Category Archives: Madonna

{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle, and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}

Like the sun, like the light, like a flame
Like the storm I burn through everything
Like a bomb in the night, Like a train
Thundering through the hills, Let it rain…

I’m a sinner, I like it that way…

Another highlight off Madonna’s most recent album ‘MDNA‘, this is the joyously unrepentant ‘I’m A Sinner’. It’s got the guitar-heavy William Orbit touches that made the ‘Ray of Light’ album such an organic, grounded experience, and some cheeky religious references to give it a classic Madonna edge. It’s also a fun sing-a-long, and one of the more merry bits of the MDNA Tour. In that performance, she mashes it up with an unlikely B-side, ‘Cyberraga’, in a genius melding that must be seen to be believed.

All the boys, all the boys and girls
Wanna be like us tonight
All the boys, all the boys and girls
Ride the magic bus tonight

I’m a sinner, I’m a sinner,
I’m a sinner, I like it that way
I’m a sinner, I’m a sinner,
I’m a sinner, I like it that way…

Like a moon with no light of my own
Search the sky for a place to call home
I woke up with my head in the fire
Get my kicks when I’m walking the wire

I’m a sinner, I like it that way…

All the boys, all the boys and girls
Wanna be like us tonight
All the boys, all the boys and girls
Ride the magic bus tonight

I’m a sinner, I’m a sinner,
I’m a sinner, I like it that way
I’m a sinner, I’m a sinner,
I’m a sinner, I like it that way…

For my part, this song was one of the first I danced to with my niece and nephew. They were two at the time, but already bouncing about and parading around the dining room. They won’t remember that, but I will.

Outside, the summer day shifted the shadow of the house over the lawn. The red wagon in which I’d pull them around the block sat waiting for the next ride. Inside, the carpet was soft against our bare feet, and we were dancing to Madonna. I was their silly Uncle, acting like a kid again, and it was like a dream and a prayer and the innocence of childhood all over again.

Hail Mary, full of grace
Get down on your knees and pray
Jesus Christ, hanging on the cross
Died for our sins, it’s such a loss
Saint Christopher, found my way
I’ll be coming home one day
Saint Sebastian, don’t you cry
Let those poison arrows fly…

Saint Anthony, lost and found
Thomas Aquinas, stand your ground
All the saints and holy men
Catch me before I sin again.

We were supposedly born with original sin thrust upon us, erased only with the magic of baptism, but how soon we soil ourselves again. One can’t get through childhood without getting a little dirty. For some of us, it’s more than a little. But dancing with a couple of two-year-olds, even at my ripe old age, I feel clean again, and pure, and I can say that I’m a sinner, that we’re all sinners, and revel in it with no shame.

My niece and nephew don’t yet know or care about sin. Their only concerns are that I can bring them around in their wagon, or dance like a lunatic in the dining room, or read them a story when they tire out. The worst atrocities they can commit are a few thrown toys and the occasional temper tantrum, but nothing that rises to anything remotely sinful.

That miraculous live version…

I’m a sinner, I’m a sinner,
I’m a sinner, I like it that way
I’m a sinner, I’m a sinner,
I’m a sinner, I like it that way

You’re a sinner, you’re a sinner
You’re a sinner, you like it that way
We’re all sinners, we’re all sinners
We’re all sinners

Song #99: ‘I’m A Sinner’ ~ Summer 2012

{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle, and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}

When did your name change from a word to a charm?
No other sound makes the hair stand up on the back of my arm
All of the letters push to the front of my mouth
And saying your name is somewhere between a prayer and a shout
And I can’t get it out…

The road is dark, but it’s a clear stretch for a couple of miles. It’s still early in spring, but this night is just warm enough to open the windows and slide back the sunroof. I reach my hand into the rush of air, feel it push against my skin then move beyond. I’m driving along the back roads of upstate New York, listening to Track 3 of the new Madonna album, ‘MDNA’. As on all her records, there are a few stand-out tracks that instantly take up residence in the ear, songs that you feel emotionally, viscerally, and all-encompassingly. ‘I’m Addicted’ is one of them. I crank up the volume and the car picks up speed.

When did your name change from language to magic?
I write it again on the back of my hand, and I know it sounds tragic
Fame’s like a drug and I can’t get enough and it fits like a glove
I’m addicted to your love
I’m addicted to your love
I’m addicted to your love…

The same excitement that accompanies the release of every Madonna album is palpable in the air. It will, I hope, always be that way for me. Other passions may ebb and wane, but Madonna has always managed to inspire. This night proves no different. I’m as giddy as I was on the nights that ‘Erotica’, ‘Bedtime Stories’, ‘Ray of Light‘,’Music‘, ‘American Life‘, ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor‘, and ‘Hard Candy‘ were released. And the best place to listen to new music is in the car – in solitude, in motion, in tune with the driving beat.

Now that your name pumps like the blood in my veins
Pulse through my body, igniting my mind, it’s like MDMA (and that’s ok)
Fame’s like a drug and I can’t get enough and it fits like a glove
I’m addicted to your love
I’m addicted to your love
I’m addicted to your love…

Street lights whiz by overhead, the wind swirls madly in and out of the car, and in a way the whole universe is dancing – the stars in the sky, the glistening raindrops left from earlier, and the glowing dashboard. We move together, at ear-throttling volume and break-neck speed, as her voice simultaneously rises and deepens at this, the climax of the whole thing, the whole night, possibly the whole album:

I need this exchange
I don’t care if you think that I’m strange
Something happens to me when I hear your voice
Something happens to me and I have no choice

I need to hear your name
Everything feels so strange
I’m ready to take this chance
I need to dance…

Release, relief, and utter abandon. If I could have lived my whole life like I feel at this moment – a perpetual high, a lofty joy – I might have made something more out of everything. Instead, these occasional Madonna peaks will have to do. I ride it tonight, soaring like the smallest water droplet on the crest of the wind, careening through the night sky in gleeful amazement and wide-eyed wonder. I can’t wait to do it again.

Fame’s like a drug and I can’t get enough and it fits like a glove
I’m addicted to your love
I’m addicted, I’m addicted, I’m addicted to your
I’m addicted, I’m addicted, I’m addicted to your love. 

Song #98: ‘I’m Addicted’ ~ Spring 2012

{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle, and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}

This is a pretty straight-forward paint-by-the-numbers pop love song, the kind that Madonna can do in her sleep, and it sort of sounds like part of it was done in exactly that way. Another of the more lack-luster cuts off her otherwise-electric MDNA album,’Superstar’ is standard fare, with its adulatory lyrics and bubblegum melodies, and as such it feels a bit flat.

You’re like Brando on the silver screen
You’re my hero in a mythical dream
You are perfect just the way that you are
You’re Mike Jordan, you’re my superstar

Ooh la la, you’re my superstar
Ooh la la, love the way that you are
Ooh la la, you’re my superstar
Ooh la la, that’s what you are

It may be most notable for its use as the 2012 Bravo television summer theme song, and it does have an easy-going summer vibe to it, somewhere along the soft-focus lines of ‘Cherish’. But the latter eventually won me over – this one has yet to do so.

I’m your biggest fan, it’s true
Hopelessly attracted to you
You can have the keys to my car
I’ll play you a song on my guitar

Oooh la la, you’re my superstar
Oooh la la, love the way that you are
Oooh la la, you’re my superstar
Oooh la la, that’s what you are

Still, it’s neat to hear Madonna ticking off other historical greats, a little wink and nod to her epic ‘Vogue’ rap, and the song should also be noted for it being the first on which her daughter Lola added backing vocals. (Though if no one told me that I’d never have heard it – and to be honest, it’s still a stretch to make them out.)

You’re my gangster
You’re like Al Capone
You’re like Caesar
Stepping onto the throne
You’re Abe Lincoln
Cause you fight for what’s right
You’re my angel
Bringing peace to my life

Ooh la la, you’re my superstar
Ooh la la, love the way that you are
Ooh la la, you’re my superstar
Ooh la la, that’s what you are

Usually, she does a little better in the lyrics department, especially when swooning over objects of desire. These are too trite and repetitious to merit much more than passing notice, and that’s not something you can typically do with Madonna.

I’m your biggest fan, it’s true
Hopelessly attracted to you
You can have the password to my phone
I’ll give you a massage when you get home

Ooh la la, you’re my superstar
Ooh la la, love the way that you are
Ooh la la, you’re my superstar
Ooh la la, that’s what you are

I’m guessing she didn’t find much of interest in this either, as it was one of the few cuts on the MDNA album that she didn’t perform on the most recent tour. I’m equally uninspired, and unimpressed. Let’s just fast-forward.

You’re Bruce Lee with the way that you move
You’re Travolta getting into your groove
You’re James Dean driving in your fast car
You’re a hot track, you’re my super duper star

You’re my superstar
You’re my superstar (ooh la la, ooh la la)
You’re my superstar (ooh la la, ooh ooh ooh ooh la la)

 Song #97 ~ ˜Superstar’ – Summer 2012

It was 30 years ago today that Sire Records released Madonna’s debut album, entitled simply ‘Madonna’. Unlike many casual fans, and some die-hard ones as well, I’m more a fan of her later work than her earlier stuff. In fact, with the possible exception of ‘Holiday’ (and then only when it’s done up Blonde Ambition style), I’m not enthralled with any of the cuts off her first album. (Not even ‘Borderline’, and certainly not ‘Lucky Star’.) But I’m aware of their importance in her career, and I know many a fan who considers them integral to her oeuvre. So with that in mind, let’s celebrate this date, because 30 years of anything is pretty damn impressive.

{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle, and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}

While it’s one of the weaker cuts on the otherwise-brilliant ‘MDNA’ album (Review #1 and #2), ‘I Don’t Give A…’ is also one of Madonna’s most defiant fuck-off songs to date, brutally referencing her role as ex-wife and single mother, along with all the other things that go into making Madonna the icon she is.

Wake up ex-wife, this is your life

Children on your own, planning on the telephone

Messengers, manager, no time for a manicure

Working out, shake my ass, I know how to multi-task

In an exhausting list of all that comprises her life, she ticks off the mundane and the meaningful, and after thirty-plus years of doing this – and doing it her way – you have to give her credit. The song speaks to defiance and courage, doing what you’re going to do no matter what, no matter how many people tell you not to do it, and following your heart in spite of a world of doubters and naysayers. I know that feeling – we all do on some level – but only a few of us fight through to the end, to find justice and the realization that we were right all along.

I tried to be a good girl, I tried to be your wife

Diminished myself, and I swallowed my light

I tried to become all that you expect of me

And if it was a failure, I don’t give a…

The song itself borders on a bit of a rap. Whenever Madonna goes rap-lite, it’s a crap shoot. It can work brilliantly (‘Vogueâ’ or ‘Mother and Father’) or it can go down dismally (‘American Life’). This is somewhere between the two, but she doesn’t embarrass herself, even when chased by Nicki Minaj (who gets the epic final line).

Drawbacks aside, check out the phenomenal finale to this song. There are no words (literally) as the music builds to its climax. It was most effectively staged in the MDNA Tour when, after chucking her guitar and disappearing for a moment, she rises atop a single platform. A red cross glows above her, and as the music builds, she goes higher and higher, prone but defiant, down but going up, and in the end she smashes it all to bits, along with all the judgment and stifling preconceptions that have dogged her over the years.

I’m gonna be okay, I don’t care what the people say

I’m gonna be all right, gonna live fast and I’m gonna live right.

There’s only one queen, and that’s Madonna, bitch.

Song #96: ‘I Don’t Give A…’ – Summer 2012

{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle, and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}

I’m gonna wake up, yes and no

I’m gonna kiss some part of

I’m gonna keep this secret

I’m gonna close my body now

In the late summer of 2002, Madonna released her first James Bond theme, ‘Die Another Day’. The jittery, stilted techno-buzz of her collaboration with Mirwais (begun two years earlier on ‘Music’) continued here, but seemed to be keeping time and maintaining rather going in new exciting directions. Still, the strings were a dramatic touch, and the song itself was a neat credo to Madonna’s death-defying career.

Sigmund Freud – Analyze this, analyze this, analyze this!

As one of those between-break soundtrack songs that she releases to bridge her musical output (think ‘Crazy For You‘, ‘I’ll Remember‘, ‘This Used to be My Playground‘, ‘Beautiful Stranger’ or ‘American Pie’) I focused and obsessed about it as I tend to do when starved for new material, but in the ensuing years its interest and structure has weakened. (It would also prove to be the lead-off, and highest-charting single for her ‘American Life’ album, though it felt a bit tagged-on at that point.)

I’m gonna break the cycle

I’m gonna shake up the system

I’m gonna destroy my ego

I’m gonna close my body now

Minor Madonna chagrins put aside, I mostly thrilled at the first few listens. It was late summer, and I was about to embark on a new project (The Talented Trickster Tour Book: Reflections of a Floating World). The sun was beating down, drying and browning all that was once fresh and green. It burned the little remaining moisture out of the leaves, desiccating their veins, leaving them brittle and cracked, ripe for the fall. The scent of a dying summer has never been entirely sad – such things cannot go on forever, and it’s good to know when to take a rest. It’s also a good time to recharge creatively. My focus tends to disappear in the hazy summer months of chlorine-fueled filters, so when fall was on the horizon and a new Madonna song was on the stereo, it was the perfect collusion for a creative explosion.

I think I’ll find another way

There’s so much more to know

I guess I’ll die another day

It’s not my time to go.

For every sin, I’ll have to pay

A time to work, a time to play

I think I’ll find another way

It’s not my time to go.

It always rings hollow and trite to talk about the ‘creative process.’ Not only that, it reeks of self-importance. As much as I like to give off that vibe, it’s not really me. But I do think there’s something worth noting in the way that certain artists give so much of themselves up for their art. If we really care, a little of us dies with everything we create, at least if it’s worth something, if it matters. You can’t rend an emotion, a reaction, a feeling, without being affected in some small way – and often in some large way.

We thrash ourselves, mutilating our emotions, putting our process through the ringer, for an end result that is never guaranteed. Not only is it not guaranteed, it runs the risk of ruin. We are vessels, conduits for some greater force, and we’re not always in control. In fact, I’d wager that most of us are supremely out of control when it comes to that. Why do we do it? What makes some of us go to such extremes? That won’t be answered in a Madonna Timeline – at least not this one.

I’m gonna avoid the cliche

I’m gonna suspend my senses

I’m gonna delay my pleasure

I’m gonna close my body now.

The video Madonna filmed for this is actually much better than the song – showing three versions of herself: the tortured prisoner (in bloodied, beaten, torn-tank-top form), the white tufted heroine, and the black-clad villain who gets it in the end. In it, the battle between good and evil, light and dark, artist and human, finds visual release as two Madonnas battle to the death. It’s fitting that she references Sigmund Freud, considering all the psychoanalytical undercurrents running through the piece, and a deeper reading than this one will be might have more to say about her three characters and their relation to the id, the ego, and the super ego. On the surface, it’s a nice ode to Bond, a chilly, taut martini of a song that manages to be both elegant and raw, positing deeper questions within the guise of the stuttering techno-beats and deconstructed strings.

I think I’ll find another way

There’s so much more to know

I guess I’ll die another day

It’s not my time to go.

Song #95: ‘Die Another Day’ ~ August 2002