Live Performances and Remixes
"The Beast Within" is a remix of the song, "Justify My Love", by Madonna and Lenny Kravitz, which was included on the 12" release of the single. The remix uses only the chorus and certain lines of the original song, with the verses being replaced by passages from the Book of Revelation from the Bible. As such, and since subsequent live concert performances have simply billed the song as "The Beast Within", a song in its own right, most fans refer to this track as simply "The Beast Within" and do not refer to it as a remix. The song first garnered media attention early in 1991 when the Simon Wiesenthal Center accused the song of containing anti-semitic lyrics; specifically the lyric "those who say that they are Jews, but they are not. They are a Synagogue of Satan". Madonna denied the accusations, explaining that the song was about love, not hatred. Also, one of the verses from which Madonna reads is Revelation 21:8, which gives a list of people including "fornicators" whose "lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone."
"The Beast Within" was showcased as a dancers' interlude during the 1993 The Girlie Show World Tour and was used again as the video introduction to the 2004 Re-Invention World Tour. The latter used imagery of Madonna from the exhibition X-STaTIC Pro=CeSS, prior to her appearing on stage. It was subsequently included on the 2006 live album, I'm Going to Tell You a Secret. This new version omits the controversial lyrics which caused the 1991 accusations.
The song was remixed again by William Orbit and used on the MDNA Tour as an video interlude. The backdrop, directed by Tom Munro, features Madonna being chased by people in carnival masks and locks herself in a room to indulge into her fantasies, while the masked followers search for her. The video is said to be a metaphor for everybody trying to take advantage of her, judge her or exploit her private life, and the interlude is her expression of escaping the judgement.
Read more about this topic: Justify My Love
Famous quotes containing the words live and/or performances:
“There is one expanding horror in American life. It is that our long odyssey toward liberty, democracy and freedom-for-all may be achieved in such a way that utopia remains forever closed, and we live in freedom and hell, debased of style, not individual from one another, void of courage, our fear rationalized away.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“At one of the later performances you asked why they called it a “miracle,”
Since nothing ever happened. That, of course, was the miracle
But you wanted to know why so much action took on so much life
And still managed to remain itself, aloof, smiling and courteous.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)