…is what I have for Madonna's Like a Prayer.

This rather fantastic live version (play it while youre reading to get the full effect) has prompted a short trip down memory lane, which I now inflict on you, dear blog-reader.

My relationship with this song dates back to ye olde times of 1989, an age of big jewelry, big shoulder-pads and big frizzy hair. And that was just my Dad. (hi dad)

Picture me, if you can, as a somewhat plump schoolboy in my first year at a rather snotty Private School - naive to the rigid social etiquette and accepted behaviors of what was at the time, ‘high society'. At least to me it was; being a ‘quirky' (shall we say) 13yr-old from a small coastal town.

Apparently overcome with inspiration after Like A Prayer was released, during one of our Wednesday afternoon ‘free-time' sessions, I spontaneously volunteered to perform an a-cappella version of the song for my 25-or-so classmates and teacher. The purpose of these sessions, I believe, was to explore different forms of learning and expression - I guess I just had a lot to express.

I seem to recall actually convincing a fellow classmate to join me for the performance - in a backing-vocal/dance capacity only, of course. I also have a vague recollection of him sitting down after the first verse, leaving me to finger-click my own timing and deliver the remaining 3 verses and chorus-to-fade all by myself.

At the close of the performance I don't remember being overwhelmed by applause, but I'm sure I took the stunned silence as a compliment, as opposed to the sound of 26 people thinking ‘OMG… what just happened' and nervously trying to back their chairs out of the room to aural safety.

Anyway, you can probably imagine what this did for my popularity at school and how many years it took before I could convince someone, anyone, to be my friend. In the end, I ended up changing schools. The teacher was also terminated the following year (seriously… and partly because of these unapproved wednesday sessions). So I guess everyone responsible for this ‘incident' got their just deserts.

Mmmmm. Good times indeed.

[uh huh.. ill take you there... oh yeah... take you there...]