Albums: Erotica (1992), GHV2 - Greatest Hits Volume 2 (2001), The Confessions Tour (2007), Celebration (2009)
Songwriters: Madonna/Shep Pettibone/Tony Shimkin
Producers: Madonna/Shep Pettibone
Contains samples of “Jungle Boogie” by Kool & the Gang, and “El Yom ‘Ulliqa ‘Ala Khashaba” by Fairuz

“In a sense, Erotica was the biggest one of her career. It was the one that moulded her, that gave her the access code to what she’s doin’ now. True Blue etc. - it was good to get those numbers out the way first… Set up the template for what you wanna do when you get older. Fifty million plus records under your belt, you’re good. If the label can’t support what you’re trying to do, fuck ‘em. On one level she’s asking, how much do y’all really believe in me now?”
“She was bringin’ it from her point of view as a woman, bringing it to the forefront for real. That set the template now, for your Christina Aguileras, Britneys, Beyoncés. She paved the road for a lot of that. You can be nice and clean and then a freak. And there’ll be a lot of money for you in the end!”
- Doug Wimbish of Living Colour, bassist on the Erotica album

The majority of Madonna’s music is, simply, inseparable from its imagery and the cultural context in which it was originally heard. And rightly so; the full extent of her artistry cannot be appreciated via listening alone. But for the last eighteen years, fans have been trying to hear the Erotica album without the backlash Madonna experienced around its release. Seeing it for what it really is, the music - and by extension, the imagery - has a depth that belies the public opinion. And yet, it’s stylistically scattered, Madonna’s aims not quite clear; perhaps all too appropriately for an album as vaguely named as Erotica.

Though the title track did surprisingly well, peaking at #3 on the Billboard charts, the Erotica album has sold a mere five million worldwide - just more than a fifth of True Blue’s sales. But with Madonna just about excising the sense of ’80s pop euphoria from her music, that was to be expected.

On the surface, Erotica’s hip-hop beats and alternately whispered/distant vocals sound like a continuation of Justify My Love. But where Justify My Love was sincere - Ingrid Chavez’s deepest fantasies set to music - Erotica is ironically devoid of the romance Madonna, or more accurately, Dita, supposedly invokes from the outset.

Though Madonna dictates the terms - “I’ll be your mistress tonight”, “if I’m in charge” - her soft intonating uses the power of suggestion gently, taking the reins as if for your benefit. In a way, it’s the same dominant role she always had in her relationship with her audience, but instead of the Blond Ambition era’s take-me-or-leave-me boldness, she pillow-talks the listener into loving her back.

Unlike Justify My Love’s stripped-bare feel, Erotica casts a smoky backdrop, with Kool & the Gang’s horns and the uncredited, vaguely Arabic vocal sample emerging intermittently from the haze. Even with only one hook, a chorus just explicit enough to make singing along in public awkward, it’s an appealing enough production that maybe, when they drove it to #3 on the Billboard charts, the public were merely buying into a pop song, not Madonna’s sugar-coated idea of sexual liberation.

More than any other Madonna song, Erotica is masquerade, encapsulating the Sex book’s occasional tongue-in-cheek tone without all its aspirations of being transgressive art. Gently seducing the world into accepting her ideals of sexual openness - perhaps her final sex-positive feminist act - was likely the best way to go about attempting to remove the taboo from sex. But unfortunately for her, the not-so-forward rest of the world found the idea considerably harder to swallow when exposed to actual nudity.

“Give it up, do as I say
Give it up and let me have my way
I’ll give you love, I’ll hit you like a truck
I’ll give you love, I’ll teach you how to…”

(browse the Sex book above, or view the individual pages, or just download it in high quality - because we all know you’re going to buy a copy one day… yeah, right.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone actually own one?!)

The Sex book.

Unlike just about everything else Madonna (except her acting career as a whole, successes and all), it hasn’t been reevaluated. The consensus seems to be not to consider it a misstep, nor to forgive and forget - merely to forget about it entirely. And though Madonna has never once expressed regret over the project, with the book long out of print, she may as well have disowned it. Here’s a typical after-the-fact quote:

“Well, I didn’t write a book about sex. I wrote a book that — I mean I published a book that basically was sort of a — an ironic tongue-in-cheek, sticking-my-tongue-out-at-society photo essay…”
“Yes, well it worked, obviously. It sold and people reacted to it.”
“It pissed off a lot of people, too… I think that there were a lot of people that were freaked out about it, yes. “
- Madonna with Larry King, on Larry King Live in 1999

All entirely true, and yet she gives no insight whatsoever into why she had to create the book. She’d evoked both irony and social commentary in the past without having to literally bare herself (much), nor to stretch her public reputation for boldness to its breaking point. That her nature was never to do anything by halves simply doesn’t explain why she went as far as she did. Was she really trying to change people’s views on sex, or just challenge them, inevitably offending the usual suspects whilst destroying her last shred of self-consciousness at the same time?

“And by the way, any similarity between characters and events depicted in this book and real persons and events is not only purely coincidental, it’s ridiculous. Nothing in this book is true. I made it all up.”

The book itself is… well, interesting. That a celebrity would bare themself for more complex reasons than publicity, titillating the opposite sex or showing off their physique is, perhaps, a shocking concept. Maybe, even after Justify My Love, it was still jarring to see Madonna looking glamourous as ever whilst dressed in leather S&M gear, or writing occasionally sophomoric tributes to masturbation or her vagina. But the images are more confrontationally blush-inducing than shocking - except maybe those of her cavorting with Vanilla Ice, a metaphor for life’s abject unfairness.

There’s no question that it’s an erotic art book, not so much pornography; each image feels as if it is presented as art with a purpose. It’s just not always clear what that is - Madonna vying for the attention of a gay man may be a fascinating image, but her in a Big Daddy Kane/Naomi Campbell sandwich may just be self-indulgent.

Not quite celebratory, not quite shocking, the Sex book wants to provoke a reaction, but really just is - an odd state of being for something so difficult to produce. Songs such as Like a Prayer and Vogue inspire a vast number of interpretations and associations - all of which feel entirely intentional on Madonna’s part. But Sex is more postmodern - devoid of a strong sense of intent, little else remains but the subjective interpretations it provokes, even amongst those who never even read it. Perception becomes reality.

Doctor: “Have you ever been mistaken for a prostitute?”
Dita: “Every time anyone reviews anything I do, I’m mistaken for a prostitute.”

And that’s exactly it - without the surrounding controversy, perhaps only the most dedicated of fans would have gotten anything out of the book. Instead, with all 1.5 million copies worldwide of the first edition sold out in three days, it quickly became the highest-selling coffee table book of all time. The merely curious bought something they would never quite appreciate; the apathetic grew entirely sick of her overexposure, beginning the backlash against her. Madonna did everything with an awareness of how her audience would react, but in selling a decidedly un-mainstream erotic art book to the world, what did she overestimate - the wider public’s tolerance, or her own power?

“You’re supposed to stay popular, and do things that are popular, that’s what the word means. Once you cross that line there’s a lot of fury to reckon with. I think that because everybody did buy the Sex book in spite of the fury it caused, people made up their minds that they weren’t going to be duped, and they punished me… I’m proud of the way I acted because it set a precedent and gave women the freedom to be expressive. I’m proud to be a pioneer.”

YouTube / AOL

Director: Fabien Baron

The Erotica video is more of the same, using footage from which many stills were taken for the Sex book itself. The concept is a little more powerful when visually brought to life - seeing Madonna dressed as Dita with the mask, single gold tooth and Freddy Krueger nails illustrates just how much of a character she was. Full of fleeting, grainy images, that overall sense of vagueness remains.

Perhaps the best ever version of Erotica was performed on the Confessions Tour; using lyrics from the original demo, it trades the erotic for a deep romantic longing, and is generally AMAZING.

Albums: True Blue (1986), The Immaculate Collection (1990), The Confessions Tour (2007), Celebration (2009)
Songwriters: Madonna/Patrick Leonard/Bruce Gaitsch
Producers: Madonna/Patrick Leonard

Though at this stage of her career, Madonna had appropriated/reinterpreted - not copied, of course - the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn’s classicist images before, La Isla Bonita was the first of various times she’d take on an entire culture. La Isla Bonita is the sound of a time and a place as much as it is one of the first Latin-flavoured pop songs to truly enter the Western consciousness. Songwriters Patrick Leonard and Bruce Gaitsch originally offered the song to Michael Jackson, though it was rejected, and probably for a good reason. Madonna’s vocal performance (especially the dreamy backing vocals) necessarily removes the focus from herself to suit the song’s mood in a way that’s hard to imagine MJ pulling off quite as convincingly, incredible talent aside. What makes the song so successful is how effortlessly it creates a Latin feel; despite being as driven by synths and drum machines as much as any ’80s pop song, the acoustic guitar and Cuban drums still make the most lasting impression. It’s both moody and exotic; light but never disposable like Holiday, and incredibly vital for the fifth(!) single and top-five hit from True Blue.

(for anyone still unconvinced of Madonna’s vocal abilities, compare the original to this competent yet entirely robotic cover by singer Alizée, whose version inexplicably reached number two on her native French charts)

La Isla Bonita is an odd nomination for one of Madonna’s most enduring live songs - but aside from the rather flat, slowed-down Drowned World Tour version, the recent re-inventions are all excellent. Turning a mildly elegiac memory as a song into a sped-up international party sounds like a terrible idea, but the Confessions Tour version segues into a percussion/dance breakdown to great effect. Her Live Earth performance takes that direction to its logical(?) conclusion with an unlikely collaboration with Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, with the Sticky & Sweet Tour version even segueing into the genuine Romani-Gypsy folk song Doli Doli. It says a lot about the skill of the original songwriting, the current arrangements and Madonna’s live performances that it sits so well aside sets full of far more disco/hip-hop/electronic-influenced songs.

The music video is one of Madonna’s most lushly romantic - even if its setting is more streetside than island. It disregards the song’s love story for a greater focus on image that nonetheless fits the song perfectly. As with Papa Don’t Preach and Open Your Heart, Madonna again embodies two different images - a restrained religious girl and an incredibly passionate dancer, she of the jaw-droppingly stunning red flamenco dress. The former stays in her room and sheds a tear watching the outside celebrations, praying at what seems to be a shrine to (dead?) relatives, whilst the latter leaves an apartment with mostly candles as residents to dance with the locals on the street. On one level, it could be Madonna’s commentary on the way religious dedication - separate from spirituality - restricts people’s lives, but it doesn’t condemn, instead treating both characters with equal respect. But as with many of her videos, it gets by on sheer beauty regardless of how conclusively it’s understood.

Albums: True Blue (1986), The Immaculate Collection (1990), Something to Remember (1995), The Confessions Tour (2007), Celebration (2009)
Songwriters/producers: Madonna/Patrick Leonard

Pop has always been seen as music made for the youth, by the relative youth. Whilst the popstar of the moment can get by on exuberance alone, as they grow older, the sheer difficulty of exuding an expected maturity in an art form largely concerned with instant gratification only gets worse. Whereas AC/DC can churn out the same album for 30 years, society saves its harshest ageism for the aging female popstar for doing the same.

Madonna at 51 has now been fighting that battle for literally decades - but once, in 1986, she decided to jump the gun before the weight of her teenage wannabe following became too heavy a burden. Live to Tell, though immediately different from any other Madonna single, is an entirely natural transition - she never feels like she’s out to prove herself. Even though she’s not in a position of power for once - the lyrics being about escape from some form of sexual or domestic abuse - the strength of her determination is, as always, what gives the song life.

Where the closest reference point, her Love Don’t Live Here Anymore cover (to be reviewed during Something to Remember) on Like a Virgin, builds to an anguished peak, Live to Tell is more emotionally restrained and cinematic - but just as dark. Its brooding, mid-tempo nature may make it the least instant of Madonna’s ’80s singles, but also one of the most rewarding.

The music video was likely the public’s first glimpse into the new Madonna on her own terms - away from the constant media obsession following her recent marriage to Sean Penn. Nonetheless, there’s still a connection - Live to Tell having been originally written by Patrick Leonard for a different film, then recorded by Madonna for At Close Range, starring none other than Sean Penn. The video alternates clips from the film - not having seen it, I can’t comment on the song’s relevance - with shots of a very plain-looking (but undeniably beautiful), emotive Madonna. She wouldn’t stand out from a crowd of average people - but she would stick out in a crowd of Madonna wannabes, and in that respect, her first of many image makeovers succeeded perfectly.

The performance of Live to Tell on the Confessions Tour was likely Madonna’s last real controversy - supposedly for drawing messianic comparisons by singing it atop a giant disco cross, wearing a crown of thorns. In typical kneejerk fashion, those doing the condemning had likely heard of, but not seen the performance itself. Musically, the slightly modernised arrangement with the classical organ works wonders, and Madonna sounds perfectly in her element - the melody is an ideal fit for her current tone and vocal range. Visually, it’s nothing if not fascinating; a counter ticks from zero to 12 million - a measure of the number of children orphaned as a result of AIDS, with images interspersed - and stops abruptly at the song’s bridge, when Madonna comes down from the cross.

My secular, thought-out interpretation is this: firstly, Madonna sings both for and from the perspective of the orphans. Inner strength and determination in harsh times - exactly what the song is about, and one thing they need. Secondly, and most importantly to the perception of the performance, she comes down from the cross. Though she may attempt to help the situation, it’s not her burden to bear - at least not alone. As she gestures to the crowd, takes off the crown of thorns and lays down, the Raising Malawi and Clinton Foundation websites flash onscreen. The message - to extend both solidarity and support, that they’ll make it through - should be clear (though honestly, she says it better herself).

Blasphemy? Hah - for being one of few popstars able to encourage compassion and charity without resorting to preaching or grandstanding, Madonna deserves nothing but praise.

Albums: Like a Virgin (1984), The Immaculate Collection (1990), The Confessions Tour (2007), Celebration (2009)
Songwriters: Billy Steinberg/Tom Kelly
Producer: Nile Rodgers

The only conceivable explanation is that this is where the fates aligned. Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly write a song with lyrics sincere yet easily misinterpreted as risqué, which is by chance passed on to a woman on the verge of becoming the defining sex symbol (and so much more) of her generation, whose given name JUST SO HAPPENS to be Madonna, the Virgin Mary’s most sacred of names. With so many brilliant coincidences, could it have happened any other way?

Let’s talk the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards. In the first time the public ever heard Like a Virgin, Madonna emerges from atop a wedding cake in a full wedding dress, sings it rather breathlessly without any choreography and ends up writhing around on the stage floor, exposing a rather beautiful ass to much of America. Various accounts exist as to how it happened - Madonna herself maintains that one of her heels came off, she knelt down to put it back on (which is possible - though you can’t see her do it), that one thing led to another and MTV took advantage of her exposure; others claim they saw her rehearsing it beforehand. But regardless, the fact remains that the controversy did wonders for her career, in that it was likely the start of mud-slinging accusations that she emphasised sex over talent, or even worse, that what she did was morally wrong. To those people, I say: have you ever considered what takes place ON a couple’s wedding night? By wearing a wedding dress in such a sexual way, Madonna intentionally brought the concepts of the sacred and profane closer than ever before - to where they actually met in real life. But of course, religious and social conservatives would prefer to oppress, to not overtly acknowledge what already exists. This theme runs through virtually all of the many controversies that surrounding Madonna throughout the years - with the benefit of hindsight, it becomes clearer and clearer that detractors responded to her social progressivism with kneejerk feelings of discomfort rather than genuine criticism. But naturally, she turned most situations to her advantage and revelled in the attention.

As for the song itself, Like a Virgin is absolutely a high point of pure mainstream pop as a genre unto itself, eschewing all other influences or moods (so excluding Like a Prayer, Billie Jean etc.). Madonna’s singing is particularly unique - perhaps her highest-sounding tone on record; her enunciation full of little hooks and coos; no backing vocals whatsoever, only extremely subtle double-tracking. Though the final recording changes little of the melody and arrangements from Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg’s original demo, Madonna’s impassioned vocal and Nile Rodger’s excellent reverb-soaked production are, really, what seals it as a classic.

Though the lyrics obviously express her dedication to a lover (as amusing as Reservoir Dogs may be), they’re also a classic case of Madonna encouraging a little harmless controversy. Her first impression of the demo was to call it “sick and twisted” - one assumes because of how easily it was to misinterpret as sexual as soon as one heard the word “virgin”. If you found that offensive enough to denounce it, congratulations - Madonna not only pre-empted your reaction, but rode the subsequent wave of publicity to her very first number one single.

The music video is, for lack of a better term, well, irrelevant to the song. In fact, its irrelevance to the song is also irrelevant when - whether in those blue leggings (back in fashion today!) or reprising the wedding dress - Madonna looks as stunning as she does. The Venice setting is classy, though really just a vehicle to get her dancing to the camera on a boat (spoofed so disturbingly by Weird Al in Like a Surgeon), but why the lion? Why does its tongue move to the beat at the end of the bridge? And why was that guy wearing a creepy lion mask? I always wanted to feel Madonna was singing about me - “you made me feel shiny and new” - but of all the alternatives, you pick him?! If I’d been alive in 1984, I still wouldn’t be over it.

Madonna’s played various versions live over the years, with Blond Ambition’s a highlight, but this rarity from an in-store at the now-defunct Tower Records is a particular gem. Playing intimate shows on the promotional trail for American Life - basically a singer-songwriter record - made sense, but her initial performance of Hollywood is a flat version of a flat song. Skip ahead to 1:00, where for no real reason she asks for requests, and ends up singing a “country and western version” of Like a Virgin with, rather obviously, no prior rehearsal. It’s uncharacteristically one of the loosest and most disarmingly amusing performances of her career. It sums up much of what’s to like about Madonna - timeless songs that sound great even without studio sheen, her adaptability, the fact that she doesn’t take herself too seriously despite the fact she’s promoting one of her most artistically “serious” albums… She still sounds amazing singing it in the original key too - shame she does so many of the older songs down a tone nowadays.

(If anyone has decent-quality video or audio of that gig from the TV broadcast, I would do unspeakable things to get my hands on a copy…)

I’ll try not to write too many full essays; the next will probably be for that other “like a” song/career-defining moment. A little more sacred, a little less profane.

Albums: Madonna (1983), The Immaculate Collection (1990), The Confessions Tour (2007), Celebration (2009)
Songwriter: Madonna
Producer: Reggie Lucas

Easily the best of the dance songs on her first album. The minimal, rhythmic production is perfect - but more importantly, Madonna was a damn good songwriter. Lucky Star is basically one massive hook from start to finish - especially in the single/Immaculate Collection edits, the melodies almost go by so quickly you’ve barely had time to sing along.
Special note must be made of Madonna’s lyrics, which not only successfully incorporate a nursery rhyme, but relate love to the star metaphor in a genuinely intelligent, imaginative way. In particular, the bridge of “shine your heavenly body tonight” is GENIUS, a perfect alignment of physical attraction and celestial objects if there ever was one. Lucky Star scoffs at other so-called intelligent pop lyrics - Lady Gaga can reference playing cards and muffins as much as she likes, but the imagery she creates still won’t make any sense.

For once, a low budget (reverting back after Borderline, oddly enough) doesn’t hinder the music video. The minimalist three-person choreography (including brother Christopher Ciccone on backup) may be the best example of the dance style of those early nightclub track dates, but as the numerous close-ups prove, the focus is clearly on Madonna herself. The video simply drips with sex appeal - it’s a testament to the idea of true sexiness as a confidence projected from within that Madonna looks utterly radiant, the embodiment of desire, when the most skin she shows is her stomach. No lingerie? Not even a hint of cleavage? To continue my “most subsequent popstars are vacuous” theme, Madonna achieves infinitely more with infinitely less removal of clothing. With only two dancers, all dressed in monochrome black on a boring white background, Lucky Star can still charm the pants off the unsuspecting viewer - really, who else could turn a whole nation’s gay men straight?