MADONNA & STUART PRICE DISCUSS HUNG UP ~ OUT NOW

[Roy 7,613]

5 minutes ago, Blue Jean said:

This interview was great. So great to hear her talk about her music and the process in detail. I wish she did this kind of thing more often.

Imagine her whole process of making her debut album. 

[Jackie 8,075]

Loved it! Very informative and interesting! 

[Jackie 8,075]

3 hours ago, deathproof said:

I thought she wrote a letter to Abba?

She said she did and also went and saw them - so both.

[Enrico 15,823]

I love that in order to promote FEL we have interviews with all the different producers and remixers:

- Stuart Price on Song Exploder 

- Nile Rodgers on Paper magazine

- Shep Pettibone, William Orbit on Billboard

Do we have more?

 

I wish she always talked about music!

And now I soooo want the Hello Suckers demos!!!!!

[steady75 9,571]

I hear she’s doing an interview with Derek Acurah for the debut album and Reggie Lucas will be coming through. 

[Ziploc 2,566]

1 hour ago, steady75 said:

I hear she’s doing an interview with Derek Acurah for the debut album and Reggie Lucas will be coming through. 

Omg I'd pay to watch this. Wonder if she could get one of her old butts on the psychic hotline. 

[Starchild 3,077]

3 hours ago, Jackie said:

She said she did and also went and saw them - so both.

During interviews at the time of the song's release, she'd say that she sent her assistant to personally deliver the letter.

She never mentioned that she herself met with Abba too, so I think she was just a little vague about that in this episode.

[Starchild 3,077]

Loved this episode. It was short but oh-so sweet.

My fave part was hearing them talk about playing the Hung Up instrumental during a DJ gig in Australia.

I've mentioned this before but I was there the night he played it and I distinctly remember him holding up his phone.

By the way, for anyone that may have missed it, I recommend this Stuart Price playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2yvp8pUPRKYEk4RDXxdRZQ?si=14555782abec44b6

[Prayer 14,377]

11 minutes ago, Vasili said:

During interviews at the time of the song's release, she'd say that she sent her assistant to personally deliver the letter.

She never mentioned that she herself met with Abba too, so I think she was just a little vague about that in this episode.

Also here:

https://www.musicweek.com/interviews/read/hitmakers-stuart-price-on-the-songwriting-secrets-behind-madonna-s-hung-up/085799

That said, there was no Plan B if ABBA didn’t clear the sample [laughs]. We knew ABBA were reluctant to allow sampling of their work, so Madonna’s manager flew to Stockholm to meet with Benny and Björn at their Polar Studios. She gave them a handwritten letter from Madonna in which she expressed her admiration for their work, and the hope that we could collaborate. What resonated with them, I think, was that we had taken cues from them, but we had tried to move it forward, and they approved the sample that day.  

It's true back in 2005 Madonna's managers were Guy Oseary AND Angela Becker, so maybe she sent Angela to Stockholm.

But until now that was the official story. Not it's that she herself went there. 

[Starchild 3,077]

18 minutes ago, Prayer said:

Also here:

https://www.musicweek.com/interviews/read/hitmakers-stuart-price-on-the-songwriting-secrets-behind-madonna-s-hung-up/085799

That said, there was no Plan B if ABBA didn’t clear the sample [laughs]. We knew ABBA were reluctant to allow sampling of their work, so Madonna’s manager flew to Stockholm to meet with Benny and Björn at their Polar Studios. She gave them a handwritten letter from Madonna in which she expressed her admiration for their work, and the hope that we could collaborate. What resonated with them, I think, was that we had taken cues from them, but we had tried to move it forward, and they approved the sample that day.  

It's true back then Madonna's manager were Guy Oseary AND Angela Becker, so maybe she sent Angela to Stockholm.

But until now that was the official story. Not it's that she herself went there. 

No way she would fly to Sweden herself (with her letter) and risk getting rejected in person.

She wrote a heartfelt letter and had her co-manager/assistant personally deliver it.

And this, straight from the horse's mouth...

 

[Starchild 3,077]

12 hours ago, Markdonna said:

Fun look back. I loved this era and personally believe it produced the greatest Madonna tour I have ever seen.  Confessions was simply EPIC.  And I’ve seen — and very much enjoyed every tour since I finally saw her sing live via Drowned World.

Not only did I adore Confessions  as an album — but she brought out some oldies I’d long given up on ever seeing her sing LIVE…  Lucky Star, Like a Virgin… but the real stand out shocker was… Erotica/You Thrill Me.  Not to mention her up on a mirrored cross while belting out Live To Tell.  Confessions was the tour or tours I think looking back. Yeah…  It truly was just simply flawless.

Stuart Price had plenty to do with that. 

Funny, I never thought they had a huge falling out.  They certainly sound very friendly here.  And the tale of Hung Up is definitely one worthy of being told.  They clearly enjoy telling it, too. So much collaboration.   Be fun to see them reunite somehow.   His live arrangements were fantastic.

The Confessions Tour often gets forgotten compared to most of the others, don't you think?

It really was incredible in so many ways. Thank you for the reminder.

[Starchild 3,077]

7 hours ago, Blue Jean said:

It really does not sound like they were in the same room, she was probably listening to his recording and responding to it

There's such a thing as Zoom/virtual meetings.

[Jackie 8,075]

1 hour ago, Vasili said:

During interviews at the time of the song's release, she'd say that she sent her assistant to personally deliver the letter.

She never mentioned that she herself met with Abba too, so I think she was just a little vague about that in this episode.

Oh right! Gotcha - interesting!

[Frank 42,521]

Really really interesting chat, i think we all love when she talks about the process of making and creating music. I'd wish she do this more often.

[Enrico 15,823]

1 hour ago, Vasili said:

No way she would fly to Sweden herself (with her letter) and risk getting rejected in person.

She wrote a heartfelt letter and had her co-manager/assistant personally deliver it.

And this, straight from the horse's mouth...

 

Is it possible that he is referring to two different meetings/steps?

1) The assistant delivers the "nice little letter" (Angela?)

2) "So she came over" (Madonna?) to play the record

After all, he says it was "herself", not through lawyers.

[cosmic_system 3,156]

6 hours ago, Blue Jean said:

It really does not sound like they were in the same room, she was probably listening to his recording and responding to it

No they were clearly doing it at the same time, they were talking to each other and he laughed at her story about the driver in London. 

[cosmic_system 3,156]

1 hour ago, Enrico said:

Is it possible that he is referring to two different meetings/steps?

1) The assistant delivers the "nice little letter" (Angela?)

2) "So she came over" (Madonna?) to play the record

After all, he says it was "herself", not through lawyers.

Madonna went many times to Stockholm while they were making Confessions to work on the documentary with Jonas, so she probably met Abba during one of her trips.

[Prayer 14,377]

ABBA being ABBA, it would make sense that she herself went there to "seal the deal". They literally gave permission to sample ABBA to no one.

But if that did happen, surely it must had been before the horse accident, right?

[Bjonkers 1,575]

5 minutes ago, cosmic_system said:

Madonna went many times to Stockholm while they were making Confessions to work on the documentary with Jonas, so she probably met Abba during one of her trips.

Also, I believe the Bloodshy & Avant tracks were recorded in Stockholm.

[Starchild 3,077]

2 hours ago, Enrico said:

Is it possible that he is referring to two different meetings/steps?

1) The assistant delivers the "nice little letter" (Angela?)

2) "So she came over" (Madonna?) to play the record

After all, he says it was "herself", not through lawyers.

I think wires may be getting crossed about this.

I found this quote which clarifies that her representative personally delivered the song (CD? iPod?) with the letter:

"...I think they may have had doubts about letting us sample their record. I had to send my emissary to Stockholm with a letter and the record begging them and imploring them and telling them how much I worship their music; telling them it was an homage to them, which is all true..."

Taken from https://www.attitude.co.uk/article/relive-madonnas-in-depth-2005-attitude-interview/5327/

[SuperBicycle 602]

9 hours ago, Roy said:

And gave them a DVD of Hung Up 

While they referred to her as Madame X....

[Roy 7,613]

Just now, SuperBicycle said:

While they referred to her as Madame X....

And tells ABBA that she made a remix of Material Girl with Saucy Santana.

[Enrico 15,823]

6 hours ago, Enrico said:

And now I soooo want the Hello Suckers demos!!!!!

I have to correct my own post because actually I mixed two different projects:

That song [Hung up] made up my mind in which musical direction to go in. Until then I had done an entire soundtrack to a musical called Hello Suckers, and that didn't pan out because I decided I didn't want to do it. Then I decided to write a musical with Luc Besson, with him doing the screenplay. So I started a whole new chunk of songs, and then I read the script and I hated it, and I thought, 'That's crap, let's scrap that'. And then I was exhausted. We finished the tour, and my record company was like, 'You owe us an album', and I was, 'I don't have any more ideas, I'm tapped out'. So I came over here to work experimentally, and because that song turned out so great, I said, 'OK, that's it, I'm making all dance music'.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/nov/20/popandrock.madonna1

 

What I don't understand is with whom she wrote the Luc Besson songs.

She wrote the Hello Suckers songs with Pat Leonard and Mirwais. According to Wikipedia, "Miss You", "If You Go Away", "How High", "Curtain", "The Devil Wouldn't Recognize You" and "Is this Love (Bon D'Accord)" – come all from Hello Suckers, a 1920s-style musical loosely based on the life of Texas Guinan. Strangely, they don't list BOUM, while Miss you could belong to the AL recording sessions. But we don't have any titles for the Luc Besson musical...

I think the entire HS soundtrack should be released! With American Life reissue maybe? It evolves around ReInvention. Apart from Hung up, it looks less connected with COADF, but I might be wrong.

God, she was sooo creative in 2003/2005!!

 

EDIT:

Marc Andrews in his 2022 book "Madonna song by song" says that Sorry comes from the Besson movie (about a woman in her deathbed looking back at her life) because it fits the description of the soundtrack given by M as "Abba on drugs".

 

[Starchild 3,077]

47 minutes ago, Vasili said:

I think wires may be getting crossed about this.

I found this quote which clarifies that her representative personally delivered the song (CD? iPod?) with the letter:

"...I think they may have had doubts about letting us sample their record. I had to send my emissary to Stockholm with a letter and the record begging them and imploring them and telling them how much I worship their music; telling them it was an homage to them, which is all true..."

Taken from https://www.attitude.co.uk/article/relive-madonnas-in-depth-2005-attitude-interview/5327/

Then there is this quote from Björn:

"...Well we had this wonderful letter from her. I framed it. Very sweet. Her assistant came over to Stockholm with a CD and we played it. And we thought the record was great. But also realising that without the 'Gimme! Gimme!' thing in it, it wouldn't have been so great. So we said, "Well, fine, of course you can. But we just split the copyright, half-half...""

Taken from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/jul/13/popandrock.film

[deathproof 10,608]

5 hours ago, Prayer said:

Also here:

https://www.musicweek.com/interviews/read/hitmakers-stuart-price-on-the-songwriting-secrets-behind-madonna-s-hung-up/085799

That said, there was no Plan B if ABBA didn’t clear the sample [laughs]. We knew ABBA were reluctant to allow sampling of their work, so Madonna’s manager flew to Stockholm to meet with Benny and Björn at their Polar Studios. She gave them a handwritten letter from Madonna in which she expressed her admiration for their work, and the hope that we could collaborate. What resonated with them, I think, was that we had taken cues from them, but we had tried to move it forward, and they approved the sample that day.  

It's true back in 2005 Madonna's managers were Guy Oseary AND Angela Becker, so maybe she sent Angela to Stockholm.

But until now that was the official story. Not it's that she herself went there. 

But M herself was already flying back and forth to Sweden that year to edit IGTTYAS. So maybe she wasn’t there for that initial meeting, but met them at a later time?