Lucky Star
This was the first I had ever heard of Madonna. I saw the video and I could not get over how cool this chick was. How old was I, about 6 or 7? My friend Rhonda and I spent a lot of time in her bedroom teaching ourselves the dance from the video, but we were really too clumsy to get beyond the opening part where she’s sitting on the ground and moves her body in a circular type motion. We perfected that bit out of sheer will. I also once spent an entire bar’s jukebox credits to play this song no less than 30 times in a row. Yes, I was in a bar at age 7. It was my friend Amy’s delightfully responsible mother. Anyway, years later, I still adore Madonna’s first album. I still know every last lyric.
Borderline
Poor street girl dressed in horrible clothing getting messed with by non-hot guys. Ahhh well, even with that terrible visual, the song still stands up. It’s called pop sensibility. Bands like the Beach Boys made it a fine art; people like Madonna had writers helping her out, but she too can craft a ditty like few others can.
Burning Up
This was one of Madonna’s first singles, actually. I put it on a mix cd for when I work out. Just a smidgen of guitar riff spices up this baby and gives it a nice little skank edge. It might very well be one of my very favorite songs of Madonna’s, to be honest. It was far more aggressive than dance-pop had really been ever since Donna Summer faded away.
Underappreciated. This is a motif I may bring up often in reference to Madonna.
And people might laugh like crazy at this notion, because the girl has sold more albums than Jesus and is probably almost as widely recognizable. But people always recognize her as an entertainer rather than an artist. Yes, believe it or not, Madonna has written the majority of her own material. She has had many fantastic producers that have helped her form unique sounds over the years, but she’s not sitting back and singing someone else’s songs.
I Know It
Track four from her first album. People don’t remember these filler tracks, but I thrive on them. “What about the letters we have written/All the things we’ve said and done/I’ll just stand here while you count the battles/You have won.” Hell yes… see, for many hardcore music fans of all genres, it’s a little message, a little passage in many songs here and there that one can identify with so deeply that it almost hurts to hear it. It makes you want to stand up and cheer, but it’s so close to home that it’s painful. These are moments that nobody should ever take for granted, filler or not.
Holiday
Probably the most overplayed and overrated song of Madonna’s, it’s an anthem. The working folks like their days off. I could care less if I never heard the song again. I never quite understood why I could be so flippant about one of her biggest hits, but now I realize she didn’t write the song. It may as well be a nursery rhyme. Not that it’s not catchy and I wouldn’t crank it if it came up in rotation on soft rock radio between a nonstop drolling of Matchbox 20 and Collective Soul, but that would only really be out of respect.
Everybody
Wasn’t this Madonna’s first single? Why, yes, I believe it was. This was the cheesy anthem that Madonna actually wrote herself. It’s so ridiculously synthy that I’m sure even Depeche Mode winced. But the beauty of the song isn’t so much the stupid chorus as it is the bridge between the verses and chorus. You know… “Come on, take a chance/Get up and start the dance/Let the DJ shake you/Let the music take you” just absolutely made the song.
And then came Like a Virgin. And that’s when it was all over, really. Or when it had just begun, depending on how you look at it.
It’s amusing how my mother never really seemed to object to us as children listening to this particular album. I think about a discussion I had with one of my friends a few years ago about how if she had a daughter, she would never let her listen to Britney Spears because the music was so skanktastic. Without blinking an eye, I brought up Madonna. We both listened to her as kids with no dire consequences. I mean, shit; for each of us, our cumulative number of sexual partners remain in the single digits. Madonna did not make either of us whores.
Material Girl
Nobody could forget the video if they tried. Rich guy sends Madonna a big pile of jewelry, and she’s nonplussed on the phone with her girlfriend. “It’s nice though. Do you want it?” GIVETOMEGIVETOMEGIVETOME… anyway. I guess it always bothered me that the rich slick guy faked being poor to win over Madonna, but oh well. The song itself isn’t what I would necessarily represents my total being to the core, but it’s definitely a big side of me. Many people these days are brainwashed by society to think that one should be all humanitarian and spartan because there are starving kids in Africa. You know what I say to that? Great, more stuff for me. Stuff is awesome. I’m fairly sure I can be bought.
Angel
Another one of Madonna’s sleeper songs that I love like crazy. There’s nothing special lyrically or musically; it just happens to be another one of those brilliantly crafted pop songs. What also seems to be a recurring theme in Madonna’s songs is that there’s a crazy bridge that is wildly varied in style from the rest of the song, something that adds a bit of magic and makes the piece far more interesting as a whole. “Now I believe that dreams come true/’Cuz you came when I wished for you” is one of those times.
Like a Virgin
What is is there to say about this song that hasn’t already been said at this point? Watch Reservoir Dogs if you’re looking for deep lyrical meaning, although Madonna didn’t write the damned song herself. This is one of those tunes that was meant to define and create an image, not so much out there for artistic merit. That certainly doesn’t mean it’s not immortal at this point. Could you imagine, in today’s FCC wasteland, someone like Jessica Simpson coming out today with this song? Would we even be allowed to hear it?
Over and Over
More album tracks that only the diehards know by heart. “I’m not afraid to say I need a different beat/Oh, And I’ll go out in the street, yeah/And I will shout it again from the highest mountain.” What’s the song about? Doing whatever the hell you have to do regardless of how many times you fall flat on your face. Be yourself and seize the day. Fuck naysayers, f*ck convention, and f*ck failure. And people wonder why my mom had no problem letting us listen to Madonna as kids.
Individuality. If there’s one thing I learned more than anything else from Madonna while growing up, it’s that not only does everyone march to the beat of their own drummer, but one should do it proudly.
There are subtleties to this concept which have been lost on kids out there who dye their hair 18 colors and feel the need to pierce all sorts of places for the reaction it gets. Rather, one can work within the confines of normalcy to create a greater impact. For instance, what does more to influence change and tolerance: giving yourself a look that makes you unemployable, or sneaking these oddities into unsuspecting Corporate America from the inside where they least expect it? Now that I think about it, Madonna had a lot to learn about that as well, but at least during her early years, she wasn’t sticking her cooch in everyone’s face to make a point.
Into The Groove
Hook, hook, hook. If I had the ability to not be such a fangirl, I still think I would mention this as one of the greatest dance songs of the ’80s. There’s simply nothing about it that isn’t perfect. Yes, watch me as I drool on myself over a song about dancing. However, it’s more than that, what with the sexual undercurrent and the breaking of inhibitions. Okay. Maybe it’s just a song about dancing, but so what? There aren’t that many songs in existence that can stand up so well, even when the lyrics aren’t gold.
Dress You Up
Another hit for Madonna, another song she didn’t write. It’s silly, but when I was a kid, this song was my personal god. A song about fashion and style, a song by Madonna, and something much more socially acceptable than “Like a Virgin.” The chorus just ate me alive.
Pretender
Album track! Not only is this song oddly parallel to the types of people I like to pursue, but it was a favorite of mine and my best friend Jen’s when we were in junior high. It all started when Jen started holding up her hands in estimation at the “fish that got away” and progressively lengthening as the song went on; how could that not make the tune a classic?
Crazy For You
Truly the first real (single) ballad of Madonna’s, it took off like hotcakes. And it’s just plain beautiful. Is it sappy? If so, it’s not the sort of grade-A sap that was pouring from Air Supply at the time. It feels much more like a song about a deep connection rather than gushy smushy love. And that’s what works about Madonna; you never heard her singing that didn’t sound like it was part of her innate personality. Listening to her songs, one would think they knew the real Madonna underneath the performer. Maybe that’s because, after all the years gone by and knowing what we know today about the woman, she really is all of these things.
And the era ended. The first two albums, these were the first Madonna that anyone knew. But like what happens to most people who hit fame, they start to change. By the time her third album True Blue rolled around, she was dating Sean Penn and cut her dirty, wavy locks in exchange for some scary bleach-blonde short hair and pointy, pointy boobs.
Would Madonna have burned out and faded away if she didn’t continually morph into something new and different? It’s very likely, yes. So I suppose, for the love that all is the latter years of Madonna, it’s a good thing that she hit this phase that I didn’t particularly dig. It would have been more respectable if less of that damned third album was filler, but you take the lows with the highs.
Papa Don’t Preach
I didn’t understand the huge controversy over this song. Then again, I was only 9 years old. So she wants to keep her baby? Don’t most people keep their babies? Ahhh, naivete. Anyway, I had the video timed perfectly as to when it ended, since it dragged out considerably longer than the album/single version and ended with three little bell-notes as the father hugged his daughter. Seventeen repetitions of the same refrain, if I recall.
Open Your Heart
This video scared the hell out of me, when it opened with Madonna having short black slicked hair. This is, of course, shortly before she strips off the wig to show her brand new ‘do underneath. Have I mentioned lately how much I hated that look? I also wasn’t really big on the little boy checking out a peepshow; even as a kid, that didn’t really sit right with me. And then the boy and the happy stripper go dance in the streets together? What? Never mind the song itself, which is pretty fluffy, aside from many of those magical moments of pop purity that I mention again and again.
Live To Tell
With this song, I didn’t care about any of the changes in looks. I fell in love with this song harder than I have fallen for any song in my life; what’s more, it was one of the first pop songs that I, child alto of doom, could sing perfectly without straining into some sort of disgusting girly falsetto. But never mind that. It’s all about the lyrics: “The light that you could never see/It shines inside, you can’t take that from me.”
La Isla Bonita
And it’s also fair to say that with this one song, thousands of growing girls knew exactly what foreign language they were going to take in high school. I remember thinking how awesome that hideous red and black spotted dress was, like I was some sort of elementary school midwest flamenco dancer. It didn’t matter; Madonna was cool, spanish was cool, and even though we messed up all of the lyrics because we were too damned white, it was quite the escapist fantasy.
And then along came Pepsi. I know I wasn’t the only little Madonna fan eagerly awaiting the commercial that my favorite soda company commissioned for approximately ten gizillion dollars. And then it happened, and there were crosses burning, and there was much reaction, and it was all done and overwith.
Enter Madonna, the new queen of controversy. This was the mildest of beginnings, making any sort of outrage over “Like a Virgin” or “Papa Don’t Preach” seem like an argument at a PTA meeting. It’s clear the girl was getting off on the reaction as it wasn’t long before cross burnings of all things would become overlooked and forgotten in the wake of bigger and more obnoxious things. You can’t help but love the drama.
Like a Prayer
Makin’ out with Black Jesus! That’s the summary you’ll get from almost anyone if asked about this song. As for the song itself, what is it? Depending on your point of view, it’s either an ode to God or it’s just a sweet little love song with a religious motif. She brings in a gospel choir and everything. All in the name of… pop, yes. That’s what it is, just another one of her quirky and memorably well-written pop songs. Funny how she can pull this off so many times while many others struggle for one lonely hit.
Express Yourself
Let’s ignore the expository nature of the lyrics and concentrate on the message here. Girls, don’t f*cking settle. Do I need to put that in bold for you? Here. Don’t f*cking settle. If you can find a great guy who treats you right but you find he’s dumb as a popsicle, get rid of him. Find a match. Find someone who appreciates you for who you are. And then dress in latex and drink milk out of a cat bowl. Wait! No! That’s not the message! But even if it’s not, wow, what a video. Funny that at the time, it was the most expensive video that had ever been made.
Love Song
Why is this song so overlooked? It’s PRINCE and MADONNA, for f*ck’s sake. It wasn’t a single because it’s… weird. But for crying out loud! Prince! And it’s such a great song as well, one of conflict and non-resolution, just like real relationships. And it’s full of the lovely french language as well. “Don’t try to tell me what your enemies taught you/I’m gone, but I just want you to know/That this is not a love song that I want to sing.”
It gets deep. Okay, so we had the debut eponymous album, and she followed it up with Like a Virgin, and then True Blue. But this Like a Prayer thing… whoa. Deep, deep, deep.
I was in sixth grade when this album was released. I don’t think I was quite prepared for a lot of heavy themes throughout this album, either. Granted, I came from a divorced family and we were about as far from rich as one could get without living in a cardboard box, but I was still completely sheltered from any sort of horrors of the universe.
Promise To Try
Madonna wrote a song about her mother who died when she was young. It’s heartbreaking, period. There is nothing lighthearted at all about this song, and it’s nothing short of beautiful. The music is kept simplistic as well, keeping it from becoming either a Celine Dion-style epic or from becoming some sort of bastard pop concoction. Total change in direction, completely perfect.
Cherish
Look, mommy, Madonna plays with mermaids! While I recognize that it’s a good pop song or whatever, I hate this song. It was overplayed and it’s not that great, although once again there appears one of those trademark bridges full of surprises that never cease to make Madonna’s songs so damned wonderful.
Oh Father
The religious issues continue with this song, another heavy one, which one might interpret as a young girl’s life after her mother died and her father was left alone, hurt and confused, to raise his little girl; she then had to grow up and overcome the emotional scars that came with this sort of trauma. It seemed to hit me particularly hard for my own reasons. Still, this wasn’t so much a well-crafted pop hit as much as it is a catharsis.
Act of Contrition
And as far as catharsis goes, this is when we truly learn what sort of Madonna lurks in the shadows. As your classic Catholic prayers are whispered, spoken, and sung, Madonna cries out, “I reserve, I reserve, I reserve/I reserve, I resolve/I have a reservation/I have a reservation!/WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S NOT IN THE COMPUTER!!?!?!” It was truly the first moment I remember as a child when the lights came on and the bells went off, and I realized that patterns and conventions were meant to be challenged. I won’t even get into how my faith changed in the next precious few years.
And like that, Madonna changed forever. Her next moves would be to star in Dick Tracy as Breathless Mahoney and record I’m Breathless, complete with her next mega-hit, “Vogue.” A collection was released of her hits from these years, and that’s when we were introduced to the Madonna who was to come: the mega-skankductress Madonna on “Justify My Love.” But by then, the one known as the Material Girl had stopped influencing me. Just in time, it seems.
I picked up on Madonna again years later, after she got all of that cooter-photographing out of her system. I’ll take “Bad Girl,” “Rain,” and “Secret” out of those goofy years before Ray of Light came along and I fell in love with my idol all over again.
Without intending a pun, those songs are a whole ‘nother song and dance.
On the merry-go-round of lovers and white turtle doves,
–gloomchen
