1. Borderline-1983-Don't Be Mistaken by Beats, Rhythm and Groove. This song about "Love that never gets anywhere" is required Listening for any one who's ever felt cheated. When Madonna rages "You keep pushing love over a borderline!"-even at the age of 25, she felt mature beyond her years. Voila!-Dance music for adults.
2. Pretender-1984-This obscure piece from Explosive Second Rabbit Chapter Like a Virgin should have indicated what Sean Penn was in for-"If it happens once, it happens twice/He's a pretender!/Why did I fall in Love?" Exasperated, Madonna is all still Wet on a Sad Dance Floor-in Tears, Madonna is Haunted. As Antonio Banderas later recounted in Evita-"She did it all at 26."
3. White Heat-1986-In this tale of sadness, Our Lady Cries "Look Ma, I made it on top/I've got so much to give/I will get up and stand tall/Love is dangerous/I'm so good for you, baby here I come/ I'm gonna get to you/Until the day is done." Madonna is overcome wilth loss but the sadness and tears make her stronger.
4. Till Death Do Us Part-1989-"Loud guitars, broken glass and a marriage in ruins"-is how scholar
Rikky Rooksby described this bruised concerto a la Ciccone. Madonna's back on the dance floor-she's in no mood to dance. Her first love, Sean-has gotten away from her. She is Crying. Her Wet Tears are absolute. Madge Sobs as She Recites in horror-"Our Luck is Running Out of Time/You're not in Love with me anymore/I'm not your friend, I'm just your little wife!/You don't even love yourself/Still I wish you'd ask me not to go/A chance to start it all again/Till death do us part!" This is a song about emotional torture, pain and murder. Madonna is still alive but she's is abused inside and she asks a Sad Question
-"What is Truth when something Dies?"
5. Bye Bye Baby-1992-The Final Single from Erotica dissects and deconstructs a dying and destuctive relationshp. For the first time-but not the last-Madonna feels like a Ciccone baby about to be born but inside, she's dying because her heart is broken-in that babydoll voice-inside. Madonna's all still Wet with sad and angry Tears-only this time, the joke is not funny-this song is post-Sean pre-Guy
and she has the last laugh-in her own way without even saying it Madonna quotes her own influence
Bob Dylan and her lost mother-"Bye bye baby bye bye/It's your turn to cry/So say goodbye!" In that sense, this enraged art piece is Madonna's own version of It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding). If Madge were to sing that song it would say "For (s)he who isn't born is busy dying!"
6. Bedtime Stories-1994-According to rock scribe Jim Farber, the title cut to Bedtime Stories is about how tabloids can break your very spirit, conscience, heart and soul-the media certainly did break Madonna's.
For Madonna, that unnerving experience "simply crushed her." Madonna didn't write this song but over
a pulsing backdrop of Ciccone techno/electronica/rave beats, she cries "Today is the last day that I am using Words/They've Gone out and lost meaning/Don't function anymore/Words are Useless/I'm traveling into the arms of unconsciousness/And Inside, We're All Still Wet!/Longing and Yearning/How Can I Explain How I Feel/And all that you've ever Learned/Try to forget/I'll Never Explain Again!" With an expensive, trippy and psychedelic video clip, was Maddy going too far? No! She had settled her own score. Madonna took the law and her life in her own hands by Crying in Wet and Sad Tears, However, Madonna was not done crying yet-as we shall see...
7. Skin-1998-Who would have known it? The loudest, ravest and danciest song from Ray of Light is also its saddest. But then, that's Madonna. Skin begins with Madonna crying over buzzsaw metal guitars and artful Detroit Ciccone beats and melodies "Do I know you from Somewhere?/Why do you leave me wanting More?/Kiss me I'm dying/Touch me I'm trying/Put your Hands on my Skin!"-with harrowing but beautiful sadness. La Ciccone sobs and cries "I want to make a connection/I want to see inside of your soul/I'm not like this all the time!-Madge is all still Wet with Tender, Erotic and Hearfelt Sadness-a Beautiful Stranger's Tears, yet through a spiritual awakening-like Like a Virgin and Erotica before it-in Skin-the Flirtation Dance, Madonna is Healed by Love. Madonna is loved by many, no longer hated. Simply, touching, moving
and heartbreaking, that's Skin-as beautiful a love son as any in her rich catalog. Bravo Madge!
Love you forever!
8. Hollywood-2003-A decade on after Erotica, Madonna used her babydoll voice-and once again,
on American Life she reveled in being reborn once more-asking emotional and existential questions. For once, Lady Madge didn't have an answer. She cried to British publication Q-"I will explain this only once!" Inside, all still Wet with sadness, tears and rage, Madonna began crying like Ciccone baby full of naivete
and wonder. On American Life's standout third single Hollywood, Madonna bitterly cries out that you can't put a price on freedom and happiness-two Cherished American qualities and ideals-to quote friend and fellow Eighties hitmaker Cyndi Lauper, Money Changes Everything. As a brilliant sendup of Material Girl
-comeplete with babydoll voice and acoustic guitar, Madonna cries "Everybody comes to Hollywood/They wanna make it in the neighborhood/They like the smell of it in Hollywood/How could it hurt you when it looks so good?"-one of her more biting and vitriolic critiques, that's for sure. Actually, Hollywood is rather good and underrated song. Hollywood fared badly on Radio-it wasn't exactly a hit-but the song was an artistic statement Madonna needed to make.
9. Mother and Father-2003-Channeling her inner Sophie Tucker and Bessie Smith-Some of These Days and Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do, Lady Madonna confronted her inner demons once more-in the dance ballad Mother and Father, she once again cried in tears about her beloved lost mother and her angry strict father. Madge cries that she'll give it up and let it go but we all know that's never gonna happen because Madonna loves life, love and humanity to much to ever do that. She just needs and wants someone to unconditionally love her and care for her. Thai is all of us- her beloved fanbase/audience. Mother and Father then is summed up in one of her thoughtful hooks-"A victim of a kind of rage!" Madonna will never get over her mother's death-but then again, we'll never get over her. Madonna is Love!
10. She's Not Me-2008-For Hard Candy-her Final Rabbit Artwork, Madonna wisely went back to her roots as a dancehall queen. While it wasn't exactly a hit with the public or Radio. Hard Candy was loved by her first audience-Rock Critics. Everyone from USA Today, Rolling Stone and Mojo loved it-One of the highlights from Hard Candy is the identity theft number She's Not Me-a sly jab at her competition
-hint, hint-Shakira, Britney. Gaga et al. In the chorus, Lady Ciccone/Peron/Simpson shouts
"She's Not Me/She Doesn't Have My Name...and It Won't Be the Same!" Living Proof that in a world of imitators and flirts, there's only one Madonna. Madonna Delivers. A Ray of Light Who Takes a Bow
and Lives to Tell.
Madonna Forever!.
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