“Without the Heart, there can be no understanding between the Hand and the Mind.”
Thirty-five years ago, Madonna released the second single off her ‘Like A Prayer‘ album – ‘Express Yourself’ – an instant slice of iconic grandeur, and one of her rallying anthems that would withstand the test of time. (Witness its acoustic, and surprisingly touching, rebirth in her most recent ‘Celebration Tour’.)
This was a defining song of the summer of 1989 – and while that summer comes and goes from my memory all these years later, I remember this song playing on the radio waves, along with the waves of the ocean, and the waves of heat that beat off the sand, off the pavement, off the stone and tar of our garage roof. Such heat coming amid such a sick beat.
Only summer could handle a banger like ‘Express Yourself’.
And only Madonna could handle seering the summer of ’89 into my memory.
