Bradley's Buzz

Today's Bubbatune - Madonna

Before we even begin, let me just say that I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Madonna Most of the time I find her to be way over publicized, way over emulated and just way over. I see her importance on pop culture and I admire her gumption to pull herself up from the gutter by her bra straps, but for the most part I resent the fact she gets so much credit for things that some of my fav girls had done years before – notably Pat and Debbie. But sometimes you can’t fight the ways of the world and you just have to go with the flow. Besides there was a time when I really did love her and every now and then I have to swallow my resentment and just dance away my blonde ambitions. Today was one of those days.

bub08 Madonna – Virgin 82-87
Artwork Designed by Bradley Jacobson

Track List:
01. Everybody
02. Burning Up
03. Holiday
04. Borderline
05. Lucky Star
06. Like A Virgin
07. Material Girl
08. Crazy For You
09. Angel
10. Dress You Up
11. Into The Groove
12. Gambler
13. Live To Tell
14. Papa Don’t Preach
15. True Blue
16. Open Your Heart
17. La Isla Bonita
18. Who’s That Girl
19. Causing A Commotion

THE STORY
I’m sure you’re all getting sick of my little coming out gay stories but the fact is I someday hope to put all these little ditties into a book about my life and I need a central theme and since music and being gay are all I really know, we indeed have a sample of the theme. The book is going to be called “My Life As A Banana” (as “My Life As A Big Frickin’ Fruit” doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily or does it?).. so until I come up with other subject matter we are once again heading into a story about my gayness… and since I’m doing a Madonna CD all I can really say is, “You couldn’t really expect a diagnosis of religious figures and their effects on modern society – or could you?”

So we head back to a time when Madonna was barely registering on the ears of musical aficionados – I know hard to believe. The first time I ever remember hearing about Ms. Ciccone was when I was but a wee one and would listen to American Top 40 every Sunday morning on the radio. I would write down the songs and artists and would then have a huge notebook of the top 40 of that week.

Well, at the time it was “Holiday” which was hitting the charts and I wrote down the song was sung by La Donna. Who fricking knew that only about a year later no one would ever confuse Madonna with anyone – including that Virgin Mother.

With that in mind, we move on from 1983 to a few years later. At the end of every school year our school would have a big track rally. Everyone had to participate and you were expected to do both a track and field event. I was a great runner, having had to outrun all those bastards that wanted to beat me up everyday after school.

But I was also easily bored, so I found I was best at the fast races. I could hurdle like no one’s business – throwing my legs up in the air and running – how times have changed. Anyway, I also loved the meter dashes. I was great. In fact the end of 8th grade, I scored 2nd place in the 50-meter dash.

At these track events, our public school would blend in with the Catholic middle school down the street so there were always a bunch of kids I didn’t know. On this particular day, I met a girl named Tina and her friend Melissa.

Tina decided I was one hot ticket and I thought, “Hey I am, I might as well amuse the girl.” So we started ‘dating’ right there. I found out Tina was a foster child and a bit of a troubled teen but I never really got to know her all that well so who knows.

The person I did get to know however was Miss Melsie Mae – that would be the Melissa I met on that end of school year track field.

The next year, Tina moved on to some other school and Melissa and her Catholic school chums were all forced to go to the only high school in town – the public Mosinee High School. Immediately Melissa and I became pals.

I still remember the very first time I ever went over to Mel’s house. Her mother had this little white poodle who was blind and deaf and would attack your feet the minute you walked into the house. The Beast was cuddly named “Smidge” and I hated that thing.

But what could you do? I was a guest in their home. Other than the lunatic poodle, I loved being at Melissa’s house. Melissa was the youngest so there weren’t any younger siblings running around and to me the family seemed like a Brady Bunch type of clan. Melissa’s mother would serve warm bread with her endless and always delish meals, and her father told bad jokes and wore black socks with sandals – I loved these people.

As time went on, Mel’s family became my second family – sometimes my first family when I was mad at those people raising me. All through high school my weekends would be spent with Melsie and her clan. Mel and I would stay up late watching really bad 80s movies that we still love to this day.

I can’t recall how many nights we were up until the morning sun came up. By then we were laughing at just about anything, having gorged ourselves on Orange Slice and her mother’s Bel Air Menthol cigarettes. Oh the times we had….

One particular film we couldn’t help but watch repeatedly was the 1985 piece of celluloid gold known as Desperately Seeking Susan. (There are a number of films including the height of our movie watching Transylvania 6-5000 but this story is about Madonna so work with me).

Anyway, this is where the story takes the twisted turn down Homosexual Way. I loved the ‘Susan’ film and at the time I loved Madonna. There really hadn’t been anything like her around for a while. She was wild, she was a tad chubby, she didn’t seem to bathe with any kind of regularity and basically she really seemed to enjoy having sex. What teenager wouldn’t love that?

So we watched the movie and I fell in love with the entire cast. I loved the whole New York scenery and the inner city feel when Rosanna Arquette’s Roberta longs to live a more exciting life.

But it was what happens once Roberta bumps her head and ends up in that exciting life that really makes me happy, for that is when she ends up meeting Aidan Quinn. I fell in love with his character Dez and Aidan’s blue eyes. In fact, I wonder if I somehow unconsciously named the sexy slutty guy in my soap “Carlton Heights” because of Aidan? Mmmmm?

Anyway, at the time we spent those hours watching movies, I had never told Melissa of my feelings for boys. I did, however leave enough clues for even my glasses wearing best gal pal to figure it out.

First and foremost, I was me and there isn’t any doubt in anyone’s mind I was a little, shall we say effeminate. I collected posters of television series rather than baseball cards, I spent countless hours acting out sitcoms starring me and I ogled every boy my friend Melissa did.

In fact, though girls liked me in that special way, and I did try to date them, nothing ever came about. But the minute Melissa liked some dude I couldn’t wait to hear about it. I tried to sway her into guys I liked just so I could vicariously through her, but that never seemed to work too well as those boys didn’t want to go out with a girl who’s friend Brad kept rubbing up against them.

Anyway, while watching Desperately Seeking Susan there are great scenes we watched with fevered glory.

One is when Roberta and Dez first meet. He thinks she’s this Susan chick and as he talks he continues to lick his lips. We would count how many times that little Aidan Quinn tongue came out. I know we were silly.

The other scene was quite life changing for me. Through out the film someone is looking for the character Susan who stole some ancient Egyptian earrings, the problem is Susan is out looking for Roberta who thinks she’s Susan and ends up shacking up with Dez – get it?

So after Dez and Roberta as Susan finish up a little loving they hear someone trying to break into their apartment. Dez gets up from the mattress on the floor (a designer invention I used in my own dwellings) and wraps the sheet around his skinny bod, grabs a skillet and heads to the door.

When the door opens and Dez raises his arm up to hit the culprit with the skillet, his sheet falls and there in all his glory is Aidan Quinn nude. We get a butt shot and I get a.. well, an excited heart attack I do believe.

Melissa and I would rewind and pause the tape on his butt shot over and over and over… I think I somehow managed to make Melissa believe it was her idea but I never once complained and something tells me I couldn’t hide my excitement when I said, “Okay, you can watch that part again if you really want to.”

Around this time there were also numerous Chippendales dancers on the television. Everyone seemed to be caught up in the movement, particularly Melissa’s mother. She would tape all the talk shows those boys were on and her and Melissa would watch them. Oh yeah, and I would be there too. And though I did enjoy those evenings with the Chippendales boys, they didn’t compare to the excitement of stopping at Dez’s ass.

By the time we were 16, Melissa and I were inseparable. I would spend Christmas Day with my second family, I went to dinner with the family, I was there on weekends, we talked on the phone when we weren’t together. Just thinking about it now brings a little tear of joy to my eyes. It was such simple times and so meaningful.

But before I turn into Mr. Sissy Pants, let’s finish up this Madonna laced gay story.

When Melissa decided to go to prom it was this Bradley who went with her to pick out her dress. We found the coolest hottest red number in the Deb store! She looked fab though now we both agree she should’ve found a better date than the one she took but whatever.

So that night, Melissa got ready, she headed out the door and I spent the evening drinking on the kitchen floor with her Mom. To this day, her mom keeps her liquor on the bottom cabinet of the kitchen and it’s just so much easier to sit there on the floor and try the different bottles than spend all the time dragging those bottles out and putting them on a counter.

In fact, one of my birthday presents this past year was a color picture of Melissa, her mom and our friend Shawn sitting on the floor drinking out of that liquor cabinet. It’s one of my most prized possessions.

Through out the nights of film watching, the constant pauses to gaze at Aidan Quinn’s bottom, the evenings of Chippendale stripper watching and the constant picking out of wardrobes, my sexuality was never openly questioned. I say openly as no one ever bothered asking me about it. For all I knew they outed me years before I ever did.

When I was 17, I decided I had had enough of the teenage world and was going to be an adult. I ran away from home and the very first place I went to was Melissa’s big sister and thus my big sister’s house.

She housed me up for a couple of nights until I decided where I was going to go. As it turned out my big career at the Burger King brought me some connections. A friend from the BK lived with a couple of brothers and they had room for one more.

So I moved into the hustle bustle city of Wausau and right into the lair’s nest that was run by a guy named Tim. Tim was hot and Tim seemed to know it as well. He thought he looked like Sylvester Stallone and with enough Southern Comfort in you I guess he did – only of average height not like the real Stallone who I believe is about 4 feet tall.

It was only about two weeks of living in the house of Tim that I had what could only be described as my Dez experience. For all the years of listening to my friends go on and on about sex and what they were doing, I at 17 hadn’t even French kissed anyone. I wasn’t just “like a virgin” I was the virgin! But all that changed quickly enough.

Like most people, the night I lost my innocent glow will never be forgotten. I won’t go into details (I know, “Thanks”) but let’s just say it didn’t involve wine, candlelight or roses. Instead it involved a grassy knoll located to the left of a pebble filled alley, the yard light of an unsuspecting neighbor and lots and lots of Southern Comfort. I realized looking up at the stars that night, that I was not a material girl at all. I also realized I had to tell my best pal all about this latest experience.

Unfortunately, no one told me that Melsie would maybe not want to know all about it. And when I did tell her on the telephone and found out someone else was listening on the line, well I thought for sure my days as her little brother were numbered.

As it turns out, it was far too late for her family, my family or any other person on earth not to love me just as I was. For I hadn’t really changed from that first day on the track field, I just discovered a far more interesting way to pole vault.

THE SONGS

There are three Madonna compilations in the bubbatunes collection – there’s Sex which covers the years 1989-1992 and is made up of singles from various soundtracks of the time and the albums Like A Prayer, Immaculate Collection and Erotica, then there’s Afterglow which is Madonna’s foray into the electronic world covering singles from 1994-2003 when I made the compilations and then there’s this one – Virgin covering the years 1982-1987. The singles are from the first three albums and end with the songs from the movie Who’s That Girl? – another movie Melissa and I watched over and over again and the only Madonna movie besides Desperately that is remotely good. In fact for Madonna’s movie career those are the only two movies to watch.

Virgin is definitely my favorite of the three Madonna comps as I don’t think there’s a bad song in the bunch and the songs were all released way back when I was still a big fan and felt the Big M could do no wrong….

“Everybody get up and dance and sing…” and so begins the first Madonna single. Creating a fairly new type of dance style anthem, I hadn’t really heard anything like this at the time. This was of course just after disco’s dying beats and the synth pop of a few years later. The song has Madonna whispering and singing to the oomph synth beat declaring everybody to “find a groove and let yourself go….” The song didn’t do anything chart wise but rumor has it, the 12” was burning up the New York City dance floors of 1982.

The guitar kicks in for our next dance ditty, “Burning Up” and the backbeat of 1983 is pretty prevalent as the keyboards pump in. The song is probably one of the more overlooked of her early career songs though it should be noted, it’s the first video where we get the Big M crawling around on the ground and just about burning up.

“If we took the time to celebrate it would be so nice…” the first hit for the girl “Holiday.” Apparently even Madge in all of her 1800 incarnations is still fond of this number as it usually turns up in her live show – something that other hits could only wish to do.

My fav of the first few singles will always be “Borderline.” Not quite as dance floor ready as the previous singles, but very much pop circa 1983. It was her first top ten and really started putting the girl on the map. It’s also one I think that gets ignored a lot. But every time I hear it I get images of lime green sweaters and black rubber bracelets and that just makes me smile.

And the infamous, the over used, the star light star bright of “Lucky Star.” This is the song that really pushed Madonna into the subconscious. No one had really slithered around in front of a white backdrop before. Sure, Toni Basil had done some cheerleading choreography in front of one, but this M chick was ready to push boundaries – if only she could wrap her legs around some good lyrics – but this was not about being prolific, this was about dancing and having fun and with that in mind, you can’t help but deny “Lucky Star” can still shine.

In November 1984, Madonna bucked all trends, put on some lingerie, gelled her hair into a hard driven whore look and threw “Like A Virgin” into the world. Using producer Nile Rodgers of Chic fame, he took her dance beats and added a rock polish over them – incorporating more guitars.

The single of course took the world by storm and made Madonna the household word she is now. The song is written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg who up to that time had worked on ditties for the likes of Linda Ronstadt and my girl Pat Benatar. In fact, “Like A Virgin” was offered to Pat who declined insisting she wanted to get out of the sex object business, but then turned around and recorded Tom & Billy’s “Sex As A Weapon” though she insists it was political statement, oh where was I?

Oh yes, “Like A Virgin” the pulsing synth beat as Madonna’s higher register comes in, “I made it through the wilderness/somehow I made it throoough/ didn’t know how lost I was until I found you…” Apparently Nile Rodgers had to speed up the tape for Madonna to hit the notes but hey the girl had more ambition in her little finger than anyone in the world and she wasn’t going to let a little thing like talent stop her rise to #1 on the pop charts.

The second single from Like A Virgin, was the moniker making “Material Girl.” At the time of its release, Madonna had already acquired a few nicknames including “Boy Toy” but it was with this single she officially got dubbed the Material Girl.

A clever little ditty about wanting material things over such ideals as love, the song spoke to millions of money hungry 80s sex fiends. Though I wasn’t a sex fiend at the age of 12, I can say I was moved by such lines as, “Some boys romance / some boys slow dance/ that’s alright with me/ but a boy who saves his pennies / makes my rainy day…”

I personally love the video version of the song with the background boy vocals, “Living in a material world, living in a material world” so I put that version on this compilation. The video will of course always be remembered as Madonna’s first glimpse into her Marilyn Monroe knock off. Though she wasn’t sporting the right hairdo at the time, she did try to make “Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend” speak to a whole new generation.

While Sire was pushing out singles from the album, Madonna was busy doing some acting. In Vision Quest, she played a lounge singer who gets to sing a sappy little ditty for the love theme. Once again using outside writers, “Crazy For You” burned up the charts and gave the girl another top 2 hit.

The song is fine enough, though I don’t think the Big M thinks much of it these days. Perhaps because she didn’t write it, she doesn’t want to perform it. But as for ballads in the Madonna catalog this is probably one of my favorites. Her voice is low and smoky and a lot of thought seemed to have been put into the production. The lyrics are good, not overly clever by any means but good and not in that late self-loathing bloated “Oh Father” way.

“Angel” and “Dress You Up” are the two most overlooked singles of this period I think. Both from the Like A Virgin album, the singles were being pumped out like a Thriller machine. But the two songs relying more on pop rock beats than anything from the first album remain two of my favorites. Both of them hit the top 5 fast and furious and then faded away just as fast. It’s a shame too cause I think “Dress You Up” has a power that something rather flimsy like “Crazy For You” doesn’t have.

In June of 1985, my fav Madonna performance hit the screens – there was Desperately Seeking Susan and along with it a little dance ditty entitled “Into The Groove.” Probably one of her most famous singles ever, the song was actually never released in the US as a single. Instead it was on the 12” single for Angel.

The UK released “Into the Groove” as a single, however and it shot all the up to #1. It’s one of those strange occurrences I guess for it is still one of her most popular songs –

“Get into the groove boy you’ve got to prove your love for mee….” I can’t hear the song without spouting off lines from the movie, like,

“Maybe she’s having an affair,”
“I think I would know if my wife were having an affair?”
“Why? You didn’t know she was a prostitute.”

But on with the music -

The Vision Quest soundtrack makes its second appearance here with the obscure single “Gambler.” It’s the one single that never seems to make it on any Madonna compilation but I think it’s a far better song than some of the ones that made Immaculate Collection - Madonna's first greatest hits package.

"Gambler" was released as a single in the UK as the follow up to “Into the Groove.” I’m not sure why the belated release took place (October 1985) since the first Vision single “Crazy For You” was released in February, but whatever the reason the single did hit #34 and was her first pseudo bust of the early 80s.

The dance rock beat of “Gambler” is really fun and catchy and I’m surprised it didn’t get as much recognition as her other singles of the time. I love me a good sassy song and Madonna oozes attitude in this song, “You’re not happy with the way I act/ Better turn around boy and don’t look back / You’re getting angry baby I can see / you’re just jealous cause you can’t be me!” I love it!

The song finishes up with Madonna cooing, “You can’t stop me now…” while a little whistle chimes in and fades out in electro orgasms… or something like that.

1986 started out with Madonna mania in full blast. First came her ballad, “Live To Tell” from her husband Sean Penn’s movie At Close Range. The song is one of her best of all time and even when I’m desperate to get away from Madonna, this is one song I have to give her kudos for.

Starting with a rippled guitar loop, Lady M finds herself holding onto some dark secret and some dark notes. “If I ran away/ I’d never have the strength to go very far / how would they hear the beating of my heart?” “Will it grow cold/ the secret that I hide / will I grow old? / How will they hear? / When will they learn? / How will they know?”

It’s great – too bad Madonna ends up retooling the song every few years as a new movie ballad – think “This Used To Be My Playground” or “I’ll Remember”. But this is the Madonna written ballad she could really be proud of.

By summer 1986, Madonna was back in the stores with her third album True Blue. Deciding she wasn’t going to mess around with outside writers or producers Madge took it upon herself to release the album and music she wanted to.

A 9 song ditty, the album combined rock and pop with Spanish flavorings and of course a little bit of dance.

The first single was “Papa Don’t Preach” a pro life anthem about a girl who’s going to “Keep her baby”. Whether the song was meant to titalize or socialize, one may never know but with the synth strings making a daring opening before the drums and guitar kick in, the song hooked you and kept you. Not to mention it’s one of Madonna’s best vocal performances. As she breaks into a scratch yell at the bridges, “But my friends keep telling me to give it up / saying I’m too young I ought to live it up / what I need right now is some good advice / pleeeease…”

It was bright, it was fresh, it was actually saying something and I still love it!

For some reason I had always thought the next single from True Blue was “Open Your Heart” but apparently I was wrong, for in September 86 the title ode to girl groups was released as a single.

“True Blue” is again one of my favorite songs. I remember buying the 45 of it, pressed on blue vinyl no less. The song is so sing songy; you can’t help but hum along with it right from the beginning…

“Hey!”
“What”
“listen….
I’ve had other guys/ I’ve looked into their eyes / but I never knew love before / til you walked through my door….”

Apparently the love of a good hot tempered actor had turned our girl into a smooth crooner. After all, the album was dedicated to her husband – “the coolest guy in the universe.”

“True Blue” was supposed to be Madonna’s ode to those girl group songs of the 60s only updated with an 80s beat. In essence, I guess you could say the idea was successful. You definitely feel the girl group influence, even if most of the overdubs are Madonna herself.

Still, the song has some of the best lyrics in it, “So if you should ever doubt / wonder what love is all about / just sit back and remember dear / those words whispered in your ear / cuz it’s true love …” and one of my favorite bridges – “Nooo more sadness / I kiss it goodbye / the sun is bursting right out of the sky / I’ve searched the whole world for someone like you / don’t you know / don’t you know …”

Then it’s onto “Open Your Heart” which for some reason seems to be the video that got the most play of any of her early videos. The video is her wearing a black shag wig and dancing at a strip club and though it’s not one of my favorite clips, the song is good.

Once again her voice is stronger than on any earlier recordings and the lyrics are hyper and fun. “Open your heart to me darling / I hold the lock and you hold the key/ open your heart to meee” and my favorite lines of the song, “I’ve had to work much harder than this/ for something I want / don’t try to resist me…” How many times I’ve had to say that!

“La Isla Bonita” was the next single released from True Blue and for some reason, this is where Madonna began to lose me. It’s not a bad song and most fans really love it but it has never really done anything for me. These days, it holds a little place for me but not because I long to dream of San Pedro or the beautiful island so much as I long for my forgotten youth, but that’s something for my therapist.

The Spanish guitar that plays through out the song is fun enough and I love the bridge – “I want to be where the sun warms the sky / when it’s time for siesta / you can watch them go by / beautiful faces with no cares in the world / where a girl loves a boy and a boy loves a girl…” But it still doesn’t hold its weight against the other ditties on this compilation. And once again, Madonna would take the song and reincarnate it in various versions including….

“Who’s That Girl?” Though “she’s trouble” and “Gets closer to the fire” this Spanish flavored number is much more enjoyable to me than “La Isla Bonita.” Perhaps it’s the girls singing back up or the Spanish they are singing, or just the fact that it conjures up imagery from the movie, whatever it is, I like this song a lot. It has a more pop flavor than “La Isla Bonita” and the bridge is good as an added synth takes over. "Who's That Girl" is a lot more fun than the other song, whose bittersweet ness just sounds forced to me.

The second single from Who’s That Girl? is the jamming dance pop brilliance known as “Causing A Commotion.” It’s another of the Madonna songs that is overlooked. It shot to #2 on the charts and then disappeared from her canon for some reason. But every time I hear it, it just gets me moving – even if she did go through her back catalog of lyrics to fill in the gaps –

“You met your match when you met me…” “The love you save may be your own…”
“It doesn’t matter if you win or lose / it’s how you play the game so get into the groove…”
“You’ve got the moves baby/ I’ve got the motion / we got together /we’d be causing a commotion…”

The song is almost a throw back to her first singles of dance confection and a perfect way to end the Virgin – so run to the closet, grab that neon green sweater and dangling black bracelets, throw on some high heels, put on Virgin and get into the groove.

posted by swivek @ 9:10 AM