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How did Madonna and Michael Jackson write their songs?

#261
bass12 said:
“Was”? Her last album did quite well, apparently: Madonna Achieves Ninth No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With 'Madame X'
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Well, I was admittedly being a bit snarky, but I was referring mainly to her relevance. Madonna hasn't been particularly relevant in over 20 years. She was once a trend setter, but she started desperately chasing trends in an attempt to keep her career alive. I first noticed it when she crashed Ricky Martin's interview after some awards show because he was the person of the minute and she clearly wanted to be linked to him. Then there was the whole techno = death thing, followed by her reinventing herself as "Veronica Electronica" once she realised that so-called "electronica" (I *loathe* that term) was the next big thing. She did manage to do a couple of good records after that - Ray of Light and Music (the one where she decided to copy French House, the latest hip trend at the time).

Anyway, regarding record sales - she sold maybe 200k copies of her last album. Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift both sold over 1 million copies of recent albums (Swift released 2 records in 2020 - the first one sold over a million). Madonna is selling records to her longtime fans at this point and hoping to get a lucky break - like when she unexpectedly charted with "Hung Up".

I LOVE Madonna and think people in this thread are being way too unfair to her, for the record.
 
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#267
I used to play with a singer who could play a little bit of xylophone and that's it.

But she made up songs with great lyrics and haunting melodies. She would sing them and I'd strum along on acoustic guitar to try to figure out what chords would best go with the melodies.

I was really terrible at it. it was really hard.

She wrote and sang in kind of a hybrid Rockabilly/American songbook style that required knowledge of more complex chords and progressions than I could manage. It certainly was not 3-chord Rockabilly hack.

But once we kind of proved that there was something to what she was doing we got a real guitar player who could better figure out what chords to comp with, I went back to bass where I belonged, we got a drummer and played around a bit.
 
#268
Ginger Baker was forever bitter that lyricist Pete Brown made more money than him from Cream.

I saw an interview with Jack Bruce once and he said he understood Baker's anger there was a lot of difference between playing drums on a track and putting in the time staying up all night writing an original song.
 
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#269
MichelD said:
Ginger Baker was forever bitter that lyricist Pete Brown made more money than him from Cream.

I saw an interview with Jack Bruce once and he said he understood Baker's anger there was a lot of difference between playing drums on a track and putting in the time staying up all night writing an original song.
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Pressed Rat and Warthog!:D Ginger was pretty bitter about almost anything.;)
 
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#270
Polkatronixx said:
Well, the person I was responding to mentioned Taylor Swift in addition to Madonna.
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If I'm who you saw referring to Taylor Swift, I did. Not at all because I think either of she or Madonna have been successful despite an absence of talent, but rather that both have used very similar collaboration approaches with writers and producers. Also to dispel an absurd notion someone brought up that producers allow mega-hit artists to claim writing credit where none is due.

My comments had absolutely nothing to do with their gender.
 
#272
When Terry Jacks recorded "Seasons in the sun" in 1973 he offered the musicians on the session a percentage of the profits and they said "No Terry, give us the session money."

The song, a rewrite of a rewrite into English by Rod McKuen based on a 1961 Jacques Brel song in French and first recorded in English by the Kingston Trio in 1964 went on to become a worldwide smash hit selling over 14 million copies worldwide.

Jacks's version has been held up as an example of bad music, such as having been listed as one of the worst pop songs ever recorded and ranking number five in a similar CNN poll in 2006.

I met Terry. He bought a waterfront property up on the Sunshine cost, a sailboat called "Seasons in the sun" and has lived off the song ever since. Put a commercial fishing license on his sailboat so he could get cheaper moorage.
 
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#273
MichelD said:
When Terry Jacks recorded "Seasons in the sun" in 1973 he offered the musicians on the session a percentage of the profits and they said "No Terry, give us the session money."

The song, a rewrite of a rewrite into English by Rod McKuen based on a 1961 Jacques Brel song in French and first recorded in English by the Kingston Trio in 1964 went on to become a worldwide smash hit selling over 14 million copies worldwide.

Jacks's version has been held up as an example of bad music, such as having been listed as one of the worst pop songs ever recorded and ranking number five in a similar CNN poll in 2006.

I met Terry. He bought a waterfront property up on the Sunshine cost, a sailboat called "Seasons in the sun" and has lived off the song ever since. Put a commercial fishing license on his sailboat so he could get cheaper moorage.
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The b-side to that single was a song called "Put the Bone In", which sounds dirty. It may be a double-entendre, though I have never been 100% sure.
 
#276
MichelD said:
It's about burying a dead dog.
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I read this lyric to suggest the dog has been hit, but is recuperating. Thus the request for the treat of the bone.

Definitely double-entendre from that point on. Rather flagrant, really, although I suppose this could be read as a portrait of a withholding butcher.

Put the bone in she asked him at the store
Because my doggie's been hit by a car
And I do want to bring him home something
Put the bone in, she begged him once more.
The meat from the pork is sweet.
Give the bone from the pork meat to me.
Put the bone in she begged in as she paced around the floor
Put the bone in she yelled out once more.
Put the bone in she asked him at the store.
‘Cause my doggie's been hit by a car.
And I do want to bring him home something.
Put the bone in she begged him once more.


MichelD said:
When Terry Jacks recorded "Seasons in the sun" in 1973 he offered the musicians on the session a percentage of the profits and they said "No Terry, give us the session money."
Click to expand...

Francis Coppola offered one of his crew principals (director of photography, if I recall correctly) net points on one of his films. The D.P. said he would instead take a single comped dinner for two, with wine, at his favorite eatery. Coppola demurred.
 
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#278
Son of Wobble said:
I read this lyric to suggest the dog has been hit, but is recuperating. Thus the request for the treat of the bone.

Definitely double-entendre from that point on. Rather flagrant, really, although I suppose this could be read as a portrait of a withholding butcher.

Put the bone in she asked him at the store
Because my doggie's been hit by a car
And I do want to bring him home something
Put the bone in, she begged him once more.
The meat from the pork is sweet.
Give the bone from the pork meat to me.
Put the bone in she begged in as she paced around the floor
Put the bone in she yelled out once more.
Put the bone in she asked him at the store.
‘Cause my doggie's been hit by a car.
And I do want to bring him home something.
Put the bone in she begged him once more.




Francis Coppola offered one of his crew principals (director of photography, if I recall correctly) net points on one of his films. The D.P. said he would instead take a single comped dinner for two, with wine, at his favorite eatery. Coppola demurred.
Click to expand...

"Put the bone in, she begged him once more.
The meat from the pork is sweet.
Give the bone from the pork meat to me."

Dirty.
 
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#279
Polkatronixx said:
"Put the bone in, she begged him once more.
The meat from the pork is sweet.
Give the bone from the pork meat to me."

Dirty.
Click to expand...

allan-melvin-dies_l.jpg


 
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