Live to Tell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Live To Tell" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by Madonna | ||
| from the album True Blue | ||
| Released | March 26, 1986 | |
| Format | 7" Single CDVideo 12" Single and 5" CD Single | |
| Recorded | ?? | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Length | 5:52 (album version) 5:18 (edit) |
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| Label | Warner Bros. Records | |
| Producer(s) | Madonna Patrick Leonard |
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| Madonna singles chronology | ||
| "Gambler" (1985) |
"Live to Tell" (1986) |
"Papa Don't Preach" (1986) |
"Live to Tell" is a 1986 single by Madonna. It was written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard.
"Live to Tell" was the title song of the film At Close Range, starring Madonna's then-husband Sean Penn. "Live to Tell" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of June 7, 1986, and reached number two on the UK singles chart. There was no soundtrack for the film At Close Range. "Live to Tell" was later included on Madonna's album True Blue as well as appearing on two of her compilation albums.
"Live to Tell" marked a major shift for Madonna. This was widely seen as her first adult-oriented song, and the vocals were considered to be her best at the time. This was also the fourth Madonna single within two years which was affiliated with a film, and the first commercially available collaboration with Patrick Leonard, who would go on to become one of Madonna's most consistent and critically acclaimed collaborators.
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[edit] Song information
The song was also used during the final scene of the TV show Cold Case episode "Churchgoing People" (Season 1, episode 4). The story is that an alzheimer's-stricken woman killed her husband after their son found out he was having an affair. Being an abusive, violent alcoholic woman, she forced her son, who witnessed the brutal killing, to keep this secret until the case worker finally found out the truth. The lyrics of the song certainly fit the story.
Some critics and fans consider the song a milestone in Madonna's career. "Live to Tell" was only the second Madonna ballad to be released as a single. Unlike her first ballad release, "Crazy for You", "Live to Tell" is not a love song but is about contemplation and mustering the strength to face a difficult situation. Therefore, many consider "Live to Tell" to be Madonna's first "serious" song. After twenty years of its release, it stands still as one of Madonna's most loved ballads.
In 2006, Madonna was the subject of controversy [1], as she performed "Live to Tell" on her Confessions Tour hanging on a giant mirrored cross while wearing a crown of thorns. This was not the first controversial or theatrical moment of her career, though the song's poignant lyrics have generally lent themselves to theatrical interpretations by the singer from as far back as the Who's That Girl Tour through to the confessional interpretation of the Blond Ambition Tour. Beyond its religious symbolism, though, the Confessions Tour performance of "Live to Tell" is likely an allegory for the AIDS pandemic. The number 12,000,000, which flashed above her during the performance, corresponds to the estimated number of African children who have been orphaned by the disease; furthermore, throughout the song, images of black (presumably African) children appeared on the stage's backdrop screens. From this perspective, audiences might be invited not just to take the song as a personal tragedy, but to extrapolate it to the larger (global) tragedy of AIDS.
[edit] Video
Directed by James Foley who also directed At Close Range, the video featured the new, 1986 incarnation of Madonna. With flowing blonde locks, wearing a demure dress and minimal lighting, Madonna seemed adult time in her career, a stark contrast to the NYC urchin in dangle bracelets and torn tanktops who had playfully sung and danced in her preceding videos, and it was the first of series of substantial image changes which MTV in their 1990 Madonna rockumentary dubbed as "a trademark of her career".
Intercut footage from the movie and Madonna on a chair in a darkened space powerfully suggested the song's underlying themes of secrets, expositions and ultimate triumph, as the singer eventually finds herself able to get away from the confines of the chair and able to stand in a single light in the dark.
[edit] Cover Versions
- Blonde Ambition did a N-R-G cover of this song in 1986.
- Tori Amos has performed the song several times in concert.
[edit] References
| Preceded by "Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single June 7, 1986 |
Succeeded by "On My Own" by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald |
