Comments on: MADONNA – “True Blue”

By: Brooksie

Brooksie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:52:17 +0000

I don’t get the dislike for this at all. I have to say this is one of my faves. Here’s how I see it:

Madonna doesn’t put it on her compilations because it was about Sean (Penn). “True Blue” was an expression he used. I doubt that she has any issue with it apart from the emotional connection to a declaration of love that went south.

This song (to me), is what I believe Madonna to really be. There is no deliberately provocative content, no producer-oriented ‘strings’ on the intro, no labored depth, it’s a barely-layered piece of pop dance fluff, and I think this is what Madonna sounds like when she isn’t trying to be impressive. Bear in mind Madonna often uses other people’s songs, then she ‘tweaks’ them (and gets a credit) and works with a producer to create the whole sound. If this sounds a little thin and weak, maybe that’s because Madonna herself – when not aided by producers and other people’s material – isn’t very deep / heavy. It sounds simple and honest to me.

Finally; I think that song fits perfectly with the requirements of a teen pop album. The teenage psyche – particularly that of the teenage girl – is an almost schizophrenic one, therefore there must be a song for all moods. This song, when matched with all the other tracks on the album, has a perfect emotional place. It’s the song I can most picture girls dancing and singing along with using a hairbrush in front of the mirror at a ‘sleepover’. Remember that Madonna’s core audience was primarily teenage girls (she appealed to much more than that – as a star has to – but certainly they were her biggest demographic). This song speaks to teenage girls probably more than any other on the album, lame pastiche or not. I’m willing to bet if the genders ranked the singles from True Blue in order of favourites, you’d find the girls would rank this (on average) a lot higher than the guys. This song is uptempo, catchy, and it’s about “true love”; if you’re a teenage girl with a hairbrush and a mirror, then this song would be hog heaven. If you’re a middle-aged man then this song probably doesn’t sound anywhere near as high in quality as ‘Papa Don’t Preach’. For me – this song is great, but then again I always liked pure joy in pop music.

By: DV

DV — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:04:51 +0000

I’m with that guy from Reservoir Dogs on this one.

By: Caledonianne

Caledonianne — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:50:21 +0000

Sorry – best thing about this for me was the YouTube comment -

“Good God. Was she BORN looking forty years old?”

As I had been thinking exactly the same thing.

By: swanstep

swanstep — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:44:27 +0000

@32,abaffledrep, I felt the same way that you do about OYH until I heard the original 12″/extended mix. It’s on youtube, unfortunately in fairly poor audio quality, here. With 9 minutes to stretch out the slight stiffness of OYH that’s a liability in the standard mix becomes an advantage. It’s really one of the great missing-link tracks between the Kraftwerk of TEE and the brutal techno that would soon rule some clubs (and that doubtless Mad. herself was grooving to early versions of in 1986).

By: abaffledrepublic

abaffledrepublic — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:43:04 +0000

Seems that there’s something of a downer on this one on Popular. I didn’t like it at the time, finding it far too cutesy, but since then I’ve come to like it a lot. As noted upthread, its non-inclusion on Madonna compilations means it hasn’t been overplayed. I certainly prefer it to the single which followed it. Open Your Heart strikes me as space filler, a flavourless, dull song with an air of ‘will this do?’ about it (it’s safe to discuss it because it didn’t get to number one).

By: spaceboy

spaceboy — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:48:16 +0000

If I was going to play anything by Madonna at a wedding, this would probably be it. It sounds like it could have been written in the 50′s. If you were to play some of those girl group pop songs and slow them down a bit, it could have sounded a little like this.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:32:43 +0000

Well, it’s like the old Lennon/McCartney thing, it covered contributions from Mal Evans, Donovan, and whoever was in the room at the time.

People would quite often get some sort of ‘percentage point’ for songs they were not officially credited for.

By: swanstep

swanstep — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:55:28 +0000

@28. At least on some occasions (e.g., Lucky Star, Burning Up) Mad. gets the sole writing credit, and on many other occasions (Holiday, Borderline, Like a Virgin) she takes no writing credit. This suggests that she played things pretty straight credit-wise at least early in her career. My sense is that on her recent albums, say since working with William Orbit on Ray of Light, her writing credits have been more pro forma. She’s thinking about just writing and producing the album as a whole with a given collaborator, so that that’s what gets noted each time rather than the exact % contributions each party made to each individual song. That seems sensible to me, but it does open the door to certain sorts of skepticism about Mad’s contributions.

By: AndyPandy

AndyPandy — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:14:41 +0000

I know that Madonna always had her name listed as a songwriter on her tracks but always with someone else – did she really have much input in their composition or was it just a trick done through a combination of her as the sassy businesswomen maximising the profits and an attempt to give her credibility with the rock bores with whom “its oh so important to write your tracks”?
Fake songwriting credits obviously reached the farcical in the era of the Spice Girls and other girl bands where I don’t think anyone was fooled that any of those groups had anything approaching real input in the composition of their songs.
But with Madonna however does anyone know if she had anything more than a minimal input into writing the songs – I’d be interested to know if anyone know the truth on this issue.

By: pink champale

pink champale — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:19:23 +0000

i said on the ‘frankie’ thread that there was a great girl group pastiche coming up, but it turns out memory was playing tricks on me and, the great bridge apart, this really isn’t much cop. dave marsh didn’t think so though, putting it at number 258 in his list. unfortunately this isn’t one of the entries that’s online but i think i remember from my repeat readings 15 years ago that he thought it was the contemporary production that took it from being a simple pastiche into something more special. but a lot of his eighties picks are kind of mental.

By: MikeMCSG

MikeMCSG — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:07:36 +0000

I think Mads omitted it from The Immaculate Collection (in favour of No 4 hit “Open Your Heart”) because the lyrics were too personal to her and Sean. It’s OK but not one of her best.

Interesting that it got to number one at the same time as she was being absolutely trashed for her performance in “Shanghai Surprise” (Sean Penn reportedly made his friends pledge never to watch it). What was that saying about no such thing as bad publicity ?

By: Mark M

Mark M — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:13:01 +0000

Re 3: if this is Madonna using pastiche to move away from her early persona, then it could be regarded as mildly ironic that Debi Mazar is in the video – former Mudd Club employee, make-up girl on New York Beat aka Downtown 81 and sometime flatmate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mazar was right at the heart of the turn of the decade downtown scene from which sprang the early Madonna look. But Mazar – who is one of Madge’s solidest mates, apparently – was also on her way up and out of the skanky bohemia, although obviously in a less spectacular manner.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:13:17 +0000

I can see I’m going to have to avail myself of a Lesley Gore compilation – I always loved the 81 remake of It’s My Party, so time to investigate further I think.

As for this, well it’s a bit dull really isn’t it. A 3 or 4 would be about right.

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:39:04 +0000

I think the middle eight jumps out because the rest of the song is such a plod. A genre exercise and, as Tom points out, an approximation which misses the point of all good girl group records – their sharp teenage sense of drama and immediacy. Cherish is sweeter, Frankie is much weaker, but this is only a 4 or 5 for me.

Re 20: Yes! Lesley Gore is the real deal! She was a teenager, cute but not too cute, a little nasal, a little naive, with the best producers and writers at her disposal. Besides Quincy Jones she was produced/arranged by Jack Nitzsche (who was behind Swanstep’s fav, the Goffin/Titelman-written What Am I Gonna Do With You and the eerie funereal You Sent Me Silver Bells) and Van McCoy. Can’t think who did her 1967 soft summer beauty California Nights but it was someone of equally high calibre.

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:19:53 +0000

However, the best song written about Sean Penn at this time was Lloyd Cole’s ‘Sean Penn Blues’ on Mainstream, the story of an abortive poetry reading given by the troubled actor:

The Western Minnesota intercollegiate circle
Telephoned they said
Hey Sean could you mosey on down to our gala ball?
It reads “Mr Madonna kicks some beat poetry”

If I could I would I would I swear I would be better
But it seems I am just a natural no good
And what’s more I like living like that

After seven lines seventeen maybe I had to stop
These philistines were yelling “Hey Sean!”
I could not be heard for cowhand laughter
I picked up my books and headed for the door
And if I trash this TV then I know I will feel better…

By: Marina72

Marina72 — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:03:25 +0000

Great post and I think you’re absolutely right that Madonna works best in contemporary dance, but I can see why she’s drawn to other genres – she has an aura of the old-fashioned Hollywood star about her. True Blue isn’t one of her very best IMO but it has a sort of goofy charm which you don’t expect from Madonna, and it does reflect beautifully how infatuated she was with Sean Penn at the time.

By: swanstep

swanstep — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:56:07 +0000

BTW, True Blue has always reminded me of an utterly fantastic Lesley Gore song and record, which you can hear on youtube, here.
It’s hard to believe that that wasn’t a huge hit, but Gore was going out of fashion by the mid-1960s.

I was hoping to provide a link to an even more awesome Gore record, ‘What am I gonna do with you?’ but that appears to have disappeared from youtube. (Q. Why do Gore’s records tend to sound so great? A. A young Quincy Jones was her regular producer.)

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:51:01 +0000

#17 yeah, my review is a lot harsher than the mark – I do enjoy it, as you say most 2nd-tier Madonna stuff is well worth a spin. But I had nothing interesting to say about the ways I enjoy it and plenty about the ways I found it frustrating.

By: TomLane

TomLane — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:01:00 +0000

80′s Electronic Motown. Got to #3 in the U.S. Not quite sure if Madonna is fond of this song. It’s not on any of her compilations released in the States (including the 2CD one that came out last fall). Oddly, this is one of my wife’s favorite Madonna song’s. I remember her buying the 45. As for me the initial 6 feels about right. I’m sure Madonna would give it a similar grade.

By: swanstep

swanstep — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:50:43 +0000

As Billy Piper, #6 mentions, there’s some reason to believe that Mad. herself doesn’t care for this one: like Angel from the Like a Virgin disc, True Blue gets omitted from her greatest hits/best ofs, etc.

For myself, however, I really enjoy what I suppose one must call ‘second-tier’ Madonna stuff: angel, true blue, spotlight, causing a commotion haven’t been overplayed and aren’t overbearing. They’re just good tunes to bop around to. Or something. I like ‘em. (Stephen Bray often seems to at least co-write this stuff.)

Anyhow, I like the ‘hey guys’ at the beginning, the girly-solidarity vibe overall, and the first few notes of the middle eight – ‘No-oh more sadness….’ – to which the song returns. I *love* the last tricksy harmony third time through the chorus: the rushed, slightly tense(?) ‘And I’m gonna be”s, especially the one right after Mad. has punched up ‘Your heart fits me like a glove’. There’s something ace about all that. The more I think about it, in fact, this song is only a few lyrical and musical polishes away from being a classic (I think Stephin Merritt/Magnetic Fields may have rewritten this one a few times to their advantage).

Less thrilled about the 6/8 beat and associated drum fills. Particularly in the 12″ mix, they feel played out from Billy Ocean’s (not especially compelling) ‘When the going gets tough’ earlier in the year.

I’m evidently more enthusiastic than most about this record, but Tom’s 6 seems about right.

By: tim davidge

tim davidge — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:52:51 +0000

Far too worldly a character to pull this sort of thing off convincingly, and in addition, I must say this is an allusion to 60s pop rather than an attempt to recreate it. ‘Wall-of-tin’ is a good description of the production – it has some of the sweetness but none of the mellowness of pop from the ‘Brill Building’ era. One thing is commensurate with the period it tries to emulate though – unlike some of the hits we’ve been going through lately, it’s not a long record. And in spite of my reservations about it, it’s catchy and tuneful so all in all it’s not actually a bad pop record. A 5 from me.

By: thefatgit

thefatgit — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:40:10 +0000

Just seen the video…couldn’t help thinking she was going to burst into “For bonzer car insurance deals,
Get along to Sheila’s Wheels”.

And yes, that is Debbie Mazar!

By: anto

anto — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:33:10 +0000

I would argue that by this stage Madonna was on such scintillating form that even her lesser works would be the highlight of another pop singers career. True Blue is slight but rewarding.
Certainly some of her very best didn’t reach number one – Borderline, Live to Tell,Cherish.
I promise to use a football analogy only once but when a team are in the habit of winning championships they have the occasional season where they win it by memory – Liverpool in 1982 and 1990 Man Utd in 2003 and 2009. They might not have been the best team that particular season, but they’re experienced and confident enough to drag themselves to top.
Perhaps like Hello Goodbye Super Trouper or I’m your Man this is a
number one by memory.

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:59:29 +0000

it’s a pleasant, catchy melody but the production sounds like a BonTempi organ on preset. I could imagine this sounding a lot better with a more considered arrangement. As a pastiche of the 60s girl groups it goes on too long. The original 60s hits were much more concise bursts of energy whereas this plink-plonks away for what seems an age. 5 for me

By: will

will — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:45:22 +0000

Yes, distinctly second rate and lacking in conviction. As pointed out upthread, she would go onto do the Brill Building pop homage thing a lot whole better on Cherish.