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It was December 1990, and if the controversy of the Justify
My Love video, banned from MTV, was not enough, new sprinkles
of controversy came from The Beast Within,
a song originally labelled as remix of Justify My Love,
but that can be really considered as a stand alone original
track born from JML's rib.
The song based on a loop of the hip hop mix, contains selected
lyrics extracted from the last book of the Bible, the book of
Revelation by the apostle John. This book also
called the Apocalypse, from the Greek word apokalypsis that
literally means "something uncovered" or "revealed",
tells how the world will come to an end and also tells about
Armageddon, the war that will end all wars.
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As soon as "The Beast Within" was
released on the Us Maxi Single of Justify My Love,
Madonna was accused of being a racist for a specific verse
from the book of Revelation, contained in the song.
The verse is from Revelation 2:9-10 and says:
"I know your tribulation and your poverty And the
slander of those who say that they are Jews, but they are
not, they are a synagogue of Satan".
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the
Los Angeles based Wiesenthal Center, was
very angry at Madonna and commented that "the impact
of having America's leading cultural icon say those lyrics
can give a powerful tool to bigots."
So for the first time in years, the woman that has had a positive
multiracial message right from the start of her carreer, singing
about "people coming together in every nation",
had to defend herself from the accuse of being a racist.
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Rabbi Cooper initially asked for the line to be removed from
the song, stating that "The Imagery of Jew as Devil has
led to untold violence against Jewish people over the last two
thousand years."
Cooper commented that the text was incredibily insensitive
and potetially dangerous and that an entertainer as big as Madonna
should have shown some responsability to social issues.
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He later demanded all copies of the single to be removed from
record shelves. At that point Madonna had to release
an official statement, in which she strongly denied any anti-semitic
intention in the lyrics of "The Beast Within" mix:
"I certainly didn't have any anti-semitic intent when
I included a passage from the Bible on my record. It was a
commentary on evil in general. My message, if any, is pro-tolerance
and antihate. The song is, after all, about love".
More controversy was to come from the inclusion on The Beast
Within and later on the song "Erotica" of a sample
of a hymn called El Yom Ollika, a traditional
Good Friday Eastern sacred song from 1964 by singer Fayrouz.
To the surprise of many, The Beast Within was included
on Madonna's 1993 world tour The Girlie Show, as a
number to showcase her dancers' talent in a elaborated choreography
to symbolically exorcise evil from the world.
The song was then used in the Steven Klein "X-STaTIC
PRO=CeSS" installation at Deitch gallery last year,
an exhibition that featured stunning photos of Madonna
in revealing yogic poses, all taken in stark interiors.
Then after being completely stripped down from the original
Justify My Love elements, and with slightly changed and shortened
lyrics, "The Beast Within" becomes the intro
to Madonna's re-Invention World Tour 2004.
Steven Klein worked on new computer generated images
to be featured in the opening sequence of the concert .
"This is a CGI animation," Klein revealed to New
York Metro Magazine a few weks before the Tour started, pointing
to a screen with flaming images that were going to debut in
front of live audience, projected onto massive, multistory
screens on May 24 in Los Angeles.
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"It's not real. This back area is made
up of, like, five different pieces assembled together. These
layers are going to make the whole piece. It's going to be
like a moving painting, in a way."
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Months later, those who attended the show know exactly what
Klein was talking about. The lights dimming, the violet spotlights
drawing lines in the dark, and that word, "Prophecy".
The "Queen" appears, with her face
splitted on the two huge front screens, and the music starts.
The reaction of the crowd is incredible, but it's even more
incredible how people reacts exactly in the same way at every
show, in every different venue.
A few more moments and the music seems to stop, but sunddenly
reprises and this time the screens start to lift up, turn, move,
and reveal the third, central, huge screen where Madonna is
filmed in the Klein's "Bed" segment.
This is the point when those who were still astonished at the
sight of such unique opening act can't resist anymore and join
the rest of the audience - everybody goes crazy.
Later on there's another short stop, clouds appear in the two
smaller upper screens, violins start to play, but then again,
percussion and beats reprise, and you know it's just a matter
of time... 'cause she'll be comin soon.
The version of The Beast Within used for rehearsals
before the tour started contained a few more words.
After "Behold, I'm coming soon" while Madonna was
coming up on stage you could also hear the words: "I'm
the Alpha and The Omega, The First and The Last, The Beginning..."
followed by the "What you're looking at" from Vogue.
Later it was decided, as the famous phrase from the Bible didn't
sound well incomplete, to delete it and just to leave music
and that "Behold, I'm coming soon"
was the perfect way to introduce the beginning of the live show.
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