Madonna Herb Ritts Signed LP & Photo-Please,Please Look

$

78

You're Right! this is a long Ad! Heck, just scroll down and look at the pictures first! If you loved the Graphics below, then I assure you that your next 2 minutes spent reading, will be time well spent. Meanwhile you can decide how much to bid on this Very Collectible, 1989 LP, HAND AUTOGRAPHED not only by Madonna but also by the Late Great Photographer, Herb Ritts. I've seen only 2 such Madonna Autographed treasures sold. Both sold for over $300.00. Both had crunched corners and markings. Neither was signed by Herb Ritts, the Photographer for this Madonna Album!

This Gem is in Outstanding Condition. It has been Professionally Stored and taken care of. The icing on the cake is that this is a No Reserve Auction and I pay for Shipping & Insurance. (Continental U.S. only. All others Please Inquire) . Highest bidder brings this Delight home. Even if Madonna's music isn't your Cup O' Tea, You Might want to Frame & Display Herb Ritts Autographed, Gorgeous Photo work and Madonna's Autograph that she penned next to her portrait.

Madonna, "Like A Prayer" / 1989 The album is a perfect mix of black and white, happy and sad, dance songs and ballads, the old Madonna and the new Madonna. There's something for everyone in perhaps one of the best albums that her 'High'ness ever made.

When Madonna's Assets first undulated their way into mass consciousness and Mass disturbation (my word, just made it up), her Aura was perceived to be image matter and Largely theMatter of Factions. The Outside edge eventually wedged it's way in. Never mind there wasn't ever any Depth of Artistry behind it; for all who hailed & inhaled her, the image alone was& still is delightfully intoxicating . Madonna as Angelic Whore the ultimate wanton girl, boy, we, they he, you my toy, joyfully Scrunching our Universe.. Masterfully molding our material world, all the while, dawning less & oh so less material. A Coolly Calculated Creature Comfort, self designed, who makes us Pop.

'Like a Prayer', Daring in its lyrics, ambitious in its sonics, this was, by Far, the most self examining & serious album she ever made. There are no punches pulled, or anything else temporarily stretched; Madonna is 'As It Is Honest' about the dissolution of her marriage ['Till Death Do Us Part'], her ambivalence toward her father ['Oh Father'] and even the painful feelings of remorse she harbored towards her mother ['Promise to Try']. As in your face as these songs are, the underlying themes are universal enough to move almost any Inner-space pedestrian. Likewise, the music, though clearly a step beyond the candy coated 'Pop' corn that earned the singer her place on the charts, remains as accessible as ever.

'Like a Prayer' is more interested in Coming Clean than satiating youngster's desires. This 1989 album is in large part about growing up and destroying Closet Monsters. All the while, lecturing her parents, questioning religion and the who, what, when and 'wearing' those promises of love that we know all too well. At times, the album can be heartbreaking in its honesty. Peruse the lyrics to 'Till Death Do Us Part', and try not to feel guilty for having glanced at those dime store, trash-filled tabloids that sport Madonna Mayhem, Pseudo English Royalty Trips, Children's Books for Illiterates and the oh so familiar Who's Dick is it this week, headlines.

This LP was, and still is, serious stuff, and nowhere is that more apparent than on the title tune. Opening with a sudden blast of an electrifying guitar, 'Like a Prayer' seemed at first like a struggle between the Godliness and Madonna-ness as the Diva's voice was alternately driven by a Stomping, 'Lead Bass'd Bop. This, while she was being burrito'd by the collective angelic aura of her back-up Angels. They all support 'Mad Donna' while vertically aligning themselves in drag. Madonna stoked and Stroked the spiritual Staffs and fires with her Penetrating, Luscious lip glossed groove action that eventually had St. Peter asking to be handcuffed to the Gates. And maybe even to Bill Gates.

The tracks that Madonna co-produced with Patrick Leonard , which include 'Like A Prayer' , are stunning in their definition and awe inspiring in their achievements. 'Cherish', which manages a nod to the Association song of the same title, makes us real eyes the retro-rock tributes,. Dear Jessie' lands our Led Zepplin along side Sgt. Pepperoni's Strawberry Field. When Stephen Bray replaces Leonard as coproducer, even a getcha Ass up N' groove tune like 'Express Yourself' seems Oh so Sa-sa-sASSy right down to Madonna's soul-style testimony on the intro where she asks us boys : "Come on, girls, do you believe in love?"

Believing in love doesn't seem as easy for Madonna as it once did, though. 'Till Death Do Us Part' took its wedding-vow title almost mockingly, as the singer contemplated all the ways her marriage seemed to be Torturing her. "The bruises, they will fade away/You hit so hard with the things you say," goes one verse, and it's hard not to be shocked. But the saddest thing about the song wasn't the abuse endured by Madonna , it was her helplessness in the face of her husband's self loathing: "You're not in love with someone else/You don't even love yourself/Still I wish you'd ask me not to go."

But difficult love seems a familiar refrain in this collection of songs. 'Oh Father' mirrored many of the horrors hinted at by 'Till Death Do Us Part'. Shrink wrapped material for HMO and HBO psychiatrists. Despite the song's lush string arrangement, there's still a disturbing amount of ache in lines like "You can't hurt me now/I got away from you, I never thought I would." Not that it's all bad love and childhood trauma. 'Promise to Try', for instance, was about gathering a certain strength from feelings of loss and abandonment. As Madonna lives up to the memories she holds so dear she, in turn, helps us to memorize the hold that that keeps us Up, dear. Hate your job, hate taxes, hate the weather. Even go as far as hating people in foreign countries that you've never met. But Please Love Madonna. Or at the very least, Love to hate her. Passion is Fashion for the Soul. Enjoy.

[ released march 1989 ]

"Most of the songs are drawn from my life, factually speaking, but it's fictionalized too. Also, the overall emotional context of the album is drawn from what I was going through when I was growing up - and I'm still growing up." --Madonna

1.Like a Prayer 5:39 Madonna / Pat Leonard

2. Express Yourself 4:37 Madonna / Stephen Bray

3. Love Song 4:52 Madonna / Prince

4. Till Death Do Us Part 5:16 Madonna / Pat Leonard

5. Promise to Try 3:36 Madonna / Pat Leonard

6. Cherish 5:03 Madonna / Pat Leonard

7. Dear Jessie 4:20 Madonna / Pat Leonard

8. Oh Father 4:57 Madonna / Pat Leonard

9. Keep It Together 5:03 Madonna / Stephen Bray

10. Spanish Eyes 5:15 Madonna / Pat Leonard

11. Act of Contrition 2:19 Madonna / Prince

*Album Photography by the Late Herb Ritts*

Producers: - Madonna and Patrick Leonard [Tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10] - Madonna and Stephen Bray [Tracks 2 and 9] - Madonna and Prince [Track 3] - The "Powers that be" [Track 11]

Engineers: Bill Bottrell, Michael Vail Blum, Eddie Miller, Stephen Shelton, Heidi Hanschu Assistant Engineers: Robert Salcedo, Stacy Baird, Joe Schiff Mix Engineer: Bob Ludwig Drum Technicians: John Good, Harry McCarthy Drums: Jonathan Moffett, Jeffrey Porcaro, John Robinson Guitars: Chester Kamen, David Williams, Dann Huff, Bruce Gaitsch Acoustic Guitar: Bruce Gaitsch Requinto Guitar: Marcos Loya Bass: Guy Pratt, Randy Jackson (from American Idol) Synthesizers: Patrick Leonard, Jai Winding, Stephen Bray Additional Synthesizers: Madonna Acoustic Piano: Patrick Leonard Clavinet: Geary Lanier Percussion: Luis Conte, Paulinho da Costa Marimba: Joe Porcato Spanish Tambourine: Sandra Crouch Brass Section: Chuck Findley, David Boruff, Steven Madaio, Dick Hyde French Horns: Joseph Mayer, Richard Todd Cello Solo: Larry Corbett Conductor: Bill Meyers

"I'm Tough, Ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay." — Madonna

Now who was this Herb Ritts Guy that did the Snapped the Photos for This Vinyl's Cover? Yeah, right! Like you didn't already know! But.....just in case some of ya out there are a tad the Newbie, Please read the nutshell bio below.

At his best, Herb Ritts is considered worthy to rank with Bruce Weber and Annie Leibovitz as a photographer who made the new celebrity portrait, nude and lifestyle/ fashion photography worthy of serious attention. Regarded by his admirers as one of his most important and deliciously beautiful books. A loving tribute to love. The album's inner Sleeve was boldly and beautifully signed by the photographer. This Original Piece is long out-of-print. A very scarce signed example thus. One of the most accomplished American photographers of the 20th century.

Herb Ritts was born in Los Angeles in 1952, and grew up living and working among the celebrities of the day. in 1970, he left California to attend Bard College and study economics. he later returned to west hollywood and worked as a sales representative for the family business selling rattan furniture, often to movie sets. this job allowed Ritts to travel and to pursue one of his interests, photographing his friends.

Herb's hobby soon became a self-taught career. the photographer himself attributes his first success to shots of actor Richard Gere taken on a desert excursion that ended with a flat tire. it was the tender machismo captured in the photograph of the young Gere — rising star of the 1980 movie 'American Gigolo' — that launched Ritts' career as a commercial photographer.

Herb Ritts looked back on the late '70s and early '80s as apprentice years, mastering his craft and developing a personal aesthetic photographing men's and women's fashions. simultaneously, he was building his reputation as a celebrity portraitist.

While working for 'interview' magazine in 1985, Ritts exhibited his photographs in a gallery setting for the first time. since then his career escalated, moving from fashion photography for the top national and international fashion magazines such as 'Harper's Bazaar', 'Vogue', 'Elle', 'Vanity Fair', and 'Rolling Stone', among others, to album covers and music videos for Madonna, Elton John and Cher (in 1991, two of his videos won MTV awards for best female video of Janet Jackson and best male video of Chris Isaak). Ritts had proposed a Photo shoot with Gia Carangi, but that never took place as Gia disappeared prior to the arrangements being made.

Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, The Gap, Versace, Valentino, Gianfranco Ferre and Giorgio Armani were among his many corporate clients. it was for his portraits for 'the gap' that he received the infinity award for applied photography from the international center for photography, New York. Prior to his death in 2002, he directed several international commercial campaigns. Chanel, Calvin Klein, Levi's, Rochas, Lancome, Guess Perfume, Revlon, Guy Laroche and Cartier are but a few examples of his work in this area.

Fine Art, Design, Fashion, photographic media,Fashion Illustration and global marketing are all dynamically connected in today' s complex culture, and Ritts' s work continues to exemplify our broadening notion of Artistic Endeavor. In the past decade, Ritts has published four books that bring together photographs around a particular theme: The Photographic Work that Ritts did for this Awesome Madonna Album is a Prime example of Herb Ritts' as the Master Photographer.

Well my little chickadees, are you snoozin' or drooling. If it's the latter, what are you waiting for, the second Coming?! And I don't mean that in a Religious sense. Possibly Religiously Sensual though.......... Enjoy .

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