What are your thoughts on Madonna's "Thief of Hearts"?

One of the best songs on the album. It should've been a single. Bad Girl was a fucking snooze and didn't help the Erotica/Sex book/Body of Evidence backlash. No surprise it barely cracked the top 40. The silly cover photo was dumb too.

I'm trying to imagine it as a single and what she might've done as a video for it.

I'm also creating a club scene in a movie I'm currently thinking up that could use this song. Think it could be fun.

She’s no Melissa Manchester

Found a demo version, below.

Also, there's another demo version out there where she sings a version of "If I Had a Hammer" at the end: "If I had a hammer / I'd bash your fucking head in / I'd claw your fucking eyes out / All over this land" - then "Stop bitch! Now sit your ass down!"

That's [italic]so[/italic] 1984, R3! Hahaha!

This not being a single was a big mistake. The video could have been funny, which could have provided a little levity during a shitty time in her career.

A bit of levity could've worked well, you have a good point R6. There was quite a dark, almost sinister atmosphere to a lot of what she was doing at the time, which I appreciate because I like the look of that, but she didn't really let up on that until the release of "Rain" and "Bye Bye Baby" later in 1993.

Whenever I hear this song too, I wonder "who was it she was thinking about when she wrote this?" I definitely believe it was someone specific.

[quote] Bad Girl was a fucking snooze and didn't help the Erotica/Sex book/Body of Evidence backlash. No surprise it barely cracked the top 40.

I really like Bad Girl and the video is one of her best, I think. Truly excellent. But I do also agree that it was never going to be a big hit, and I wonder if she ever thought it would. If she was going to go with a ballad for the third single, it seems like Rain would've been the obvious one.

I used to bring my discman to school and listen to this album constantly.

r9 I loved Bad Girl too. I used to sit on my bed smoking cigarettes and staring wistfully out the window.

^ while listening to it.

That run from Like A Prayer through Ray of Light is the sustained best of Madge, in my opinion. I might be talked into extending it to Music, which I thought was kind of a dinky followup to RoL when it was new, but it holds up better than I expected.

R10 - oh god, me too! Discmans, eh? Talk about blast from the past.

[quote]That run from Like A Prayer through Ray of Light is the sustained best of Madge

Agreed. Like a Prayer through to "Beautiful Stranger" is what I consider is Madonna at her best and most interesting to me.

I really enjoyed her aesthetic from the late 80s to early 90s too, where she was taking on looks and making references to looks from all over the 20th Century - pretty much anywhere between the 1920s - 1970s. A lot of those looks looked really great on her (not all - see the Heidi look at the Sex party), and it looks like a lot of fun when you go back and see it all again.

Ray of Light was another bore. Never got the hype for the album. With the exception of the title song, they were dull.

r8 Robin Wright. She was very jealous over Sean Penn quickly moving on with her.

Ahh, thanks R16, that would make sense.

Plus, when did that "Drop a House" song come out? Was it before Erotica? Because I think that was mixed by Junior Vasquez who she was working with around then and I wondered if she was somehow inspired to create her own song around the word "bitch"?

^Ahh fuggetit. I should've looked it up before I wondered out loud, that song came out three years later.

The Anette Benning song.

R1 But the video was beautiful.

I'm kinda really into that "If I Had a Hammer" ending on that version. The "demo" sounds pretty much like the album version which makes me wonder if that section was removed at the last minute. Probably didn't want the song to end up too jokey. But I'm kinda loving it at the moment.

^Just read up on it, and it turns out Pete Seeger wouldn't approve her using the lyrics as she did, so sounds like the final song as on the album was meant to have that in it.

I had never heard it until this thread - I like it.

What song is it that ends with:

"Next time you want pussy, look in the mirror"

I liked that one.

That's "Waiting", R24.

I always wondered too if they thought they would make "Waiting" a single, maybe? I know it's quite a popular album track with fans. And there are a couple of remixes of it out there.

Don't hate me for saying this, but I think this album and subsequent tour are companions to Madame X and that tour. I also believe The Girlie Show would've been better as a theater show rather than an arena one, similar to Madame X. But then again, I think both albums (and most of her albums since Like A Prayer) are, meh.

R27, you're actually not the first person I've heard say that. I'm pretty sure the hosts of the MLVC podcast have a similar opinion. I think they actually went to The Girlie Show at the time and said it was really hard seeing everything that was going on and they thought it would be better as a more intimate show.

Personally, Erotica is one my favourite albums of hers, I never get bored of it and that whole period in her career is very interesting to me. But as I said in the first post, the album is very underground sounding and I can absolutely accept that other people would find it kinda meh, as you say. It's not one of her "chock full of hit singles" albums for sure. To me, that makes it a bit more interesting, and I like the low key and grubby feel of it. To me it's cohesive as an album, rather than a collection of singles and filler, you know?

[quote]the album is very underground sounding and I can absolutely accept that other people would find it kinda meh, as you say. It's not one of her "chock full of hit singles" albums for sure. To me, that makes it a bit more interesting, and I like the low key and grubby feel of it. To me it's cohesive as an album, rather than a collection of singles and filler, you know?

That's why I think she gets more interesting around 1989. The first three albums have great singles, but the less-familiar songs around them are such obvious makeweights. Beginning with Like A Prayer, I like all of the non-soundtrack albums until she breaks the streak with American Life (I haven't come around to the revisionist thinking on THAT). Confessions is a good end-to-end listen too.

[quote]I haven't come around to the revisionist thinking on THAT

Me either. People who love it look at the album like it is by an indie artist, but I would rather listen to a genuine indie artist do that kind of music, you know? Plus the production on that album is so dry, it almost sounds brittle to me. I do quite like "Hollywood" and "Love Profusion" but not to the point that I even really seek them out to listen to.

I agree with your post completely (although I really like I'm Breathless, I have to say).

Madonna should have retired at the turn of the century.

I liked Bad Girl. The video was phenomenal and she hit it out the park when she performed it on SNL. Loved how bass guitar heavy it was.

Certainly far superior to Fever. Ugh!

Rain was incredible and probably should have been the lead single off that album, not the 5th. If it had been lead I bet things would have been completely different. Sex book aside...

[quote]I always do love the "rap" section that appears twice in the song.

Ive just noticed that YouTube has a function now where you can see a graph overlaid above the timer that shows the most replayed parts of a clip, and when you look at the clip of "Thief of Hearts" this section seems to be significantly replayed by people.