Venerating Madonna: a Top Ten

Love her or hate her, it's impossible to ignore Madonna and her contributions to the pop-culture zeitgeist. She may very well be the most successful music star to be as equally known for her image as well as her music. Others, like Britney Spears have tried and come up short, not only musically, but in terms of engaging that free-floating, ever-changing pop-culture consciousness. I find it interesting that one of Britney's greatest trashy pop moments was the one where she locked lips with...you guessed it... Madonna. Now Brit's in the headlines for dropping her kid on his head, and well, that'll only get you so far. (Actually, I think she relegated that duty to the nanny. When you're too busy to drop your own kid...man, that's lazy.)

To gauge the impact of Madonna, go back to Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." One of the movie's most inspired bits centers around a rather ribald discussion concerning that great Madonna standard, "Like a Virgin." Tarantino's Mr. Brown character has his own (very dirty) interpretation of the song's meaning and debates it to humorous effect with his buddies. Now try to imagine them riffing over a different artist or a different song... Sure, you could make it work, but Tarantino understood that not only was Madonna a subject that everybody was familiar with, but that Madonna's full pop-culture signifigance had not, until then, been dealt with. Before that, Madonna had been sort of her own reflection of pop-culture, from her music to her videos. Now, Tarantino recognized, was the time for culture to reflect her. Her influence was so omnipresent, Tarantino seemed to be saying, that even low-level thugs were comfortable enough debating the meaning of her songs.

Madonna was ever the shrewd manipulator of her image and she knew how to push buttons. But beyond the tabloid headlines, and the calculated trashy sex kitten image, were an impressive string of great pop songs. And that, more than anything, has been the foundation of her long-term success.

And now, just because I can, here are my Top Ten Favorite Madonna Songs:

10.)Don't Cry For Me Argentina-- Okay, this one is a bit of a cheat. Cause it's not exactly what you would call a Madonna song. Patti LuPone maybe, but not Madonna. Well, until the movie came out, at any rate. In 1996, the film version of "Evita" was released, with Madonna playing the title role. In what could be called a Perfect Gay Storm, Madonna sang an Andrew Lloyd Webber signature song set to a disco beat. It was pure over the top Madonna that even inspired straight guys like me to bust a move. (It wasn't pretty. Clay Aiken's got more moves than me.)

9.)"Erotica"--In 1992, Madonna shed the previous trampy sex kitten role of "Like a Virgin" and adopted the role of Dita, sexual dominatrix. Now a pop artist using sex to sell records is nothing new. Britney Spears got a lot of mileage out of that Catholic school girl uniform. But no one (and yes, I'm including Prince) has ever done it with as much verve and imagination. When Madonna whispers to a throbbing beat, "Give it up, do as I say..." it's hard to imagine anyone saying no. And while the breaking of taboo was always one of Madonna's favorite things, the true success of the song wasn't with it's shock value. It's true success is that she made her sexual journey so compulsory. With "Erotica," Madonna did what many could not. She made a great sexually explict pop song that *was actually sexy*.

8.)"Hung Up"-- Madonna has had a rough time on the charts lately. Her last two albums, "American Life" and "Confessions on a Dance Floor" have gone nowhere. But "Confessions" gave us what I consider one of the most insidiously catchy Madonna songs ever. Okay, the song is built on an old ABBA hook, which is always a step in the right direction if you want to construct a great dance song. When it was released it debuted in the Top Ten, it quickly vanished. Had Madonna become the Immaterial Girl? Nah. Never count her out, I say. I'd stack "Hung Up" right up there with "Music" and "Vogue." The lyrics are unrepentedly dopey--the main line, "Time goes by--so slowly," is repeated so often by Madge that after about 30 refrains, it begins to take on a mantra-like profundity. (I first thought she was saying "Time goes by--so silly," which seemed to make just as much sense.) But the main draw is a relentlessly propulsive beat matched with a melody so strong it could break Andrew Lloyd Webber in half. If you don't like this, you just don't like dance music.

7.) and 6.)"Vogue" and "Hanky Panky"

During the '80's Madonna's movie sucesses could be counted on one hand. With four fingers left over. "Desperately Seeking Susan" was a modest hit, but vanity projects like "Shanghai Surprise" became Gigli-like punchlines. In 1990, Madonna found herself in a bonafide hit: Warren Beatty's "Dick Tracy." It was no stretch for Madonna. She played a slinky Mae West/Jessica Rabbit bad girl. The soundtrack was certainly a departure. Most people remember it for her classic dance hit "Vogue," but the other three Madonna contributions are Stephen Sondheim songs. Still, if Sondheim's "Hanky Panky" sounded like a zippy Broadway tune, the lyrical ode to sexual gratification through spanking had to have been written with Madonna in mind. When she belts out: "Please don't call a doctor, 'cause there's nothing wrong with me, I just like things a little rough and you better not disagree," it's hard to picture anyone being able to sell it like Madonna. (Try picturing Paula Abdul or Belinda Carlisle and the whole song just falls apart.) And, shrewd as ever, Madonna knew that even with songs about spanking to capture the public's imagination, a bunch of show tunes would still be a hard sell. Her fans were bound to be frightened and confused. To make up for it, she gave them what would be one her most enduring dance tracks, "Vogue." It was refreshingly non-controversial and proved that Madonna did not need to push buttons to sell albums...she just did what she did best: make easily accessible and fun dance music.

5.)"Borderline"--No, this is not Madonna's ode to the problems of illegal immigration. This is pre-Madonna. Madonna before she became *Madonna*. (That would happen with "Like a Virgin" when she realized she had a remarkable talent for constructing her own image, on her own terms.) The earliest Madonna hits had a light, guileless air bordering on insouciance. The songs were pleasant enough. She chirped through hits like "Holiday" and "Lucky Star" with a bouncy child-like charm. The best of the early bunch, imo, is "Borderline," in which Madonna seemed both sweet, wounded, and vulnerable-- like a kid feeling the pain of love for the first time. Her later stuff was so carefully orchestrated, that "Borderline" becomes a great example of Madonna being herself--with no affectations.


4.)Til Death Do Us Part-- A catchy and energetic song, with some dark, barb wire lyrics. It comes off of the "Like a Prayer" album, which I consider her finest. I believe when she wrote the tracks she had an obssession surrounding her mother's death. The fear that she had was that she would die at the same age that her mother did. This spurred her to write an album of substance and many of the tracks address family members. The result was a more mature-themed album and a stark contrast to the lighter material of previous albums. "Til Death Do Us Part" was easily the darkest track. In the mid-late '80's, the celebrity couple du jour was Madonna and Sean Penn. Most people today think of Sean Penn as an Oscar winner and anti-war critic. Well, in the '80's he was anti-your face as he constantly attacked photographers and gave a beat-down to anyone who pissed him off. The tabloid rags mercilessly picked over their marriage and it became something of a watercooler past-time to guess the expiration date on that particular relationship. "Til Death Do Us Part," a sobering autopsy of a song, quickly shamed anyone who had picked up a tabloid to gleefully relish in somebody else's pain. Sample lyric:
"You need so much but not from me
Turn your back in my hour of need
Something's wrong but you pretend you don't see
I think I interrupt your life
When you laugh it cuts me just like a knife
I'm not your friend, I'm just your little wife"
Before this Madonna had been a playful sexual provocateur. Her career had been based on acting out carefully constructed roles. Here she was emotionally raw and the only role she was playing was herself.

3.)Like a Prayer-- In a career of Big Controversies, this was one of the biggest. Madonna had just been signed to shill for Pepsi. Madonna was all kinds of hot, but surely it was courting disaster to have your spokeswoman be the chick who slinked her way through the "Like a Virgin" video in a wedding gown that was so slutty, Paris Hilton would have thought twice about it. Still, using sexuality to sell sody pop was no problem. Ah, but how many Clios would you get if you combined sexuality with crucifixes and a black Jesus? That's what happened when Madonna released the "Like a Prayer" video, causing Pepsi executives to break out into hives. Coke probably sent Madonna cases of New Coke as thanks. While many people remember the video, it's the song that I can't forget. From the guitar crescendo that opens the song to the swell of the gospel choir that empathically backs her up, the spirituality of the song defies whatever surface controversies the video courts. Madonna was on to something and would later explore spirtual themes on her "Ray of Light" album.

Speaking of which...
2.) and 1.)
"Ray of Light" and "Frozen"

In 1998 Madonna reinvented herself into a new persona that could only have been anticpated by the most intuitive. Marrying her melodic dance grooves with the atmospheric sounds of ambient/electronica, Madonna made good on the promise of her name: she became Spiritual Earth-Mother-Goddess. As pop reinventions go, this one was a startling left turn. But she did it with ease and she did it with grace, and even more importantly, she did it *well*. The Ray of Light album is my 2nd favorite album, after "Like a Prayer," which I saw as more immediate. But make no mistake, "Ray of Light" is the work of an artist at the peak of her powers. The aural framework of William Orbit's supports instead of detracts. This isn't about novelty. The real draw, is, as always, Madonna herself. Her voice is richer and fuller (Evita really pushed her, I think) and the subject matter is a far cry from her early eighties material. In "Frozen," she sings "You're so consumed with how much you get-You waste your time with hate and regret" and it becomes an interesting counterpart to her playful ode to greed, "Material Girl." In some ways this new direction was every bit as ballsy as making records and videos exploring sexuality. "You think you know me," she seemed to be taunting. "You don't know me." But as ever, we wanted to.