Madonna’s Bold Vision in Like a Prayer
Madonna’s Bold Vision in Like a Prayer
From lovemaking on the bench to creating one of the most defining pop albums of the decade.
The year 1989 begins with headlines that Madonna wanted to avoid, but in the end, it was no longer possible: In L.A., she filed for divorce from her first husband, Sean Penn. The liaison lasts four years and thus almost as long as Madonna’s previous career. But the young actor, known for alcohol-fired fist dialogues, plays Ike Turner too much. There is talk of domestic violence, but Madonna will never talk about it.
The year 1989 ended in an artistic triumph: Her fourth album, Like a Prayer, establishes the long-successful singer as the most prominent female pop star in the world; Time Magazine praises her as one of the ten faces of the decade. Since the million-copy seller True Blue in 1986, the girl from Michigan no longer competed with Whitney Houston, Paula Abdul, or Janet Jackson but with the male top dogs Michael Jackson, Prince, and George Michael. In 1989, she had overtaken them all.
This was not foreseeable in this form because contrary to the generally undisputed recognition for the exceptional musical talents MJ and Prince, Madonna was seen more as a fashion-conscious dancer with a thin voice, an artificial pop ideal image, as a “material girl” blonde in leggings, fishnet stockings and lace tops as cast for the Reagan years and perfectly placed in the market by the MTV machinery. And while Mick Jagger condemned her songs as having “no meaning” in the mid-1980s, Madonna’s self-confident do-what-I-like attitude and her play with gender hierarchies hit a nerve among many young women: her famous “Boy Toy” glitter belt was only the beginning of a long history of provocations.
Type in “Like a Prayer” video: Madonna observes the murder of a woman committed by a white man, but instead of a Black man is convicted. Madonna was kissing a Black saint lightly dressed. Madonna with wounds on her hands, dancing in front of burning crosses and as the icing a love game on the bench: Too much for Republican George H.W. Bush America. Religious organizations and church associations ran amok. But MTV refused to decal the instant clip hit.
So the only loser of the game was the Pepsi Group, which proudly broadcast the song a few days earlier in a specially shot advertising clip as an exclusive world premiere in 40 countries before one experienced it—far too late, the provocative potential of the client to the full extent. The Pepsi clip was withdrawn for fear of confusion with the scandalous original video; Madonna was allowed to keep her five million fee.
In retrospect, the whole media hype (single chart entry in over 30 countries, 3 weeks first place in the UK and USA) is almost forgotten, but Like a Prayer itself has lost none of its fascination. The brutal memorability of the verses feeds only the minimalism of Madonna’s voice and the Kitchen organ, while the chorus lives from her newly discovered preference for the band feeling. The excellently woven gospel part, including the choir finale, may even be considered the first timid reference in Madonna’s spiritual future.
“Express Yourself” continues the new sound seamlessly. The decision to record the songs live with the band is expressed here in rousing 70s funk à la Sly & The Family Stone and Madonna’s probably most famous call for female independence and self-determination. In the intro, she pretends to be a cheerleader of new pop feminism before the singing assignment:
“Come on girls
Do you believe in love?
‘Cause I got something to say about it
And it goes something like this.”
Clear announcements follow, especially from an ex-material girl: “You don’t need diamond rings or 18 karat gold (…) You deserve the best in life/So if the time isn’t right, then move on/Second best is never enough/You’ll do much better, baby, on your own!” This can hardly be better formulated, which is why Lady Gaga is also forgiven that her song “Born This Way” remixed the Madonna template almost faithfully for the iPod generation.
The recordings were influenced by the impending end of the relationship with Penn, which prompted Madonna to process personal experiences in songwriting for the first time. In the accompanying interviews to the album, Madonna forbade herself to talk about the topics of love, marriage, and Sean Penn to guess the addressee of the song “Till Death Do Us Part,” but a rudimentary knowledge of the English language was sufficient:
“Our luck is running out of time
You’re not in love with me anymore
I wish that it would change, but it won’t if you don’t.”
Musically, an upbeat pop number whose electronic basic sound awakened the old times, the chorus bathes in melancholy.
The fact that the remaining album songs differ significantly from their predecessor, True Blue, is also surprising given Madonna’s renewed cooperation with the old songwriters and producers Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray. Especially with Leonard, the Mirwais of her early years, high-class success: His Beatles preferences appear in the middle part of the playful psychedelic lullaby “Dear Jessie” when the song is slowed down analogous to “A Day In the Life” with an abrupt string break and baby noise samples sound, later an accentuated trumpet solo à la “Penny Lane” is added.
With two vulnerable, melodramatic piano ballads, Madonna dares to reappraise her time as a teenager who loses her mother at the age of five and later the affection of her father due to his new wife. Both “Oh Father” and “Promise to Try” show previously unimagined compositional depths and act as blueprints for their later ballad album “Something to Remember.” Especially with the ballads, Madonna’s matured voice is essential, which can gradually withstand individual notes even to the end. Or as Leonard put it accordingly: “Women like Tina Turner or Whitney Houston had the better tuning system, but no one worked harder in the studio than Madonna.”
The large number of touching melodies almost obscures superstar Prince, who also has a guest appearance on the album. The alleged “Love Song” would have to be called “This Is Not a Love Song” correctly, but PIL was probably faster. However, the aseptic funk sounds more like it was taken from a Prince album and is quickly forgotten.
“Cherish,” one of a total of six singles, packages the sound of 60s girl groups into a modern swinging pop arrangement, “Keep It Together” sparks casually towards the end as an “Express Yourself” sequel with Prince on the guitar, before “Pray For Spanish Eyes” continues the Spain reference of earlier songs such as “La Isla Bonita” and “Who’s That Girl” - again not without the penetrating use of castanets. The Gipsy Kings send greetings. She should have left it at that; the “Act of Contrition” recorded with Prince only serves as a studio gag: backwards “Like a Prayer” choirs, squeaky guitar feedback, and Madonna as a poetry slam debutant.
After Like a Prayer and the subsequent Blonde Ambition tour with ‘pointed’ Gaultier outfits, there were only two opinions about Madonna. The one from Pet Shop Boy Chris Lowe: “With the choruses, Madonna just has it.” Or that of Joni Mitchell: “She is a product. She became famous because she hired the right people.” And while Madonna rejected songwriting offers from Bono and Frank Sinatra, new students such as Gwen Stefani or Christina Aguilera grew up.
Whether ballad, electro, or R&B albums, whether Marilyn Monroe, Jean Harlow, or Marlene Dietrich look, whether Kabbala teaching, orphan adoptions, or the opening of gym chains, The only constant in Madonna’s career remained the change. And she brought some highlights to light.