There was one name that poked out incongruously among the featured artists list on Madonna’s Rebel Heart tracklist: Mike Tyson is listed on a song named Iconic. Initially it seems odd, but the boxer recently explained that he’s contributed a spoken word piece.
If “Madonna calls you and tells you to come somewhere, you go,” Tyson told Rolling Stone. “I didn’t know what the hell I was going there for. I’m just there having a good time and hanging out with Madonna. She has her producer there and I go into the studio and I didn’t know if she wanted me to talk or rap. I just go in there and start talking. I’m talking about my life and things that I have endured. I’m saying some really crazy stuff. It was really intense.”
While we’ll have to wait until March to hear what he said, spoken word segments in songs can go one of endless ways: for example, they can introduce a story (The Shangri-Las’ Leader of the Pack, All Saints’ Never Ever), make a random reference to a blockbuster film that makes no sense whatsoever (Britney Spears’ Oops I Did It Again), recite a piece of pertinent verse (er, that new Texas video with Alan Rickman, Boyz II Men’s End of the Road), finish a dramatic 60s song with a psychedelic poem (the Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin) or just simple verbal playfulness (Neneh Cherry’s “What is he like?” during Buffalo Stance). In some cases, such as Phil Daniels in Parklife, the spoken word segment may eclipse the song’s central vocal part itself.
Tyson took unlikely inspiration from Benito Mussolini while in the studio (“You watch Mussolini on television – even though we don’t understand what he’s saying – he is so mesmerizing. I look at myself in that way”). Perhaps he should have taken inspiration from someone like James Brown instead.
So what are your favourite spoken word parts? Let us know in the comments below.
