Dance and Sing Get Up and Do Your Thing: My Madonna Ten

Since, according to so many songs, summer is crazy, and my life is all about the dancing and the feeling good in the summer, or at least that is what it should always be about, I want to share an intimate detail about the ancient beginnings of this energizing hobby of mine.

As most of you know, I was a huge Madonna fan when I was a young girl. Huge! I’m talking devotion here. I thought she was just the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, ravishing, luminous. I collected books, postcards, posters. I cut out pictures from magazines. The walls of my room were covered with Madonna paraphernalia. It was the first time in my life I witnessed a powerful woman make her own way in the world just the way she saw fit, and for that experience I am forever grateful. Of course, I loved her music as well, but if I’m truly honest, sometimes I think it was more about the fact that she was so charismatic, so seductive, so much like a star even when she still wasn’t, that the music itself felt at times almost incidental.

And more than anything, I think my early years Madonna fandom gave me the first push into my lifelong affinity to adore and worship and enthuse, to collect and savour and cataloque and organize, to love difference, to go my own way no matter what anyone said, and, oh yes, it was the very beginning of my music collection, my book collection, and my film collection. I still have every one of those tapes and vinyls, the maxi singles, most of the posters and postcards, the ones that haven’t been torn beyond recognition in the course of years. All of it, my youth, stacked away neatly. I even still have some of the books, too, the ones I haven’t ripped to shreds in order to extract some particularly gorgeous pictures of her on my walls despite my parents firmly telling me not to do it. A lifelong collector as I said, I still have most of those old pictures, too, safely archived in the drawers of my grownup’s house. Recently, I even posted some on the inside of my wardrobe door and in the bathroom, just to remind myself what is important. If the answer isn’t exactly Madonna herself, it is to remember what it was like to be a young girl, to be in awe of everything, to not have the sarcastic, snobbish sneer on the face all the time. To remember to be in awe.

I don’t follow her career that closely anymore, not since she got confused as to what it was that she was supposed to do with her fame and her music and her status. Also, I think she became kind of a bitch, oh what the hell, let’s lose the kind of, and I think she lost the most important thing an artist can lose: her humility. She considered herself the reigning Queen long after there had been another one for however long already. And she hasn’t figured out how to age gracefully and with style and accept the fact the if you push young demographic’s music down people’s throats when you are no longer part of that demographic, odds are it is just going to sound forced and false. I think Music was her last innovative, great, even, album to date. I think, the way things are going, Confessions on A Dance Floor should have been her swansong as a singer. It was a simple and fun record, not exactly the stuff of Grammys, but like old times. It was about dancing just like she was all about the dancing when she was young and first went to New York. A full circle. 

Alas, she has not escaped the crazy demands inside her head to be on top of the game, in the running, trying to catch her diminishing youth, and instead of finding yet a new way to see herself, a rediscovery of herself as a mature woman making music, she has chosen what I like to refer to as The Cher Road. Why she would do that is beyond me, but also so many of her records during the second leg of her career are beyond me too, so maybe guessing is crazy.

She was so cutting edge once. She still could be. If she ever finds a way back down from her weird, maximum security ivory tower of run-of-the-mill pop songs and yawn-worthy quote-unquote raunchiness.

But. Just like I love and adore Cher, even with her unnecessary obsession for facelifts and tummy tucks, I will never forget the positive energy I once got from listening to Madonna albums in the sun, trying to step to the beat like her, my dozens of bangles clinking, my neon colored lace scarf wrapped around my girl’s head, my hands hidden inside vintage lace gloves. The music itself may have at that time seemed almost incidental compared to the Wannabe way of life that for a while dominated my whole existence, but the music is still the soundtrack to everything that went down in my life that age. The music. In the end, Madonna’s legacy is about expressing yourself, finding the joy, and some goddamn fine music.

I was going over and updating my dance playlist the other day, and, for some reason, typed her name in the field. I haven’t listened to anything of hers in ages, and it was a real rediscovery. The next thing I knew, I was bouncing all over the place in earnest, so happy all of a sudden I almost wept. I realized I can still sing along to most of her Eighties catalogue, word for word, by heart, and I became overwhelmed with such a mysterious feeling, not really nostalgia, but that was part of it. I guess it was that childhood joy, the memory of dancing to these same songs on my lawn, in the yard of the house that is no more, when I had no idea what kind of life I would lead, what sorrows would make me weep in the night, how I would get my heart broken, and who the people would be that I loved.

So, in memory of that girl, and the woman that became of that girl, a woman who did her crazy dancing to these very tunes just this Monday, I give you my all-time danciest, the bestest, most extravagant and joy-inducing Madonna songs to dance to that will make you want to dot your upper lip with the beauty spot that was once her trademark, put on those lace leggings and a stretchy mini-skirt, and start partying!

The Madonna Danceathon Countdown:

Ten: Spotlight. This world is yours and mine. I have no idea why this song never caught more wind beneath its ass. I mean come on! Such an uplifting, beautiful song with a great dance beat, and the best possible opener of the You Can Dance mix album! Never the world’s most clever lyricist, it doesn’t really matter that it is basically Holiday done all over again. Madonna has had her eureka moments elsewhere, lyrics-wise, but Spotlight is all about the killer beat, the stepping into the light.

Nine: Hanky Panky. Some girls they like candy, and others, they like to grind, and what the hell, why not the whole I’m Breathless album! Unlike any other Madonna record, and I was too young to appreciate this fully when it first came out, and for a while listened to only the last song on it. Later, however, the album grew on me, and now I think it is the most humorous, frolicking, and extravagant record she has ever made, easily surpassing the forced and awkward extravagance of, say, Erotica, and it is a shame it seems to go unnoticed still to this day. Remember how she sang Sooner or Later at the Oscars that year, wearing her best Marilyn Monroe getup? I’m Going Bananas is so unlike any other Madonna song, and great for jumping around crazy to let out that negative energy. Let’s hear it for Breathless Mahoney, folks!

Eight: Holiday. We got to get together, take some time to celebrate. This is probably Madonna’s all-time best-known song. I think every single person in the world must know the lyrics to this one. And good for us. However, for the longest time I became so sick of this I could not listen to it at all for years. But like all evergreens, give it enough time and the nausea will pass. And remember The Girlie Show, the live performance on video? That show had a lot of truly inspired versions of her old favorites, including Like A Virgin, Everybody, and this one. “I’m in the land they call Down Under/Ain’t nobody gonna steal my thunder!/I’m in the land where they say G’day/Ain’t nobody gonna stand in my way!” All this chanted to the beat of Holiday.

Seven: Vogue. Let your body move to the music. How can you deny the Vogue, man? Despite the fact that it is to be found on the aforementioned Dick Tracy -inspired album, Vogue was such a smash it really deserves its own mention. How many of you tried to learn the Vogue moves and steps in front of your mirror when you were kids, or teens, or even young adults? Show of hands? I think I still have down some, not all, not by far, of the moves, and doing them always makes me feel exquisite and special, even if I’m doing them so wrong the neighborhood doves are laughing at me. Also, the killer black-and-white video never goes out of style.

Six: Lucky Star. I just turn around and you’re by my side. This list is shaping up to rely and revolve rather heavily on her first, self-titled album, but well, I still think it is her very best. Like A Prayer comes a very close second, and True Blue, a close third, but still, Madonna is all about dancing and good times and really, really outstanding beats that still kill me, after thirty-five years. Lucky Star? What a song to do your abs to! Six minutes of pure pain in the never-ending, wonderful synth sounds of the Eighties. The opening sounds of the song, simulating the light reflected off the disco ball, are instantly recognizable and every time I just want to start moving and moving when the keyboardist hits the first notes.

Five: Who’s That Girl? Her heart is on the street. The movie didn’t do too well, but the existence of this song owes to the movie, and the song is so beautiful and high-spirited, and hearing it always makes me want to spread my arms and just twirl and twirl around with eyes closed, as long as I possibly can. Also, the live performance of this song on the Who’s That Girl World Tour Live taping, pieced together from her last shows on the tour, in Italy, is one of the most inspired I have ever seen, even if she was having obvious trouble with her voice. Paired with the show-stopping Holiday, in the red pants? Oh, yes.

Four: Open Your Heart. I think that you’re afraid to look in my eyes. I mean, the chair routine on the video? Jee-sus! Get me that chair immediately so I can start practicing. Madonna at her most fresh and lovely. I always link the music to the video; it was, after all, the age of MTV, and I was one of those MTV era kids. One of the loveliest music videos of all time. The opposite styles on it, the gorgeous cinematography, the colors, the peep show! And, oh my, the bodice. The bodice. When I used to dance to this song as a girl, I always pictured myself in that bodice, doing the poses with the Viennese chair behind the curtain at the beginning of the aforementioned 1987 world tour, the audience going wild when she appears as the veil is lifted, and her humble and honest smile as she looks at her fans.

Three: Burning Up. Come on, let go! This song is on my current dancing playlist, in the first third of my collection of dance songs, and I usually make this my Jane-Fonda-hands-and-arms exercise music. It used to be Rihanna’s S&M, but this is equally effective, and has the required fast beat. One of the songs I still know the lyrics to by heart, down to every grunt and gasp. Also, one of her more fabulous looks on the video; this, along with the video to Borderline, always puts a smile on my face. God, she is so beautiful, gorgeous, serious, lovely, and the style? For me, this is the ultimate Madonna Look.

Two: Everybody. You can do your thing. The classic of all classics. With this song as her first single, no wonder she became a huge star. The repetition, the beat, the steamy feel of the song, you just know it was made to be played at sweaty nightclubs at midnight. There are no sufficient words. I just love it. It is like a primal chant. It is a primal chant, an invitation into movement and losing oneself inside the beat.

One: Into the Groove. Yes, this. The dance tune to end all dance tunes. I especially love the version on the You Can Dance mix album, with the crazy piano solo included for the very first time, one that she ended up using in every single live performance of that song from then on as far as my knowledge of her live shows go.

Into the Groove makes me think of summer days and mother’s laundry hanging on the line and me lying in the sun on a rough blanket with a boombox right next to me, the cassette case of Like A Virgin lying on the grass, this song blasting, the tiny shadows of the silver willow branches in my field of vision at times when the wind blows my way. Dancing barefoot on the grass. The smell of father making barbecue, the neighborhood alive with the sounds of lawnmowers and kids yelling for their moms and watering hoses and laughter and Into the Groove.

How one summer I watched Desperately Seeking Susan probably twenty times and it was a hot summer and my mother got so angry with me she confiscated the video cassette – the only time in my life my parents would confiscate anything at all! Iggy Pop and The Chiffons and Run-DMC, all found on the soundtrack of the movie. Me and my best friend playing on the veranda, re-enacting scenes from the movie, talking in broken English because we were so little and knew so little. Dancing in our socks on the wooden floor of the veranda.

Sitting in the scorchingly hot car, the smell of leather, whining to be allowed to listen to one of my cassettes on our way to the city. The white overalls with the frills. My sister’s lace nightgown I stole to perform to an imagined crowd, rolling on the ground in mother’s best gossamer curtains, in imitation of Madonna’s Like A Virgin performance at MTV’s first birthday show. Youth and innocence and dancing, the sound of trees and wind and the sun, and only when I’m dancing can I feel this free, at night I lock the doors where no one else can see. I’m tired of dancing here all by myself, tonight I wanna dance with someone else.

Dedicated to Madonna