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Madonna Mysteries


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I thought we should have a topic for people to ask questions about Madonna's career and start a discussion. I looked on the forum but I couldn't find a similar topic. So ask way anything you have always been wondering about M! 

I'll start. 

What's the story behind the American Life photoshoot by Craig McDean? Did they really photoshop all the guns? 

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A couple of things I've read as "confirmed" over the years but never really know for sure...

That The Pet Shop Boys were going to produce the album after Confessions/ what ended up being Hard Candy. And Warner formally withdrew the offer.

That she fought Warner for Impressive Instant to be a single. 

That Benny Bennassi remixed the song "American Life".

That "Be Careful" was going to be a single and had remixes commissioned by Victor Calderone.

That she asked Armand Van Helden to remix "Bedtime Story" and he turned her down.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Pootz333 said:

That she fought Warner for Impressive Instant to be a single. 

What I know about this is that Warner wanted to release Amazing (could have been a hit), but Madonna wanted Impressive instant. Warner refused to make a video for Impressive instant and said that they would use the live performance of Amazing from the Drowned World tour to promote the single, so she cut the song from the set list lol. Instead she sang The Funny Song and introduced it as "a new song" lol Warner was right, as usual, and Madonna was an idiot. 

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32 minutes ago, I don't search I find said:

What I know about this is that Warner wanted to release Amazing (could have been a hit), but Madonna wanted Impressive instant. Warner refused to make a video for Impressive instant and said that they would use the live performance of Amazing from the Drowned World tour to promote the single, so she cut the song from the set list lol. Instead she sang The Funny Song and introduced it as "a new song" lol Warner was right, as usual, and Madonna was an idiot. 

Amazing might have been a moderate success but definitely wouldn’t have been a classic. 
Madonna was correct in wanting to release Impressive Instant. 

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4 hours ago, I don't search I find said:

I thought we should have a topic for people to ask questions about Madonna's career and start a discussion. I looked on the forum but I couldn't find a similar topic. So ask way anything you have always been wondering about M! 

I'll start. 

What's the story behind the American Life photoshoot by Craig McDean? Did they really photoshop all the guns? 

The guns were used in some of the shots and were later retouched out.

There are still a few images floating around with the guns

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1 hour ago, I don't search I find said:

What I know about this is that Warner wanted to release Amazing (could have been a hit), but Madonna wanted Impressive instant. Warner refused to make a video for Impressive instant and said that they would use the live performance of Amazing from the Drowned World tour to promote the single, so she cut the song from the set list lol. Instead she sang The Funny Song and introduced it as "a new song" lol Warner was right, as usual, and Madonna was an idiot. 

I think Madonna was right

amazing is the bad copy of beautiful stranger

impressive instant, instead, is a great song

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1 hour ago, thegoldencalf said:

Amazing might have been a moderate success but definitely wouldn’t have been a classic. 
Madonna was correct in wanting to release Impressive Instant. 

Impressive instant wouldn't have had any success at all. I think Madonna should have given up and allow Warner to release Amazing, and then push for Impressive instant. Because she acted like a spoiled brat, Music only got 3 singles. 

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1 hour ago, Nick said:

I actually never knew that about the AL photoshoot!

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So the top pic is the one where they edited out the gun? And the bottom one is the original photo?

I think so. I wish more photos from this photoshoot leaked. I want the one with the big gun that they used to make the "M" in the booklet 

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5 minutes ago, Jet said:

 

while I’m here, does anyone know the story behind “can’t you see my mind”? Was it for 007 before die another day and scrapped or did it become die another day?

thanks ?

"Can't you see my mind" is "Die another day" ! Barry harris (an official remixer) explained it last year in an interview :

 

"Die Another Day" Thunderpuss Mix *The Back Story*
Once again in 2002 we were invited by Caresse Henry (Madonna’s manager at the time) to her office to discuss remixing Madonna’s new song from the upcoming James Bond Movie. Caresse told us that the movie producers actually wanted her to do a ballad but she said no.
We were told this song was called “Can’t You See My Mind” at the time to (keep everything secretive i suppose), were hand given the parts on C.D. and went to work at our studio.

When i first heard the drums that my Tpuss partner had created i immediately saw Roxy NYC in my mind and how great this would sound there.
When it was time to sink my teeth into it, i felt the mix should be very different from any mix we’d done before. It didn’t need new music composed. Let it be what it already is. There are lot’s of hooks in it already.
I felt it should just take a lot of turns and twists and stay focused on how the mix would kick ass at Roxy.
As the track was already very electroish, I thought it would also be cool if the kick digitally disintegrated at some point.
When we felt it was done, we set up a return meeting with Caresse at Maverick Studios on Sunset Blvd. She played it in her office with us sitting there, listening and decided right then and there that she liked it therefore indicating there were no changes to be made. Done, let’s do this.
In those days, there wasn’t really such a thing as a ‘spec mix’ yet and Thunderpuss never ever did do any spec mix. 
If a mix was scrapped (which happened rarely but yes, now and then it did e.g. N-Syncs “Bye, Bye Bye”) the record company usually put us on another project later on.

I reconnected with Caresse & on FB messege when i first joined Facebook Fall of 2009. We had a few chats back and forth. I knew she had retired from the Madonna camp by then. She was very sweet & down to earth IMO. I was very saddened to hear that a few months later in 2010 she would take her own life.

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33 minutes ago, Jet said:

Thanks for clearing that up, I’m a little disappointed It’s the same song because cysmm was a kind of holy grail for me hoping it would leak one day.

Yeah it was many fans' holy grail. Many insiders have been claiming for years CYSMM was Die another day. It was true. There was also the fact that unlike tracks like "Warning  Signs", "Desperately seeking Susan", "Angels with dirty faces" and many others where Madonna herself, producers or some other official sources mentionned the tracks and so confirmed they do exist, no one in the business never ever mentionned CYSMM. But guess what, even after that Barry Harris interview some fans refuse to admit the truth and keep believing believe CYSMM is a second track recorded for the James Bond movie. Maybe in 40 years from now they will finally admit it...

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Wow, thanks for all the tibits which I never knew about. Here's something in the news today that I never knew of either?

Babyface: Madonna told Michael Jackson to dress like a girl for video

Madonna suggested Michael Jackson dress as a girl for his 1991 “In the Closet” video, according to Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds.

He said Jackson told him, “‘Babyface, can you believe she wants me to dress like a girl?’ He was like, ‘I’d never do that.’ He said, ‘She was trying to change it all up. It was crazy’ … He was really mad about it.”

Edmonds reminisced with Teddy Riley, who produced the song, during their music battle for Verzuz TV on Instagram Live. Madonna ended up not appearing on the song, and Naomi Campbell was cast in the video.

Edmonds also revealed Jackson once told him of Halle Berry, “I want to take her out on a date.”

Mariah Carey was among 500,000 watching the hitmakers’ online powwow.

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8 minutes ago, Voguerista said:

Wow, thanks for all the tibits which I never knew about. Here's something in the news today that I never knew of either?

Babyface: Madonna told Michael Jackson to dress like a girl for video

Madonna suggested Michael Jackson dress as a girl for his 1991 “In the Closet” video, according to Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds.

He said Jackson told him, “‘Babyface, can you believe she wants me to dress like a girl?’ He was like, ‘I’d never do that.’ He said, ‘She was trying to change it all up. It was crazy’ … He was really mad about it.”

Edmonds reminisced with Teddy Riley, who produced the song, during their music battle for Verzuz TV on Instagram Live. Madonna ended up not appearing on the song, and Naomi Campbell was cast in the video.

Edmonds also revealed Jackson once told him of Halle Berry, “I want to take her out on a date.”

Mariah Carey was among 500,000 watching the hitmakers’ online powwow.

Does this mean Madonna was supposed to originally be on In the Closet? Omg how EPIC would that have been?! Easily Michael Jackson's best era.

Sigh, he was a pretty terrible person in his private life, but I still would have killed for a professional collab between the two of them around this time.

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14 minutes ago, eXtremeOccident said:

Does this mean Madonna was supposed to originally be on In the Closet? Omg how EPIC would that have been?! Easily Michael Jackson's best era.

Yeah. This possible collaboration was pretty much confirmed at the time. Another part to the story/rumours of how it started falling apart is that Madonna saw the provocative title as Michael 'coming out', and wanted the song to reflect that subject.... also trying to change Michaels image. I think all this would likely have been too much for MJ. Still, as amazing as the collaboration would have been, what was finally delivered was pretty amazing... the song, the video, the photography.... gorgeous

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3 minutes ago, diegolcl said:

Nice topic!
Regarding the Hard Candy album, is there any truth to it being called "Give It to Me" and then changed at last minute or is it just fans assuming by the boxing belt of the costume?

It was the original title but Warner wouldn't let her name it like that because of the other Timbaland song titled give it to me

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12 hours ago, Jet said:

Mine’s more of a lyrical mystery... I know every word to every song but devil wouldn’t recognise you puzzles me! Is it “I BARELY couldn’t” or “I BET he couldn’t”? And is it “keep your lost heart RAISED” or “lost heartBREAKS”? Small things hey ?

thanks ?

Madonna.com has official lyrics. She says "bet" and "heart raised". 

Until now I though she said barely and breaks, thank for bringing this up! If you listen closely you can tell those lyrics are right. She doesn't pronounce a B for breaks, so it must be raised. Also it's "bet" because she says "I bet he (the devil) couldn't recognize (...) but who am I to criticise. (...) even the devil wouldn't recognize you". Now it makes sense! 

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37 minutes ago, Enrico said:

It's still unclear whether she actually recorded her vocals for the song.

If they discussed the video, then a version with her might exist...

Anyway, Babyface's story fits with what M herself told in 1982:

 

She wrote some lyrics and told Michael that she was gonna work with him only if he was interested in cross dressing in the video (that's where she was going with her career, she didn't want to do something tamed), so Micheal called it off before it was further developed. That's what I heard! 

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5 hours ago, cake said:

I guess M didn't really want to collaborate with MJ. She made those crazy suggestions knowing he would refuse. A great opportunity missed for sure.

I think it was actually a great mess averted and glad M stuck to being M, her suggestions are perfectly her but someone already projecting a fake persona like MJ would not able to do subverting expectations 

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On 4/23/2020 at 2:05 PM, thegoldencalf said:

During the American Life era they worked on releasing a box set. My understanding is that the project was scrapped halfway through and it ended up being Remixed & Revisited and the Icon book Nobody Knows Me. 
Is there any info out there about this box set? What was it supposed to contain?

I am curious about this too if anyone has information on it.

Almost certain Carese Henry did a Q&A with ICON at some point and said she was trying to get past Madonna tours all on DVD in a box set. Not sure if this was the same project but I have a pretty strong memory of it. I also heard it was supposed to be similar to the Japanese singles box set that had been released there.

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