Madonna – Like A Virgin / Stay

This song is genius, utterly filthy and perhaps one of the best recordings ever pulled off (literally) by the music industry. You've got the sleazy bassline at the start, which then gives way to Madonna's vocals; clearly recorded deliberately to make her sound like a little girl - disturbing? maybe but brilliantly wrong when you put it in the context of the lyrics 'feels so good inside' etc... There is a twisted sense of humour behind this record which takes it beyond the bubble-gum pop of Madonna; was she in on the joke? I think so - her voice drops a little deeper during some of the girly 'oooh's' and 'aaah's' a knowing wink to people old enough to appreciate this for what it really is: a perverted recording made to sound innocent - but is far from. Quentin Tarantino sums this up brilliantly at the start of Reservoir Dogs, and I'd put this up there with some Revolting Cocks, Ministry, Big Black etc... as a piece of music recorded with a warped, sick sense of humour behind it driving the song forwards, like fingers shoved in deeper or making space in the bin.
Musically there's the sleazy bass and kick driving the song along, and little spits of melody at (in?)appropriate moments just to give you another nudge towards the perverse rather than the pop side of this record. Maybe I'm stating the obvious here but I've been listening to this record every day for the past few days and just can't get over how they got away with releasing it as a pop record; I know she was controversial, but you might as well swap ''touched' (for the very first time' to 'fucked' just to add a final filthy flourish.