Note: This is the second week of my series of summer singles.
I haven’t gotten around to reviewing the new Lady GaGa album, Born This Way, but that’s not because it isn’t a worthy effort. On the contrary, it takes her music in some interesting new directions.
Actually, I should say some interesting old directions because GaGa, after all the techno dance pop of her first two discs, has remodeled herself as a cross between Pat Benatar and Bruce Springsteen. ‘Born This Way’ (the song) was a straight-up rewrite of Madonna’s ‘Express Yourself’ but the rest of the album channels the 80s rock bombast of those other MTV heroes.
GaGa even goes so far as to recruit The Big Man, Clarence Clemons (R.I.P.), for two Born This Way tracks. Clemons appears in today’s video for ‘The Edge of Glory,’ the record’s big finale. This is probably his last moment in the spotlight before his untimely passing. Guess there are worse ways to go out.
The video is a throwback to the clips that Benatar and others released in the 80s. No mysterious white pods or elaborate jailbreak scenes in this one. It’s just GaGa in barely-there leather dancing on a city street. I guess retro is the new avant garde.
Yeah baby. Tonight, yeah baby
I gotta reason that you should take me home tonight
I need a man that thinks it’s right when it’s all wrong tonight
Yeah, baby. Tonight, yeah baby
Right on the limb is where we know we both belong tonight
It’s hard to feel the rush
To brush the dangerous
I’m gonna run right to, to the edge with you
Where we can both fall in love
I’m on the edge of glory
I’m hanging on a moment of truth
I’m on the edge of glory
And I’m hanging on a moment with you
I’m on the edge, the edge, the edge,
The edge, the edge, the edge, the edge…
I’m on the edge of glory
And I’m hanging on a moment with you
I’m on the edge with you
Another shot before we kiss the other side tonight
Yeah baby. Tonight, yeah baby
I’m on the edge of something final we call life tonight
Alright, alright
Put on your shades ’cause I’ll be dancing in the flames tonight
Yeah baby. Tonight, yeah baby
It isn’t hell if everybody knows my name tonight
Alright, alright
It’s hard to feel the rush
To brush the dangerous
I’m gonna run right to, to the edge with you
where we can both fall in love
I’m on the edge of glory
Yeah, I’m hanging on a moment of truth
I’m on the edge of glory
And I’m hanging on a moment with you
I’m on the edge, the edge, the edge,
The edge, the edge, the edge, the edge…
I’m on the edge of glory
And I’m hanging on a moment with you
I’m on the edge with you
I’m on the edge with you
I’m on the edge with you
I’m on the edge of glory
Yeah, I’m hanging on a moment of truth
I’m on the edge of glory
And I’m hanging on a moment with you
I’m on the edge, the edge, the edge,
The edge, the edge, the edge, the edge…
I’m on the edge of glory
And I’m hanging on a moment with you
I’m on the edge with you
With you, with you, with you…
I’m on the edge with you…
Meet Me In Montauk 
While I can’t deny this song is catchy, it is probably my least favorite Gaga song (at least out of the songs I know).
My introduction to this song was through a performance on American Idol that was plenty outrageous. Gaga simulated sex with one of her barely clad dancers, at the top of a staircase, where she was literally on the edge of falling to the stage below. I do understand why she is such a phenomenon, even though she doesn’t do much for me.
Great timing on this SOTD, as I just heard Gaga interviewed by Howard Stern and she performed an incredible acoustic version of this song. Before playing it, she explained that the song was written as her grandfather was dying in Hospice. She sat at the piano with her father, both drinking shots of tequila and crying. The chorus is basically her description of her grandfather being on the edge of going to “glory” (heaven) after having lived a great life, which included a 60 year marriage. The verses capture the notion of living life to the fullest, dancing (as she described it in the interview) between heaven and hell in some kind of purgatory. She recorded the song on her phone that night and then played it the next day for her grandfather (who was basically out of it, save for a squeeze of the hand). Her grandmother had refused to leave her husband’s bedside, but Gaga finally urged her to leave because she felt her grandfather, who was a proud Italian man, was hanging on because he did not want to have her watch him die. He died hours after she left the room.
Her story certainly gave meaning to what I had otherwise written off as a fairly trite pop song. And then she performed it, and I have to admit that I was fairly blown away by her sheer raw talent. In my opinion, she is clearly at her best when you strip away the techno production and just have her perform at a piano.
Great story. I agree, I’ve been impressed by clips of her on just piano. She should release a stripped-down album.
That’s such an intriguing story – and one I wouldn’t have guessed in a thousand years. I wonder what’s it like for Grandma to watch American Idol and see her granddaughter perform the song she poignantly wrote for her grandfather in the manner I described. Won’t Gaga’s fan base accept a different type of performance from her? Why not include a stripped-down version of this song on her current album?
I assume grandma accepts her for who she is, a very talented, unique performer who plays on sexuality and theatricality. I never got into Elton John performing touching beautiful songs like “Your Song” in a duck suit, but he, like Gaga, wanted to deliver an extravagent performance. Bowie was another one who would sing some pretty incredible songs while dressed as a space man or in drag. I’m not sure if any of these artists needed to perform that way to appeal to their audience, but I think they all wanted to as part of expression of who they are.