Alpha Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 What do you think it the perfect closer for ROL? The standard 13 track version ending with Mer Girl or a 14 track version ending with Has To Be, I love both Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horn Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 MG is a snoozefest. I dun understand why it made it to the album instead of HTB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightcutter Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Mer Girl. Has to be is nice but too slow for an album where the last three tracks are slow anyway. Mer Girl is a bit left field for Madonna. Critics loved Mer Girl. It became a talking point of the album. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plaything Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Mer Girl is the perfect way to end the album BUT Has To Be is the superior song. So I would not choose the 14 track version as the better version of ROL but I would have placed Has To Be somewhere near the end (for example right before Mer Girl or replaced Little Star)...then it would have been perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horn Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Mer Girl. Has to be is nice but too slow for an album where the last three tracks are slow anyway. Mer Girl is a bit left field for Madonna. Critics loved Mer Girl. It became a talking point of the album. MG is "faster" than HTB? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horn Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Mer Girl is the perfect way to end the album BUT Has To Be is the superior song. So I would not choose the 14 track version as the better version of ROL but I would have placed Has To Be somewhere near the end (for example right before Mer Girl or replaced Little Star)...then it would have been perfect. I remember reading an article about HTB originally made it to the album but Madge wanna a 13 track album (13 the kaballah number), therefore it was dropped. Thank god it made it to Japanese edition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightcutter Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Mer Girl is definitely about bringing the album to a close. Has To Be would just seem like another slowie but I suppose it does have a sense of finality to it so maybe it would have worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkspur Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 I love Has To Be. It could have worked anywhere around Mer Girl. I do like that she cared about the symbolism of keeping it at number 13 slimply because it fit in with one of the inspirations for the album. It's a shame that Has To Be is not more than a bonus track though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJM Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Mer Girl works as the albums closer but Has To Be should have been on the album somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bluejean Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 I love Has To Be more than Mer Girl HOWEVER Mer Girl is the perfect closer to any Madonna album ever. It perfectly compliments Drownef World as the opener and the way it ends with those lines "Im still running away." I don't know that Has To Be belongs on the album. I LOVE the track though, it was in my whoopiedoo top 40. But ROL is perfect as it was/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat.Guy Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Mer Girl is art. So take that, Lady Ga Ga! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neutrocks Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 I love "Has To Be" and most definltely could have fit on the album, but I like "Mer Girl" as the closing track. It's a really poetic artsy track. I love when she includes these sort of songs on her albums. These songs tend to be personal and an unexpected treat as it usually doesn't sound like a typical Madonna song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 BOTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vocalism Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 I think I've said this before: HTB is one of my favorite ROL songs, and one of my favorite Madonna songs altogether, so I think it should have been on the album, but I think MG was a great ending, so it would be best earlier in the album, like between TPOG and THANTH. And actually, I would just replace "Little Star," which has cool production but is lyrically sappy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 I love Has To Be more than Mer Girl HOWEVER Mer Girl is the perfect closer to any Madonna album ever. It perfectly compliments Drownef World as the opener and the way it ends with those lines "Im still running away." I don't know that Has To Be belongs on the album. I LOVE the track though, it was in my whoopiedoo top 40. But ROL is perfect as it was/ BOTH +1 on these! (and others ... this seems to be a very popular opinion here ... I agree, it's really difficult to choose because they are both quietly powerful in their own ways.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 I cant change ROL, it has too many memories so it still MG. Sorry about the weird typing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat.Guy Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 I cant change ROL, it has too many memories so it still MG. Sorry about the weird typing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Don't u laugh at me I swear to god, im gonna throw this Toshiba out the window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Ive got a Tesco phone and a Toshiba laptop, I mustve been a cunt in my past life. (ooh this is working!). The demons agree! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightshade Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 MG I love me some HTB, but the ending was perfect. Honest. And simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bluejean Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Here's a question for you all. Why is it called Mer Girl? I assume it's some kind of link back to Drowned World. Drowned World is about the world of fame and the falseness of it all, and she called that Drowned World because that entire world she was living in was like she was drowning, could barely breathe in it. Almost like a kind of dystopia is implied in that title to me. Then 'Mer Girl' I feel is a reference back to all of that, as I assume Mer Girl is like a mermaid? Mer does of course relate to the sea. So is she infact saying that running away from her mothers death for her has been what brought her into the "drowned world" or the world of fame, and it is called Mer Girl because she has kind of become a being that lives in the ocean (the world of fame) that she can never really escape and is swimming through it trying to escape the past. I'd be interested to hear others thoughts on these titles or if Madonna has actually discussed it herself. It was interesting when she went through that phase of naming songs something that isn't actually a phrase from the lyrics of the song. Eg, Drowned World, Mer Girl, Intervention, X-Static Process, Mother & Father, Isaac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apples388 Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Of course it has to be "Mer Girl". The final closing "I ran and I ran. I'm still running away." Is the best end to the album and perfectly bookends the opening "I traded fame for life / Without a second though." "Has to Be" is probably her all time best bonus track ever but as a closing track on the LP it has to be "Mer Girl". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bluejean Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Agree 100% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rb19 Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 I always thought Mer Girl made all the references you list, Bluejean, but also most importantly refers to the mother, mère in french. And as a sidenote, wasn't Isaac originally called Fear Of Flying? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bluejean Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 I always thought Mer Girl made all the references you list, Bluejean, but also most importantly refers to the mother, mère in french. And as a sidenote, wasn't Isaac originally called Fear Of Flying? Oh was it? I know it was The Binding of Isaac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt420 Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Mer Girl all the way. My favorite closing track of any of her albums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Posted August 18, 2013 Author Share Posted August 18, 2013 Mer Girl is the ultimate closing track and perfect way to end ROL and as mentioned by others compliments the opening line of trading fame for love, I always thought Mer was short for Mermaid, I was thinking if Has To Be should somewhere else in the album but I like the tracklisting the way it is so maybe having it after the album ends, like a bonus track say like after minute of silence, as I think HTB compliments the 'I'm still running away'...think I'm spending far too much time thinking about it, it's just recently ROL has started to grow on me even more Little Star does have sappy lyrics but I feel it's part of the album as its Madonna singing about her little ray of light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightshade Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Here's a question for you all. Why is it called Mer Girl? I assume it's some kind of link back to Drowned World. Drowned World is about the world of fame and the falseness of it all, and she called that Drowned World because that entire world she was living in was like she was drowning, could barely breathe in it. Almost like a kind of dystopia is implied in that title to me. Then 'Mer Girl' I feel is a reference back to all of that, as I assume Mer Girl is like a mermaid? Mer does of course relate to the sea. So is she infact saying that running away from her mothers death for her has been what brought her into the "drowned world" or the world of fame, and it is called Mer Girl because she has kind of become a being that lives in the ocean (the world of fame) that she can never really escape and is swimming through it trying to escape the past. I'd be interested to hear others thoughts on these titles or if Madonna has actually discussed it herself. It was interesting when she went through that phase of naming songs something that isn't actually a phrase from the lyrics of the song. Eg, Drowned World, Mer Girl, Intervention, X-Static Process, Mother & Father, Isaac This is very similar to what I thought "Mer Girl" (as a title) always meant. At the time the album was released, she seemed obsessed with WATER as a metaphor - "Drowned World", "Swim", "Frozen" - the album imagery is seeped in water symbolism. Anyway, "Mer Girl" did seem like a nod to the mermaid, at least in context. Even if you think of the most famous mermaid story - Hans Christensen's "The Little Mermaid" - you find that a girl trades her fins for legs to be with her true love. Only in the end (at least in the book), she doesn't achieve it. I always felt like "Mer Girl" was a vignette about Madonna seeking fame to transplant the negative feelings about losing her mother, only to find that the trade didn't help. Hence, she used her freedom to keep running. She never found peace in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Je5u5 Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Team Mer Girl, even if Has to Be is a better song overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pasqual Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 MG is "faster" than HTB? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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