Re: The Beats Within / Фен клубове / Музикални / Madonna

To describe Madonna's career as extraordinary is definitely an understatement. When a 24-year-old Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone strutted seductively onto the music scene in 1982, nobody could have predicted the longevity or immense impact of her amazing career. In her meteoric rise to fame, Madonna broke down barriers and changed the face of pop music indefinitely. Written off at the beginning of her career as a pop tart, the then-self-proclaimed 'Boy-Toy' proved her critics wrong by becoming undoubtedly the biggest female star of the Twentieth Century.

During her twenty-year reign as Queen of Pop, Madonna's pop sensibilities have never failed her. Madonna's radical and often-controversial way of expressing herself has unfortunately sometimes overshadowed her immense talent. Perhaps the most tragically underrated writer and singer of her time; Madonna has never let her detractors stand in her way. By becoming a one-woman hit factory to rival even Motown, Madonna has not only conquered the pop charts, but has emerged as a true talent to be reckoned with. Madonna's immaculately crafted pop has left an indelible imprint on music history, paving the way for artists like Spice Girls, Pink, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears. Madonna has been a huge inspiration to American pop princess Britney Spears. "I think that we have the same drive," claims Britney. "As far as our music and our talent goes, we're very different. I just saw her show and she's just amazing. She was flawless. It was very inspirational for me. It is flattering that they say we're alike." To Pink Madonna was her childhood idol. "She was a role model. When I was eight I thought I was her."Ё

In 1998 Madonna claimed that she was once a Spice Girl, as Mel C (a.k.a. Sporty Spice) can vouch for. "Madonna was doing the girl power thing a long time before the Spice Girls." Mel C cites Madonna as a huge influence, "She is also very good at discovering new talent and has a very good ear. She knows what she likes, she knows how to approach a market and what's going to sell."

Whether or not Madonna is concerned with her commercial appeal, she is definitely a hugely influential artist. "Her ability to move with the times and the strength of her convictions is something unusual in pop music, where things are usually so transient," claims Kylie Minogue. "She mixes things that we know and understand and then completely repackages them. No one else can package things like that and we are hoodwinked into thinking: "God that is brand new"."Kylie has obviously learnt from Madonna's ability to tap into the underground and repackage it in her own unique way. Heavily inspired by Madonna, Ms Minogue has become the ultimate (post) postmodern artist. Kylie has paid close attention to the postmodern diva's career, evolving into cut and paste, consumer friendly version of her.

Madonna's wannabes have come a long way from imitating their idol in front of their bedroom mirror. They are now competing with her in the pop charts and Madonna has even paid tribute to some of these pop princesses, by emblazoning their names on her T-shirts. Madonna's influence has stretched much further than inspiring the new generation of female pop stars. When Madonna emerged onto the music scene in the early 1980s, she was amongst a group of artists who helped to bridge the gap between disco and new wave, defining a new genre, known simply as dance. After her innovative debut album, Madonna became more mainstream pop throughout the 1980s, but she never veered far from her dance roots. As her career has progressed, so too have Madonna's production skills.

Madonna has successfully merged her pop sensibilities with experimental electronica, producing a hybrid dance-pop sound, earning her a newfound respect as an artist.

However, some detractors still insist that her musical collaborators direct Madonna's creative output. Not so, says William Orbit. "I didn't reinvent her at all," he claims. "She's much, much more of a self-directed person than that. It was more that she produced me producing her. She turns me on to far more stuff than I do her." DJ/Producer Brian Transeau, (a.k.a. BT) co-collaborator with Sasha on the 'Drowned World/Substitute For Love' remixes, credits Madonna for bringing dance music to the attention of an electronica-starved American audience. "Madonna's great as in America she's really created an awareness to dance music." Madonna's influence on the dance music scene cannot be denied, with a staggering 28 Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play #1's, making her the most successful dance artist on the US Billboard charts.

Madonna success isn't just confined to dance chart that was the first to embrace the rising star. She has been consistently successful across the board, throughout her entire career. Even during her so-called dry spell in the mid-nineties, she was still shifting albums in their millions. In 1995, after being scathed by nastier critics, Madonna's response was to sit back watch her 'Take A Bow' single score her longest running US Billboard Hot 100 #1, hitting pole-position for seven weeks. In 2000, 'Don't Tell Me' was Madonna's 34th single to hit the US Billboard Top Ten. Only Elvis Presley and the Beatles have more. 'What It Feels Like For A Girl', her 43rd US hit, tied her with Aretha Franklin as the woman with the most top 40 singles. Madonna surpassed that figure when 'Die Another Day' hit #8 in 2002. 'Music' became Madonna's 12th #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. This ties her with The Supremes and only Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, The Beatles, and Elvis Presley have more. Madonna has placed a single in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 every year since 1983 (with the exception of 1988, when she had no releases whatsoever). According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Madonna has 24 gold singles (500,000 units) to her credit, the most for any female artist.

Madonna now ties The Beatles for second place behind Elvis Presley among artists with the most US gold singles. Madonna could easily top these figures and overtake these artists in the future owing to the fact that she is the only one of these artists who is still having hit records. In the UK Madonna is just as successful with a tally of 50 Top Ten hits. Only Cliff Richard (64), Elvis Presley (56) and Paul McCartney (51) have more. As with the US, Madonna could easily surpass her UK chart rivals.

Since Madonna emerged onto the music scene, she has evolved from an alleged bubblegum pure pop tart to an artist with depth and range, crafting some of the most sophisticated pop music of the last 20 years. In 1989 when 'Rolling Stone' magazine proclaimed her 'Like A Prayer' album to be, "as close to art as pop music gets", she had rightfully earned the title, Queen of Pop. Madonna's music is still as relevant and vital today as it ever has been. With the imminent release of a new album promising another new musical direction it looks like Madonna may remain at the top of her game for some time to come.

There have been few lulls in Madonna's 20-year career. Madonna's fans usually don't have to wait too long between releases thanks to her experimental collaborations with various musicians and work for movie soundtracks. But more importantly, Madonna's inability to rest on her laurels and her fondness for exploring new musical trends has seen her go further artistically with each release.

Madonna defined the 1980s, the decade that would also see the rise of Whitney Houston, Prince, Michael Jackson and his sister Janet. Madonna may have a decade in common with these artists, but those who were once her contemporaries, now seem lackluster in comparison. All of these artists have undoubtedly contributed to pop music history, but many of them are indeed way past their sell-by date.

Despite having a voice that could command whole armies of divas, Whitney's creativity is stunted to say the least. In 2001 when both Madonna and Janet Jackson were touring America at the same time, their respective shows were worlds apart. Janet, who was touring in support of her 'All For You' album, might as well have played videos of her past tours on the video screens, such was the similarity. In stark contrast Madonna, touring under the banner of 'Drowned World', presented her music in a unique and original way. Taking inspiration from the song that christened the tour. Madonna's motto seemed to be, "And now I find I've changed my mind." Whilst Madonna collaborates with a host of eclectic producers and musicians, Miss Jackson takes very little risks, preferring to stick within the confines of Jam and Lewis' tried and tested production. As for Janet's famous brother, it was reported that he had his last original idea back in 1983.

Despite Madonna's enormous appetite for music, her generous creative output and enough bona-fide hits to warrant two first class greatest hits retrospectives, we have been given few treats from Madonna in the form of exclusive B-sides or previously unreleased material. In fact, for such a well known star we know very little about her creative process in the recording studio. The general public probably know more about Madonna's private life than they do about her song writing. It is ironic that one of our generation's most successful songwriters has been so tragically unrecognised for perhaps her greatest talent.

Unlike some other artists who struggle to fill even one album with decent tunes Madonna has hits coming out of her ears. She has been known to scrap potential hit songs and even bin full albums worth of excellent material in fear of repeating herself and to quench her thirst for musical evolution. This impeccable quality control exercised by Madonna has left a vast reserve of unreleased material in her wake. To say that Warner Brother's vaults must be bulging is in fact only half the story as I came to realise when I began researching Madonna's rare and unreleased recordings.

In 1997, after discovering how extensive Madonna's unreleased back catalogue was, Bruce Baron began researching and writing an article that he would later submit to US 'Goldmine' magazine. Baron got special permission to listen to many of Madonna's rare demo recordings on file at the Library of Congress in Washington. The library contains copies of material registered for copyright, including many Madonna songs that have never been commercially released. However, the library grants few members of the public access to the rare recordings. Security is understandably tight, in fact Baron commented on how was closely watched to ensure that the material wasn't leaked. Baron was also lucky enough to clinch an exclusive interview with early Madonna collaborator, Stephen Bray. Baron's article, "Madonna Unreleased", published in 'Goldmine' magazine was perhaps the first thorough investigation into Madonna's amazing musical heritage.

Today Bruce Baron is still searching the archives and extensively researching every database, desperately seeking Madonna. Leaving no stone unturned, Baron is still the first to uncover any new Madonna rarity and constantly making many new revelations, including the facts behind the spate of 1997 demos that recently leaked their way onto the Internet. As Contributing Editor to this very article, Bruce Baron has helped me to seek out the truth and to attempt to finally set the record straight about Madonna's musical journey. Baron is also still campaigning to get Madonna's record company have a change of heart about preserving Madonna's music.

After the publication of "Madonna Unreleased" in 'Goldmine', Baron emailed Bob Merlis, a Vice-president of publicity at Warner Bros. Merlis was not even aware that Madonna had so many unreleased recordings. Baron's email inspired Merlis to send Madonna a memo requesting the release of a rarities collection, to which she replied "No", via spokesperson Liz Rosenberg. It is understandable that Madonna may not want to release such a collection at this stage of her career. Madonna obviously has a lot more to say musically and I, as a longtime fan, look forward to new Madonna material for many years to come. I still believe that it should be of grave concern to Madonna's record company to try to attempt to preserve her material.

So where did it all begin you may ask…

… To celebrate Madonna's twenty years in the music business Madonnarama.com exclusively takes you behind the scenes, inside the recording studio and reveals some very rare unreleased immaculate rejections. UNCOVERING MADONNA…THE BEATS WITHIN…

GOTHAM CITY

Contrary to popular belief Madonna was not forced in a rock direction. Madonna was as in control of her musical direction then, as she is today. The rock sounding demos recorded during her time with Gotham were influenced by The Pretenders, Blondie, and the punk scene, which she had been turned on to by the Gilroy brothers. Madonna's Gotham management booked session musicians like Jeff Gottlieb, John Kaye, Jack Soni and David Frank to jam with Madonna. The musicians impressed Madonna, especially David Frank, who had played with Rufus and Chaka Khan. Frank penned a song called 'Its Passion', on which Madonna was supposed to supply vocals. Unfortunately Madonna passed on Frank's composition, but would become his groupis (The System) debut release. Frank's partner from The System, Mic (Mike) Murphy, would later contribute to an early 1990s Madonna track entitled 'Dear Father', which remains unreleased. Frank would later collaborate on Christina Aguilera's 'Genie In A Bottle'.

Despite the calibre of the musicians, Madonna still wasn't entirely happy with the line up. She wanted Stephen Bray in the group. Barbone had a strict rule that the band weren't to get romantically involved with Madonna or they were out. Rumour has it that Madonna began dating drummer Bob Riley who was consequently sacked and conveniently replaced by Stephen Bray. Whether she did this purposely to get Bray, the only member of Emmy who she really valued, into the group isn't known for sure.

Madonna's new backing band, which now featured Bray alongside Jon Gordon on lead guitar, John Kaye on bass and John Bonamassa on keyboard, played their debut gig at Max's Kansas City and went on to play in venues like Cartoon Alley and Chase Park. Madonna soon signed a deal with John Roberts and Susan Planer of Media Sound to record at 57th Street Studio. The studio was previously used by legends such as Frank Sinatra and The Beatles. Nobody realised then exactly how much of a legend Madonna herself would become in only a few short years. The session tracks were written by Madonna and produced by Alec Head (Head would co-produce Stephen Bray's version of 'Aint No Big Deal' with Barracuda. He also worked with Jellybean as an engineer for Prism Records, the home of the group Pure Energy, which featured Curtis Husdon of 'Holiday' fame.) and Jon Gordon (Who would go on to produce Suzanne Vega). One of the songs on the demo was written about Madonna's friend/boyfriend Ken Compton, one was about Camille Barbone in which Madonna lamented her hunger and poverty and another featured lyrics that described herself as a bad angel. Few of the tracks however featured on her Gotham demo.§ Camille Barbone also owned a studio, however, according to Steve Bray this was only a writer's studio and Madonna didn't record there.Є
The 1981 Gotham demo included the tracks 'Get Up', 'High Society (Society's Boy)', 'Love On The Run' and 'Take Me (I Want You)'. The tracks were mainly MOR rock-lyte with the emphasis placed heavily on the "lyte" and featured a particularly squeaky sounding Madonna. The ill-advised use of double tracking in 'High Society (Society's Boy)' make Madonna's vocals sound even squeakier. The track even debuts Madonna's affected faux-English accent that she would perfect in later years. Despite the accent and the occasional squeak, Madonna's vocals sound much stronger in comparison to the earlier Emmy material and hint towards the calibre of the artist that was itching to unleash herself onto the world. The only song giving a nod and a wink towards Madonna's future sound is 'Get Up'. Ignoring those spooky sounding synthesisers, this track features some dirty funk bass licks and some cool harmonies with, what sounds like, Stephen Bray. Madonna even purrs the line, "What's that you said baby?" which would show up again on the 'Ain't No Big Deal' demos recorded with Bray around the same time.

The songs were good enough for Madonna to develop a modest New York fan base but weren't quite good enough to propel her to the top of the international pop charts, let alone impress any record executives. Madonna's new demo would be touted round and eventually turned down by everyone from Geffen to Atlantic Records. Despite Camille Barbone's big promises things weren't looking too promising for Madonna's musical career. Gotham was running out of money and it was getting harder to get Madonna the deal she so hankered after.

Despite giving her a promising start, Madonna felt increasingly disappointed with Gotham management and decided to simultaneously pursue other avenues. In between the belated filming of the second portion of Stephen Jon Lewicki's 'A Certain Sacrifice' in November 1981, Madonna recorded some backing vocals for Otto von Wernherr that can only be described as bizarre to say the least. Otto is thanked in the credits for 'A Certain Scarifice' and it is possible he may have been one of the many extras in the film, however, director Lewicki can't clearly recall.

Otto von Wernherr released these recordings in 1986 to cash-in on Madonna's international fame. Madonna had originally supplied backing vocals for von Wernherr's three original songs, 'Cosmic Climb', 'We Are The Gods' and 'Wild Dancing'. Madonna's vocals are reminiscent of Betty Boo and her squeaks and yelps are bizarrely juxtaposed with von Wernherr's ghoulish-sounding attempt at rap. As if this wasn't bad enough von Wernherr really scraped the barrel by remixing the tracks and turning them into new compositions, 'Oh My', 'On The Street', 'Time To Dance', 'Give It To Me' and 'Shake'. The resulting effect is dreadful and should be approached with caution. It is hard to really compare these tracks to anything ever recorded by anyone as they really are that bad.

Die-hard Madonna fans should check out the three original so-called songs merely for curiosity value and to hear Madonna's original vocals intact. Stephen Bray doesn't recall Madonna mentioning her recording backing vocals with Von Wernherr, "She never discussed these songs with me, and I have never heard them. They were probably just another job in her mind."
In 1986, when the tracks were released, Otto appeared in a bizarre parody of Madonna's 'Papa Don't Preach' video entitled 'Madonna Don't Preach' with the intent of promoting his bizarre recordings.

Meanwhile back in 1981, Stephen Bray and Madonna began experimenting on some R 'n' B and disco inspired tracks. Feeling unfulfilled with her contract, Madonna left Gotham management and went on an all-out-offensive to land herself a new record deal. The ownership of the songs recorded at the sessions during Madonna's time with Gotham would remain entangled in a legal battle for many years when Madonna later signed to Sire Records.

PRE-MATERIAL GIRL

Madonna's only worthwhile working relationship that had remained intact was that with her musical soul mate, Stephen Bray. Madonna and Bray had been recording their own songs at The Music Building since his arrival in New York and their sessions had become increasingly fruitful. Many of the tracks from Bray and Madonna's later sessions, recorded in The Music Building, surfaced on Bray's 'Pre-Madonna', released on Soultone Records in 1996.Ё The release was not authorised by Madonna but it is not a bootleg, as Bray owns the masters. The tracks were recorded before Madonna signed her record contract with Sire so Bray was free to release the album.

By the time of 'Pre-Madonna's' release in 1996 Stephen Bray hadn't worked with Madonna since 'Like A Prayer' in 1989 and so probably felt that he had nothing to lose in releasing her early demos, especially knowing she wouldn't be too happy about it. Thanks to the release of 'Pre-Madonna' we know more about Madonna's earlier recordings than her more recent sessions, which seem to be a closely guarded secret. Bray has been more willing to talk more than most of Madonna's former collaborators, helping to promote his independent release and providing fans with an insight into Madonna's past. With the exception of some sporadically released B-sides, 'Pre-Madonna' was by far the most interesting look we have had into Madonna's creative process as an artist, until the recent spate of demos that have cropped up on the Internet. Compiled and re-mastered by Bray, 'Pre-Madonna' contains early versions of tracks, which appeared on Madonna's first album, as well as songs that appeared on the demo tape that landed Madonna her record deal with Sire.

Laugh To Keep From Crying' features Madonna playing her Rickenbacker guitar doing her best Chrissie Hynde impression. In the sleeve notes Stephen Bray comments, "I've always thought she passed up a brilliant career as a rhythm guitarist". Interestingly the track also features Paul Pesco on guitar. Madonna fans would probably know Pesco as lead guitarist from 'The Virgin Tour' and 'The Girlie Show' as well as contributing to the albums 'Madonna' and 'Erotica'.

The version of 'Crimes Of Passion' that appears on 'Pre-Madonna' is actually a re-mastered version as Bray constructed a new musical track, "to protect the innocent". As Bray also states in the sleeve notes of the CD, this is clearly a prototype of the successful 'Into The Groove' style sound that Bray and Madonna enjoyed huge success with in the late eighties. The other radically re-mastered songs on the album are 'Everybody (97)', which has been remixed in a tropical reggae style, and 'Ain't No Big Deal (97)', which has been given a generic 1990s dance update making it sound in keeping with much of Madonna's 1990s musical output.

One of the tracks that didn't end up on Madonna's demo that she was touting around record companies and begging DJs to play was 'Burning Up'. Madonna had written and performed 'Burning Up' during her time with Emmy and the song would eventually make it onto her debut album. The version on 'Pre-Madonna' features more guitars and sounds down right dirtier than the Reggie Lucas produced cut that made in onto 'Madonna'.
Stephen Bray notes this as "The blueprint for the version used on the first album. Featuring more fun with tape speed effects, this version reveals vocal arrangement stuff that didn't make the final cut. Looking back, it seems we nailed a kind of Joan Jett sitting in with New Order kind of sound".