As a kid I drove my mother mad by incessantly playing The Sparks album “Kimono my house”. Russell Mael’s high pitched falsetto and Ron Maels’ repetitive keyboards grated…
Tonight went to see them at the Carling Academy Islington, an intimate venue, one of a series of 21 dates in which they play selected songs from each of their albums. Having missed the “Kimono my house” gig, it was the turn of the “Interior Design” 1988 album.
Ron looked identical but then he looked 50 even when he started in the 70’s. Russell has lost his prettiness and his curls but they are both in good shape. The band was tight and the music sounded contemporary…the great thing about being slightly avant-garde is that your music doesn’t date so rapidly. The audience were a mix of middle aged men in Saville row suits, rockers, and a surprising amount of young people. Funniest moment of the night was when Ron came out from behind his keyboards, did a stiff little dance and sang on his own. Huge applause and a wag shouted out “Go solo!” to much laughter.
I met Horton Jupiter of They came from the stars, I saw them, a similarly futuristic and keyboard based group who I’ve been a fan of for some time now.
Afterwards while scoffing the £3.50p all you can eat meal from Indian veg in Chapel Market, Horton explained how Madonna’s Like a Prayer is actually about blowjobs…
“When you call my name its like a little prayer
Im down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour I can feel your power
Just like a prayer you know Ill take you there”
The best bit in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs was the beginning when they deconstruct Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’:
MR. PINK
“Like a Virgin” is all about a
girl who digs a guy with a big
dick. The whole song is a
metaphor for big dicks.
MR. BLUE
No it’s not. It’s about a girl
who is very vulnerable and she’s
been fucked over a few times.
Then she meets some guy who’s
really sensitive–
MR. ORANGE
You said “True Blue” was about a
nice girl who finds a sensitive
fella. But “Like a Virgin” was a
metaphor for big dicks.
MR. PINK
Let me tell ya what “Like a
Virgin”‘s about. It’s about some
cooze who’s a regular fuck
machine.
I mean all the time, morning, day,
night, afternoon, dick, dick,
dick, dick, dick,
dick, dick, dick, dick, dick,
dick.
MR. BLUE
How many dicks was that?
MR. WHITE
A lot.
MR. PINK
Then one day she meets a John
Holmes motherfucker, and it’s
like, whoa baby. This mother
fucker’s like Charles Bronson in
“The Great Escape.” He’s diggin
tunnels. Now she’s gettin this
serious dick action, she’s feelin
something she ain’t felt since
forever. Pain.
MR. PINK
It hurts. It hurts her. It
shouldn’t hurt. Her pussy should
be Bubble-Yum by now. But when
this cat fucks her, it hurts. It
hurts like the first time. The
pain is reminding a fuck machine
what is was like to be a virgin.
Hence, “Like a Virgin.”
The fellas crack up.
So are all Madonna’s songs basically about sex?
The old sogns are the best ones! I don't remember this one though. I was always a big Yazoo and Thompson Twins fan! Erasure were brilliant too.
Sorry to hear Sugg's wife is ill. Hope she's better soon.
Yes, Madonna is the Whore of Babylon who should be burned alive.
Thanks for your comment re: 1968, Year of the Monkey… Care to enlighten me further?
ATB,
Ben
Only if you buy me breakfast 😉
So Madonna is the whore of Babylon? And Guy Ritchie, her husband the antichrist?
It's true she has influence over many nations…seven perhaps?
The word used in the early greek version of the bible is horus…
The whore could be Rome or Jerusalem…and Madonna is connected to both, as a born Roman Catholic and a converted kabbalah follower…
From a catholic web site: "Revelation 17:15 tells us, “Then the angel said to me, ‘The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.’” The whore of Babylon will have great worldwide influence over people and nations. Verses 10-14 describe a series of eight and then ten kings who affiliate with the beast. The whore of Babylon will at one time have control over these kings (Revelation 17:18), but at some point the kings will turn on her and destroy her (Revelation 17:16).
So, can the mystery of the whore of Babylon be solved? Yes, at least partially. The whore of Babylon is an evil world system, controlled by the Antichrist, during the last days before Jesus’ return. The whore of Babylon also has religious connotations – spiritual adultery with the beast being the focus of an ungodly, end-times religious system."
Yup I spose it could be her…aided and abetted by the pluto in sagitarius publishing revolution, known as the internet, or maybe she is merely a savvy show-offy middle-aged mother who threatens the bejesus out of every man on the planet cos she don't give nothin' away (12th house sun) and NEVER emotionally self-indulges (unlike the rest of us frail women)