Madonna's Early Recordings 1979

[XXL]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2008/10/20/the-lost-madonna-tapes.html#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFZJYZOKNEo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaOuGng_y98

During her long and heartfelt Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

, Madonna paid generous tribute to her two, largely forgotten, musical mentors. She talked about how she learned to play the drums in the basement as she listened to Elvis Costello and how she felt the hairs on her arms stand up with excitement as she wrote what she described as her first song, ironically entitled “Tell The Truth.” It was as though “I was possessed by some magic,” she told the audience who included fellow inductee, songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen.

As Ed listened he spliced together elements of her acceptance speech with relevant fragments of those unheard recordings. Once she had mastered Ed’s rudimentary tape recorder, she could not survive unless she was taping the experience. Gilroy’s edited extract gives a flavor of the haphazard, mundane and downright silly world she shared with the boys, an amusing astringent to her earnest references to the Talmud, a Jewish sacred text that the Kabbalah enthusiast singer referred to frequently in her long acceptance speech.

The tape begins with Madonna and Dan in bed, encouraging him to go running. It then cuts to her speech where Madonna says how she was fortunate to have people like Dan Gilroy who believed in her. Then flashback back 27 years…“I’m going to strangle him,” she joked before breaking out into one of the songs, “Born to be a Dancer.”

Madonna’s prowess on the drums is on display before moving on to another song, “Over and Over.” While the vocals were crude, there is a raw energy about her early work, culminating in her first song “Tell the Truth” —a “magical moment” for her. Ed remembers it differently. He believes that the first song she wrote was “Trouble,” which she played during their early gigs as Max’s Kansas City and the now sadly defunct CBGBs on the Lower East Side.

[Chimera]

wow! the drums girl! really cool...a true artist! if only the new generation knew this part of her life they'd see the way we do!

thanks for sharing!

[Jazzy Jan]

Thanks XXL for posting this, the time she spent with the Gilroy Brothers in the abandoned synagogue is possibly my favourite time to read about her. The way she changed course from a serious dance student into a budding music star. She seemed to be figuring out exactly who she wanted to be. Loved the recording of a pre-fame Madonna as well.

[Guest groovyguy]

Madonna & The Breakfast Club 1979 Album (Rare)

[Guest groovyguy]

Madonna's Rock & Roll Roots

[XXL]

Thanks for your great additions GG

[San]

Amazing

[Guest groovyguy]

Thanks for your great additions GG

Thanks for the awesome article, XXL

[Guest groovyguy]

Before Dan Gilroy and The Breakfast Club, there was 'Born to be Alive'.

http://www.madonnatribe.com/news/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8045

French disco star Patrick Hernandez was a superstar in his native France in early 1979 with his disco hit 'Born To Be Alive'. The record stormed the charts all round Europe hitting No.1 in France and earning him and his producer Jean Van Loo a gold record in Italy.

Intending to capture the lucrative American market with his hit Pat and Jean headed across the Atlantic for a burst of US-focused promotion. A funky 12" Remix helped the single top the US Dance charts and Patrick set his sights on a world tour. To do this he needed backing dancers and whilst in New York promoting 'Born To Be Alive' they held auditions.

A young Madonna popped along, looking for work, but more importantly stage experience. After an impressive audition showing her talents she got the job. Subsequently she worked as a backing dancer in the Patrick Hernandez Revue - but as a result of the audition and her performances as part of the Revue, Patrick and Jean decided that instead of using her to back them up, they would turn her into their own project as a disco star herself.

So, in 1979 they flew her to Paris with the intention of launching her to an unsuspecting world with the horrendoulsy titled 'She's A Real Disco Queen'. They supplied her with a decent budget, her own chauffeur, vocal coach and maid, but in typical bratty fashion, Madonna refused to record the song.

Utterly miserable in Paris, Madonna argued with her French hosts that she was more interested in going down the Chrissie Hynde punk sound route. Unsurprisingly they disagreed and three months after arriving in Paris, Madonna fled back home to the States with no intention on returning. However, following her short stint in gay Paris, with a taste of the trappings a singing career, Madonna redoubled her efforts, together with new boyfriend Dan Gilroy to forge a successful career in music as part of the The Breakfast Club rather than as a dancer.

The rest, as they say, is history...