The ‘Like A Prayer’ album wasn’t just brilliant for its music, but for its entire artfully-executed surroundings. Madonna has always been about image, and her hippie-inspired 60’s retro-chic outfitting for the ‘Like A Prayer’ era was a stunning collection of sounds, sights and even scents. (She had the original pressings incorporate patchouli into the packaging, lending the whole experience an incense-like spiritual vibe perfectly in keeping with the production at hand.)
I searched the world over (ok, the malls of upstate New York) to find that rope of beads so beautifully dangling from her open button-fly denims, all to no avail. Years later I eventually fashioned my own set so I could pay proper homage to this incredible album. I don’t quite have her killer abs, but I’ve amassed a solid collection of rings to at least evoke the mood. Sometimes an evocation – the merest echo of the original clarion – will have to suffice.
At least we have the music.
