The clock is ticking towards midnight, and you find me sitting on the sofa in the lounge, listening and half-watching music videos on the television. Madonna is busy waving her hands around at the moment, in perhaps the most iconic pop video of the 1990s.
When I was younger I had one of Madonna’s vinyl EP singles on my bedroom wall – the picture disc of “Rain”. There’s so much wrapped up in that sentence.
Apparently vinyl albums have made something of a come-back among the twenty-something crowd – realising that physical albums you can hold and unfold are massively preferrable to digital music.
Pictures discs were special. I only owned a few – mostly bought as investments (or at least that’s what I told myself).
Somewhere in the depths of our loft I have a copy of the Madonna Sex book. It was such a scandal when it was released – sealed in a foil wrapper, covered by sheets of brushed aluminium, and filled with a graphic novel of sorts – a collection of stories, poems, and journal entries. I wonder if it’s worth anything now? One day one of my grandchildren or great-grandchildren will inherit it, and not have a clue about it.
I remember watching “In Bed With Madonna” for the first time, and being blown away. I seem to remember it was marketed in America as “Truth or Dare” – and charted the story behind the Blonde Ambition tour. Whenever I think of it now, the song “Live to Tell” comes to mind – which was performed in a church set on-stage, with rosaries and a huge cloak. She had a pretty spectacular run-in with the Catholic church during the tour, and used their own idiocy against them. They turned a so-so pop song into a work of art through its re-staging.
Michael Jackson is now filling the living room with “Beat it”. It’s difficult to appreciate just how good he was at dancing and singing . I guess in many ways he and Madonna were similar – they were both perhaps better collaborators than anybody else at the time – they had the wisdom to choose the best songwriters, musicians, and composers. Hell – Madonna’s backing singers and dancers became legends in their own right.
Foreigner are now singing “Eye of the Tiger”. Quite apart from it’s use in the amazing Rocky movies, the video always makes me smile. I’m not quite sure what I thought the band singing “Eye of the Tiger” might look like when I was growing up, but I somehow didn’t imagine a skinny little guy with a beret belting the song out Go figure.
Anyway. I think it’s probably half-past my bedtime. Not about to go listen to a playlist in bed now, honest.
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