Review #484: Born This Way, Lady Gaga
#484: Born This Way, Lady Gaga
It’s a JOKE that the only Lady Gaga album on this list is about as low as they could put it. Rolling Stone didn’t even use the right album cover in their little blurb on it — how could you not use the Gagacycle? Such disrespect. I guess she’s used to it.
I may be telling on myself here, but Lady Gaga is probably the pop star that meant the most to me and my friends growing up. The Fame was the first pop album I ever bought, because I heard basically every song on it on the radio. Hell, the first time I ever heard Rage was at a Lady Gaga concert.
Gaga’s first two albums, The Fame and The Fame Monster, were simply her way of introducing herself. This was the album where she started to literally change the world, and the album that made her a gay icon, the album that made her the new Madonna. “Like A Prayer” walked so that “Judas” could screech, so that “Electric Chapel” could debut on FarmVille, so that Jenna Ortega could dance to “Bloody Mary” for some reason. She was never afraid of being graphically, controversially sexual, but she leans into it in a particularly irreverent way here: see all the JFK references on “Government Hooker” and the line about her blonde south on “Heavy Metal Lover.”
At the same time, I remember not quite getting Born This Way when it first came out. I’ll never forget being in my friend’s kitchen and hearing “Born This Way” for the first time. I remember thinking, like a pretentious little poet, These lyrics are way too silly. I’m beautiful in my way ’cause God makes no mistakes? Is this a queer anthem or a Christian rock record? But Lady Gaga explained her lyrical strategy: “I want to write my this-is-who-the-fuck-I-am anthem, but I don’t want it to be hidden in poetic wizardry and metaphors. I want it to be an attack, an assault on the issue.” You know what? I have a lot of respect for that. I used to think the same thing about “Hair” (I scream “Mom and Dad/ Why can’t I be who I wanna be?”) and “Bad Kids” (My parents tried/ ’Til they got divorced ’cause I ruined their lives — lot of angry parents lyrics), but now I can appreciate the in-your-face-ness of it all. I’ve since learned my lesson: Don’t be a drag, just be a queen!
Besides, you can’t accuse her of being stupid when she writes in different languages: “Americano” is a queer love song written half in Spanish, and “Scheiße” is a feminist empowerment song written half in gibberish German — with a French accent. And even though she confesses her lack of fluency in both — I don’t speak your language, oh no, and I don’t speak German but I can if you like, EUOGH! — you believe every word of it. But the overarching theme on Born This Way is belief in yourself. See “Marry the Night” and it’s dramatic music video, and the bombastic “Highway Unicorn (Road to Love).” (Which must be the inspiration behind the Gagacycle, right?)
I’ll probably be a Lady Gaga fan until I die. I love all of her albums. And I’m also a sucker, because my favorite songs on all her albums are always the love songs. “The Edge of Glory” is a joyful celebration of a relationship, and features the last recording of Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band, who apparently played sax for Gaga until three in the morning. He told Rolling Stone, “I would have done it for free. I can never believe something that feels so good earns me money.”
And my real favorite song is the ballad, “Yoü and I,” featuring Queen’s Brian May and Lady Gaga’s male alter ego Jo Calderone, a chain-smoking, ass-grabbing guido. That’s the thing about Lady Gaga — even when she’s sincere, she’s outlandish. She would probably just say, “This-is-who-the-fuck-I-am.”
Fun Fact: Her meat dress has been preserved as jerky.
Review #483: The Anthology: 1947–1972, Muddy Waters
Review #485: I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, Richard and Linda Thompson
