Buffalo Bill’s Anthem: Madonna’s “Skin (The Collaboration Remix Edit)”

In the years since Ray of Light came out, its effect on music has only heightened rather than waned. Just listen to FKA Twigs’ Eusexua or Addison Rae’s debut, Addison, for the latest proof of that. Perhaps this is because of the effect the music also had on Madonna herself while she was making it. Fresh off having her first child, Lourdes Leon, in October of 1996, Madonna realized (per her reflection in 2005’s I’m Going to Tell You a Secret), “I just was like, ‘Holy shit.’ And I don’t really know what I’m going to teach her about life when I’m not really sure I understand what the meaning of life is. So that really was the turning point for me.” A turning point that undeniably influenced the themes and tone of Ray of Light, for she began recording it after diving headfirst into her studies of Kabbalah. 

During a promotional interview from 1998, Madonna noted, “I do think that the birth of my daughter was sort of a rebirth for me. It made me look at life in a completely new way…and it made me appreciate life in a way that I don’t think I ever had before.” As such, there was an obvious, “settling into her own skin” kind of aura to this “new” Madonna. A “newness” cynically viewed as yet another marketing gimmick that played into her long-standing penchant for “reinvention.” Even though it’s only natural for humans to evolve and change throughout the course of their lifetime. Especially when they’re an artist. 

Between giving birth and tapping more diligently into her spiritual side (of the non-Catholic variety), Madonna commented during her 1998 Behind the Music interview, “Most human beings get to a certain point in their life and they do say, ‘Okay, why am I here? What is the purpose of life? What is the meaning of life?’” With the introduction of an entirely new human she had created into her daily routine, Madonna could no longer go on as before, not questioning and probing things more deeply—namely, existence itself.

Having experienced fame and what it was supposed to offer (supposedly, everything a person could want: adoration, free couture, fabulous parties and “lotsa de casha”), Madonna knew at her core that there was much more to life. Something more meaningful and profound. And as she came to unearth its inherent truths, she grew increasingly comfortable in her own skin. Indeed, she would go so far as to mention in the same Behind the Music interview, “I don’t think I still felt really comfortable in my own skin [before this] so this is, this record, Ray of Light, is a result of…several more years of soul-searching and introspection and just really coming to terms with who I am and feeling more comfortable with myself as a writer, as an artist, as a human being.” 

So it’s only right that Madonna should have a song called “Skin” on Ray of Light. A remixed version being what she chose to release as the first promo single from Veronica Electronica, the long-rumored remix album M talked of unleashing during the Ray of Light era. And yet, unlike the music industry climate of today, Madonna chose not to put it out because Ray of Light kept killing it on the charts, and it seemed there was no room in the public’s heart to receive an “addendum” like Veronica Electronica. Though, of course, how could M and her team have really known that for sure without trying? 

By the same token, perhaps it was destiny for her to wait this long to release the EP, now that the culture is based entirely on “rediscovering” the “old” and “making it new” again. For those who weren’t there the first time around, Madonna reminded in an announcement about the record, “I had found my spiritual path [at that time] and I was ready to shed a new skin and take a road less traveled by [venturing] into electronic music with William Orbit.” There’s that word again, too: skin.

And apart from Madonna, the only other name in the 90s more associated with that word was probably Buffalo Bill (played by Ted Levine) in The Silence of the Lambs, released seven years before Ray of Light would come out. Which is something of a shame because, although Q Lazzarus’ “Goodbye Horses” might be indelibly associated with Buffalo Bill a.k.a. Jame Gumb’s macabre dance after applying some maquillage and setting up a camera to film himself, there’s no denying that Madonna’s “Skin” would have worked quite well with the scene too. Particularly this resuscitated remix known as “Peter & Victor’s Collaboration Remix Edit.” Or simply, “The Collaboration Remix.”

The Peter and Victor in question are Madonna’s frequent go-tos (particularly in the 90s and early 00s) for remixing, Peter Rauhofer and Victor Calderone. Though, tragically, Rauhofer died of a brain tumor in 2013. Thus, in its way, Veronica Electronica honors his legacy, especially with regard to his many contributions to the Madonna remix oeuvre, which has continued to help make her the reigning dancing queen over the Billboard Dance Chart (she remains the artist with the most number ones, as Finally Enough Love recently highlighted). 

With Rauhofer and Calderone’s creative license, it takes about one minute and thirty-four seconds on this version of “Skin” for Madonna to ask that signature question, “Do I know you from somewhere?” (repurposed as “Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” on 2009’s “Celebration”). A query that Buffalo Bill might try to use as part of his lure, and also one that leads to all manner of self-revelatory musings on Madonna’s part, not least of which is, “Why do all the things I say/Sound like the stupid things I’ve said before?” and “Kiss me, I’m dying/Touch me, I’m trying, oh/I’m not like this all the time.”

Of course, the original form of the song had a few more revelatory offerings than that, including, “I need to make a connection/I’m walking on a thin line” and “I close my eyes/I need to have your protection.” This latter sentiment likely being what many of Buffalo Bill’s victims felt as they waited to be skinned in the pit of his lair. This while being starved so that their skin becomes loose enough for Ol’ Bill to more easily remove it (because, that’s right, he wants to wear it over his own in his bid to become the “perfect” woman). Well, that’s one way to make a connection…when you’re a total psycho. 

Unfortunately, in the time since Madonna stated in earnest that she needed to make a connection, it’s only become more challenging to do so (on related a side note, in the same time since she stated it, she also started a skin care line called MDNA Skin). Hence, the increased propagation of psychos (and yes, usually white males) like Buffalo Bill. And so it is that society has effectively echoed back Madonna’s urging, “Kiss me, I’m dying.” As is Buffalo Bill by the end of The Silence of the Lambs.