Whore Face

A Star is Born

Where it all began. I had the first album for a few months and then at the newsstand in December of 1983, I came across this - a first album outtake in color blasting A STAR IS BORN on Billboard magazine. This was my third photograph of Madonna - before I had seen any video.

It would be a good 3 months before I would see the video for Borderline. Really her first video, they didn't play Burning Up or Everybody until after the success of Borderline. I would see those on MV3, a local Los Angeles new wave video program hosted by KROQ's Richard Blade.

Madonna/Madonna: The First Album

This was, is and will always be my favorite photo session and album cover of all time - until they throw dirt on my grave. And even then, it will remain.

Everything about it is perfect. The hair, the fuck face, the

jewelry, even the t-shirt. I know Gary Heery shit himself when he saw that popping through that camera. Wrapped in crucifixes, cock rings, leather, rubber and chains - it's punk, slut, fag and bytch. Above all, it's timeless and modern. Like an Italian glamorous tom boy gap-toothed Marilyn crawling out of the gutter. Doesn't get any better than that. Does it? DOES IT?

Fabulous.

Like the Virgin one, I made a few out of these - you can get the others on the madonnascrapbook.tumblr page. xo

1983 - Everybody Live at The Roxy and the KA-KA Shirt!

Well, this is just everything - of course. I would have died for this footage growing up - and I want the whole thing!!! They played this footage on RAI television in Italy. I know for sure that she also sang Physical Attraction but I don't know about the other songs. This is right at the time she shot the Gary Heery pics for the Madonna/Madonna album. That hair is so freshly bleached, just the right length and it's the exact jewelry.

It's all about that bruja gypsy dance and outfit. .:And Betty's favorite flats!:. Who else can just throw on old pieces of trash, flash an old movie star face, move in that motion and blaze brilliant street style? Only Madonna. They all try too hard these days.

Also take notice of The Ultimate Fabulousness. I was always obsessed with her KA-KA shirt that we first saw in the devoted completely to Madonna magazine for A Certain Sacrifice in 1985. The picture was from the rehearsal footage that Stephen Jon Lewicki shot in 1979. And 5 years later she wore the KA-KA shirt in this performance!

She also wore the KA-KA shirt at the Peppermint Lounge performance in 1983.

Like This, Gary?

Larakela made this great video of the first album pics set to a Like a Virgin mix. Enjoy.

The First Album: Madonna - Lucky Star.

As most of you know, Madonna's first album was originally set to be called Lucky Star. Photographed by Maripol's boyfriend, Edo Bertoglio and designed by Martin Burgoyne. Wheels were in motion, copies were pressed but then Madonna sat with Gary Heery and everything was changed. Thank God. And that's exactly what I told some dude peddling it at the Madonna convention in 2000 chasing me down trying to get me to buy it. I mean, as great as it is, it looks more like a Cherelle album than Madonna. All colorized/tinted and shyt.


Fans first saw the Edo Bertoglio photographs in Madonna's first biography, the Martin Burgoyne designed book of the same name, Lucky Star. They're fabulous, sexy, with a splash of old Hollywood and wonderful but I'm sure we are all in agreement that the final product was, in fact, the best choice. If not one of the greatest records covers of all time. Certainly, it is for me.

Edo Bertoglio photograph of an early Madonna. Gorgeous.

The back side of the Burning Up single when the album was still called Lucky Star.

The Real Deal. The way it was supposed to be. There could have been no other.

A Goddess Among Us

The Greatest Star That Has Ever Lived.

Like an atomic bomb dropped right in the middle of the entertainment business, she then reconstructed what it was to be a star. So potent was she, it spilled over into culture and its matters of ideology, social class, sexuality, and gender. Just like Kali, after annihilation, she rebuilt. We are still living in the world she created. Only a true goddess can do that. She lives among us and her name is Madonna.

"sweet, demure girl wrapped in chains"