{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 the iPod shuffles along to ‘Bye Bye Baby’, from 1992’s ‘Erotica’ album. I don’t think this got a proper US release, but I believe it was released overseas in the latter half of 1993, while Madonna was on her “Girlie Show” Tour, and that’s the period of time that comes to mind. She did perform it on the MTV Awards, opening the show with one of her less-than-enthusiastically-received moments at a time when her career was sagging thanks to the ‘Sex’ backlash.
I was entrenched in my first semester at Brandeis University, so I missed the whole show. While all my hometown friends had returned to Amsterdam for homecoming or other nonsense, I stayed away until Thanksgiving. It was just something I had to do – I was not ready to go back. My girlfriend and I had tried to stay together when we left for school, but the long-distance (and gay) factors didn’t really give us a fighting chance, so emotionally things were messy and rather difficult.
Of course, I was the bad guy in the whole scenario, a not wholly unfair categorization, and so I was left feeling attacked and ostracized – which is not unfamiliar territory for me. But in late Fall, when the leaves were down and the wind was cold, it was even more lonely, and rather than throw myself into the Brandeis social scene (cue laughter), I withdrew into myself.
Still, this silly trifling of a song about self-empowerment was a welcome distraction, even if the tiresome vocal distortion was just this side of annoying. The remixes were a riot – with an added-on ‘Star Spangled Banner’ ending to one of them. All in all, an insane song for an insane point in my life.
