Category Archives: Madonna

{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}

He’s a pretender, he knows just what to say
He’s a pretender, you meet him every day
He’s a pretender, that fish that got away
he’s a pretender, why’d I fall in love?

Pure 80’s synth pop prettiness, ‘Pretender’ is a relic that doesn’t completely stand the test of time, but we all seem to be in an 80’s celebration, and it’s good to have a reminder that not every Madonna song is going to be everlasting. This one still has its charms, and it brings me indelibly back to the days of 1985, when we rose around in a station wagon and the ‘Like A Virgin‘ album sang of things we’d never known at the ripe age of ten.

It was so strange, the way he held my hand
I wanted more than just a one night stand
He had a way of making me believe
that he was mine and that he’d never leave.
I know that I should take my friend’s advice
Cause if it happens once, you know it happens twice
If there’s chance then I know I’ve got to try
I’ll make him dance with me, I’ll make him tell me why.

The betrayal of the protagonist of ‘Pretender’ was very much one of those things, but Madonna sang with such forlorn bitterness and convincing hurt that I felt I already knew that brutal sting. Maybe it was a presentiment of rocky romances to come? Maybe just a shared love of the dramatic? Or maybe just a hooky pop tune of the 80’s, with a bombastic bridge crafted as deftly as anything Taylor Swift has ever erected.

I’m not afraid to fall a hundred times
And I’ll believe in all your silly lies
I’d like to think that I could change your mind
Don’t say that I am blind, I know all about your kind.

When I was all of ten years old, I thankfully had no idea what a song like ‘Pretender’ might be about – my romantic trials and tribulations wouldn’t start wrecking me for another decade. And maybe it does stand up to the test of time – betrayal still being very much a part of the mess we call humanity.

SONG: #181: ‘Pretender’ – 1985

{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}

The Queen of Pop’s very first official duet was fittingly with a man named Prince. At the time of the ‘Like A Prayer’ album’s release, Prince and Michael Jackson were probably the only two musical icons who could match Madonna’s own pop-culture stardom. Prince was a more avant-garde choice, and in the end more fitting. Michael was fine for arm candy at the Oscars, but for musical legacy and credibility, Prince was far more prolific. His quirky and unmistakable musical style was all over his duet with Madonna, entitled ‘Love Song’ in questionably stultifying fashion. As unimaginative as the title was, the song itself also fell a little short of expectations from two pop superstars arguably at their apex in 1989.

It begins with Madonna speaking coquettishly in French: “Je suis prête? Vous êtes prêt aussi?“

Are you wasting my time?
Are you just being kind?
Oh no baby
My love isn’t blind
Are you wasting my time?
Are you just being kind?
Don’t give me one of your lines

If it sounds slightly disjointed, as if the two aren’t quite connecting, that’s reportedly because they recorded their parts separately, somewhat diminishing the duet aspect of the whole affair, and wasn’t that the whole point? Still, it grows on you if you let it, and Madonna steps up to the Prince-like musical environment, almost making it her own.

Say what you mean, mean what you say
Don’t go and throw our love away
God strike me down if I did you wrong
This is not a love song

Are you just being kind? No
Am I losing my mind?
Losing your mind
Oh no baby… Yeah

Strangely enough, given their pop-culture status at the time, ‘Love Song’ didn’t make much of an impact or impression. That said, it actually fits in the kaleidoscopic/psychedelic 60’s undertone of the tapestry that was the ‘Like A Prayer’ album – Madonna and Prince melding their personae like patchouli and lavender – and it works well as an album-cut.

Are you wasting my time?
Wasting my time
Are you just being kind?
Oh no baby, my love isn’t blind
Are you wasting my time?
Time, time, time
Are you just being kind?
Don’t go give me one of your lines

While I was busy hiding the ‘Like A Prayer’ album in the back of my desk drawer out of Catholic fear and guilt, ‘Love Song’ and all the other brilliant album deep cuts (‘Til Death Do Us Part‘, ‘Promise to Try‘, ‘Dear Jessie‘ and ‘Pray for Spanish Eyes‘ to name a few) went unheard for a bit. It wasn’t until my super-fandom began in earnest around 1991 that I returned to the album and discovered ‘Love Song’ again.

Say what you mean, mean what you say
Don’t go and throw our love away
God strike me down if I did you wrong
This is not a love song

Ooh, are you just being kind?
What?
Am I losing my mind?
Don’t… Wait

There was muted genius here, and a brilliant foreshadowing of a classic line that would come into great prominence many years later:

Time goes by so slow for those who wait
And those who run seem to have all the fun
But am I wasting my time?
She’s so fine
Are you just being kind?
No

My high school life had settled into a bit of a funk by the time I came to the whole ‘Like A Prayer’ album, and the darkness that was part of that journey was a welcome companion. The push-and-pull ambivalence of this track did nothing to allay my concerns of romance at the time, or the mixed emotions that handsome men elicited in my hidden heart.

Don’t try to tell me what your enemies taught you
Show them now how I didn’t do you wrong

This is not a love song

Despite its spring 1989 release, the Like A Prayer’ album was speaking to me most pointedly in the desolate fall of 1991. In the way that music has of meaning and mattering the most during adolescence, ‘Love Song’ was part of my romantic formation, for better or worse. I wasn’t even infatuated with anyone at the moment, but I knew those days would come, and if Madonna and Prince were finding love to be so maddening, I wondered how the rest of us mere mortals would navigate it. I could easily wait to fall in love if that was the case.

Are you wasting my time?
Wasting my time
Are you just being kind?
Oh no baby, my love isn’t blind
Are you wasting my time?
Time, time, time
Are you just being kind?
Don’t go give me one of your lines

‘Love Song’ is the final song from ‘Like A Prayer’ to get the Madonna Timeline treatment (you’ll see its missing link here). It’s a reminder that time ticks on, and this timeline is in the winter of its seasonal lifespan. Enjoy each entry as we approach the end – and be reassured that with a new album on the way that end will be extended like only Madonna could.

Nowhere to run, Nowhere to hide
That’s how I feel, Don’t fog my mind
Mean what you say or baby I am gone
This is not a love song

Don’t try to tell me what your enemies taught you
I’m gone but I just want you to know
That this is not a love song that I want to sing.

SONG #180: ‘LOVE SONG’ – 1991

{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}

Back in 2003, some saw the teaming up of these two pop icons as the passing of the Pop Goddess baton from Madonna to Britney Spears, but I knew only one of them would/could last, and with a new album on the more immediate horizon, that looks to be Madonna. Nothing against Britney, or the music, just a reflection on longevity, and Brit’s got a long way to go before she surpasses Madonna on that front.

Here was their first and thus far only collaboration, the lead single from Britney’s fourth album ‘In the Zone’ – and a strange little blip on Madonna’s musical timeline.

Hey Britney, you say you wanna lose control
Come over here I got something to show ya
Sexy lady, I’d rather see you bare your soul
If you think you’re so hot
Better show me what you got 

Like almost all of Madonna’s collaborations with other superstar artists, this one suffers slightly from overwhelming expectations and an oddly-muted production. For all their effort, and all the hype of being released in the white-hot aftermath of their infamous and incendiary MTV Video Awards performance smooch, it falls just a little flat. While Britney gets top billing, this is just as much a duet as Madonna’s ‘4 Minutes’ splash with Justin Timberlake (which make be her strongest collaboration with another renowned celebrity/singer).

The video keeps them tantalizingly apart until the very end – a lengthy tease that is emblematic of the song as a whole. All tease, little action, and not much lasting resonance. Madonna’s greatest strength will always and forever be as a solo artist.

Song #179 – ‘Me Against the Music’ ~ Fall 2003

{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}

Gearing up for her first major return to the music scene since 2019’s ‘Madame X’ (by far the longest stretch of time between Madonna albums since she first appeared on the scene in 1983), Madonna is set to release what she has described as ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor Part 2’, which makes this Madonna Timeline particularly timely, as it centers around ‘I Love New York’ from the original ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’ album.

Personally, I always found this one of the weaker tracks of the album (I’m not even going to include the lyrics as I usually do – let just say “I don’t like cities but I like New York/ Other places make me feel like a dork” will not be remembered as one of her finer couplets), but as an emotional homage to her adopted hometown, the sentiment carries the song, and it worked as one of the more rock-like moments of the Confessions Tour. That’s the memory I have of this song – watching it being performed live at Madison Square Garden as the NY crowd ate it up.

As proof of her enduring relevance, the photos here are from her recent spread in CR Magazine, hinting at what might come with the next album. We are more than ready for the Confessions to land again.

Song #178 – ‘I Love New York’ ~ 2005