Madonna’s ‘Hard Candy’ Turns 5: Stan & Deliver

Name: Bradley Stern | Location: New York, NY | Twitter: @muumuse

5. Miles Away: When Madonna took to the stage, guitar in hand, at the TD Bank North Garden in Boston on her Sticky & Sweet Tour, she began with a dedication: “This song is dedicated to the emotionally retarded. You may know a few people who fall into that category — God knows I do.” As it turned out, she’d just signed papers to divorce her then-husband, Guy Ritchie earlier that day, resulting in a particularly acidic performance of the song that evening.

“Miles Away” is one of Hard Candy‘s greatest offerings; a heartfelt reflection on the strain of long distance love set on top of a gorgeous, acoustic guitar strum, dreamy melodies (“so far away…”) and, for some added mmph, Timbaland’s beatboxing. According to the producer, the song was stitched together using a variety of phrases, poetry and random scribblings that Madonna kept to herself in giant notebooks. (Later on, the “Miles Away” lyric “I just woke up from a fuzzy dream / You never would believe the things that I have seen” would also appear on the Paul Oakenfold-produced Celebration-era track, “Broken (I’m Sorry).”)

It’s funny, considering the seemingly haphazard “word jumble” approach at songwriting, that “Miles Away” is actually one of Madonna’s better ballads, and a rare moment of vulnerability tucked into the otherwise cocky confines of Hard Candy. Well — not entirely vulnerable: “I’m alright, don’t be sorry, but it’s true / When I’m gone, you’ll realize that I’m the best thing that happened to you,” she snarls in the song’s all-too-prophetic bridge, exchanging the sorrow for a dose of venom. Of course, she’s right.