Posted April 27, 20205 yr R2Pj2yXLE74 This is happening. It has taken me AGES to compile a list of my favourite Gaga songs from pre-Just Dance to today and I think I am ready to share them with you. What can you expect I hear you asking :o There will be an abundance of exxaggeration, hyperbole and over-the-top descriptions of all of her hits, hugely emotional paragraphs about how the various songs have affected me, real-life stories of encounters I have had with the songs, memories of listening to the songs throughout the past decade and a bit, my favourite live performances that she has done over the years promoting the material and a whole heap of LOVE for the woman that has made me into the person I am today. It's going to be a RIDE and I hope you're ready for it because I am going to spill my entire musical life and love into this thread. Please feel free to offer your own thoughts as we go, predict and debate. Beginning soon ~ Paws up x
April 27, 20205 yr Author I didn't used to be brave, in fact I wasn't very brave at all. But you have made me brave. So now, i'm going to be brave for you. 01. Dance in the Dark 02. The Edge of Glory 03. Marry the Night 04. Bad Romance 05. So Happy I Could Die 06. Poker Face 07. Is That Alright? 08. Born This Way 09. Alejandro 10. Scheiße 11. Shallow 12. Heavy Metal Lover 13. Gypsy 14. Monster 15. Diamond Heart 16. G.U.Y. 17. Just Dance 18. Sexxx Dreams 19. Paparazzi 20. Telephone 21. The Cure 22. LoveGame 23. The Queen 24. I Like It Rough 25. DWUW 26. Grigio Girls 27. Always Remember Us This Way 28. Judas 29. Highway Unicorn (Road to Love) 30. Paper Gangsta 31. You and I 32. Stupid Love 33. Hair 34. Perfect Illusion 35. Million Reasons 36. The Fame 37. Applause 38. MANiCURE 39. Dope 40. Government Hooker 41. Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) 42. Bloody Mary 43. John Wayne 44. I Don't Know What Love Is 45. Aura 46. Dancin' In Circles 47. Boys Boys Boys 48. Artpop 49. Speechless 50. No Floods
April 27, 20205 yr Author > ready to get to #21 and then realise i've forgotten a key track and have to shuffle everything down
April 27, 20205 yr Author gIV_dPpJqrQ | 49 // Speechless // The Fame Monster // You popped my heart seams, all my bubble dreams, bubble dreams | 50 // No Floods // pre-Fame // In a world unknown, you've gotta hold your own We start of the countdown with two ballads. I was never a big fan of Gaga doing ballads until 'Joanne', but these two feature in my list of the best of the best for a variety of reasons. First we go right back to the Lady before she was Gaga! No Floods was written in 2005 making it perhaps the oldest song in this countdown. Inspired by the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but it has gone on to mean a lot more for her; it represents the fight to stardom and battling against the tide, quite literally. It was featured on two early EPs from Gaga, being reworked with her band for the second but it never quite made it to her debut album. Instead it remains as an insight into what her life and music was like before she found stardom. While her vocals aren't as accomplished as we are now used to, it is the rawness of the song that draws me back to it - even in these early days she knew she was destined for greatness and my god was she going to put up a fight to achieve it! I remember playing this song while waiting for more music after The Fame album and wanting this to be included on a future album :') No Floods is the only pre-Fame era song to feature! Secondly, we go to The Fame Monster's slowest moment. Speechless represents the fear of death, and more specifically the fear that her father Joseph Germanotta, would pass due to a heart condition. Unable to be there for him, she wrote the song to express her sorrow. It was a plea for him to undergo the surgery he needed and she was even willing to give up her career and everything to enable this to happen. The song has been performed live many times - my favourite being the duet with Elton John at the Grammys. Her father did go on to have the surgery as she tweeted later that year: "My Daddy had open-heart surgery today. And after long hours, and lots of tears, they healed his broken heart, and mine." and since then the song has gone on to be an anthem for parenthood. For me, while I haven't viewed it so much as a song about parents and more about a relationship with a lover, I adore how deeply personal a song it is for Gaga and how beautiful the sentiment is :heart: I assume it could have more gravitas for me in the future but I don't even want to think about that right now ~ The "bubble dreams" lyric is such a beautiful one - a highlight of the song for me! Live performance: W1T1TtT4cyM The pair work so well together. It has got me so excited for their collaboration on Chromatica! As Godmother to his son, the ideas of parenthood are made more explicit with this performance! :wub:
April 27, 20205 yr Author Got very emotional writing that up and it's only the first two songs. I'm gonna be a mess throughout this, I apologise in advance I guess I did start with two tear-jerkers but even her upbeat songs make me emotional thinking about how much I adore them
April 27, 20205 yr I am not prepared for the incredible commentary that is going to come out of this thread. swoon~
April 27, 20205 yr Ooh 'Speechless' is already a big favourite for me that has departed - it would likely be in my top 10 Gaga songs! The emotion and power of it has always tugged on my heartstrings so much. Plus she sounds incredible whenever she sings it - I used to watch the VEVO launch event performance of it on loop :wub:
April 27, 20205 yr Speechless is stunning! However the song at #50 I wasn’t familiar with at all so I need to check that out like now! I love the Royal Variety performance of Speechless too. It’s something what I think she could’ve had a huge commercial hit with had she brought it out later but I still think it’s very well remembered. Tbh back when this was released anything Gaga did could’ve been a hit but I think had it been on Joanne for example that era could’ve sold much more off the back of this being on it type thing I guess we will never know. It’s one of those songs that whenever I hear it I get transported way back to 2009! I think at that point in her career this was the song what stood out as being a vocal moment. Where people who may have only thought she could do one thing and she needed production and choreography this showed that with just a piano she still could slay and she really did! Very intriguing to see how the list goes as its already had an unpredictable beginning!
April 27, 20205 yr Author I am not prepared for the incredible commentary that is going to come out of this thread. swoon~ <3 Hope you enjoy! Ooh 'Speechless' is already a big favourite for me that has departed - it would likely be in my top 10 Gaga songs! The emotion and power of it has always tugged on my heartstrings so much. Plus she sounds incredible whenever she sings it - I used to watch the VEVO launch event performance of it on loop :wub: Ahhh, I knew you were here for Speechless! I agree that her live performances of it are consistently amazing - you can tell how much the lyrics mean to her :wub: I don't think your big favourite is going to feature in the top 50 btw :( (no spoilers, but still x) I am totally here for this, it could well be my lockdown saviour! :heart: Speechless is stunning! However the song at #50 I wasn’t familiar with at all so I need to check that out like now! I love the Royal Variety performance of Speechless too. It’s something what I think she could’ve had a huge commercial hit with had she brought it out later but I still think it’s very well remembered. Tbh back when this was released anything Gaga did could’ve been a hit but I think had it been on Joanne for example that era could’ve sold much more off the back of this being on it type thing I guess we will never know. It’s one of those songs that whenever I hear it I get transported way back to 2009! I think at that point in her career this was the song what stood out as being a vocal moment. Where people who may have only thought she could do one thing and she needed production and choreography this showed that with just a piano she still could slay and she really did! Very intriguing to see how the list goes as its already had an unpredictable beginning! Ooooh - well in terms of old-school/pre-Fame Gaga, 'No Floods' is the only one I really keep! It's a beauty *.* Nice to see your Speechless loving too :D
April 27, 20205 yr Author 9RYuhrAbVmU | 47 // Boys, Boys, Boys // The Fame // In the morning buy me eggs | 48 // Artpop // ARTPOP // My heart can beat with bricks and strings Two wildly different songs now :o First up, the title track for Artpop, a sultry, confusing and mysterious song. It acts as the centrepiece for the album coming right in the middle of it and separating the chaos from, well, more chaos. The song was the first to be written for the album and so it represents its theme quite well: a celebration and poetic journey. But what exactly does it all mean? Well for me, it is about the merging of art and music - Gaga has always thrown in artistic references throughout her career, but here she makes it as explicit as ever. Art and music can belong together, pop music can be highbrow, it can be sexy, destructive, fantastical, confusing - it can be all the things that art can be! Now obviously this is pretentious Gaga at her most extreme, but there is some truth behind the long-winded and frankly absurd explanations she gave to this era and if you take it all with a pinch of salt, it's largely enjoyable. The song has a personal connection to me, as my favourite club hosted an ARTPOP themed night and as you have it, this was the song that was playing as I walked into the club! In an era full of so much pain - that I will go onto when more of the ARTPOP tracks appear - this song offers a glimmer of hope, peace and serenity. Sometimes even in the most destructive of times we may find ourselves in, the best cure is simply art and pop music. And jumping very smoothly to a song that is perhaps the opposite to the one before it :lol: Boys, Boys, Boys is the most basic and glaringly common song that she has recorded. I was never a fan of it during the days of The Fame - I found it far too simplistic, the lyrics too cheesy. But a few years ago at Brighton Pride, the song came on and quite simply, I lost myself to it. It made me realise the song's true fun nature and how not to take it so seriously. With absurd choices of lyrics, tinny instrumentation and an annoyingly catchy chorus, the song has risen in my affections ever since that pride moment. It features here mainly for the happy memories attached to it and how it became an anthem for pride. Live performance: Swinefest was one of the weirdest moments of Gaga's career. It came following a period of extreme pain; watching it back, you can feel her angst and her desperation. The 'Artpop' performance was so confusing when I first viewed it - it's nowhere near her best vocal or stage presence performance but she's feeling herself and so we can keep it Maybe I should've gone for the Monster Ball performance of Boys Boys Boys
