track 6: mad about you

By the summer of 1986, the Go-Go's had broken up (and broken my heart by doing so), but Belinda Carlisle had moved on and recorded a solo album. I probably purchased the 45 of "Mad About You" as soon as I had laid eyes on it.



The song itself is one of those upbeat and romantic pop songs that Belinda would specialize in and I don't know, maybe the song shaped the sort of music I'd listen to for the next 5 years or so. I'm not sure why I was drawn to love songs like this, because despite being on the verge of teenhood, I wasn't really crushing on anyone. Except for the singers of the songs: Belinda, Martika, and Debbie Gibson. Maybe it was simply because these songs just make me happy, and still do. The b-side was a slinky and sophisticated pop song called "I never wanted a rich man" that I hadn't heard for years until recently, when I finally bought the album on CD.

The first time I purchased her debut, Belinda, it was on cassette. I actually remember it very well because it was during that summer when I went to Los Angeles to visit my Mom's side of the family. In my memory it's one of the very first things that happened there, we went to a Peaches near the ocean and I bought Belinda. It was the soundtrack of that time for me and it's unbelievable that I didn't wear the tape out. I remember riding around in the back of a truck with my Grandfather and his wife Dorothy, her daughter Doris, my California cousins, Dwayne and Veronica and my Aunt Della and her husband Mark. I remember going to Magic Mountain and testing my roller coaster mettle. I remember driving through Beverly Hills and one morning's very slight earthquake. Being on a long cross-country flight and not being the bit afraid.



I don't know why it was so difficult to find on CD, but I recently got it and listened to it on my ipod. I recognized every note and lyric despite not having played the cassette for at least 15 years. The music you love just gets in your subconscious and stays. I first played it on a train ride to work. Sometimes I find myself in these reveries where I think about my life now and how I'd never have imagined this is what it would be like. I never expected to move so far from home. Imagine going back 23 years and explaining to that kid listening to Belinda on his Walkman that one day he'd be listening to the very same songs while on a train looking out at the daily sight of the Brooklyn Bridge. Sometimes I wonder how I ever made it this far and how I ever got here. I'd go crazy if it weren't for this music, my constant companions, the songs that made me.

Speaking of Los Angeles, here's the video on youtube. Check out links below for Belinda Carlisle's CDs or MP3s!

track 4: like a virgin

I know, I know, how surprising, a homosexual writing about Madonna. Look, we're not going to get all crazy here. It's hard to write something about someone who has already had everything you can imagine written about them. I'm not going to talk about her being some brilliant artist (although she has to be some kind of mastermind), a great singer (I don't think she is) or the second coming (because that's Kylie). But let's face it, she's one of those few who has gone from pop star to superstar to icon. Whatever you think about what she does, you have to admire the fact that she's risen up with a hell of a lot of determination and yeah, hard work. She's been doing this for 27 years now and has managed to stay current and just as vital as she was when she began. I don't think that's something you can say about any of her peers- and let's face it, there are exactly two other people in that iconic category: Michael Jackson and Prince. Above all, and in the simplest of terms: I just like her music.

I remember quite clearly hearing "Borderline" and Madonna for the first time. I was in my babysitter's van with her sons and my brother. She had left us in the van with the radio on while she went into some store. I was sitting upside down in the front passenger's seat when the song came on. I thought it was Irene Cara. I loved it. I collected the 45s of "Borderline" and "Lucky star" and wore them out. Our babysitter had cable television, which at the time was something so exciting and new. MTV! MTV playing music videos! I remember watching the video for "Do you really want to hurt me?" by Culture Club and thinking "she's pretty!" Oh, little Ricky... Madonna was all over MTV and I loved her.



In November of 1984 Madonna's second album, Like a Virgin came out. At some point, I had saved up my allowance and was going to get the album at last. I am sure that it was all I could talk about, because even to this day discs that make music or movies play make me very, very excited. My dad did not approve. In fact, I'm pretty sure that he told me I was not to buy the album. Friday night, International Mall, Camelot Music. I disobeyed. An "Angel" I was not. Although now I can totally understand not wanting your 10-year old to buy an album with a song called "Like a virgin." I don't think I was punished, beyond probably an admonishing "Oh, Ricky..." However, for years I would associate buying Like a Virgin with my parents divorce, because as I remember, that night after our trip to the mall was when they sat us down and gave us the news. It was definitely the beginning of a rocky time in my life. But Mom assures me that had I not purchased a Madonna album, the outcome would have been the same. In the spring of 1985, when my dad had moved out, I remember him calling to see if we wanted to go to the movies with him one weekend. I don't know if I was mad about the whole divorce thing or if it was just me being the selfish prick that I can be, but I said to him, "The only movie out that I even want to see is Desperately Seeking Susan and you hate Madonna!" I was only eleven, but I think that's the meanest thing I ever said to my dad.



Surprisingly, all of these associations didn't stop me from liking Madonna any less. I had the poster for Susan on my bedroom door. I wanted that jacket so bad. I have most of the 45s for her singles from the first three albums, including a blue 45 for "True blue" that I loved. To this day the smell of patchouli oil makes me think of my cassette of Like a Prayer (still my favorite Madonna album). Oddly enough, when Erotica came out on October 20, 1992, my dad gave me a ride to Spec's in South Miami, where I bought the CD the day it came out. But I didn't listen to it until I was home and alone. On March 3, 1998, the day Ray of Light was released, I listened to every previous album while I waited for UPS to deliver my copy. I would listen to "Frozen" on repeat play forever, picturing the spectacular video by Chris Cunningham. Since then, I've been less enthusiastic about Madonna's music. It wasn't until 2008's Hard Candy that I truly loved an album more than just a few select songs, but whatever may come, and as much as I might roll my eyes at myself for being such a stereotypical 'mo, I know that her music is always going to be part of me.

track 1. out here on my own

The first 45 I remember having was Irene Cara performing the theme song to the movie Fame. I had quite a collection of 45s. With my Dad's 1950s or 60s record player (which, I am happy to report is still in perfect order and working condition! I will strive to get a photo), you had to use an insert to play 45s.




It's probably a really familiar image to people born post-vinyl, but maybe they don't know why. Maybe they do, now that vinyl is back in vogue. Anyway, you'd have to stick this into the center of a 45 to play on a regular record player, that is unless you had a record player with a pop-up center. I used to love buying 45s and would play them over and over (again and again) over and over.



This 45 was especially good because as much as I liked the song to Fame, the B-side was a ballad called "Out here on my own" and I fell absolutely in love with it. It would be the beginning of a trend, because for the rest of my life I've always fallen harder for the beautiful and sad ballads. I was around 7 years old in 1980, when Fame came out. About 15 years later I would discover another beautiful and sad song, Joni Mitchell's "River" and it seems like there's an obvious path from point A to B with these two tracks. While "Fame" is all upbeat-pop, something about "Out here on my own" feels like the sort of thing you'd hear from a singer/songwriter, which is where my musical tastes would later gravitate towards. (In fact, it was written by Michael & Leslie Gore) It became one of my favorite songs. I even remember making a trip to Coral Gables where there was a music shop called Allegra Music and getting the sheet music so that I could sing along. If youtube had been around back then, I totally would have been the little 8-year old kid singing along to Irene Cara.

Oddly enough, I have still never actually seen Fame, but here's the music video of Irene Cara singing "Out here on my own" from the movie.