MADGE BADGE, STYLE AND ATTITUDE

The Madge Badge on boomerpdx celebrates the unusual people in rock.

From the beginning of time, or the beginning of recorded music, the principals had secret lives.

Little Richard was conflicted between rock and church. Jerry Lee Lewis made fateful marriage choices that the changed the arc of his career, Elvis built on their foundation.

Early rock was weird enough with plane crashes and new bands growing out of old bands, but which deserves the Madge Badge for making a Madonna worthy effort?

What is a Madonna worthy effort?

It starts with pushing your own boundaries, of staying true to an original vision. Madonna had it going early and still works the big stage.

All she’s done is open the door for those like her and those who like her.

If you have a closet that includes different stages of Madonna, give yourself a Madge Badge. Material Girl? Badge.

Remember when she and Warren Beatty were a couple during her Blonde Ambition tour? That’s when he got a Madge Badge for answering the phone and listening to Madonna say his name.

“Warren, when will you be here. Warren, I’m waiting. Warren, I’m busy.”

It was the first time I’d heard Warren Beatty’s name voiced in a hounding way. After that I wondered how she’d say my name, and it wasn’t good.

But she was still Madonna, just not fantasy Madonna. How did Warren react?

From People.com: “When we were going [out] and she was making the documentary Truth or Dare, I said, ‘I don’t want to be in it.’ And she said, ‘Why would I want you in it?’” Beatty recalls. But the actor eventually conceded: “I said if I can have approval, I don’t want to inhibit you.”

What I remember is her calling his name over and over and thinking he ought to change it if he was staying with her.

Madge Badge for Gaga

History repeated itself with Bradley Cooper and Gaga in Star is Born, except with extra heat.

They seemed more of a couple on screen than off, with Gaga trying to explain that they were in a movie together and that’s it. That’s Madge Badge worthy right there.

Bringing things up to date, the minor league Madge Badge goes to anyone who feels like they could duplicate Madonna’s special vocal of “Warren, Warren, Warren, where are you, Warren?”

I nominate anyone who can’t find the right place to party with their friends and blames everything but their friends and themself. If you know how to party, know how to let it out a little more than usual, and you’re with your group, anyplace is the right place.

However, if part of the deal is turning into Madonna in the modern day, and making sounds that could be mistaken for, “But Warren, but Warren,” you missed the point.

Madonna is better than that, so is Warren. They’ve moved on and so should anyone who isn’t a Madonna impersonator.

Celebrate you, not some celebrity you think you’d like to know. I think Warren would agree.

Warren?