Category Archives: Madonna

03
April
2019
Tags: Madonna
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X by M, and an A

Madonna posted a cryptic triple-triptych on her Instagram account, with nine images working together to one big red ‘X’ which we are all assuming is some message about her upcoming album (praise be). In the same vein of those who re-created her wire-bound face from the ‘Rebel Heart’ album, I made my own tribute because I like red and I like the letter ‘A.’ 

As for what this means in Madonna’s world, your guess is as good as mine, and I don’t even have one. Life is a mystery, and I’m not trying to figure it out anymore. Just give us some music, put your ‘Vogue’ costume on, and that’s your outfit for the night. 

The 150th entry in the Madonna Timeline is due to be posted this weekend, so keep your eyes open for that. Until then, here’s a selective group of timelines that you may have missed or intentionally skipped. Best to come up to speed before we go much further. A quick recap of some notable timelines:

#133 – Easy Ride

#134 – Inside Out

#139 – American Pie

#140 – Express Yourself

#141 – Body Shop

#142 – Vogue

#144 – Mer Girl

#147 – Secret Garden

#148 – American Life

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29
March
2019
Tags: Madonna, Music
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The Madonna Timeline: Song #149 ~ ‘Now I’m Following You: Part 1’ – Summer 1990

{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.}

LET’S DANCE, YOU CAN DO A LITTLE TWO-STEP
I’LL GO ANYWHERE THAT YOU STEP TO, ‘CAUSE I’M FOLLOWING YOU.
MY FEET MIGHT BE FALLING OUT OF RHYTHM,
DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING WITH THEM, BUT I KNOW I’M FOLLOWING YOU.

I suppose I should be grateful that Part 1 came before Part 2, otherwise it might have been awkward. As it stands, this Madonna Timeline will prove difficult enough, so I’m going back to basics, reminding myself of what this blog feature was originally meant to be. An encapsulation of what was going on in my life when a certain Madonna song came to prominence – whether that was in the world, or in my private life. In this case, it will mostly be my own little memory, as ‘Now I’m Following You, Part 1’ made about as big an impact as ‘Now I’m Following You, Part 2’ – which is to say not much.

It formed the main lip-syncing portion of Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour, appearing in the Dick Tracy segment. The period feel of the music and innocence of the sentiment is all fully intact in Part 1. We’ll get to Part 2 in another timeline.

UNLIKELY AS IT IS TO ME, ON THE FLOOR WITH TWO LEFT FEET
LET’S BOOGIE WOOGIE TILL OUR HEARTS SKIP A BEAT, BUT WHO’S COUNTING?
ENCORE, ONCE AGAIN AROUND THE DANCE FLOOR
ROMANCE IS IN THE PICTURE TOO, NOW I’M FOLLOWING YOU.
TAKE IT AWAY, BOYS.

‘I’m Breathless: Music Form and Inspired by the Film Dick Tracy’ was released in the spring of 1990 – just as the movie was about to come out, and Madonna was riding high on the wings of ‘Vogue’ and the Blond Ambition Tour. It was one of the most iconic moments, following as it did on the heels of ‘Like A Prayer’ and presaging the sexiness of ‘Erotica’ to come. That spring melted into a hot and sultry summer. Sticky and humid like all upstate New York summers, when the air hung thickly with the sweet scent of mockorange and fringe tree. The decadence of ‘Vogue’ brought the masses to the showtunes of Stephen Sondheim, who helmed a trio of songs on the album, while Madonna and Patrick Leonard fashioned their own selection of convincing period music, which included ‘Now I’m Following You, Part 1.’

I loved that album – its moody theatrical bent combined my love of Broadway with my love of Madonna – and it came with me (in my mind only) when I visited the then-Soviet Union. Upon my return, I resumed its non-stop rotation.

Oh, I almost forgot the most notable part of this song – it’s a duet with Warren Beatty! What is Mr. Beatty doing singing on a Madonna song? La publicidad! And maybe some romance was actually in the picture too – who can say? Dick Tracy was a hit for both of them, even if it cost a lot to make, restoring some silver screen luster to Madonna’s rather rusty track record. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, this appears to be a rather sweet period in Madonna’s career and romantic life. She was tottering on the verge of mainstream Disney approval, and maybe playing it so safely bothered her. She would eventually take the road less travelled, which is what most of us loved about her, leaving Disney in the dust and provoking the Gods of Sex into orgasmic, damning glory. But that was a year or two away. For now, they danced until the record skipped…

UNLIKELY AS IT IS TO ME, ON THE FLOOR WITH TWO LEFT FEET
LET’S BOOGIE WOOGIE TILL OUR HEARTS SKIP A BEAT, BUT WHO’S COUNTING?
ENCORE, ONCE AGAIN AROUND THE DANCE FLOOR
ROMANCE IS IN THE PICTURE TOO, NOW I’M FOLLOWING YOU.
OH DEAR…

SONG #149: ‘Now I’m Following You – Part 1’ ~ Summer 1990

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21
March
2019
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Crotch-Shot Homage to Madonna

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. 

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21
March
2019
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Tiny Threads: An Insignificant Series

‘Like A Prayer’ has a Madonna Timeline entry for almost every single track. (We’ll get to ‘Love Song’ someday…) As we celebrate the album’s 30th anniversary, let’s look back.

  1. Like A Prayer
  2. Express Yourself
  3. Love Song
  4. Til Death Do Us Part
  5. Promise To Try
  6. Cherish
  7. Dear Jessie
  8. Oh Father
  9. Keep It Together
  10. Pray for Spanish Eyes
  11. Act of Contrition

Thanks to the powers that be.

#TinyThreads

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21
March
2019
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The Day Our Prayers Were Answered: ‘Like A Prayer’ Turns 30

Arguably her second greatest album (after ‘Ray of Light‘), ‘‘Like A Prayer‘ was released exactly thirty years ago on this date in 1989. I would rank it second based on its first two singles alone, but the remaining tracks are equally brilliant (give or take an eccentric Prince contribution and the often-problematic final track of a Madonna album).

In March of 1989, I was thirteen years old.

Tricky time of life, thirteen.

In some cultures that’s considered the point of life when your soul solidifies into what it’s going to be for life. For me, it was roughly the time of adult cognizance, the point at which I can start remembering most of what happens in a day rather than have it obscured by the murky half-remembrances of childhood (and the murky non-remembrances of the past decade, when memory stopped being made).

It was my last year at Wilbur H. Lynch Middle School ~ that quick two-year experience between elementary and high school ~ and as the winter neared its completion that year, we were all a little antsy. And bored. Raised on NBC’s daytime line-up, I hungered for drama and intrigue, for something more exciting than Social Studies or band. In the hallway outside the auditorium of the school, an expansive marble staircase wound its way up to the second floor. In mottled shades of gray, the marble was a glimpse of something beautiful in the midst of so much mediocrity. So too was Madonna’s new album in the pop landscape in 1989.

‘Like A Prayer’ shocked many, surprised some, and scared the hell out of me once the whispered beginnings and backward choir of ‘Act of Contrition’ kicked in. So entrenched in the Catholic dogma was I that one spring evening I found myself in the backyard holding a heavy stone over my head, about to smash it down on the cassette version of ‘Like A Prayer’ in an act of divine loyalty. It still wasn’t enough to keep ‘Like A Prayer’ from instantly searing itself into my memory bank. But I digress…

On those mornings, after I was dressed and about to depart for school, I’d sneak a peek at whatever was on MTV in my parents room. Dad had been at the hospital working for an hour already, while mom was downstairs waiting for my brother. Over their bed hung a large, graphic crucifix. The crown of thorns was slightly dusty. Cobwebs draped the arms of Jesus. His sorrowful expression, eyes closed in death or impending death, gave no hint or knowledge of any future resurrection. The blood pouring forth from his nailed hands must have made knowledge like that incredibly useless.

The dark early morning and the drawn shades meant that only the television was lighting the room. Flames of burning crosses lit up the crucifix and surrounding walls as Madonna danced to ‘Like A Prayer’ and I shuddered at whether this crossed the borderline into something blasphemous or sinful. Would God punish me for this? Would he punish my family? Guilt, loyalty, reverence and impudence crossed my mind and took up battle with one another. Religion clashed with nature clashed with spirituality clashed with gleeful demonic possession. A statue of a black saint bled ruby blood from his eyes while Madonna’s own palms were suddenly inflicted with stigmata ostensibly from a dropped knife. All the while, the music raged and the choir sang and the whole thing was so rapturous I thought I might die right there on the bed.

My mother’s voice breaks the reverie. My brother rushes by in the hall and thunders down the stairs. As the day goes by, I walk the hallways of school and think of Madonna’s song. Hearing it play in my mind, I envision the marble and the columns and the grandiosity of the school architecture rising to majestic heights and magnificence as if they were transforming into an iconic church. Echoes of children bounced off the stone, rose into the air, and collided with other voices. Angelic innocence smothered by devilish treachery. We were all just animals struggling to survive.

At such a young age ~ and yes, once upon a long time ago the age of thirteen was incredibly young and relatively innocent ~ I was not yet interested in girls. Little did I understand or even realize then, beyond a stirring I did my best to keep quiet and still, that I would never be interested in girls. Something like ‘Love Song’ was lost on entirely on me, as the stuff of crushes and infatuations would not come into play for several years. Of more immediate concern was the idea of parental abandonment and strife as portrayed in ‘Oh Father‘ and ‘Promise To Try‘ ~ on the cusp of adolescence, my issues with my parents were about to become as understandably strained as those of any young gay guy being raised in a strict, Catholic, half-Filipino household. I simply didn’t know it then, and was not ready to confront anyone or anything. Madonna sang for me, whether I realized it or not, and we began building an irrevocable bond that no one would ever fully understand.

Other songs sounded good, even if I didn’t have a clue about the pain that was being conveyed. I was happily light years away from understanding anything about ‘Til Death Do Us Part‘ ~ but the warning was implicit, not that there was any magic trick to avoiding falling in love. If there was, I’m sure I wouldn’t follow it. Most thirteen-year-olds won’t be bothered with such warnings, unless it’s to explicitly defy them. I wasn’t that difficult, yet, and so I listened from the safe vantage point of a bystander, enthralled and transfixed by the woman whose music always brought such exuberant joy and happiness. To that end, ‘Like A Prayer’ was distinctly different from the confections of ‘True Blue’ and ‘Like A Virgin‘ (even if there was ‘Cherish’).

Mostly this album was the start of a somber time. There was maybe one more year of carefree youth before things started to really change, before we took the irretrievable steps beyond childhood, when ‘Keep it Together‘ became the real prayer. The lament of ‘Pray for Spanish Eyes‘ and the lost enchantment of ‘Dear Jessie‘ hinted at darker days to come. The marble halls of my middle school days were already receding into memory, dissolving like some smoky sleight of hand, mere wisps of fragmented sounds and scents, faded evocations of a time that had no end and no beginning…

The ‘Like A Prayer’ album would be with me for the rest of my life, evolving and meaning different things to me as the years passed. I would come to understand all the songs that I could only feel the surface of back then, and the songs that I thought I knew so well would eventually reveal layers of meaning and a resonance that would continually inform my journey. (‘Express Yourself’ indeed.)

That’s the mark of a great music album.

It’s also the mark of a great musician. 

Madonna proved herself with ‘Like A Prayer’ – and that was no mystery. 

We no longer stood alone. 

 

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16
March
2019
Tags: Madonna, Music
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The Madonna Timeline: Song #148 – ‘American Life’ ~ Spring 2003

{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.}

It was autumn of 2002. Andy and I were on one of our fall trips to Ogunquit, Maine. I was browsing in an antique store when the proclamation came over the radio. Between an ancient case of costume jewelry and a box of plastic-covered sepia-toned movie posters, I paused as the announcement interrupted the music. America was going to war. It struck me how old-fashioned the world suddenly felt. Even though this was the era before FaceBook and Twitter and social media as we now ubiquitously know it, an emergency message over the radio felt like a nostalgic throwback to another time. The imminent war also heralded the return of American soldiers to losing their lives in such regularity that we would become numb to it.

By the time the spring of 2003 arrived, the country had reconciled itself to a fate that felt impossible to escape. Duped by the war-happy GOP-led administration, national pride in the aftermath of 9/11 led to all sorts of evil decisions and hapless public support. Despite the objections of sensible people, despite the unnecessary cost of a war based on unreliable data and outright lies, America embarked upon a War on Terror – a war which is being waged to this very day. Such was the battle-drawn background of Madonna’s ‘American Life’ album, and the scene into which the lead single of the same name was dropped.

DO I HAVE TO CHANGE MY NAME? 
WILL IT GET ME FAR? 
SHOULD I LOSE SOME WEIGHT? 
AM I GONNA BE A STAR?

Spring was in the air – it smelled of possibility, of hope, and of a new beginning. I had been working at the Thruway Authority in an office full of men – a far cry and another world away from the office I had left, which had been filled mostly with women. I had free parking about 50 feet from the building entrance and was able to drive myself to work – a luxury of independence that I both cherished and fought against. (It’s nice to be driven around, especially in the cruel cold of winter or the blazing heat of summer; coming out to a car parked in an unsheltered lot all day in either situation is a pain in the ass.)

I was somewhat new to the job, and as I moved up in my state career every fresh start would be familiar territory, though never comfortable. It’s tough to be the new guy in the office, especially in your early 20’s. Shot through with insecurity, I leaned on my go-to inspiration for all those times when an extra dose of confidence was needed: Madonna. Her new album was being released, and after the block-buster success of her last musical endeavor, the ‘Music‘ album, it seemed she was ripe for a full-on embrace of Mirwais, the French electro-pop genius whose stuttering, vocoder-heavy work was the sound of the future.

I TRIED TO BE A BOY, 
I TRIED TO BE A GIRL 
I TRIED TO BE A MESS, 
I TRIED TO BE THE BEST 
I GUESS I DID IT WRONG, 
THAT’S WHY I WROTE THIS SONG 
THIS TYPE OF MODERN LIFE – IS IT FOR ME? 
THIS TYPE OF MODERN LIFE – IS IT FOR FREE?

Once upon a time, controversy meant nothing but success for Madonna. Think the ‘Like A Virgin‘ scandal, the ‘Papa Don’t Preach‘ maelstrom, the’Like A Prayer‘ explosion, the ‘Justify My Love‘ brouhaha, the ‘Erotica‘ album and ‘Sex‘ book – all of them were controversial and sometimes polarizing, and all were more or less splashy successes. (Even if some were critically drubbed, all of them made Madonna a pretty penny.)

When ‘American Life’ came on the scene, at such a questionable time of war and American pride, it found Madonna uncharacteristically pulling the video to avoid the commercial death of the Dixie Chicks who had had the audacity to criticize President Bush. The mind reels at such an innocent thought. Madonna made a wise decision in that respect, but the damage had been done, and mainstream radio turned on her, and has yet to really come back. Strangely enough, the song ‘American Life’ is not, in itself, overtly political. Madonna herself hasn’t always been broadly political – she’s usually followed the egotist’s path of being personally political. Despite its outward trappings and video, the song is more of a personal exploration of Madonna’s own way of living in the American landscape, seen at a different vantage point after having spent some time in England.

SO, I WENT INTO A BAR LOOKING FOR SYMPATHY 
A LITTLE COMPANY – I TRIED TO FIND A FRIEND 
IT’S MORE EASILY SAID IT’S ALWAYS BEEN THE SAME 
THIS TYPE OF MODERN LIFE – IS IT FOR ME? 
THIS TYPE OF MODERN LIFE – IS IT FOR FREE? 

In retrospect, the album has shifted and evolved in how it was, and has been, received and perceived. Initial reviews were, generally, positive. As is my wont, I raved and raptured over it, proclaiming it Madonna’s electronic pastoral, and most of the songs still hold up quite well. But after the first flush of fleeting success (it debuted at #1) and an impressive round of promotional appearances (witness her record store performances and that MTV special) it quickly plummeted, and the lead single barely cracked the top forty. Much of the problematic stuff and negative reports stemmed from the â’American Life’ single, which was blazingly wonky and brilliantly imperfect. Most people panned the rap portion of the song; I found it charming enough (she rapped in ‘Vogue’ too and no one batted a perfectly-shaded eye). The juxtaposition of electro-clash noise with the gentle strumming of an acoustic guitar proved too much for listeners and were perhaps just too far ahead of their time.

AMERICAN LIFE 
I LIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM 
YOU ARE THE BEST THING I’VE SEEN, 
YOU ARE NOT JUST A DREAM

Hindsight and factual reports of those early years of the new millennium reveal the terrifying depth to which the American public was so criminally deceived by the Republicans in power. It was over a decade and a half ago, but so much rings so true today. It’s exhausting and disappointing to think of how little we have evolved, and how the basic tenets of evil – fear, greed, and a desire for power – continue to coalesce and corrupt our world. In this age of our illegitimate President, the American ambition portrayed in this song is indeed not just a dream.

I TRIED TO STAY AHEAD,
I TRIED TO STAY ON TOP 
I TRIED TO PLAY THE PART,
BUT SOMEHOW I FORGOT 
JUST WHAT I DID IT FOR 
AND WHY I WANTED MORE 
THIS TYPE OF MODERN LIFE – IS IT FOR ME? 
THIS TYPE OF MODERN LIFE – IS IT FOR FREE?

That said, politics rarely makes for good music. Not the kind I’m interested in hearing anyway. I need something more personal, more resonant to the human experience. To that end, ‘American Life’ is masterful, portraying the seeds of doubt and insecurity that can lead to world domination or oblivion. There’s a dangerously fine line between them. When removed from its incendiary video, the song is rife with self-doubt and tension. Just when you think it might resolve or dissolve into something resembling resolution, the sonic swords strike again, musical guns on blast, and the battle for dominance re-engages.

DO I HAVE TO CHANGE MY NAME? 
WILL IT GET ME FAR? 
SHOULD I LOSE SOME WEIGHT? 
AM I GONNA BE A STAR? 
AMERICAN LIFE 
I LIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM 
YOU ARE THE BEST THING I’VE SEEN, 
YOU ARE NOT JUST A DREAM

Coming off of two successful albums (‘Ray of Light‘ and ‘Music‘) Madonna found herself at an interesting cross-road. Rather than playing things safe, she dove deeper into the brilliant madness of Mirwais and his musical mayhem, fully embracing the producer’s futuristic hand while tempering it all with her growing guitar obsession. In that sense, the ‘American Life’ album was an artistically bold move. The title track and lead single encapsulated all of it. There was a decent beat, once it kicked it, and the dance remixes would bounce along at racing BPM, but the song and the album weren’t made for dancing. America wasn’t in the mood to dance, and neither was Madonna.

I TRIED TO BE A BOY,
I TRIED TO BE A GIRL 
I TRIED TO BE A MESS,
I TRIED TO BE THE BEST 
I TRIED TO FIND A FRIEND, 
I TRIED TO STAY AHEAD 
I TRIED TO STAY ON TOP…
FUCK IT… 
DO I HAVE TO CHANGE MY NAME? 
WILL IT GET ME FAR? 
SHOULD I LOSE SOME WEIGHT? 
AM I GONNA BE A STAR?
FUCK IT. FUCK IT. FUCK IT.

In the ensuing years, the ‘American Life’ album has ripened into a fan favorite, revered along the lines of ‘Erotica’ which also had a rocky journey to its classic status. In her ‘Tears of a Clown’ codas near the end of the ‘Rebel Heart Tour‘ she revisited a number of ‘American Life’ selections, including ‘Intervention‘ and ‘Easy Ride‘ and fans were ecstatic. After the Reinvention Tour, she had largely steered clear of ‘American Life’ cuts, and she has yet to embrace the title song since that first flush in 2003/2004. It’s worth another look, if only because it’s unlike anything she’s done before or since, especially the next part:

I’M DRINKING A SOY LATTE 
I GET A DOUBLE SHOTTE
IT GOES RIGHT THROUGH MY BODY 
AND YOU KNOW 
I’M SATISFIED,
I DRIVE MY MINI COOPER 
AND I’M FEELING SUPER-DOOPER 
YO THEY TELL I’M A TROOPER 
AND YOU KNOW I’M SATISFIED 

At some point we all mentally run through the things we’ve accumulated and accomplished in our lives. This exercise of nostalgia or simple stock-taking can be exhausting or inspiring, depending on the mood and the way in which we want to quantify anything we’ve done. Madonna’s tick-list is larger and grander and more eventful than the majority of ours, but it’s also remarkably human and mundane. Her concerns are at once small and significant, superficial and complex, contradictory and consistent. From Mini Coopers to Metaphysics, she runs through the gamut of life at the turn of the millennium. Looking back, we’ve been on this rocky road for a long time – too long – and the cracks and pot-holes have grown exponentially disastrous.

I DO YOGA AND PILATES 
AND THE ROOM IS FULL OF HOTTIES 
SO I’M CHECKING OUT THE BODIES 
AND YOU KNOW I’M SATISFIED 
I’M DIGGING ON THE ISOTOPES 
THIS METAPHYSIC SHIT IS DOPE 
AND IF ALL THIS CAN GIVE ME HOPE 
YOU KNOW I’M SATISFIED 

On some level she knows her laundry list is ridiculous, and there is more than a little wink behind the infamous rap. It’s over-the-top, it’s too much, it’s silly and it’s profound. It’s what she knows, in all the limited and expansive glory that is Madonna’s world. It inspires neither envy nor empathy. America was messy then, as it’s messy now. Maybe it’s always been that way. Anyone who makes a success of themselves in this land has had to get messy at one point or another. As she runs through her accomplishments and accruals, things get more frenzied and insistent before finishing with a nihilistic revoking of the reality/realization that all is illusion.

I GOT A LAWYER AND A MANAGER 
AN AGENT AND A CHEF 
THREE NANNIES, AN ASSISTANT 
AND A DRIVER AND A JET 
A TRAINER AND A BUTLER 
AND A BODYGUARD OR FIVE 
A GARDENER AND A STYLIST 
DO YOU THINK I’M SATISFIED?
I’D LIKE TO EXPRESS MY EXTREME POINT OF VIEW 
I’M NOT A CHRISTIAN AND I’M NOT A JEW 
I’M JUST LIVING OUT THE AMERICAN DREAM 
AND I JUST REALIZED THAT NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS 

Still, dreams are requisite ways of getting through the day, American or not. Yes, the idea of a Ice Blue Show Princess Mini Cooper was sewn in my head then, but it was only a wish. My Kicky Blue Gumdrop Impreza would go a couple more years, and the ‘American Life’ CD would ring loudly from within as spring warmed into summer. As soon as the rap fizzled and the electro-explosions faded out, the birds of ‘Hollywood‘ flew into the air. We bopped along to the music of Mirwais, seeking our next acquisition, our next fix, our next material obsession.

The world was on fire and all we could do was watch it burn.

DO I HAVE TO CHANGE MY NAME?
AM I GONNA BE A STAR?
DO I HAVE TO CHANGE MY NAME?
AM I GONNA BE A STAR? 
DO I HAVE TO CHANGE MY NAME?

 

SONG #148: ‘American Life’ – Spring 2003

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03
March
2019
Tags: Madonna
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The Day the Light Arrived

Madonna’s greatest album to date is finally old enough to drink, as ‘Ray of Light’ bellies up to the bar and turns 21. Released on March 3, 1998, it remains an artistic and commercial highlight of Madonna’s storied career, earning her some long-deserved Grammy Awards, critical acclaim, and a resurgence of mainstream popularity. More important than all of that, it’s just a great fucking album. Her best, in my not-so-humble opinion, and the one against which all later work would be judged, like it or not.

The tracklisting:

  1. Drowned World: Substitute for Love
  2. Swim
  3. Ray of Light
  4. Candy Perfume Girl
  5. Skin
  6. Nothing Really Matters
  7. Sky Fits Heaven
  8. Shanti/Ashtangi
  9. Frozen
  10. The Power of Goodbye
  11. To Have and Not To Hold
  12. Little Star
  13. Mer Girl

The ‘Ray of Light’ album will always hold a special place in my heart for a number of reasons. It came in the spring of my life, when I was just becoming an adult, whatever the hell that even means. It came in the almost-spring of a year which found me flailing, floundering, and flagellating myself in any number of ways, and in which, looking back, I was having the time of my life. It came in a moment of stillness and relative quiet, at the tail end of a century and a millennium, in a time of innocence we never quite recognized as such until it was gone.

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02
March
2019
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American Coming

It’s been another long stretch since out last Madonna Timeline, but that’s about to come to an end. Nothing coy about this post, and no insufferable guessing game: ‘American Life’ is the next song up, and as one of the most interesting (and maligned) musical moments in her career, I want to get it right. The album of the same name marked Madonna’s most controversial work in several years, having gone through a softer period marked by highlights such as ‘Evita‘ and ‘Ray of Light‘ – and though she still knew how to make waves, I’m not sure she knew the capsizing about to occur when you messed with the crazy forces that followed the early years of the new millennium.

‘American Life’ was her electronic pastoral, and though it somewhat heavy-handedly shoe-horned its way into being a treatise on America, it was actually more of one woman’s journey through the simple landscape of living, with all the requisite insecurities, anger, romance, wonder and grief that surviving in this country – and this world – mandated. Songs like ‘Hollywood’ and ‘Nobody Knows Me’ may have been a pointed statement on the elusive and hollow American dream, but much of the other material deals with more personal issues. The resplendent choir-backed ‘Nothing Fails‘ starts quietly and builds into a nuanced variation on ‘Like A Prayer‘ while ‘Mother and Father‘ continues the parental complexities of ‘Promise to Try‘ and ‘Oh Father‘. Love, in all its many splendored forms, finds expression in ‘X-static Process‘, ‘Intervention‘ and ‘Love Profusion’. There’s even the classic clunker (because it wouldn’t be a proper Madonna album without a ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ or ‘Act of Contrition‘ or ‘I’m Going Bananas‘) in the form of ‘I’m So Stupid’. (Though by this point even her clunkers had some merit.)

Musically, the album picked up right where ‘Music‘ left off, with the blips and beeps and stuttering electronic flourishes of Mirwais bumping up against warm folksy guitar work, staccato strings and orchestral grandiosity in tracks like ‘Die Another Day‘ and ‘Easy Ride’.

For better or worse, the sonic stylings honed here may have been lost amid the war imagery and that dark period of American history, which is a shame, because several songs have withstood the test of time, and the ‘American Life’ album itself, despite the lack of any overtly-celebratory tracks, is a thing of deep beauty.

The next Madonna Timeline will honor the title track, one of the most polarizing Madonna songs among fans up until ‘Bitch I’m Madonna‘ – and it’s a doozy. Coming this month…

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25
February
2019
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The Lady, The Queen & the Night They Made the World Right

Can we end the arch-enemy narrative now please?

Lady Gaga and Madonna are good.

Let the world take a lesson… from an Oscar party.

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14
February
2019
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Valentine Music by Madonna

She is and was a romantic at heart. In her best songs, she celebrated the various ways love entered and changed our lives: the good and the bad and the occasionally-ugly. She put it all to a melody, heightening the ache or the joy, because when words aren’t enough the only left to do is put it into a song. Even then, it’s hard to contain what love is, but on days like this we do our best.

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25
January
2019
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Back to Brunette, Briefly

Recalling such pivotal career moments as ‘Like A Prayer,’ ‘Rain,’ ‘American Life,’ ‘The Power of Goodbye,’ ‘Nothing Really Matters,’ and the openings of ‘Open Your Heart’ and ‘Evita’ it looks as though Madonna is returning to her roots and going dark again. Certain fans, myself included, are going wildly bananas over the new look. While it’s pretty clear that it’s a wig, I’d love it if it were real; her hair has remained more of less the same for the past decade or so – an interminable length of time for pop’s previously preeminent chameleon. Stories are circulating that this is a new look for a video she’s shooting in Lisbon, to kick off this year’s upcoming album. That fills me with delight, and delight is badly needed right now. Thank God we still have Madonna.

I much prefer an argument of blonde versus brunette instead of any political bullshit that tries to normalize the state of our country right now. Personally, I’m siding with brunette for the moment, as she does it so rarely. It also seems to fuel some of her more outrageous and risky artistic milestones. She seems to be more serious when she has darker hair, and I adore Madonna when she’s all serious.

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20
January
2019
Tags: Madonna, Music
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The Madonna Timeline: Song #147 – ‘Secret Garden’ ~ Late fall 1992

{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.}

Impenetrable fortress of leaves and flowers.

Walls of vines grown rigid and gnarled.

A cloud of bees readying their swords.

Bordered by trees and shrubs, a sun-lit section of secret garden opened up to the boy who didn’t belong there. Like Peter Rabbit, he’d gained his entrance without invitation, stumbling upon it while on a hide-and-seek mission with the neighborhood kids. It was so entrancing, so seductive with its leafy curtains begging further exploration, that he promptly forgot about anyone waiting for him to return. Already the garden cast its dangerous spell, and with the boy securely in its trance closed its gates around him.

A line of marigolds held golden goblets of fire in the air; a rough brush of their foliage and flowers released a less-than-desirable fragrance. (Being pretty and blessed with such fiery shades would have to be enough.) A patch of ferny-leaved cosmos winked and blushed, bobbing their pink faces in the breeze.

A bed of vegetables was neatly tended. Bare teepees of bamboo rods hosted climbing pole beans. Large umbrels of bright green shaded the protuberance of new zucchini fruit, the swollen phallic forms practically throbbing within their ribbed skin. A stand of blood red tomatoes looked a little worse for wear. The mutilated, disemboweled and partly-devoured carcasses of several fruits sat in a sad pile beneath those who had not yet fallen. The boy was not the only marauder who had trespassed here. Such is the inherent problem with excessive prettiness: everyone wants to look. And if you taste good enough on top of that, some will want to eat.

IN MY SECRET GARDEN, I’M LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT FLOWER
WAITING FOR MY FINEST HOUR
IN MY SECRET GARDEN, I STILL BELIEVE AFTER ALL
I STILL BELIEVE AND I FALL
YOU PLANT THE SEED AND I’LL WATCH IT GROW
I WONDER WHEN I’LL START TO SHOW
I WONDER IF I’LL EVER KNOW
WHERE MY PLACE IS
WHERE MY FACE IS
I KNOW IT’S IN HERE SOMEWHERE
I JUST WISH I KNEW THE COLOR OF MY HAIR
I KNOW THE ANSWER’S HIDING SOMEWHERE
IN MY SECRET GARDEN…

A garden where sex and death were as much a part of life as air and water. Sin and salvation intertwined like a pair of vines, and you could not gain a seed without the death of a flower. The act of copulation was at its inception an act of violence: an act of breaking and entering – a holy act of destruction. The garden was cruel in those ways and others. It bestowed beauty and charm while insidiously offering poisoned fruits and thorny barbs. It was the exquisite opening scene of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ before everything went all bloody and murderous. A garden is not a thing with which to trifle, and a secret garden carries even more defenses.

THERE’S A PETAL THAT ISN’T TORN
A HEART THAT WILL NOT HARDEN
A PLACE THAT I CAN BE BORN, IN MY SECRET GARDEN
A ROSE WITHOUT A THORN, A LOVER WITHOUT SCORN

Psychedelic and trippy, this song closed the gorgeously-prickly ‘Erotica’ album with an artful flourish, and it remains one of Madonna’s most seductive and challenging works. A colorful prism of self-reflection and perpetual seeking, it finds Madonna both reflective and hopeful. The song doesn’t want to end – the piano is tickled incessantly like some giddy post-coital lover and the ‘Erotica’ album doesn’t so much end as fade eternally into a searing, sexy sunset.

We are nearing the final section of songs for the Madonna Timeline (I’d say this is the last quarter, the winter of our several-years-long journey), and while it has by no means been a comprehensive and complete examination of her immense catalog, it hits the majority of efforts from her main albums.  I’m glad this song waited until the end to appear, as it is a nifty (not neat, never neat – anybody who says the show is neat has to go) close-out of the ‘Erotica’ period. It was a fertile portion of her infamous career, perhaps her most provocative, and with it came some of her best music. The title track to the album is an ode to a largely-vanished New York sex scene (God how I miss the Gaiety), while singles ‘Deeper and Deeper’, ‘Bad Girl‘, and ‘Rain‘ round out the proceedings with wildly-disparate themes and videos. The deep cuts were just as brilliant, with ‘Words‘ and ‘Thief of Hearts‘ easily vying for single-status. Things got sultry with ‘Fever‘ and ‘Waiting’ and ‘Where Life Begins’, then subdued and somber with ‘Why’s It So Hard’ and ‘In This Life’ before kissing someone cheekily off in ‘Bye Bye Baby’. For the CD (this was back when we still had cassette tapes too, kids) the bonus track ‘Did You Do It?’ was a ridiculous waste of time and space but every album needs a dud; I suppose we should be grateful she made it the bonus track instead of the final song. That final song is here, and it encapsulates the heady time of her life that was ‘Erotica’ and ‘Sex’ and the firestorm of controversy that accompanied both.

IF I WAIT FOR THE RAIN TO KISS ME AND UNDRESS ME
WILL I LOOK LIKE A FOOL, WET AND A MESS?
WILL I STILL BE THIRSTY? WILL I PASS THE TEST?
AND IF I LOOK FOR THE RAINBOW, WILL I SEE IT?
OR WILL IT PASS RIGHT BY?
CAUSE I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE, CAUSE THE BLIND ARE NEVER FREE
EVEN IN MY SECRET GARDEN
THERE’S A CHANCE THAT I COULD HARDEN
THAT’S WHY I’LL KEEP LOOKING FOR…

As for me, ‘Secret Garden’ was the gloriously trippy soundtrack to the rollercoaster of my sex life that was about to begin. Straddling the innocent and the profane, it brought a font of forbidden knowledge, the kind that gushed so guiltily in the garden of Adam and Eve. Tempted by such sweet fruit and called by the beauty dangling in front of me, I happily fell. I didn’t know then how sticky it could be, how wildly the heart could run when led by the cock. The scorn of lovers was not usually a character trait in the others; I would bring it out in them. And they in me. No great rose ever came without a few thorns.

A PETAL THAT ISN’T TORN
A HEART THAT WILL NOT HARDEN
A PLACE THAT I CAN BE BORN, IN MY SECRET GARDEN
A ROSE WITHOUT A THORN, A LOVER WITHOUT SCORN
I STILL BELIEVE, I STILL BELIEVE
CAUSE AFTER ALL IS SAID AND DONE, I’M STILL ALIVE
THE BOOTS HAVE COME AND TRAMPLED ON ME AND I’M STILL ALIVE
CAUSE THE SUN HAS KISSED ME AND CARESSED ME
AND I’M STRONG
AND THERE’S A CHANCE THAT I WILL GROW, THIS I KNOW
SO I’M STILL LOOKING FOR…

The long-ago summer of the boy’s visit to the secret garden passed. It would be one of the last games of hide-and-seek, one of the last times he would look upon a hidden garden and feel magic and delight. He was growing up, and fall was taking him back to the noisy and riotous world of people, to a world less dangerous in some ways and much more wicked in others. In the garden that was just going to sleep, a few lethargic bees buzzed, more out of habit than any pollen-gathering work-ethic. There were still days when the sun warmed the earth and the land gave up the scent of life, even if life meant decay and rot and impending winter slumber. If you looked beneath the oak leaves, you might find a pile of green put forth by a few stalwart fighters, hanging onto their freshness to the very end. They too would be gone soon enough, buried beneath the snow and brutalized by a cold that sunk into and below their roots. The secrets of the garden would not be fully revealed before it went into hiding for the winter.

A PETAL THAT ISN’T TORN
A HEART THAT WILL NOT HARDEN
A PLACE THAT I CAN BE BORN, IN MY SECRET GARDEN
A ROSE WITHOUT A THORN, A LOVER WITHOUT SCORN

SOMEWHERE IN FONTAINEBLEAU LIES MY SECRET GARDEN…
SONG #147: – ‘Secret Garden’ ~ Late fall 1992
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19
January
2019
Tags: Madonna
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The Not-So-Secret Return of the Madonna Timeline

It’s been a long while since our last Madonna Timeline, so perhaps a brief Mad-cap recap of the last few entries is in order before tomorrow’s big reveal (it’s from the ‘Erotica’ era, so you know it will be hot hot hot!) As you may know, the selections for the timeline are procured from setting my Madonna collection on shuffle, and seeing what pops up next. Such randomness is on full display in the last seven songs that have been featured, as it features some of her best work with some of her more lackluster efforts.

For even more Madonna madness, check out the first hundred timelines here and here. We are closing in on the last quarter of entries, which may be why I’m stalling a little. I don’t want it to end. Luckily, a new album is on the 2019 horizon, so we have a way to go. The magic continues…

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28
November
2018
Tags: Madonna
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Madonna in Motion

Our queen has been relatively quiet of late, putting the finishing touches on her upcoming album. It’s been reported that she is working with Mirwais, who helmed the iconic ‘Music’ album as well as the under-rated ‘American Life’ masterpiece. His blip-filled electronica/folk mash worked well when Madonna needed a new avenue at the start of the millennium, and I’m hoping they will work similar magic to conjure a whole new sonic landscape for the end of this decade.

For some reason, this feels like less of an event than the ‘Rebel Heart’ album, and that’s a good thing. A true artist doesn’t create for the purpose of making a splash, even when you’re Madonna. She has nothing left to prove – she makes music because she is still inspired and moved and has something to say. That’s the mark of a creative spirit.

As much as I’m downplaying the new album, I still can’t wait to hear it. She will always be magical in that way.

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09
November
2018
Tags: Madonna, Music
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The Madonna Timeline: Song #146 ~ ‘I’m Going Bananas’

{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.}

Hola! Ese bato loco!
I’m going bananas,
And I feel like my poor little mind is being devoured by piranhas,
For I’m going bananas.

A story once circulated that en route to one of her Girlie Show gigs around the world, Madonna watched ‘Sunset Boulevard‘ for perhaps the first time. It sounds a little suspect. That this would be her introduction to such a classic film so late in the game feels unlikely. But such is the story, and who knows if it happened. The point is that it may have informed her “crazy” section in that otherwise glorious tour production. There’s a very distinct stretch that begins with ‘I’m Going Bananas’ in which she wears a bandana on her head like a skull-cap and then performs ‘La Isla Bonita‘ and ‘Holiday’ while acting downright maniacal, at times refusing to vacate the stage in an elaborate James Brown routine. It was almost cute, and nice to see her poking fun at herself and her little career slump following ‘Erotica‘ and ‘Sex‘. Of course it was far from the end, but the wink was a reassuring reminder that she hadn’t lost her sense of humor, nor her way.

That’s how I view ‘I’m Going Bananas’. Not really worth psycho-analyzing such a trifle of a Dick Tracy throwaway track. Better to be reminded of some other cuts from that theatrical soundtrack:

There’s bats in my belfry.
Won’t you make sure this straightjacket’s tight,
Otherwise I might get myself free.
Yes, there’s bats in my belfry.
Who knows?
Could be the wine I drink
Or it’s the way I think,
That makes me gonzo.
Oh, Doctor Alonzo says I’m going bananas,
Someone get me a bed in the “Casa de Loco” for all my mananas,
For I’m going bananas.
Yes, I’m going bananas.
Si, I’m going bananas.

SONG #146: ‘I’m Going Bananas’

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