Love Of My Life

I've been a Madonna fan since I was four years old. This may seem difficult to believe, but I distinctly remember driving my grandfather crazy because I couldn't find the 45 for "Photoline" in any of the record stores I went to that sunny spring afternoon. I had confused the title because I had watched the video so many times and I figured the song HAD to be about a photo shoot.

Twenty-one years later I got the same blissful feeling yesterday as I picked up Confessions on a Dancefloor with M'Lynn in Times Square. What's so special about this album is that it displays the span of a career that has been the obsession of my life. The love of my life, really. I've stopped complaining about being single because, in the end, really I only need Madonna. And she's got plenty of singles. On COAD I hear the joy of "Holiday" in "Get Together", the mysticism of "Frozen" in "Isaac", and the ice queen of "Erotica" in "Jump". Hell, there is even a recycled song title in "Forbidden Love" (the original FL is on Bedtime Stories).

I didn't really like it when she was promoting Ray Of Light in 1998 and spoke disparagingly about her early music. This new promotional tour fully embraces her past, and I think that's part of what fills me with incalculable joy. I'm proud of what she has accomplished. Every one of her songs invokes a memory of my past and what I have done so far. I hope that in twenty-one years, I am still doing what I do now, and I hope that I'm proud of everything I've accomplished. And I hope I have another twenty-one years worth of tunes to underscore the soundtrack of my life.