After each spin of Joseph Eid’s ‘Listening to Madonna’ I began writing a different review.
In the first draft I described the tune as a love song to Pop music. It was one in which he expressed his devotion to the genre as both a fan and an artist. In that review he was a Madonna fan (obviously) who danced with his friends to each phase of her career and was inspired by her ‘Ray of Light’ to carve his own path as a songwriter.
In my next take on the track I interpreted it as a nostalgic look back at the last three decades. That tune fondly reminded me of the years of Walkmans and MTV. They were the days when our favorite song was everything. We would sneak beers from our parents’ cooler and have our own party, dancing around a boombox.
Finally, with a deeper dive into the lyrics, I read it as Joseph’s own autobiographical journey. It was a story which took us through his formative years when his family misunderstood him and he escaped into music with his friends. We then moved on to his twenties, a freewheeling time of clubbing in New York City. Ultimately we join him in a greater understanding of life. When he sings, “a trip to your soul is a trip that is worth taking, after all,” it becomes clear that there is more going on here.
The truth is, ‘Listening to Madonna’ is all of these things. Joseph covers a lot of ground in a this short, catchy, little pop tune. In another artist’s hands it could come off as simple nostalgia or even melancholy. But Joseph Eid is a bit subversive. His brand of introspection is fun. Queue it up at your next summertime keg party.
But when the party is over, take my advice and hit rewind on the boombox a couple of times.
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Here is what Joseph says about Joseph…
Since the release of his Human LP, Folk-Pop artist Joseph Eid has been garnering considerable buzz. He has been featured in American Songwriter Magazine’s “Best New Music” column and was recently named as one of the 100 Hottest Live Unsigned Artists by Music Connection Magazine. His song “It’s Only Love” is in a new Universal Pictures film starring Sharon Stone called “All I Wish.” His latest EP, Watch It Fall, was released in Spring 2017. ‘No Depression’ music journal called the album “mind-blowing, mesmerizing.”
Joseph has been writing poetry and dreaming of a career in the arts as long as he can remember. He grew up in the suburbs of New York. Raised in a strict and traditional home, the arts were only supported as a hobby and never as a career. During his college years, Eid studied psychology and pre-med. After his first semester at med school, his dream got too big to hold and Eid made the bold choice of dropping out to move to New York City to pursue music.
While in New York, Joseph Eid picked up a guitar, joined a band, and the songs poured out of him like rain. His journey then led to Los Angeles where he started playing regularly at open mic nights and showcases. Shortly after, he began working with world-renowned guitarist/songwriter, David Lamar, honing his songwriting at weekly showcases at the Stone Bar. This lead him to write over 30 new songs as well as record a debut EP, Cardiac Output, followed by a full-length LP, Human.
You can also hear ‘Listening to Madonna’ on the Deep Indie Dive playlist
