Flirtation Dance

Do I know you from somewhere?
Why do you leave me wanting more?
Why do all the things I say sound like the stupid things I've said before?

So begins Skin, track number five on Madonna's 1998 album Ray of Light, co-produced by the brilliant William Orbit. I called it a track instead of a song, because the word song implies a four minute ditty made of a verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-fade structure and that's most definitely not what Skin is. Opus is a more fitting descriptor, I do believe. But let's back up a bit.

Some people wonder how Madonna has lasted so long, and why her fans are so ardent in their support of her to this day. Those people only know the Madonna of Like a Virgin, Vogue, Express Yourself. Iconic as those songs are, they're barely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Madonna and her music. See, somewhere around the late 80's Madonna went from being a singles artist (that is, an artist who throws together albums built around hit singles rather than a coherent musical statement), to an albums artist (an artist who builds albums around themes or concepts, hopefully with a few possible hit singles in there, as well). To recognize that Madonna's musical themes have steadily deepened and her talents as a lyricist and vocalist have grown ever stronger, you have to listen to her albums, not just her singles. Perhaps no album exemplifies this better than Ray of Light, an album that garnered critical praise and strong sales (not to mention a handful of Grammy's), but launched only two smash hits (Frozen and the title track).

With that understood, and with the acknowledgement that it is a subject I will almost certainly come back to in a future post, let's move on to Skin. It wasn't a single, and rightly so. Clocking in at well over six minutes, and approaching the subject of emotional and sexual connection from a dark, psychological point of view, it was never meant to be played on the radio. That's not to say the song is dirty or raunchy -- quite the opposite, actually. It takes a poetic, but as I said, very dark, look at the excitement and frustration of trying to connect with another person on an emotional level, with sex lingering in the background.

Amid a wash of slow, deep synths and subtle bleeps, Madonna opens with the lyrics I quoted at the start of this post, "Do I know you from somewhere..." Later we will learn this is actually the chorus of the song. Her vocal is calm, with a hint of confusion and frustration, perfectly matching the lyrics. As she finishes this intriguing vocal intro, the synths go quiet and the electronic bleeps steadily descend in key. Just as they start to bottom out, a deep, thudding beat starts to build and tinkling chimes come in. Heavily fuzzed vocals from Madonna, buried under the beat, whisper "Put your hands on my skin..." repeatedly, and you can hear her sighing heavily. The beat and chimes get faster and then - bam! - the beat kicks in proper. Into the first verse we go...

Kiss me, I'm dying
Put your hand on my skin
I close my eyes, I need to make a connection
I'm walking on a thin line
I close my eyes, I close my eyes

Clearly we're not dealing with your average hook-up song! Throughout the verse heavy Middle Eastern influences can be heard (and this was about three years before hip hop would pick up on these sounds and take them into the US mainstream). Her vocal is both delicate and demanding, her enunciation of each word sang as if the entirety of her existence depends on this one moment. On the last line of the verse the steadily thudding beat drops out and a new, much faster, skittering beat comes in. We go into the chorus...

Do I know you from somewhere?
Why do you leave me wanting more?
Why do all the things I say sound like the stupid things I've said before?

During the chorus we go back into the more sweeping synths of the song's opening, but this time they're paired with the skittering beat. Darting around Madonna's vocal and the synths are more frenzied bleeps, plus some teetering, squelching sounds (think a firefly on speed). You start to realize that the layers of music, of pure sound, are dense. This is great use of "wall of sound", with every angle of the aural field put to use. Sounds aren't just moving from left to right, but front to back, back to right, and up to front again. It's astonishing. The chorus ends and we have a brief pre-verse coda where a thundering percussive piece comes in and a fuzzed loop of Madonna saying "Kiss... kiss...kiss..." can be heard in the background. Then, into the next verse!

Touch me, I'm trying to see inside of your soul
I've got this thing, I want to make a correction
I'm not like this all the time
You've got this thing, you've got this thing

You'll notice the lyrics are playing on the those of the first verse. A story is building. Roles are being established. Excuses are made but the flirtation continues. Madonna's vocal delivery is becoming more demanding, almost urgent. In the background the Middle Eastern sounds are built upon with a snake charmer wafting into the musical ether. We also start to hear heavily processed electric guitar licks stinging the end of some lines. Momentum is building. We go back into the chorus, the synths still carrying the same melody but now in staccato. More chimes have come in, these a little quieter than those we heard earlier, and surprisingly mellow compared to everything else going on in the song. Are we being subliminally told that there is a certain magic in the air when two people meet, even when everything else around them, and perhaps even themselves, are frenzied?

And to think, everything up to this point in the song has just been the warm up. After the chorus we have another coda of thundering percussive elements along with some processed electric guitar. Those bleeps from the beginning, the ones that had bottomed out, come raging back in, no rhyme or reason to their arrangement. The mellow chimes have disappeared. A tinge of desperation in her voice, the bleeps again starting to descend, the beat still skittering along, Madonna sings...

Kiss me, I'm dying
Put your hands on my skin
I close my eyes, I need to have your protection
I close my eyes, I close your eyes

As the verse goes on Madonna's voice goes into heavy reverb, eventually echoing around back into itself. You can hear heavy breathing deep in the background. The moment has become confusing for our narrator, emotions are running high. On the last line the beat drops and a drone-like synth descends sharply while Madonna whispers, "Kiss.. kiss... kiss... kiss me", a reprise of her earlier whisper, but this time with some specificity: it's herself she wants to be kissed. The droning synth pitches upwards as she finishes her whisper and the beat comes raging back in. It's one of those dramatic, jaw dropping musical moments; the kind that give you chills, the kind that remind you why you love music so much in the first place. It's the work of experts at the top of their game. But we're not done yet! After that showstopping coda we again go into the chorus, this time repeated twice.


Do I know you from somewhere?
Why do you leave me wanting more?
Why do all the things I say sound like the stupid things I've said before?


One might expect the song to simply fade to end from here. Madonna and Orbit have other things in mind. After the previous chorus repeats (this time accompanied by a sort of forlorn siren wailing in the distance), those thunder claps come back in, in addition to the buzzing fireflies. A whirring synth not previously heard in the song comes in, descending, spinning. The beat is at a fever pitch now, the thunder claps louder than ever, the bass pounding. Madonna continues her plea...

Kiss me, I'm dying
Touch me, I'm trying
I'm not like this all the time
I'm not like this all the time

She sweetens these words with Middle Eastern chants at the end of certain lines. Everything is now at its peak: beat, synths, thunder claps, drones, electric guitar, bleeps, any and everything really. It's layers upon layers upon layers of sound. All with Madonna sing-screaming and chanting over them. One last element we haven't heard yet comes in, and it's possibly the least expected of all: a soul rhythm straight out of 1975, processed into a piercing siren, rising and falling as the thunder crashes and the percussion darts frenetically around it. The various musical elements eventually begin to slowly fade, a few at a time. The beat now laid a bit more bare, that snake charmer making his presence again known, things now calming down, Madonna continues...

Put your hand on my skin
Put your hand on my skin
I'm not like this all the time
I'm not like this all the time

The track comes to it's final fade with multiple Madonnas whispering first in tandem and then over each other, "Kiss me... touch me... kiss... kiss... put your hand on my skin...", while heavy breathing can still be heard in the background. The very last things we hear are the distant snake charmer and a faint multitrack of Madonna whispering "Put your hand on my skin..."

Fin.

What did we learn from all this? Meeting someone new can be exciting and exhilarating and nerve wracking! And when you get right down to it, what we all want is to be able to connect with a person in a meaningful way. But sometimes we go about it stupidly and say stupid things. But it can still be magic. And it can seem dramatic and lifechanging, and sometimes it is. Sometimes it seems like a matter of life or death. (It's not -- but how poetic!) And, of course, one more thing: Madonna is a supremely talented musician and lyricist. Oh, so why did I name this post Flirtation Dance? That was the working title of the song!

You know as well as I do you can't be here and not listen to the song. If you've heard it before you already know the treat you're in for. If it's your first time, well, I envy you -- you're in for a wild, chaotic, sublime journey! (Seriously though, 15 years and literally hundreds of listens later, I'm still picking up on previously unheard sounds in this song. Amazing.)