jeebus, did I just do some kind of weird Madonna-based Catholic thing there???]

I keep wanting her to do One More Truly Important And Groundbreaking Album. She's 10 years older than me, so I know she's pushing the envelope, but it might still be possible? I don't even know what direction she should go in or who her producer or writing partner should be or anything, but I feel like she just might be able to find it one more time, at least. That would be... kind of thrilling to me. And I have no real idea why.
posted by hippybear at 10:45 PM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


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