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I'VE GOT CHILLS. A realisation about Like A Prayer Album.


Spaceship
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She was also heading towards her 30th birthday when LAP was released and her mother died at the age of 30 as well. So the album is like a psychoanalytical cathartic journey of her life up to that point. 

Also a lot of people over look that the lyrics also reference her marriage to Sean Penn and the AIDS epidemic as well. 

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3 hours ago, Spaceship said:

So I was looping the album on Spotify as usual, but only just realised a couple minutes ago that Act of Contrition transitions SO DAMN WELL into Like A Prayer contextually!!!!! HER MIND!!!

We all know AOC instrumentals are LAP on reverse, almost like a sinful reverse of the religious experience that is LAP. I thought that was all there was about it for many years, in fact I used to hate AOC and felt it was redundant. But then I realise that lyrically, she's confessing but got rejected at the gates of heaven in the end, she didn't get her reservation. The guitar fades off, at this point I almost feel like she is falling from heaven.

THEN, when Spotify played the first track I literally felt chills all over. The guitar fades in, we hear the slam of a heavy door like a rejection. She literally sings that she's falling out of the sky. Life is a mystery, everyone will stand alone, I hear you call my name and it feels like home. We have her re-discovering religion and experiencing life's struggles all over again throughout the album tracks, reaching heaven's gate again at the end. It even feels like a reincarnation cycle if the album keeps looping.

How did I only realise this now!!!! I wonder if this was her intention or am I thinking too much...the continuation is too brilliant.

Beautiful post.   I love when later (even years later), we discover or appreciate something more about her or her music. Thank you for posting! 

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What I love about Madonna is that while she can write and perform a perfect pop song, she can produce something as avant-garde as this.  I remember thinking when first listening in how weird it was. Though, it totally makes sense in how she used it to end the album.  It was her final confession on the album and it did compliment the first track Like A Prayer. 

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5 hours ago, Ashley Nichols said:

She was also heading towards her 30th birthday when LAP was released and her mother died at the age of 30 as well. So the album is like a psychoanalytical cathartic journey of her life up to that point. 

Also a lot of people over look that the lyrics also reference her marriage to Sean Penn and the AIDS epidemic as well. 

I recall this being a huge fear of Madonna especially when she was young.  She thought she was going to die young like her mom.   She really spoke intimately about it especially in the 1987 Rolling Stone interview.

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Maybe she wanted to open the album with AOC but in the end it was too kooky so they just stuck it on the end. It would kinda explain the out of place Prince guitar opening up Like a Prayer. They were meant to be listened back to back. She kinda achieved this by placing it as the last song. Interesting.... Gotta go listen now. 

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1 hour ago, RUADJAI said:

Maybe she wanted to open the album with AOC but in the end it was too kooky so they just stuck it on the end. It would kinda explain the out of place Prince guitar opening up Like a Prayer. They were meant to be listened back to back. She kinda achieved this by placing it as the last song. Interesting.... Gotta go listen now. 

Probably why AOC was the b-side of the LAP single 

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3 hours ago, MarXus said:

I recall this being a huge fear of Madonna especially when she was young.  She thought she was going to die young like her mom.   She really spoke intimately about it especially in the 1987 Rolling Stone interview.

I read somewhere she checks herself frequently and works out a lot to prevent any illness or cancer scare because of it especially as she got near her mother's age. I don't remember where unless it was that article as well. Can't recall.

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1 hour ago, thelioncourtheart_ said:

Gonna do the AOC/LAP transition tonight to see how it goes. 

I've done it.  The fade out of AOC doesn't transition well into LAP.  If you select LAP before it fades completely out, it somewhat sounds ok.  Though, I don't believe it was her intention to do this. 

Then again, we are all so used to the album opening with LAP, so it just sounds weird to us to think otherwise being that such an iconic song.  It's best to open with such an iconic song because I feel AOC would remain in people's head, thinking "WTF was that all about?" while LAP was playing.

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25 minutes ago, MarXus said:

I've done it.  The fade out of AOC doesn't transition well into LAP.  If you select LAP before it fades completely out, it somewhat sounds ok.  Though, I don't believe it was her intention to do this. 

Then again, we are all so used to the album opening with LAP, so it just sounds weird to us to think otherwise being that such an iconic song.  It's best to open with such an iconic song because I feel AOC would remain in people's head, thinking "WTF was that all about?" while LAP was playing.

To me the ending of "Voices" with the bells seguing into "Girl Gone Wild" works. 

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On 11/3/2019 at 4:43 AM, MarXus said:

I've done it.  The fade out of AOC doesn't transition well into LAP.  If you select LAP before it fades completely out, it somewhat sounds ok.  Though, I don't believe it was her intention to do this. 

Then again, we are all so used to the album opening with LAP, so it just sounds weird to us to think otherwise being that such an iconic song.  It's best to open with such an iconic song because I feel AOC would remain in people's head, thinking "WTF was that all about?" while LAP was playing.

The opening guitar intro is intentional and it's Prince playing. Leonard confirms it in this interview. Given the information we have I'm pretty sure Act of Contrition was intentionally placed at the end of the album to give it a Catholic conclusion. Yet what an iconic conclusion to a classic album. 

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/5944767/madonna-producer-patrick-leonard-talks-like-a-prayer-at-25

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