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

Madonna/Madonna VHS Cassette plus Record Store Counter Promo

When this 4 track Video VHS came out in late 1984, it was bliss! Borderline (still my all-time fav), Burning Up - finally in great quality - I used to have to watch MV3 with Richard Blade here in Los Angeles to get Burning Up and Everybody because MTV didn't play those. The club version mix of Lucky Star. And, of course, the original Like a Virgin - which is Mary Lambert's original cut and the first one they showed on MTV for the first couple of weeks of their exclusive.

This is the Record Store Counter Promo they had for the VHS. It folds under and it stands straight up like a pyramid. Fab.

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.

I Know You've Been Waiting

Japanese Interview 1985

Listen...that face, that smile, those eyes, that make up, that hair, that everything. It sucks me in every time. And this version is so clear! Enjoy!

What's Your Favorite Video From Madonna/Madonna - The First Album?

From Madonna's decadent debut album, Madonna, she had four great videos that reflected different eras in the early history of motion picture. With each video she progressed, as the medium of The Music Video grew with the advent of MTV.

Film Exhibition: Everybody (1982). Like a Nickelodeon machine but projecting outward in clubs, the sexy downtown street waif beckons everyone to dance and sing, get up and do their thing. A glimpse inside the underworld in which she came. Performing on stage, people are dancing beneath her and walking across her stage with a boom box, she unaffected.

Symbolism: Burning Up (1983). Raunchy Sex Goddess in heat that crawled up from the gutters into a world of goldfish bowls, Grecian/Roman marble busts with illuminating eyes, an abundance of door locks, chains, eyeballs and lips. Doors turn into boats and a car drives through the river around her. She ends up in the middle of a road, tugging at her garment as she's the target of a speeding driver. Just as the car would impact her and she would end up as road kill, she emerges driving the vehicle with the initial male driver nowhere to be found.

Narrative: Borderline (1984). Photographer discovers strikingly beautiful street girl as she's dancing with her lover and friends. Flattered at his proposal to pose for photographs, girls jealous boyfriend disapproves as she and photographer drive off to the studio. Being shot in a series of photos and ending up on a cover of a magazine, girl has flashbacks to her life when it was easy, sexy, fun and free. Bored with the glamorous champagne atmosphere photographer provides, an argument ensues, she rebels and returns to guy she loves.

Technique: Lucky Star (1984). A visual and voyeuristic study of performance and personae using close up, medium and long shots via fast paced editing. A character study of the dancer with the use of a motion picture camera. From the moment she removes her sunglasses, she 'lifts the curtain' to expose herself to the viewer. Long shots of dancers performance, close up of body parts from eyes, lips, stomach, feet and bellybutton. Performer allows us into her narcissistic world while making love to the camera as it follows every move leading to a personal extravaganza and ending with performer 'dropping the curtain' by putting glasses back on.

---

Which is your favorite video from the Madonna album and why?

That Full Holiday Performance!

I've never seen the entire performance - just clips! It says 1983 but isn't it 1984?

Madonna/Madonna - The First Album - Argentina

Madonna/Madonna - Argentina.

Everything about it - the music, photography, artwork.

NME - '84 & '98

Taken from Portrait of The Artist As a Consumer - NME February 4, 1984 and extract from an Interview with Sylvia Pattterson - NME March 7, 1998

All Night Tokyo

Promoting her first album in Japan in 1984.

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.

Holiday b/w Think of Me

Found this somewhere up and through the internet and I don't remember where but I would die to have it. xo

Think Of Me (Dubtronic Recontruction Remix)

cover mailliw

Remember his great Pretender Mix? Well, Dubstar has done it again with one of my favorite Madonna songs, Think of Me.

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?hgdz2myyhjj

Visit his page for this and other great Madonna Mixes:

http://madonnadubtronic.blogspot.com/

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.

The Difference Between Her and Them All

The Enchantress, The Siren, The Dancer, The Sexuality, The Belly Button, The Nerve...shyt, I don't even need to say anything, this says it all:

Shocking Holiday Video Scams Uncovered !!!

plus:



equals:



One of the many versions of Holiday. Everyone's always on the lookout for the 'official' video, this has been deemed one. As was 'The Loft' performance. As exhibited here, it is a big fraud.

Here's a screen cap of a new one that's floating about, considered to be the 'official' video - titled, paused and all. However, as we have uncovered, its a reversed snap from the Long Version of Lucky Star and is another scam! With a little photoshop work, the glove, the mesh top and some hair is removed.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For many years it had been said that the photoshoot for the cover of ID magazine was shot on the set of the official video for Holiday. Never thought so and still don't.

"Hi, If You'd Like to Take a Holiday for 5 Minutes..."

Madonna - Borderline - The Dance Show 1984

The only time Madonna did promotion for Borderline. Glad she did. I remember my cousin calling me on Saturday morning and saying, "that girl, Madonna, you like is on The Dance Show." She did 2 songs, this and Holiday.

We've Got To Get Together