22 Comments

I love the Patrick Leonard instrumental. So beautiful. I listed At Close Range in the list of films I love that I dropped recently. I love how this piece was the score for the whole film. Thank you for this version!!

Expand full comment
author

It's a weeper of the best kind.

Expand full comment

Absolutely. This and the video for Oh Father - before I even knew it was Fincher. That Citizen Kane homage at the beginning. So much love. <3

Expand full comment
author

You won't be surprised to know I obsessed over that one, too. It looked like home.

Expand full comment

So beautiful! The snow in slow motion like a snow globe! Breathtaking!!

Expand full comment
author

'If I ran away I'd never have the strength to go very far' haunts me, too. She knew some things I knew.

Expand full comment

Home is always home. Even when you don't want it to be sometimes. <3

Expand full comment
author

The dissonances and suspensions he sprinkles in (David Shohl am I getting this right?) against a strong melody make it seem like . . being on the edge of tears.

Expand full comment

The instrumental version is so revealing. Her vocals demand so much attention that it’s easy to miss how sophisticated and subtle the chording is.

Expand full comment
author

Yes.

Expand full comment
Jul 13Liked by Josh Slocum

This song is beautiful. It was perfect for the movie At Close Range. The woman who sang this song, I wonder where she is, what happened to her.

Expand full comment
author

She's long been Cluster B. It's turned out to be very sadly terminal.

Expand full comment

Ah Josh I couldn’t agree more about this song. My favourite of hers. I’ve never heard the instrumental before and it’s beautiful. Thank you for sharing that.

Expand full comment

This is by far one of her best songs. It still holds up and the same can’t be said for a lot of them. She was also gorgeous in the video. I wonder what her life would have been like had she and Sean been able to stay together.

Expand full comment

A beautiful song. I think Madonna is under rated as a singer. Her tone and delivery is so clear and her lower register for ballads is perfection. I wish she would train properly so she could sing live again. As a singer myself I know that the voice matures after 40 years old and can get fuller and better...

Expand full comment

I don’t love Madge so thank you for making me take another look at this song. The next layer of loving to hear music is to love hearing people analyze it intelligently. Listening to this made me think about her and I realized since I stopped using IG I haven’t heard hide or hair of her.

Expand full comment

The first three chords sound...different. I don't know how to put it. Like the sound a person would make.

Expand full comment

this is my favorite Madonna song along with Like A Prayer.

the story of the creation of ‘Live To Tell’ is pretty cool too. apparently it was written and recorded in a matter of a day or two at Leonards home studio. compared to many modern productions which take months or sometimes even a year, this is a great example of the “capturing lightning in a bottle” that every producer dreams of.

Expand full comment

This is my favorite song by Madonna. I have a memory related to it as well, circa 1986, the year I graduated from 8th grade: on a trip to the mall with my parents, this song was playing in the dressing room at The Fashion Bug. 👗 🐛 🥻 🪲 👚 🐞 Darkness had fallen outside the store windows while we were shopping on a cool fall night. I remember feeling like I was leaving one world behind and venturing into the mystery of the unknown (high school next year, and life after that.) The music and lyrics created a thrilling atmosphere in the backdrop of my imagination. The magic in that moment is impossible to find in our post-modern world. Not a Madonna fan, TBH, though I did see her at MSG with my mostly gay male friends during the Drowned World Tour. We had nosebleed seats behind a pillar, no lie, at $65.00 a head. Two of the guys dressed for the occasion were scouted as superfans and upgraded to the front row while the rest of us had a sucky time.

Expand full comment

Madonna was a place and time and like everything place and time moves on. (First to Lady GaGa. Now? Taylor Swift?) Madonna clearly lives in a 1990 world. It's sad. She's not alone. The stars who light dims but desperately hold on. Mickey Rourke? Johnny Deep? It's just not a female thing.

Expand full comment

I gotta admit... As a gen x'er chasing girls in the 80's, Live to Tell and Crazy for You were two of my emotional favorites.

Lot's of good memories.... And I as well have lost respect and touch with many of the musicians especially her.

I even liked the whole Confessions album and saw her in LA on that tour. Weird.

Expand full comment