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March 29, 2024, 01:40:04 AM

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Topic: Top of the Pops on BBC Four - Thread Two.

Started by Dr Rock, August 26, 2018, 02:21:41 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

gilbertharding

Quote from: daf on February 23, 2020, 03:25:53 PM

(1)   MADONNA – Like A Prayer(video)


Can anyone settle something for me?

Over on twitter, under #totp, people are getting aerated over how little of the video for Like a Prayer is being shown each week, convinced that the BBC had BANNED THIS SICK FILTH.

But they hadn't, had they? I know there was some minor shit storm over the black Jebus, and her kissing him and that - but that was mostly in America, wasn't it? No-one here, except the easily ignored, would've given a tuppenny fuck about Madonna snogging a black man.

No - the reason they only showed a minute and a half of a song which had been The UK's Number One for several weeks already, was the same reason they only showed short clips of Belfast Child etc etc (ie because they're ponderously dull bombastic non-statements). But is this right?

Oh - and because she does the Elaine Benes dance.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: daf on February 23, 2020, 03:25:53 PM

(32) YELLO – Of Course I'm Lying


"And this is the song for April the 1st"


I can't even.

Norton Canes

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 25, 2020, 09:31:03 AM
Can anyone settle something for me?

Over on twitter, under #totp, people are getting aerated over how little of the video for Like a Prayer is being shown each week, convinced that the BBC had BANNED THIS SICK FILTH.

But they hadn't, had they? I know there was some minor shit storm over the black Jebus, and her kissing him and that - but that was mostly in America, wasn't it? No-one here, except the easily ignored, would've given a tuppenny fuck about Madonna snogging a black man.

No - the reason they only showed a minute and a half of a song which had been The UK's Number One for several weeks already, was the same reason they only showed short clips of Belfast Child etc etc (ie because they're ponderously dull bombastic non-statements). But is this right?

Maybe they're thinking of her subsequent single Express Yourself, the raunchy content of which also caused a kerfuffle. It did get an airing on the 1.6.89 Pops though.

daf

#2073
Quote from: gilbertharding on February 25, 2020, 09:31:03 AM
No - the reason they only showed a minute and a half of a song which had been The UK's Number One for several weeks already, was the same reason they only showed short clips of Belfast Child etc etc (ie because they're ponderously dull bombastic non-statements). But is this right?

Sort of . . . It's the last 2 minutes, but a couple of sections have been substituted with footage from earlier in the video.

- the start of the TOTP version comes in at 3:41 on the video

- there's a section with some snogging, burning crosses and an eye-bleed [blork!] that is substituted with the 'blue-sky fall / catch' bit at 4:07

- we rejoin the original at 4:17 with Madonna's verse

- another substituted bit at 4:34 (statue gets locked up, Madonna has a kip on a pew - no idea why this was edited out!)

- rejoin at 4:51 with Madonna going over to the jail cell & play out with no further edits.

- - - - - - - - - - -

The original broadcast was the same (I have an off air copy of one of the weeks it was shown) - so any editing was done in 1989.

The BBC probably did the edit, as - and I'm guessing here - they would have a problem showing "sex" and racist imagery.

So that's my best guess : Black Jesus - fine  / snogging and KKK - not fine.

I remember Channel 4 debuting the uncensored video in a late night slot, which may also have happened with the cock scene in 'Two Tribes', but I can't reference to either online. Maybe both are Mandela effects for me?

ITV ran the Pepsi advert at 8.12pm on March 2nd, and it was shown in a break in The Cosby Show (!) on the same night. The video was eventually pulled by Pepsi in the US due to religious protests, which may have made the BBC nervous I'd guess. Although Britain is not as religious as the US, the Pope was still taken very seriously so his intervention was a big issue.

Non Stop Dancer

In my mind Like a prayer is a much livelier, slightly faster production, but it's actually quite leaden isn't it.

Billy

Has the actual 7" version ever been released on CD or put online for download/streaming? Similar to the album version but with more production and a big guitar solo at the end.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Non Stop Dancer on February 25, 2020, 08:39:37 PM
In my mind Like a prayer is a much livelier, slightly faster production, but it's actually quite leaden isn't it.

Some of the releases from that era were remixed (into QSound) for the Immaculate collection.

QuoteIt became the first album ever to use an audio technology called QSound.[3]

All the songs on The Immaculate Collection, with the exception of the two new songs, were remixed by Shep Pettibone alongside Goh Hotoda and Michael Hutchinson and some were also edited down from their original lengths in order to decrease the overall running time. While all the vocals remain the same as in the original recordings, "Like a Prayer" and "Express Yourself" feature different music backing Madonna's vocals than their original album release. Pettibone commented,

    "Well, actually some of the songs we changed up a bit, but most of the songs we kept in their original form. Like "Holiday", "Lucky Star", et cetera, et cetera, those were all the original productions. The remix was just really to create the Q Sound, and make the song kind of envelop you when you listened to it in a certain sweet spot in front of the speakers [...] That wasn't easy to do. But then again, that was one of those -- you know, "Hurry up, this has to be out last week". That was a rush rush job".[4]

buzby

Quote from: daf on February 22, 2020, 07:52:11 PM
30 March 1989: Presenters: Bruno Brookes & Gary Davies

(16) PAT & MICK – I Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet
Two people who have never been near a pair of SL1200s before in their lives. The Infernal Machine 90 must have been in overload sorting this pair out.
Quote
(13) BANGLES – Eternal Flame (video)
Written by Hoffs along with lyricist Bill Steinberg and composer Tom Kelly, who she had been introduced to backstage after a Bangles concert in Hollywood. The title was inspisred on Hoffs' part by a visit to Elvis' shrine in Graceland, and on Stenberg's part by an eternal flame at his synagogue. It would be included on the band's Everything album alongside 2 of their other compositions In Your Room and Waiting For You (they also wrote I Need A Disguise, which was included on Belinda Carlisle's debut album).

The album was produced by David Sigerson, who had started as one of the ZE Records team (the label who brought you The Christmas Album, where Christmas Wrapping first appeared). Just before working with The Bangles he had worked on Olivia Newton-John's The Rumour album. When it came to recording Eternal Flame, he bullshitted Hoffs that ON-J recorded her vocals in the nip, so she should try it (he did later own up to the subterfuge).

The song took 10 weeks to get to #1 in the Billboard 100, giving them thier third top spot. It also meant that Steinberg and Kelly had Billboard #1s in five successive years. I'm not particularly keen on it, it's very much a Hoffs solo effort and is a bit low-energy compared to their other hits. There had been tensions after their previous album about Hoffs getting all the attention and despite the lead vocals being split pretty evenly on Everything Hoffs was still getting all the media attention and being called the 'lead singer'. Having two og the three singles from the album as Hoffs co-writes and lead vocals obviously didn't help, and the band would split later in the year with Hoffs going solo.
Quote
(25) ROACHFORD – Family Man
Singing Live!, and brought to you by the good people at KORG. Roachford himself has an RK-100 keytar. More importantly, the keyboard player has an M1, it's first appearance on TOTP (even though it had been released the previous August) and a keyboard that would go on to dominate the 90s as the DX7 and D50 had the 80s. It sits atop a positively ancient Poly 61. it's strange, becuase on the contemporary C4 Friday Night Live performance all the Korg gear is absent, replaced by a D50 and an Emax (which I think is the bands own gear, as it's also in the Cuddly Toy video).

It's a decent follow-up to Cuddly toy, but that nasty digital pitch-bent 'Hammond' in the keyboard solo has dated horribly. I do like the backing singer's chequerboard dress though.
Quote
(22) THE CULT – Fire Woman
Oh fuck off. Remember when they were goths? Ruined by Rick Rubin, Bob Rock and chasing the US market.
Quote
(10) KON KAN – I Beg Your Pardon (video / credits)
New New Order
More Pet Shop Boys, daf - they were inspired by their deadpan cover of Always On My Mind, M/A/R/R/S' 'Pump Up The Volume' and by reading The KLF's 'The Manual (as it only got to No. 5 they would be entitled to their money back if they had bought the book less than 3 months before recording the track). It does feature the Orch Hit and drum samples from True Faith, though (which the PSBs had also nicked), right down to the fuzzy 808 cowbell used on the Shep Pettibone 'Morning Sun' remix).
The samples/interpolations used were:
(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden - Lynn Anderson
Get Up and Boogie (That's Right) - Silver Convention
Disco Nights (Rock-Freak) - GQ
Go! - Tones on Tail
Call Me - Spagna
Disco Hotline sketch - National Lampoon's  "That's Not Funny, That's Sick" album
The Magnificent Seven theme (which was used on a Marlboro advert in North America)

The track was the first studio creation by Barry Harris, and had initially been released on Toronto-based indie Revolving Records before being picked up by Atlantic for US and eventually worldwide release. Their name was a play on the 'Can Con' rule on Canadian radio where stations have to play 50% native-produced content. The duo recorded their debut album Move To Move for Atlantic after this hit, but vocalist Kevin Wynne left shortly afterwards. Producer/writer Barry Harris continued for a couple more albums before becoming a writer/producer for other mainstream pop artists as part of the Thunderpuss production team..

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: buzby on February 27, 2020, 12:24:08 AMOh fuck off. Remember when they were goths? Ruined by Rick Rubin, Bob Rock and chasing the US market.
Howay, man, they were always a bit of a comedy band. I mean, Duffy started out playing in the second string version of Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds, for fucks sake. I pretty much give them props for cashing in big time on daft yanks who thought they were a proper hard rock outfit.

buzby

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on February 27, 2020, 12:59:44 AM
Howay, man, they were always a bit of a comedy band. I mean, Duffy started out playing in the second string version of Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds, for fucks sake. I pretty much give them props for cashing in big time on daft yanks who thought they were a proper hard rock outfit.
To be clear, I wasn't implying i was keen on them in any of their incarnations (or that they were 'proper' goths and not cashing in on that either), but I found their transformation into a  cock rock outfit particularly ridiculous.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: daf on February 22, 2020, 07:52:11 PM
30 March 1989: Presenters: Bruno Brookes & Gary Davies

(6) GUNS N' ROSES – Paradise City (video)
Runs n' Poses


Or as Bruno introduces it, Paradise.

One job to do, one job.

Pauline Walnuts


Quote from: Norton Canes on February 25, 2020, 10:12:43 AM
Maybe they're thinking of her subsequent single Express Yourself, the raunchy content of which also caused a kerfuffle. It did get an airing on the 1.6.89 Pops though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPL_qGqSJxA

I thought this one was called Express Yourself anyway, its not, but this was shown pretty much in full on TotP iirc, introduced by Jarvis Cocker as Madge and some friends "perving around in giant ice cube tray".

Anyway, Like A Prayer's video has been somewhat butchered, at one point, the statue of the saint transforms into the bloke she gets pervy with.

Just watched

Top Of The Pops - BBC 1 24-08-1995

Looking forwards to that era, truth be told.

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on February 25, 2020, 07:12:56 PM
I remember Channel 4 debuting the uncensored video in a late night slot, which may also have happened with the cock scene in 'Two Tribes', but I can't reference to either online. Maybe both are Mandela effects for me?

I'm only familiar with one version of the Two Tribes video.  Is that the version you're referencing or is there a ruder one?

I remember a friend at school claiming he'd seen the video on TV late one night "and it was really rude!" he said.  When asked what the rude bits were he looked around the room to see if anyone was listening, lowered his voice, and said "Holly Johnson ejaculated onto the camera lens!"

the

I might be misremembering but I recall seeing The [ITV] Chart Show showcasing the Like A Prayer video (with them trumpeting the fact). I don't know if they did a selective cut but I seem to remember Mr. Black Jesus of a Saturday lunchtime

buzby

Quote from: the on February 28, 2020, 01:33:49 AM
I might be misremembering but I recall seeing The [ITV] Chart Show showcasing the Like A Prayer video (with them trumpeting the fact). I don't know if they did a selective cut but I seem to remember Mr. Black Jesus of a Saturday lunchtime

The Chart Show showed the video 'in full' the week it went in at #2 (11/03/89) as an 'Exclusive' (having trailed it the week before). It features the early statue-pecking, but misses out the section during the bridge with the snogging on the altar and the brief close-up of the statue crying blood (the shots should be at about 3:33 where the choir leader is laying hands on her - compare with the official video).

It does seem that Warners asked for a less-controversial cut of the video - it had been released in the US a week before that episode of The Chart Show (03/03/89), so it's left as an exercise for the reader to work out if they made a quick re-edit (it was shot on 35mm film) and duplicated VTs ready for international distribution in that time, or they knew it would be controversial and had a tamer edit ready to go on release (the 'tame' edit doesn't use substituted shots - it continues shots that were cut away from in the original version). The odd thing is that as daf described on the previous page, the BBC did their own edit - presumably the 'tamer' official edit wasn't tame enough as it still included the burning crosses.

The following week when it went to Number One they showed it from about half-way through (the 'Let the choir sing' bit) through to almost the end (the pop-up window comments rather grimly that this was the only song in the Top 10 not produced by S/A/W). The second week they showed it from the start up to 'Let the choir sing', and for the third week they showed it from the first chorus up to the burning crosses bit.

In Madonna's original idea for the video, it was going to be a forbidden love affair between a white girl in and a black man who sang in a choir, set in the 1960s Deep South. It was the director, Mary Lambert, who suggested adding more religious imagery into it, telling Madonna that the song compared religious and spiritual ecstasy to sexual ecstasy. Madonna liked the idea and responded that she wanted to have sex with the black man on a church altar. The man in question was a pre-Cool Runnings Leon Robinson. He wasn't supposed to be Jesus at the time - he's presumed to be Saint Martin de Porres, though Robinson says he was supposed to be Saint Thomas. Lambert has more recently referred to the character as a 'Black Jesus' though. The dress she wears in the video was a boned underslip originally made for Natalie Wood that her costume designer Marlene Stewart found in LA's Western Costume Company storeroom.

The song was previewed 2 days before it was released in a Pepsi ad after they had signed a $5million  sponsorship deal with her, but it had completely different visuals revolving around Madonna travelling back to her childhood, ending with her singing and dancing in a gospel church.  When the real video was released the uproar caused Pepsi to cancel the sponsorship deal and the advert was pulled after only 2 airings. The advert also featured the Andrae Crouch Choir, who sang on the track (and on MJ's Man In The Mirror). However, when Crouch saw the script for the real video he pulled their involvement, and they were replaced with stand-ins.

daf

#2088
13 April 1989: Presenters: Mark Goodier

(21) COOKIE CREW (with EDWIN STARR) – Got To Keep On
(29) TEN CITY – Devotion
(28) T'PAU – Only The Lonely
(16) INXS – Mystify (video)
(19) FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS – Good Thing
Cartwheel Lee Lewis



(12) U2 & BB KING – When Love Comes To Town (video)
(22) PAUL SIMPSON featuring ADEVA – Musical Freedom (Moving On Up)
(1)   BANGLES – Eternal Flame (video)
(23) YELLO – Of Course I'm Lying (video / credits)

Sebastian Cobb

Like a Prayer is probs my fav Madonna song. Holiday and Into the Groove not far behind.

Jockice

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 29, 2020, 03:39:42 PM
Like a Prayer is probs my fav Madonna song. Holiday and Into the Groove not far behind.

Borderline's her best if you ask me. I like the last two you mentioned. Worst is either Vogue, Beautiful Stranger or that Spanky Panky nonsense.


DrGreggles

Quote from: Jockice on February 29, 2020, 04:22:23 PM
Borderline's her best if you ask me. I like the last two you mentioned. Worst is either Vogue, Beautiful Stranger or that Spanky Panky nonsense.

Was that the Austin Powers one?
I thought that was one of her best.

That said, I've never really rated her highly.

Jockice

Quote from: DrGreggles on February 29, 2020, 05:07:50 PM
Was that the Austin Powers one?
I thought that was one of her best.

That said, I've never really rated her highly.

Yeah, although I think I may have a personal grudge against that song because it reminds me of a bad time in my life and someone I'd rather forget.

Plue I never found the Austin Powers movies particularly funny.

Johnboy

I cleared the dancefloor at my cousin's wedding with Like A Prayer (immaculate collection version)

daf

#2095
Quote from: Satchmo Distel on February 29, 2020, 04:27:51 PM
Ray Of Light is a banger.

That's my favourite - I love William Orbit's bloopy productions.
Black Coffee
Water From a Vine Leaf
Fascinating Rhythm

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: DrGreggles on February 29, 2020, 05:07:50 PM
That said, I've never really rated her highly.
Nor me really, but I still think The Imacculate Collection is a snapshot of very good pop.

She's So Unusual knocks it right out the v water though.

DrGreggles

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 29, 2020, 11:49:08 PM
Nor me really, but I still think The Imacculate Collection is a snapshot of very good pop.

If that's a greatest hits compilation I'll have to politely disagree.


DrGreggles

The good songs must be listed on the back...

Madonna? MORE LIKE MADOGSHIT!