The Rain Tapes

[Lina Morgana 974]

 
Welcome to the Official Thread for The Rain Tapes!
 
What are The Rain Tapes?
"The Rain Tapes" refers to a collection of songs recorded by American singer Madonna in late 1991 and early 1992, during the development of her Erotica album. The songs were written by Madonna, Shep Pettibone and Tony Shimkin, and produced by Madonna and Pettibone. Some of the songs were early versions of songs used on the Erotica album, while others remain unreleased Madonna songs. The tapes are sometimes referred to as the "Shep Pettibone sessions".
 
The Tapes

The songs from the Erotica album sessions appear registered with the U.S. copyright office together on two 90-minute cassette tapes. Because "Rain" is the first track on the cassette, written centered on the title card of the cassette while the other songs below it are written to the left margin of the card, fans decided to give the cassettes the title "The Rain Tapes."

The first descriptions circulated were done by Bruce Baron, who wrote the 1999 Goldmine article on Madonna's unreleased material and had the chance to listen to most of the tracks in the Library Of Congress. His description and tracklistings were incomplete and partly incorrect and have recently been revised, corrected and expanded [see Track listing].

 
Track listing

TAPE ONE SIDE ONE:(track #, title, time, date)

01. Rain (final demo, new harms) 5:23 6 December 1991
02. Rain (new vocal – damaged) 5:34 13 November 1991
03. Deeper & Deeper (final demo) 5:39 13 November 1991
04. Bye Bye Baby (first day ruff) 5:52
05. Bye Bye Baby (final demo) 4:02
06. Bye Bye Baby (second day ruff) 4:22
07. You Are The One (final edit demo) 4:36
08. Shame (final demo) 6:12

TAPE ONE SIDE TWO:

01. Shame (straight pass) 6:31
02. In This Life (edit) 6:27
03. Cheat (Drunk Girl) (edit) 5:36
04. Goodbye To Innocence (final edit) 6:11
05: Goodbye To Innocence (straight pass) 5:46
06: Actions Speak Louder Than Words (final edit 1) 5:45
07. Erotica (final demo 1) 5:14 16 January 1992

TAPE TWO SIDE ONE:

01. Actions Speak Louder Than Words (first day) 5:54
02. Actions Speak Louder Than Words (final edit 2) 5:49
03. Erotica (rough mix) 5:16 15 January 1992
04. Erotica (final demo 2) 5:24 15 January 1992
05. Thief Of Hearts (old music) 3:55 17 January 1992
06. Thief Of Hearts (new music) 5:12 20 January 1992
07. Jitterbug 0:36 15 January 1992
08. Thief Of Hearts (old music again) 5:15 22 January 1992
Song Descriptions
 
Rain (final demos) U.S. copyright registration# PAu-1-605-634

Of the two versions of Rain found on the Tapes, the second (new vocal) is badly distorted but appears to have very minimal differences to the released version. Madonna sings the outro twice ("I'll stand out on the mountain top") and she can be heard to say "Whatever" as the music fades. The first version (Final Demo New Harms) is recorded at too low a level at the beginning though it raises to the correct level after the first verse. As the title suggests, the harmonies are highlighted in this version and include some which were removed in the final mix. Again the final line is sung twice.

 
Bye Bye Baby (alternate rough and final demos) U.S. copyright registration# PAu-1-605-635

The first of the Bye Bye Baby demos ('First Day Ruff') is extremely distorted on the original tapes, having been recorded with too much input. Despite this, it appears to be a first run-through of the song and is extremely rough, mostly spoken and includes some minor alternate lyrics including "What makes you s-xy?" and "Does it make you feel good to make me cry?". Fortunately this and the second "Rain" demo are the only two which suffer from distortion or serious quality issues. The 'Second Day Ruff' demo is interesting in that it uses a unique vocal which is much darker than that on the finished mix. Like the 'First Day Ruff', it is a very basic run-through of the track though the lyrics are more developed but still include minor differences. The final demo is very close to the album mix though again there are several minor differences, for example, it lacks the spoken "Bitch!" in the bridge. None of the demos feature the "You f**ked it up" line which closes the album version and each uses an alternate vocal.

 
Deeper and Deeper (alternate demo version) U.S. copyright registration# PAu-1-605-634

Has slightly different arrangements than the released version. This version is missing the Latin guitar break which Shep told EQ magazine that he hated and that Madonna insisted on in the released version. This one might be closer to his original vision with the house pattern. The end is a little different using the same released lyrics but the music goes on for longer.

 
You Are The One (unreleased) U.S. copyright registration# PAu-1-605-636

Completely unreleased in any format. Song not used on the album. The lyrics are rather mundane, such as "You are the one, my only one, you are the one for me". The sound is very dance/club/house and includes a break with 80s-style scratching and backing vocals which are also used on the "Goodbye To Innocence" demos. It was abandoned at the demo stage.

UPDATE: This track was leaked in July 2014 (See Listen)

 
Shame (unreleased) U.S. copyright registration# PAu-1-605-637

Completely unreleased in any format. Song not used on the album. The song opens with a spoken intro, "Why do you wanna waste your life away? It's a shame". Later she sings "Anyone can learn to fly, keep your head up - keep your held held high". The chorus starts with "It's a Shaaaaaame, the way you live your life is a shame - and you've got no one to blame" which sounds an awful a lot like the song of the same title and time period by Monie Love. This is possibly the source of the old rumor that she and Madonna were going to do something together. The similarity ends there, with Madonna's "Shame" demo breaking off into its own unique melody. The tapes contain two mixes of the track which are substantially different in arrangement. An high quality snippet was leaked in the middle of 2008.

UPDATE: This track was leaked in full in July 2014

 
Goodbye To Innocence (unreleased alternate demos) U.S. copyright registration# PAu-1-605-640

This is very different from the commercially released remixed version which appeared on the various artists collection "Just Say Roe" and in a further revised dub, "Up Down Suite", as one of the B-sides for the "Rain" single. The unreleased demo versions use the same theme and many of the same lyrics, but everything is switched around and feels much darker than the released versions. It is a different vocal recording (strong-and-clear unlike the commercial mix). Much of the song's melody is different including the chorus. The arrangement is pure pop-funk-dance, no club remix style here. Extra lyrics include the spoken line: "Goodbye to innocence, anonyminity (sic), peace of mind . . . Goodbye to privacy, goodbye to all of that. Hello mankind!" The chorus is also completely different: "You know you'd better stop, stop and think about how you get your kicks, God knows I didn't ask for this - you know you'd better stop, stop and think about it, before you mess with someone else, why don't you pay attention to yourself - yourself and nobody else". Most who have heard these demos cannot understand why the song was abandoned at this stage. It is probably the strongest of the unreleased "Erotica" demos. The first of the GTI demos is interesting as studio talk can be heard in the background, notably Madonna laughing and saying "You ARE!" as the song ends. The two demos are mixed and arranged differently, the first incorporating an alternate vocal harmony during the refrains that isn't present in the second demo. It seems likely that the attributions of these two demos - Straight Pass and Final Edit - has been mixed up, as the edit is longer than the Straight Pass and also includes studio talk which is normally only found in a straight pass.

 
Actions Speak Louder Than Words (alternate rough and final demos) U.S. copyright office registration PAu-1-605-641

These are without the eastern instrument found in the released version simply called "Words". Instead the synth keys that are found at the end of the commercial mix are used during the chorus. There is also a subtle guitar-like sound. Additional lyrics include "Your words are for fools", and "Your words are so cruel". The backing vocals and bridge arrangements are slightly different, the first Rough Mix, as you would expect, uses a different vocal take to the final edits and the eventually-discarded refrains have not yet taken form. The two final edits are actually different in mix and quality, the one on the first tape being noticeably clearer and more polished.

Erotica (alternate rough and final demos). U.S. copyright registration PAu-1-605-642
Known to fans as You Thrill Me since these words are contained in the alternate lyrics. Madonna incorporated this demo into the version of Erotica that she performed on her 2006 Confessions Tour. It is significantly different from the released album version. The verse lyrics are the same as those used on the album, though there is no trace of the familiar chorus lyric "Erotic, Erotic, put your hands all over my body". Instead Madonna sings a different chorus line with a different melody in the same type of voice that ends with the line:

"....You are who you are....and I
Wouldn't want to change a thing...in spite of
All the pain that love can bring...
Tell me, what can I do? I'm so in love with you.
You thrill me, surround me, you fill me
You send me, you put me in a trance
You fill me, inside of me, you take me
You thrill me, you put me in a trance."
The instrumentation is approximately the same as the commercial mix but is jazzier and much more bass-heavy. The Rough Mix includes the complete refrain, "Erotica, romance, I'd like to put you in a trance . . . Erotica, romance, I'd like to do a different kind of dance" (the word 'dance' bing lost by final demo stage) and uses an alternate vocal in parts.

The two "final demos" are actually slightly different, not only in mix and quality (that on the first tape being noticeably clearer and more polished), but also in some vocal sections. This is borne out by the different mixing completion dates of the two "final demos" which makes it clear these are two different works. The fact that "Final Demo 2" was completed on the 15th - the same day as the Rough Mix - and "Final Demo 1" on the 16th makes it likely that the track credited as "Final Demo 2" is actually a straight pass representing a development of the "Rough Mix" - this would be borne out by the studio talk still present on the second demo and the fact that some different vocal elements are used on "Final Demo 1" which is the most polished and complete of all three "Erotica" demos.

 
Jitterbug (song fragment, about 30-45 seconds)

This song was mostly taped over, but showed up between two of the other tracks. It is listed on the handwritten tape label, but it has no copyright registration of its own. The title was originally spelled with a "G", but was written over darker with a "J" in blue ink. It features typical generic Shep Pettibone dance music with Madonna finishing up with "Jitterbug, Jitterbug". Madonna stops singing but the music continues, and she can be heard asking "Is this gonna go on forever and ever"? The music still continues and she finally demands "Somebody end this dance lesson!" It abruptly ends. She then says into the microphone "There were some cute ideas there".

 
Thief Of Hearts (alternate demo versions) U.S. copyright registration# PAu-1-605-643

Use slightly different intro, bridge and outro arrangements. One version has what we know at the end of the song placed at the beginning. One uses the voice of a southern black woman to say the line "now sister sit your ass down" instead of Madonna herself as done on the commercial release, and Madonna is briefly heard laughing immediately after. Each demo uses an alternate vocal take.

 
 
The Fake Rain Tapes
 
 The Fake Rain Tapes are a set of fakes of the two cassettes is in circulation, created by a fan who claimed to want to "recreate the experience of listening to the real Rain Tapes". These fakes include the five genuine leaked tracks and are fleshed out with over 20 fake tracks which used the leaked clips, homemade instrumentals and interview excerpts - sourced from many TV sources such as In Bed With Madonna and the Happy Birthday MTV speech - blended with the officially released tracks and including a "Rain Tapes Megamix" of the clips. Unfortunately, these fakes have simply been labelled "The Rain Tapes" and many have accepted them unquestioningly as the genuine item, though most of the fakes bear no resemblance at all to the genuine demos. These fakes are easily recognisable to most thanks to their clumsy editing and sampling. For example, a European fan / musician known as cristiandiorproject took the 25-second clip of Shame and used it as the basis for his own instrumental, inventing lyrics which he then sang over the resulting track (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TfG-nv-BZE&feature=related). This version was then blended with the authentic 25-second clip to create a fake which is instantly recognisable thanks to his off-key vocals and the typical inclusion of monologue from Madonna's TV interviews.
 
Track listing - (Tracks marked with an asterisk are real)
 
Tape 1:
01. Rain (Final Demo - New Harms)
02. Rain (New Vocal) (Damaged)
03. Deeper And Deeper (Final Demo)
04. Bye Baby Baby (1st Day Ruff) *
05. Bye Baby Baby (Final Demo)
06. Bye Baby Baby (2nd Day Ruff)
07. You Are The One (Final Edit Demo) 
08. Shame (Final Demo) 
09. Shame (Straight Pass - Instrumental)
10. In This Life [Edit]
11. Cheat (Drunk Girl) [Edit] *
12. Goodbye To Innocence (Final Edit)
13. Goodbye To Innocence (Straight Pass) *
14. BONUS - Erotica (1st Day Demo)
 
Tape 2:
01. Actions Speak Louder Than Words (Final Edit)
02. Erotica (Final Demo 1 )
03. Actions Speak Louder Than Words (First Day)
04. Actions Speak Louder Than Words (Final Edit 2)
05. Erotica (Rough Mix )
06. Erotica (Final Demo 2 ) *
07. Thief Of Hearts (Old Music) *
08. Thief Of Hearts (New Music)
09. Jitterbug (Song Fragment)

10. Thief Of Hearts (Old Music Again)
11. Bonus - Rain Tapes Megamix (uses the real clips used as the basis for some of these fakes) *
12. Bonus - Cheat (Drunk Girl) [Alternate Demo] * (Real, but not on the Real Rain Tapes)
13. Bonus - Fever (Demo)
 
 
Listen:
This is where links to tracks from both the real and fake Rain Tapes.
If I've forgotten any of them, please post the link below and I'll update the OP!
DL: The Fake Rain Tapes [.rar]: http://www.4shared.com/rar/WlJJ0Nsk/1992_-the_rain_tapes.html?locale=en
 
DL: The Fake Rain Tapes [.zip]: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oquwy9m5euevaho/AABPohO7EozRXb3YCwETc607a

 

DL: REAL Leaks From The Rain Tapes [.zip]: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zm3fe88ovfeuxjb/AABXiHTJnXCEpBor-lYAUn14a

 
You Are The One & Shame HQ: http://www.muumuse.com/2014/07/madonna-erotica-unreleased-demos-you-are-the-one-shame.html/
 
You Thrill Me (REAL Erotica Demo) HQ: http://youtu.be/13awbTN_TJM
 
Another REAL Erotica Demo HQ: http://youtu.be/_4QKe9yhLk0
 
Dear Father (Not from The Rain Tapes but still an Erotica Outtake): http://youtu.be/tlQENpRQ9zY
 
Deeper And Deeper (Demo): http://youtu.be/NlJ5I9UB3qY
 

 The Erotica Diaries are diary entries written by Shep Pettibone during the process of recording/making "Erotica".
 
Introduction

I remember when Madonna and I first started working together on Erotica. We were listening in my home studio to one of the first songs and I turned to her and said "It's great, but it's no Vogue." She told me that not every song could be Vogue - not every cut could emerge as the top-selling record of all time. She was right, but I pressed my case anyway: "I guess I'm always trying to out-top myself," I told her, "the next thing should be bigger than the last." Madonna just turned and looked me straight in the eye. It had been a long time since I'd been star-struck by her, but she was glowing differently now. "Shep," she began, "no matter how fierce something is, you can't ever do the same thing twice." She sat down to record the final vocals on Erotica and looked out onto the terrace and into the New York City night. "Ever," she repeated.

 
Diary Entry #1 July-August 1991

I wanted to start writing again. The last project I had worked on with Madonna was The Immaculate Collection but that was just a month and a half of working with that QSound stuff. I knew I could do something great after Vogue and Rescue Me so I just started putting tracks together with my assistant, Tony Shimkin. I wanted to have a few songs for Madonna to listen to when I went out to Chicago, were she was filming A League Of Their Own. I had no idea that she was planning to do an album at that time, but then again, neither did she. I arrived in Chicago on July 8th and gave Madonna a cassette. I told her to give it a listen and tell me what she thought. She said she'd listen to it in the car, in the trailer, wherever she could. A few days later, I heard back from her. Madonna liked all the songs - three out of three. I decided to work on a few more.

Usually, when I sit down to write, it isn't as if I have a specific person in mind for any one song. By the time I get to a certain place in the music, it begins to mold itself an identity and I think, "Hey, this person would like that." At the time, Cathy Dennis, Taylor Dayne, or Madonna were the primary inspirations for a variety of songs.

 
Diary Entry #2 October-November 1991

Madonna returned to New York and we began to work on demos in my apartment. It's cool working at home. It's convenient, cozy and there's no studio time ticking by. Plus, if you wake up in the middle of the night and have an idea, you just go upstairs, turn on the equipment, and go. Our schedule was kind of sporadic in the beginning. I'd work with her for a week and then she'd go off to work with Steve Meisel on her book (Sex) for two weeks. Occasionally, Madonna would meet with Andre Betts, her co-producer on Justify My Love. While she was away, I would spend time coming up with other tracks or work on Cathy Dennis and Taylor Dayne material. At this point, I wasn't working on any remixes - just writing. Deeper and Deeper, Erotica, Rain and Thief of Hearts made up the first batch of songs we worked on together. I did the music and she wrote the words. Sometimes I'd give her some ideas lyrically and she'd go: "Oh, that's good," or "That sucks." I remember when I gave her some ideas lyrically for Vogue and she said, very curtly, "That's what I do." Essentially, her songs are her stories. They're the things she wants to say.

I did everything upstairs in my home studio: keyboards, bass lines, and vocals. Depending on the mood I was in, I chose from an Oberheim OB8, Korg M3, or a Roland D-50. On the sampling side, the Akai S1000 was our prime workhorse. We used it to sample snake charms for Words and Kool ∓ The Gang horns for Erotica.

When it came time to record demos, we laid down a track of SMPTE on the last track of my 8-track Tascam 388 Studio 8 reel-to-reel, which has dbx. Usually we'd put the track down on tracks 1 and 2 in a stereo mix, and then bring Madonna's vocals in on 3 through 7 - a lead, a double lead, the harmonies, and the background parts. Ninety-eight percent of the time, the vocals recorded in my apartment were the keeper vocals, the ones you hear on the album. It took about two or three days to write a song from beginning to end. Still, sometimes even after they were done we'd want to change the flow of the song and ask the song a few questions: Where should the chorus hit? Should it be a double chorus? Sometimes Madonna would call me in the middle of the night and say "Shep, I think the chorus should go like this," or "I hate this verse, fix the bass line." Deeper and Deeper was one of those songs she always had a problem with. The middle of the song wasn't working. We tried different bridges and changes, but nothing worked. In the end, Madonna wanted the middle of the song to have a flamenco guitar strumming big-time. I didn't like the idea of taking a Philly house song and putting La Isla Bonita in the middle of it. But that's what she wanted, so that's what she got. http://www.sheppettibone.com/erotica_diaries_03.jpg

 
Diary Entry #3 December 1991

"I hate them." That's what she said to me when we listened to the first bunch of songs we'd recorded. I thought it sounded great because some of the songs had a New York house sound and some of them had an L.A. vibe. "If I had wanted the album to sound like that, I'd have worked with Patrick Leonard in L.A.," she told me. I got the point pretty fast. Madonna wanted Erotica to have a raw edge to it, as if it were recorded in an alley at 123rd street in Harlem. She didn't want some light glossy production to permeate her sound. I got back into my usual style of mixing, which is pretty bass oriented, a--log, hit-you-over-the head kind of stuff. When you're recording songs for Madonna, the attitude is: Either make a song work, or it's not going to be on the album. That's that.

Typically, Madonna would get over to my place by one in the afternoon and we'd work until eighth or nine at night. Improvising vocals took one or two passes and by the time the third pass came around, she'd get on the mic and say "Let's go." Madonna has an incredible mind; she locks the melody into her head and memorizes the words immediately. She doesn't even have to read the words off the paper when she's singing.

The only problems were during sequencing, when we had to do something on the Mac that would take some time. Two minutes into it, Madonna would ask us: "What are you guys doing that's taking so long!" - and this was just after the first few minutes. We'd tell her to go downstairs and make some popcorn or phone calls so that we could put the song together and she'd do that for about five minutes before screaming: "Come on, guys, I'm getting bored!" I had to keep things moving as fast as possible because it's one of my jobs to keep Madonna from losing interest in what she's doing. As far as the music went, it was getting a little melancholy by that point. It definitely wasn't up-and-happy music. Maybe I inspired songs like In This Life and Bad Girl because they were written in a minor key. But Madonna's stories were getting a lot more serious and intense and she was definitely driving the creative direction of the songs into deeply personal territory.

 
Diary Entry #4 January-February 1992

I spent the Christmas on vacation in Jamaica and when I got back on January 2, I was like "Oh man, I am not ready for this." There were a lot of intense songs to work on for Madonna, but all I had was this reggae-ish vibe going around in my head. Jamaica had really had an impact on me. I put the vibe down on tape and played it for Madonna, who immediately took to it. Once she got all the lyrics down, the song became Why Is It So Hard.

After it was done we thought: "How about if we get a male Jamaican rapper in here to do some stuff on the record?" We found this guy, Jamaiki, who runs a Jamaican record store uptown. He was this big guy with real deep-ass voice. When we were trying to explain the song to him, he just looked at us and said, "Do you have any rum, man?" By the time Jamaiki, was laying down the tracks in my studio, he was dancing around swigging rum and spilling it everywhere. We ended up not using the track because it sounded to rough for the song, but it was a very fun day - completely different.

By this point, people had begun to realize that Madonna was recording in my penthouse. All her fans would wait outside, even though it was freezing, just to catch a glimpse of her or take a picture. One particular day, when I walked her down to her car, the lobby was filled with building residents getting the mail, hanging out at the front desk, sitting on benches. It was weird because usually the place is empty. After I walked her outside and ran across the street to get the day's newspaper, I came back to find nobody there. People were coming downstairs to the lobby just to get a look at her, even if it was out of the corners of their eyes.

 
Diary Entry #5 March 1992

Now I knew we were doing an album. We had fifteen songs demoed and she liked them all. The last song we did was for the movie, A League Of Their Own. Madonna just started singing a melody over and over again into the Shure SM57 microphone while the Mac with Vision was playing strings, organ, piano and a basic rim-shot loop. It sounded really timeless, very nostalgic. I spent all night filling in the verses and the song became This Used To Be My Playground.

The day after "Playground" was finished, Madonna went to Oregon to work on her next film Body Of Evidence, with Willem Defoe. This gave me some time to wrap up some work on some songs with Cathy Dennis and Taylor Dayne at Soundworks Studios in New York. The workload had grown quite intense since the beginning of the year and it showed no signs of letting up. Thanks to my manager Jane Brinton, we were able to coordinate all the ongoing projects without a hitch. http://www.sheppettibone.com/erotica_diaries_04.jpg

 
Diary Entry #6 May 1992

I met Madonna at Oceanway Studios in Los Angeles to complete the orchestra parts for This Used To Be My Playground. We had to record a string arrangement - something I was excited about but had never done before. Madonna chose Jeremy Lubock to do the arrangements because he had done such a good job with her I'm Breathless Material and came highly recommended. Everything went fine until the point when the orchestra played their parts; we didn't like what we heard. Madonna and I had to change the whole arrangement, right there in the studio, with a full orchestra sitting there getting paid for taking up space - around $15,000 for three hours, $3000 for every half hour over that. And of course, Lubbock was talking to two people who didn't know a C from a B natural. The pressure was on.

I can only sing the notes I hear at the moment, so that's what I did. Madonna and I stood there over my little Mac, singing the notes, and Lubbock would go, "Oh, that's a G; Oh, that's a B" and that's how it got done. We completed the session in 2 hours and 58 minutes - two minutes away from another three grand. The last day of recording fell on Memorial day. Madonna wanted to do the lead vocals again, insisting that it would sound better. It did. I finished off some edits before going over to a party Madonna was throwing in her Hollywood mansion.

 
Diary Entry #7 has been lost

Diary Entry #8 June-July 1992

The schedule for recording at Soundworks in New York went something like this:

June 08 - Erotica
June 09 - Words, Why's It So Hard
June 10 - Why's It So Hard; Thief Of Hearts
June 11 - Thief Of Hearts; Goodbye To Innocence
June 15 - 8-track dumps w/no time-code
June 16 - Deeper And Deeper


And so on, and so on...

We transferred everything we had on the Tascam 8-track onto 24-track. I decided to produce the tracks 15 ips with Dolby SR because it has this warm bottom in the bass and I wanted to capture that for Erotica. Plus, I was listening to some of my old remixes, which were recorded at 15 ips, and was amazed at how much more you could feel the music. Compact discs seem to move you one step away from the music, while records put you right in the mix. So I figured that if I overemphasized that LP feeling, it would rub off on the CD, which is the primary format manufactured for American audiences today. Strangely enough, our country can't get any LP's of Erotica, while the rest of the world can.

On July 7, we did the mixing for Erotic the ode to S ∓ M that Madonna wanted to include in her book, Sex. She felt it should sound the same as Erotica (the song on the album), with just a bass line, her voice and some sensuous Middle Eastern sounds. But by then I had seen the book and had come up with an interesting idea.

"You have all these great stories in the book," I told her, "Why don't you use them in the song?" I knew that Madonna was developing a 1930s dominatrix look for Erotica, but I didn't realize how far she was willing to go before I saw Sex. It contained stories authored by her mysteriously dark alter, Dita. Madonna took the book and walked out of the room and didn't come back until about half an hour later. Suddenly she was on the mic, speaking in this very dry voice. "My name is Dita," she said, "and I'll be your mistress tonight." I knew that the original Erotica would never be the same again, and it wasn't. The chorus and bridge were changed entirely and the whole psyche of the song became s-xier, more to the point. It seemed as if Dita brought out the best in her, actually serving as a vehicle for the dangerous territory she was traveling. Actually, it was the same name Madonna used when she'd stay in hotels around the world. Not anymore.

When July 10 came, I felt my thirty-something years hit me full force. It was the day of reckoning - my birthday, and yet I was stuck in the studio with Madonna, Tony Shimkin, and an animal-balloon-twisting clown to celebrate it with. It was fun for about five minutes, until Madonna said, "Shep, you gotta get back to work." http://www.sheppettibone.com/erotica_diaries_05.jpg

 
Diary Entry #9 August 15, 1992, Mo's Birthday

One of the tracks, Goodbye To Innocence, just wasn't working. There was something about the song that didn't grab Madonna, so we had to fix it. I worked overnight in my studio and came back to Soundworks with a brand new bass line that seemed to do the trick. Madonna put on headphones and got ready to lay down the vocals for Goodbye To Innocence. But instead of singing the original words, which were written last year, Madonna started toying with the lyrics, singing the words to the lounge-lizard act staple, Fever. At first we thought: "This is cool," and it was. It sounded so good that we decided to take it one step further and actually cover the tune. Too bad no one knew the words. What we needed was a copy of Fever if we were going to record it that day. So, Madonna got on the phone with Seymour Stein at Sire Records, and within an hour, we had the lyric sheets, the Peggy Lee version, and the original version of the song in our hands. I was really impressed by how quickly we got it all. That was the last track on Erotica and we finished mixing it just in time to celebrate another birthday - Madonna's.

That night, she had a birthday party on a boat circling Manhattan. Picture about 50 people dancing on a boat with disco blasting out of the portholes and you get the idea. In between dancing and celebrating, I spent the time reflecting on the album. I was confident that it was a great compilation of songs, but I was wondering how people would react to it. It was definitely a different album for her in that it was a dance/pop album, instead of a guitar-laden pop album designed just for top 40. That was a conscious decision on her part because it seemed that the more pop she went, the fewer of her albums people were buying. This time, she's giving the people what they want.

 

Diary Entry #10 September - October 1992

After three and a half months of working in the same studio and hearing the same songs day after day, it was a relief to have the album finished. Everything went smoothly except the last two songs, Why's It So Hard and Words, both of which we had to recall for changes. On September 12, I walked out of Soundworks with the completed master of Erotica in my hands.

A month later, I went to the Sex party. The Erotica blitz was about to hit in music, video, and book form and a variety of stars were coming out for the party. Madonna herself surveyed the scene during the midnight hour. I walked over to meet her in the DJ Booth.

There was all this wild stuff going around us: people tattooing one another, couples simulating s-x - it was crazy. And when I went to talk to Madonna, who was in the middle of it all, our conversations turned to music. For all the multimedia extravaganzas that were braying for her attention, it was still the music that mattered and it was the record that we fawned over. I realized that no matter how far I've come, I still feel the same way that I always did. And then she put the handcuffs on me. NOT!

 

If more information about The Rain Tapes is found, I will be updating the thread.

[Sunny 12,170]

I was waiting for this thread


I just found about them (You told me about them )
THEY NEED TO LEAK!

[Yanko 9,860]

nice op 

[Lina Morgana 974]

nice op 

Thanks!

[nickkoko 918]

Epic thread I always missed the leaks of these. I know that a few of them have leaked that are not listed there.

 

Cheat (Drunk Girl) [Edit]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8HO0lzl2k

 

Goodbye To Innocence (Final Edit): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZCDH0pMQko

**pretty sure this is the real one**

 

Goodbye To Innocence (Straight Pass): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-BTrgriVic

 

Also, could somebody upload these in the highest quality that leaked please? :) I'd love to have them.

 

You Thrill Me (REAL Erotica Demo) HQ: http://youtu.be/13awbTN_TJM

Another REAL Erotica Demo HQ: http://youtu.be/_4QKe9yhLk0

Deeper And Deeper (Demo): http://youtu.be/NlJ5I9UB3qY

[Nullvoid 71]

This is the holy grail  and we will never have the full complete thing

[JudasInTheDark 3]

I still need the new leaks, I had the fake ones lol. If someone would PM me the new "Shame" and "You Are The One" I would loveeeee youuuuu :)

[Pluto 776]

I adore everything about the Erotica era. Definitely Madonna's best album, imo. Is there downloads for the songs that have leaked? I don't really want to rip them off of youtube because then they'll be terrible quality, and I know I used to have some somewhere but I think I deleted them.

[JudasInTheDark 3]

I adore everything about the Erotica era. Definitely Madonna's best album, imo. Is there downloads for the songs that have leaked? I don't really want to rip them off of youtube because then they'll be terrible quality, and I know I used to have some somewhere but I think I deleted them.

This! I'd love for someone to make a zip file :)

[nickkoko 918]

I think I have a bunch of stuff from this on my external hard drive. I've put together an archive :)

 

EDIT: My files are a complete mess. I have no idea what is real and what is fake But I've been told a bunch are included in The Fake Rain Tapes.

[Lina Morgana 974]

Epic thread I always missed the leaks of these. I know that a few of them have leaked that are not listed there.

 

Cheat (Drunk Girl) [Edit]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8HO0lzl2k

 

Goodbye To Innocence (Final Edit): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZCDH0pMQko

**pretty sure this is the real one**

 

Goodbye To Innocence (Straight Pass): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-BTrgriVic

 

Also, could somebody upload these in the highest quality that leaked please? :) I'd love to have them.

All three of these are inlcuded in The Fake Rain Tapes

This! I'd love for someone to make a zip file :)

There's download links to the Fake Rain Tapes which have about 5 real tracks, can be downloaded as a .zip or a .rar

I adore everything about the Erotica era. Definitely Madonna's best album, imo. Is there downloads for the songs that have leaked? I don't really want to rip them off of youtube because then they'll be terrible quality, and I know I used to have some somewhere but I think I deleted them.

I'm in the process of creating a new version of The Fake Rain Tapes with the recently leaked songs in it

[Lina Morgana 974]

I still need the new leaks, I had the fake ones lol. If someone would PM me the new "Shame" and "You Are The One" I would loveeeee youuuuu :)

I'm uploading them on Dropbox, should be ready in about 15 minutes. I'll be updating the link in the OP.

UPDATE: I'm taking the real songs we have so far and making a DL link specifically for the real ones! 

[Pluto 776]

I'm uploading them on Dropbox, should be ready in about 15 minutes. I'll be updating the link in the OP.

UPDATE: I'm taking the real songs we have so far and making a DL link specifically for the real ones! 

Thank you! 

[JudasInTheDark 3]

I'm uploading them on Dropbox, should be ready in about 15 minutes. I'll be updating the link in the OP.

UPDATE: I'm taking the real songs we have so far and making a DL link specifically for the real ones!

YAYYYY thanks so much!! Let me know when the link with all the real songs in it is completed :)

[Lina Morgana 974]

YAYYYY thanks so much!! Let me know when the link with all the real songs in it is completed :)

 

Thank you! 

 Here's some info about some tracks beforehand:

Jitterbug: This is a song that was scrapped in it's early development. The rest of the song has been taped over and It is in fact from The Rain Tapes. Madonna abandoned the song at an early stage and it was later given to Cathy Dennis, who reworked it into "Everybody Move", That's why some sources get confused and think that the song is just an instrumental of "Everybody Move".

Cheat (Drunk Girl) [Alternate Demo]: This track IS a real demo but it's not on The Rain Tapes, but I'm including it anyways.

 

HQ DL For real songs from The Rain Tapes: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zm3fe88ovfeuxjb/AABXiHTJnXCEpBor-lYAUn14a