Burning Up

from the LP Madonna, Sire Records, 1983



This slut anthem still rocks my cock almost 30 years after its release, an unabashed celebration of the lust inside us all when we see someone from across a bar, bus stop, classroom, or what have you, that categorically pushes every one of our buttons (except one) at once; “…do you wanna see me down on my knees, bending over backwards now would you be pleased; not like the others, I’ll do anything, I’m not the same, I have no shame…I’m on fire…” Madonna was lucky to have been dating John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez prior to this album dropping, because his mixing abilities are indisputably a huge part of the eternal magnetism this album generates; already having cut his teeth in NYC, spinning records at 54 & the Funhouse, JJ had a level of underground sensibility and taste which Madonna could never have come up with on her own, back then anyways. That being said, she rips it up with her vocals here, tearing your clothes off through the damn speakers; the guitar parts were a great choice, really amps up the sex factor. For all her bullshit, I still love her (not the post-‘90s music so much), even if she does adopt all of Malawi…with a faux British accent…