New Stephen Bray interview about Warning Signs and other unreleased tracks

[BILLSTER 129]

This is a great listen if you have the time.  He discusses the songs, Warning Signs (17:20) and Desperately Seeking Susan (22:10) and so much more.

 

 

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by BILLSTER
per suggestion of other members (see edit history)

[sbrombolessio 1,422]

'First is a Kiss' is mentioned too! 

[Celebration 1,306]

That was a wonderful interview. And it was so interesting to hear Bray talk about those songs.

Hopefully Madonna WILL make that phonecall and get those songs on future releases. I'm still hoping that deluxe boxes are planned...

[madgefan 10,137]

Madonna needs to get her ass in the studio and remaster all the demos they made together!!

[wtg1987 10,150]

16 minutes ago, madgefan said:

Madonna needs to get her ass in the studio and remaster all the demos they made together!!

I know - from what he said and giving song titles there is nearly a whole albums worth of unreleased songs between the first album and like a prayer - im super excited but M just seems to be letting us down lately ....

[VogueMusic 677]

1 hour ago, wtg1987 said:

 but M just seems to be letting us down lately ....

Not all of us... ;)

[Redha DBL 7,255]

THIS is one of the most exciting interviews about Madonna i have ever heard in my life ! Hearing Stephen Bray discussing all those unreleased tracks (Love attack, Warning signs, Desperatly seeking Susan, First is a kiss, Head over heels...) is an absolute dream. He even described the sound of those track, and God he even sang a line from Warning Signs !!!! This is incredible, thank you so much for this interview.

[MisterMistere 833]

C'mon,so let's celebrate the many picture discs, the coloured vinyl and the 12" singles with different sleeve we're getting instead!  😅😅😅

[Enrico 15,787]

If you want, here is a small recreation of Head over heels by a friend of mine from the sheet music:

@webo1958

[wtg1987 10,150]

why does everyone she collaborate with talk so freely about this stuff and yet she has not spoken about these demos once since the deal was announced ??

[Prayer 14,261]

What a GREAT interview! He seems such a cool, humble and respectful person.

Would be amazing to have him involved in the reissues somehow.

[The Ghost 1,566]

I dream about getting these demos, and wake up to more photos of her tits :(  It's so depressing she really has lost the plot.

What is clear is he's obviously not had any communication with Madonna or Record Company regarding the releasing of any of these demos in any form?   It could be his permission isn't required but you would have thought he would know something...  :(

 

[wtg1987 10,150]

2 hours ago, The Ghost said:

I dream about getting these demos, and wake up to more photos of her tits :(  It's so depressing she really has lost the plot.

What is clear is he's obviously not had any communication with Madonna or Record Company regarding the releasing of any of these demos in any form?   It could be his permission isn't required but you would have thought he would know something...  :(

 

he might have been contacted but is not allowed to say - one thing he did say in the interview is that ownership of these tracks does fall under her contract with Warners- i would imagine they want to release everything but M is probably not interested which begs the question why does this deal even exist - she doesnt need the money so why did she sign up for it ?

[TOpher 896]

1 hour ago, wtg1987 said:

he might have been contacted but is not allowed to say - one thing he did say in the interview is that ownership of these tracks does fall under her contract with Warners- i would imagine they want to release everything but M is probably not interested which begs the question why does this deal even exist - she doesnt need the money so why did she sign up for it ?

So she can release Material Hole and Bunged Up? 😂

[steady75 9,565]

39 minutes ago, TOpher said:

So she can release Material Hole and Bunged Up? 😂

[wonderboy 1,885]

just finished listening... my thoughts...

1) I'm surprised that he was gushing over great the DSS title track is, bcz I met him at a fan screening of DSS about a decade ago & he was nice enough to chat with me for a few mins, and thats the 1st thing I asked about and he told me it was a horrible awful & unfinished song that will hopefully never see the light of day bcz of how bad it was. He said were not missing anything, so wjhats changed? why is it such a great hidden gem now?

2) He mentioned that these never before heard demos are easily found to be polished up & released but said several times that madonna hasnt contacted him to give the green light or any discussion whatsoever, it seems to me with the warner re-issues coming up this would have been done already? Seems like she has no plans on including them in the new reissues if its hasnt even been discussed yet which is sad. either that or the reisuue project is far behind schedule & she hasnt even started cultivating tracks for it?

3) the 2 guys asking the questions, big enough fans to have a podcast but not big enough fans to have ever heard Love For Tender, I Want You or Hot House Flower?!? Seems odd.

4) Loved it, I could listen to stephen talk about madonna literally all day. what a treat!

[Scottyx 8,753]

1 hour ago, wonderboy said:

just finished listening... my thoughts...

1) I'm surprised that he was gushing over great the DSS title track is, bcz I met him at a fan screening of DSS about a decade ago & he was nice enough to chat with me for a few mins, and thats the 1st thing I asked about and he told me it was a horrible awful & unfinished song that will hopefully never see the light of day bcz of how bad it was. He said were not missing anything, so wjhats changed? why is it such a great hidden gem now?

 

He lied to you or the interviewer then. lol

[Redha DBL 7,255]

2 hours ago, wonderboy said:

just finished listening... my thoughts...

1) I'm surprised that he was gushing over great the DSS title track is, bcz I met him at a fan screening of DSS about a decade ago & he was nice enough to chat with me for a few mins, and thats the 1st thing I asked about and he told me it was a horrible awful & unfinished song that will hopefully never see the light of day bcz of how bad it was. He said were not missing anything, so wjhats changed? why is it such a great hidden gem now?

2) He mentioned that these never before heard demos are easily found to be polished up & released but said several times that madonna hasnt contacted him to give the green light or any discussion whatsoever, it seems to me with the warner re-issues coming up this would have been done already? Seems like she has no plans on including them in the new reissues if its hasnt even been discussed yet which is sad. either that or the reisuue project is far behind schedule & she hasnt even started cultivating tracks for it?

3) the 2 guys asking the questions, big enough fans to have a podcast but not big enough fans to have ever heard Love For Tender, I Want You or Hot House Flower?!? Seems odd.

4) Loved it, I could listen to stephen talk about madonna literally all day. what a treat!

What a strange way to describe a track he has produced, saying it sounds horrible and awful. Very surprising considering how passionate he is about his music and what he and Madonna have worked on. He's a true music lover and you can feel his heart is still there 100% when he's talking about all those tracks. I have a hard time imagining him describing one of the tracks he has created with Madonna as just horrible and awful. He usually gives references to the sound of the track, the inspiration etc... I'm not saying you're lying but that's just very surprising.

[wtg1987 10,150]

On the flip side he could be saying this to maybe hype the songs up so we all lose our shit and then M can announce a 20 vinyl set only that will house these demos in a nice box for $500 🤔

[TOpher 896]

4 hours ago, wtg1987 said:

On the flip side he could be saying this to maybe hype the songs up so we all lose our shit and then M can announce a 20 vinyl set only that will house these demos in a nice box for $500 🤔

[Enrico 15,787]

10 hours ago, wonderboy said:

just finished listening... my thoughts...

1) I'm surprised that he was gushing over great the DSS title track is, bcz I met him at a fan screening of DSS about a decade ago & he was nice enough to chat with me for a few mins, and thats the 1st thing I asked about and he told me it was a horrible awful & unfinished song that will hopefully never see the light of day bcz of how bad it was. He said were not missing anything, so wjhats changed? why is it such a great hidden gem now?

2) He mentioned that these never before heard demos are easily found to be polished up & released but said several times that madonna hasnt contacted him to give the green light or any discussion whatsoever, it seems to me with the warner re-issues coming up this would have been done already? Seems like she has no plans on including them in the new reissues if its hasnt even been discussed yet which is sad. either that or the reisuue project is far behind schedule & she hasnt even started cultivating tracks for it?

3) the 2 guys asking the questions, big enough fans to have a podcast but not big enough fans to have ever heard Love For Tender, I Want You or Hot House Flower?!? Seems odd.

4) Loved it, I could listen to stephen talk about madonna literally all day. what a treat!

Maybe there are now plans to release DSS in the future, which was unthinkablevten years ago, so the song went from "horrible" to "great".

The episode was very interesting, but I too was surprised how badly informed these fans were. They never heard Love for tender? Come on! This lack of knowledge of the preMadonna era made the Breakfast Club episode such a missed opportunity.

In this case they couldn't help Stephen Bray in remembering the exact album sessions, they talked about Get over as if it was contemporary to Each time and totally forgot abot Work your fingers to the bone and Pipeline. We know enough of Each time, we only miss the HQ file. Bray described First is a kiss as a sister to Express yourself, while we know it's about Aids. He was almost singing Warning signs, they should have encouraged him. 

[cosmic_system 3,151]

People should realize that Warner has probably a back up of all the demos, that were digitized back in 2003 for the aborted boxset. 

[Material Girl 4,593]

Poor Stephen Bray must be fed up with always being questioned by fans on the same subject.

I can understand that after a while, embellishing things or sometimes avoiding subjects must be instinctive.

It reminds me of Mark Kamins and his never-released demo. I think Stephen Bray has a much more interesting artistic activity though

[Redha DBL 7,255]

4 hours ago, cosmic_system said:

People should realize that Warner has probably a back up of all the demos, that were digitized back in 2003 for the aborted boxset. 

Yeah i believe she has a copy or has access to all of her old and unreleased recordings. Remember last year when filmed herself at home and she has all those audio tapes next to her and she was listening to old and never heard demos from her early days (that's where we heard the never heard and never mentionned before track "I am just dreaming"). Anyway those gems have to be released one day, there's no way those tracks from the biggest female singer of history remains in the vault for ever. The only thing is that from what it looks it could be after her death (i don't like mentionning it) cause nothing points towards her having any intention to release them. The more it goes the more i believe this supposed "huge revisiting her background catalog plan with Warner" will be nothing than remastering her released tracks and videos.

[The Ghost 1,566]

14 hours ago, wtg1987 said:

On the flip side he could be saying this to maybe hype the songs up so we all lose our shit and then M can announce a 20 vinyl set only that will house these demos in a nice box for $500 🤔

YES PLEASE I WANNA lose my shit so BAD LOL