Live To Tell - Madonna

As promised, albeit a month later, here's my post about Madonna's "Live To Tell". This is one actually gets a decent amount of airplay at work, just about everyday. I've always liked this song, as with most early Madonna records. It's dark, dreamy and dated, but in a good way. I remember the video with scenes from Madonna's then-husband, Sean Penn's film, "At Close Range", which I've never seen.

There's also scenes that include weirdo extraordinaire, Christopher Walken (with a mustache!) who I think plays Penn's dad. There's also fellow weirdo, Crispin Glover in the credits, along with Sean's brother Chris who starred (not as Sean's character Spicoli, but a similar character named Tom Drake) in the hard to find "Fast Times Are Ridgemont High" sequel, "The Wild Life". You (and me) can watch the whole movie here, which is based on the true story of 1960s gang leader Bruce Johnston Sr. and his son Bruce Jr. who later testified against his dad in 1978.

I remember having the "Live" music video taped off of TV on a VHS and the ending being cut off (I think Los Lobos' Ritchie Valens cover of "La Bamba" from the movie was on there too). I've noticed at work they play a different version of "Live" than in the original video that has a longer pause in the middle, with an extra weird sound effect. When I hear it, I always picture the gun held in Penn's hand again Walken's face at that point in the song. It's off the 1986 Madonna album, "True Blue", which has many good songs on it including this and its title track. I'm pretty sure I heard it originally though from the "Immaculate Collection"cassette my sister had and eventually wore out. I'm wondering if that "best of" was sort of the bridge between the gap in Madonna's career from her awesome 80s pop to her even more risque and I guess more serious, but meh 1990s transformation with "Vogue" and such. She always has weird religious references in her work, with "Conception" being swapped out for "Collection" in that compilation and her crazy video for "Like A Prayer" (which was co-written by Patrick Leonard, who also scored "At Close Range"). Also, from what I've read, "Live To Tell" is apparently performed with a crown of thorns upon Madonna's head when played live. Interesting...

yikes!

Apparently, "Immaculate" is all remixed, somewhat redone versions of her classic songs, so that would explain the differences between that and the originals. It's almost always a good bet to stick with the original songs. Why mess up a good thing? Hear that, George Lucas? Ugh, why would do back and mess up Star Wars? By the way Steven Spielberg, it's "Raiders Of The Lost Ark", not "Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark".