Iconography: Like a Prayer
Albums: Like a Prayer (1989), The Immaculate Collection (1990), I’m Going to Tell You a Secret (2005), Celebration (2009)
Songwriters/producers: Madonna/Patrick LeonardHow strange that a work as immense as Like a Prayer begins with guitar by none other than Prince, the consummate…
am i reblogging something about like a prayer twice in a row? YES, YES I AM. this post explains pretty well i think why the song itself is so great, or at least puts its finger on a lot of things about it that i love, such as the fact that it is “both funky and expansively epic” which - so true! and that the song is pretty much about both god and fucking, more or less, like, calling it a metaphor i think does a disservice to the tension/duality of the image. this paragraph is like maybe my favorite thing anyone has written about a pop song ever:
The sheer density of Like a Prayer’s lyrics is stunning - Madonna uses the brevity of pop lyrics to great effect by fitting so many associations into each phrase. Lines like “When you call my name, it’s like a little prayer” refer to the Catholic reverence of her namesake like literally no other artist could, and “I’m down on my knees, I wanna take you there” - both a position of prayer and a suggestion that she wants to give as much as she receives - truly make the sacred and the profane inseparable. At the song’s core is the concept of “la petite mort” - French for “the little death”, a reference to the post-orgasmic state of bliss that borders on the transcendent. One theory goes that in that state of creation, removed from the worldly and material, such pleasure is where we are closest to God - similarly to the idea of prayer as conference with God. My interpretation of Like a Prayer is essentially that Madonna views love, taken to its most intimate point, as an experience so natural and overwhelming it borders on evangelizing. Make of it what you will.
