Early Madonna Recordings Hit Web, Feature Material Girl's First Songs

An unreleased tape featuring some of Madonna's earliest recordings has been unearthed. The tape, which was recorded roughly 27 years ago, captures the era in Madonna's life when she was living in the basement of a Queens, New York synagogue with Ed and Dan Gilroy, who was her boyfriend at the time. Madonna spoke about the brothers in her reflective induction speech at this year's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. Snippets of that speech are interspersed with the old recording, which features one of her early songs "Born To Be A Dancer." The tape also features Madonna playing guitar and drums on the "first song" she'd ever written, "Tell the Truth." Soon after the recordings, as Madonna also noted in her Hall of Fame speech, she and her band began playing NYC venues like CBGB and Max's Kansas City. Based on the excerpts, it's safe to say that Madonna would have made an awesome Debbie Harry if she didn't become the Material Girl.

Related Stories:
• Madonna and Guy Ritchie Announce Divorce
• Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour Rolls Into New York With Reworked Hits, Virtual Britney
• Cover Story: How Madonna Got Her Groove Back

• 
  MUSIC The Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments
• 
  MOVIES & TV 'Game of Thrones': The Show Vs. the Books
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Facebook IPO vs. Shareholders
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive: Garbage Rip Through 'I Think I'm Paranoid'

Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter