No, this isn’t a post about 3M Scotch tape, which many of us are struggling to find now that it’s present-wrapping season. I always buy some ridiculous 96-pack of the stuff and still somehow never have a roll on hand when I really need it. Also, did Scotch tape originate in Scotland? Just another seasonal question to ponder while you’re wrapping a pair of fitted sheets and wondering how they came to be so perfectly-folded in their package, never to be again. So many digressions, I’ve almost forgotten the point of this post.
Ahh, yes: 3M. As in three ‘M’ words that form the memory core of this post. The first being Madonna. As illustrated in the accompanying pics, she is the main thrust of what we have here, and the last one below is from her ‘Sex’ book anniversary in Miami. Her hairstyle echoes the one she wore to the premiere party of that book way back in that heady autumn of 1992. We’ve all come a long way, baby. Another digression.
The second ‘M’ is her song ‘Masterpiece’, a shuffling little ballad from the days leading into the ‘MDNA’ period – Holiday 2011 or thereabouts. Aside from a questionable ‘Santa Baby’ cover in the mid-80’s, Madonna hasn’t really done a Christmas-themed song (and the decidedly-non-Christmas ‘Holiday’ is NOT a fucking Christmas song) but for me, ‘Masterpiece’ will always come the closest thanks to my incessant playing of it on a holiday weekend in New York.
The third and final ‘M’ for the moment is Messiah – a majestic ballad from her under-rated and under-appreciated ‘Rebel Heart’ album. That too came along in a winter, post-holiday, but Christmas is supposedly all about the big M himself, Jesus Christ, and so ‘Messiah’ took on a Christmas slant, and its dramatic and slightly-forlorn feel mirrored some similarly depressing holiday moments. It ain’t all angels and holly.
Both of these songs have come to embody the holidays for me, as incongruous as Prince’s ‘Diamonds and Pearls’ perhaps, but no less lovely in my twisted heart. It always seemed that Madonna just wanted Christmas to be over so she could go back to focusing on herself and her career, but who knows – maybe she secretly loves the holiday, and has since way before Mariah made it her own. I kind of doubt it though – Madonna has never been one for sentimentality – one of the reasons I loved her in the first place.
