Angela

March 19, 201214 yr

I was just reading Carl's Wiki link on this. Julie on Madonna's reaction (warm, half-finished wine aside... I hope Julie is kidding about drinking it, Madonna probably drank the bottle and then pissed in it before having it mailed out. I would have, lol):

"At first I heard she really liked it. Then I heard she didn't like the scene where I rolled around on my dog's grave. She'd rolled around on her mother's — like that wasn't offensive enough? Then she didn't like the scene with the dancers suing me, because that really happened to her."

Carl, no idea. But it looks like she's up for more. I got to look up how Julie looks these days, it's been ages since I've seen her anywhere.

Weird Al's 1985 "Like a Surgeon" (I've heard Her Madgesty came up with the title and off and onwards the project went)...

The Madonna Thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYz8aXrzcPU

March 19, 201214 yr

Julie Brown doing "Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful." If you're under 14 ... uhm if you're under 21 DO NOT watch this.

"You should have done a volcano check!!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uJtG_DpPeE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNa_BPPE1wk

Part 4-6 is on YouTube...

The Madonna Thread

March 19, 201214 yr

The audio is pretty bad in this clip and makes her voice sound extra thin, but here it is:

I posted the studio version back a couple of pages in here. It's a beautiful song.

According to Brown, she drank the bottle.

Julie Brown was indeed the best non-Madonna eva, lol. It's been so long since I've heard her name.

but now I watch it and think Madonna was really cruel to her friends and completely to get "good video...

I still like the documentary, but indeed...

This is a completely personal take and deals with things I've had a lot of (maybe too much) therapy about, but I do think it's about sexual abuse, and I think Madonna was abused--partly in the ways she's "acted out" and some of her lyrical content.

I don't disagree. I do think she must have had some really fundamental issues with the men in her life, those close and those she didn't know (the assault she says happened). It's the same way I would feel about a man if he was being a little too volatile or too contolling towards women in his work too. It's very much "I will never be dominated by a man."

I do think like with a lot of her videos, she leaves it a bit ambig for the viewer to take their own message.

As a child for me, my first thought was sexual abuse when watching this video. Either by the father or from a father in the church. In terms of sexual abuse, I thought the mothers lip sewn together was a way of showing her silenced about the abuse. Then, for me, it became about a total screw-up of a father and its effect on the children. Me and my sister discussed the video years later and were like "that's the song of our childhood." It's just later on I learned Madonna and her older brother got to see their mother in her coffin and her mouth was sewn like that so my initial interps changed and I began seeing it differently, more from the father/daughter strained relationship dynamics.

and I also love Madonna's version of Don't Cry for Me Argentina...the original version and the upbeat Miami version.

I didn't love Madonna's studio version of DCFMA. It's really been done better. For me, this Spanish woman - Paloma San Basilio - sings it best. (Yes better than PL). I loved the remix though. I also loved Madonna's talking-singing performance of it in the movie. I think her performance of it here has the passion in it that it lacks in the actual released single and video.

The Madonna Thread

The imagery in Oh Father, just damn... The mother in the coffin with the mouth sealed. I initially thought it was about spousal and/or sexual abuse. Then I thought maybe it's about the church. But over time realized it's her very autobiographical interpretation of her childhood thru Sean Penn. She doesn't feel her father abused her, but that he changed while her mother was dying and after she died, that pushed her away, and some of that allowed herself to open herself to being abused. In the end though she forgives her father. Great stuff.

The switch from the father being "abusive" to the husband slapping her, perfect in terms of the chain of abuse.

The Madonna Thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC-l9aluDKw

Toy Soldiers, another oldie but goodie. The singing public doesn't make music like pre-1995 anymore. They really don't.

The bridge between Oh Father and Dear Jessie (which was released in Europe) was epic on the album.

Such a contrast between the two songs and that bridge just highlights the irony.

Dear Jessie was so unusual for her too, and so different from most of this album. I think it's a great happy song.

DeMann was one of the best managers in the music industry ever.

No question.

I've read up on FD/Madonna/Michael. She tracked him down when she was coming up and got him away from Michael Jackson.

from Like A Virgin until Evita

Evita still makes me cry. I remember getting it on video tape as soon as it went to video, lol. WTF whipped her into this acting condition? She should have kept their name. Antonio was great, great in the second clip here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWkI0zhM6TE

The Madonna Thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEEE0Tl1JX0

Oh Father will always be a highlight for me, and the David Fincher directed video is a masterpiece.

Though the song wasn't really commercial and broke her string of top 10 singles when it peaked at #20.

Word to the father, Oh Father was my favorite on that album. The song was epic. The video is epic. I think it was probably too heavy for some. It was commercial in sound, but it's so heavy in topic...

ETA: Give me a minute, I'll find one that embeds. Or not. Well, just follow Y&R's link.

Til Death Do Us Part was another heavy but good one. This was definitely less commercial than Oh Father. I strongly related to this whole album due to my home life when I was a child.

The Madonna Thread

Sooner or Later won the Oscar for Best Original Song, and she perofmed it that night. Michael Jackson was her date to the Oscar's that year, lol.

Man, I'm just imaging poor Michael with her. He's so different (innocent) and she's so different (not innocent). I'm sure he initially liked the idea (he married Elvis' daughter after all), but...

I know he trash talked her a little after they're brief "dating" period because he felt she was trash talking him in the press. He was being kind of sexist and said she's jealous because she can't be a man and will therefore never have fans fainting for her like he does. On the dates, he said she told him straight out that they were not going to go to Disneyland or any s--t like that, lol. The she tried to take him to bar with cross-dressing people. I think she probably just wanted him to embrace his sexuality and grown up side whatever came with that.

The Madonna Thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07DBz9ZUGcA

I think you're spot on about LAP--I just wish she had realized to leave that Prince song off of it--awful, awful.

I don't hate the song. Even the worst songs on LAP are pretty decent. I do think that Madonna and Prince could have done something epic and did something meh instead.

Another Tour performance I really enjoyed, from Confessions. I think this was after she injured her spine after a horse riding accident. The symbolism of getting back on the saddle is great and her showing her x-rays amuses me...

The Madonna Thread

It's so cute in a Madonna type of way. She's so super hyped she sang it so well w/o a back up track that she kicks the chair, high fives her girls and grabs her crotch (like a man) in self-congrats.

I love this Tour performance of Rain (The Girlie Show Tour). She's simply sitting down and singing with passion...

The Madonna Thread

For me,

I think LAP was the most important of her career. I think LAP solidified has as more than a passing pop princess. If she hadn't put that stamp on it with the Blonde Ambition Tour on top (that Like a Virgin, Like a Prayer, Live to Tell/Oh Father, Papa Don't Preach section? Damnnn, amazing, quite simple in a lot of ways but just made of awesome), I think she might have fallen under the radar.

ROL, second. If LAP was the "You Have To Take Me Seriously" album, ROL became, the "Seriously, You Have To Take Me Seriously" album. It's almost 10 years after her best original material (and over 15 years from her debut on the scene) and there she comes out with a great selling, highly critically acclaimed and respected record.

The Madonna Thread

http://www.vanityedge.com/forum/

And as to Lady Gaga....I am so over her. I used to like her music especially her first big hit but now its just meh.

I'm not in love with Gaga myself anymore but one can't deny she was on the radio ALL THE TIME during the past 2 or so years (and I did enjoy the music for the most part during that time).

Ray of Light was Madonna's best selling album since Like a Prayer. I'm not counting the IC as it was the Greatest Hits and not so much a new outing. Not all the songs are commercial in this album (ROL) but I think most of them are quite beautiful in their own right.

I am not sure how well it sold though.

These are the worldwide estimates I've found compiled for Madonna's albums...

The Immaculate Collection: 28.6

True Blue: 23.5

Like A Virgin: 21.6

Ray of Light: 15.3

Like a Prayer: 14.1 <-- that surprises me, it was such a good album. It's good sales, but in my head that's a 20 million + album

Music: 10.4

Something to Remember: 9.8

Madonna: 9.6

Confessions on a Dancefloor 8.3

Bedtime Stories: 7.4

I'm Breathless 7.1

Erotica 6.8

Evita 6.6

Greatest Hits Volume Two 5.5

You Can Dance 5.3

Who's That Girl 5.2

American Life 3.8

Hard Candy 3.6

The Madonna Thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaInSMPLLFM

Lady Gaga has 12 #1 hits on the Dance Charts and 3 #1's on the Hot 100. Stats like that is why I still give it credibility, gays aside. I feel like Lady Gaga has had closer to 10 major hits from listening to the radio over the past two years, not barely 5. It surprised me when I realized just how much Rihanna and Katy Perry are trouncing her in terms of Hot 100.

Katy Perry and Rihanna success in particular surprises me. I enjoy most of their songs, but still... Rihanna needs two more #1 Hot 100 singles to tie Madonna, and 8 more to take over Mariah which is very, very doable at her age. It's not a question, Rihanna is so going to join Michael Jackson, Elvis, The Beatles, Madonna and Mariah Carey in those record books in terms of Hot 100 singles success at least in the US. It just feels weird to note that.

The digital age has made it a bit easier to rack it up. You just have to connect a wire and press a button. Gaga, Perry, and Rihanna are the first fully digital age artists. The downfall of the digital age for all artists is it has really decreased album sales, everybody is just downloading whatever single they like and screw the album.

The Kylie polorization is interesting. I think it's more a reflection on the fact that Europe/Asia has always accepted dance music as mainstream in a way that the US hasn't ever since the disco sucks era. Kylie's early success too was based on the fact she was an Aussie soap star whose show was insanely popular in the UK, and that she was produced/written by Stock Aitken Waterman a team who had insane success in Europe during the late 80s, yet barely made a dent in the American music base (their biggest successes were probably Bananarama and Rick Astley in the US and their Donna Summer album).

Has Kylie sold well in the Asian markets? I know Japanese market in particular is not easy to crack too hard. Mariah Carey is the top selling American artist there ever and she's way down on the list of their top-selling artists.

---

Ray of Light really was Madonna's best album since Like a Prayer. If not her best album overall. I just recently discovered this song for myself and I love it...

I *u***d Up (it's a bad word, yes, but she kind of make it sounds sweet in this song)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkgEJPSWRZY

The Madonna Thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFiwFKDyp8A

Still surfing through YouTube..

Most Memorable MTV Video Music Award Performances. They'll be posted in chronological order:

1984: Like a Virgin. The First Major Performance on Television.

1989: Express Yourself. Doing It Live and Kickin' Its Butt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pehMBaHgpWE

1990: Vogue. She Brings Performance Art to the VMA's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTaXtWWR16A

2003: Like a Virgin/Hollywood: "The 20th Anniversary" Performance (I do question if Madonna has the literal kiss of career death. Curses her younger rivals with her lips. I'm thinking of Britney barely being able to stand straight during her comeback VMA performance 3-4 years later.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJoCcs_rDtQ

ETA:

Courtney Love was already doped half out of her mind here, but oddly enough Madonna chooses to lay a kiss and not a bitch slap on her before leaving. The kiss of career death?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBTl611c9fs

The Madonna Thread

Back. None of those songs sound familiar to me, but she does have a nice pop-dance friendly voice.

I'm reading up on Kylie on Wiki. Has there ever been such a border issue in pop music between the U.S. (she's relatively unknown) and the rest of the world (she rivals Madonna in popularity)? The very, very slight problem for Kylie here is the U.S.'s large chunk of the music buying market.

And to make this Madonna related, just found this on YouTube. This is a song Madonna wrote and gave to Kylie...

The Madonna Thread

I'm not referring to that song in particular.

Junior's unofficially remixed Madonna's songs, without her or Warner authorizing him to do so. That's part of the reason she and him haven't been able to repair their relationship.

But do you really think they would have been able to repair it after the song IF he just didn't do the remixes (and/or asked to do them)? Or did the remixing issues start even before "If Madonna Calls"?

Soapsuds, the poster disallowed embedding Did she have any other release in the U.S. that came close to the two I mentioned? I SHould Be So Lucky is one? I remember the two I mentioned well (Can't Get You Out Of My Mind went on and on and on ON the dance music stations), any other I'd have to hear to jog my memory.

ETA:

My lazy ass went to YouTube, no - I don't have any memory of it. In the 80s it was Madonna, Michael, Prince, Whitney, George, Cyndi, Annie, Boy George, Paula and Bonnie for me.

Locomotion I do remember.

The Madonna Thread

since he wasn't commissioned to do so.

No commission because of his very public response to her party cancellation.

Eric, you're dismissing the list "because even [your] Kylie can chart?" Hee, tough love Kylie's only had a little over a handful of #1's (DCP) in her 25 year career despite being able to consistently chart in dance.

I wouldn't dismiss the list for two reasons, one, because that Top 10 All-Time is filled with some of pop, dance and disco's biggest names ever. Though to your point there's one chick there that I have never heard of but I barely know who Kylie Minogue is either except for that song from the 80s (Locamotion) and that other one (Can't Get You Out of My Mind). And, two, some very popular singers have had minimal success in the Hot 100 and much success on the various Dance charts and vice versa (much success in Hot 100 and little love in Dance).

Billboard's Statement on #41: http://www.billboard...006488352.story

The Madonna Thread

March 16, 201214 yr

"Give Me All Your Luvin" apparently has hit #1 on Billboards Dance/Club Play Charts. I guess in the listing that will come out on Monday. This marks Madonna's 41st #1 on the dance charts. This extends her all-time lead in this category. She's followed (Top 10 All-Time) by Janet Jackson (19), Beyonce (17), Rihanna (17), Donna Summer (16), Kristine W (16), Mariah Carey (15), Whitney Houston (13), Lady Gaga (12), Debroah Cox (11) and Jennifer Lopez (11). Very female dominated chart.

1. Holiday/Lucky Star (1983)

2. Like a Virgin (1984)

3. Material Girl (1985)

4. Angel/Into the Groove (1985)

5. Open Your Heart (1987)

6. Causing a Commotion (1987)

7. You Can Dance (LP Cuts) (1988)

8. Like a Prayer (1989)

9. Express Yourself (1989)

10. Keep It Together (1990)

11. Vogue (1990)

12. Justify My Love (1991)

13. Erotica (1992)

14. Deeper and Deeper (1993)

15. Fever (1993)

16. Secret (1994)

17. Bedtime Story (1995)

18. Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)

19. Frozen (1998)

20. Ray of Light (1998)

21. Nothing Really Matters (1999)

22. Beautiful Stranger (1999)

23. American Pie (2000)

24. Music (2000)

25. Don't Tell Me (2001)

26. What It Feels Like For A Girl (2001)

27. Impressive Instant (2001)

28. Die Another Day (2002)

29. American Life (2003)

30. Hollywood (2003)

31. Me Against the Music [britney Spears featuring Madonna] (2003)

32. Nothing Fails (2004)

33. Love Profusion (2004)

34. Hung Up (2005)

35. Sorry (2006)

36. Get Together (2006)

37. Jump (2006)

38. 4 Minutes [featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland] (2008)

39. Give It 2 Me (2008)

40. Celebration (2009)

41. Give Me All Your Luvin' (2012)

I totally forgot DCFMA was a dance club hit until I saw this list and the remix came back to me. I think Madonna should also get credit for Junior Vasquez's "If Madonna Calls (I'm Not Here)" although I don't think she wants that particular credit. She cancelled her attendance last minute for some party for him and he was pissed. Then he made this song in response and she was pissed (and has apparently never talked to him again, and is on his behind for remixes of her tunes he puts out). I remember the period this was on the NY radio stations all the time. I had thought she contributed the lines to a track and didn't realize it was an actual message and "slam" tune at the time...

Whitney Houston dead at 48!

I personally think the sister-in-law was mostly out to get what she could get as her manager,

I think there was an element of that going on between Whitney and a lot of the family she had working for her. I don't believe it was the whole part of the situation or equation though. I think they really loved her. I think they really wanted her to get better. They all appeared to make the decision to be passive about the situation for some reason and I'm sure the financial stability she was offering some of them to just work, shut up and deal with her as is was part of that equation. There's also the element of that being the type of family situation they all were used to, not putting stuff out there, covering up each others messes. I don't personally feel there's malice there.

I do find it odd how much they appear to like Bobby, BUT what we felt and what they lived is different.

Ratings...

Oprah Winfrey's interview with the teenage daughter of late singer Whitney Houston was watched by some 3.5 million US viewers yesterday, the largest audience ever for Winfrey's fledgling OWN TV channel.

OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, said today the emotional, first public interview with Bobbi Kristina Brown, 19, and the singer's manager and sister-in-law Patricia Houston, more than doubled the previous best audience for the network.

Whitney Houston dead at 48!

Pat isn't Whitney's mother or legal guardian. She's her sister-in-law and manager.

It appears to me Pat didn't want her to go to the party, and she also may have been pissed off at her after the party. She may have been fed up with her on a whole. It's a very human reaction. She could have been dodging Whitney's calls for a week because she was pissed at her, it doesn't make Whitney's death her fault.

Like DF, I didn't find the description of her walking to the room odd either.

Also like DF, the only thing I fault Whitney's family with is, yes, being enablers. She was Whitney, she had money, she was giving or/and paying them money as staff - so it looks like they didn't as much as they could have to kick her a-- into submission. Not that I even can really judge them on thnat front. I don't know how much they did or did not do behind the scenes to get her help BUT I do know staying quiet and making up tales while she was tripping wasn't a good decision.

Whitney Houston dead at 48!

I mentioned that a while back - I think Gawker had an article on it. Apparently a few years later they met at an awards show and had a good laugh over it.

Ah, I totally missed that. I was looking at some of his videos from when he was a young man, he had a beautiful voice.

The interview.

I wouldn't have known the infomercial was for a company or product by the SIL if it wasn't mentioned in here.

Bobbi Kristina is a lost little girl. A child. And a foolish child. A foolish child who has been raised by enablers.

I do agree with this part.

I kind of tend to believe the other woman just because of what Whitney's sister in law said about being angry with Whitney after they left the party.

Yeah, and it wasn't just the other woman saying that Whitney got in her face about RJ. So, Pat's words did basically confirm for me that Whitney was playing the fool in that whole situation. I'm surprised Pat didn't stay with the company line and mentioned that the other woman was crying after the altercation and that [Pat] was mad at Whitney for what transpired.

Whitney Houston dead at 48!

Just looked up the Gainsbourg moment on Youtube. Man, French peeps are blunt. By the end of that, Whitney looks like she wants to knee him in the balls hard.

Whitney Houston dead at 48!

She's been through a lot.

I don't know if I got the impression that she thinks she's more well adjusted than she is or more mature. I felt she very much had the face on of telling herself and others what she needs to tell them to cope. Right now, I think she has a lot of ideas about how to go on and function (name change, career) but it's just her trying to cope in the moment. It's early in the process. I hope her family will just not lose sight of her because I don't think this is going to be anywhere close to an easy road for her.

What got to me is she was still sleeping in her mothers arms just the day before. Pre my teenage years, I used to sleep on my moms bed a lot. I used to be so scared she wouldn't make it past the next day alive too due to circumstances around us. I sort of cherished that quiet time where I knew she was okay. I can't imagine being in that mind set currently as much as I still love my mother. It's very much a childs mindset (I'm sure she grew up fearing her mother could die at any moment more than a regular kid would) and then to lose the parent in that state of mind - not that it is ever easy to lose a parent.

I hope she can make peace with Bobby if they're really not at peace. He may suck at some of the fathering aspects but he is her father and part of the healing process for her here will be not to close herself off from her other loved ones,

Whitney Houston dead at 48!

TMZ must have more people bugged than Piers Morgan did!

NY Post

Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown plans to change her name to lose her link to her father, Bobby Brown, TMZ reported.

The 19 year old, who will inherit her late mom's entire estate while her dad will receive nothing, told friends she will become "Kristina Houston."

The report claimed Bobbi Kristina first pushed to change her name six years ago when her parents separated, but her superstar mom blocked her only child.

Bobbi Kristina, who was hospitalized for "stress and anxiety" the day after her mom's death last month, was said to be upset that her singer dad left his ex-wife's funeral following a disagreement over seating arrangements.

Whitney Houston dead at 48!