{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
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