How Madonna's The Egg super 8 teenage reel is connected to Sheryl Crowe's All I wanna do

Roland Barthes · April 10

In 1974, Madonna was 16 and was in high school at Adams High in Rochester, MI. Wyn Cooper was a classmate and they were assigned to make a short movie for film class. Wyn, Madonna and Madonna's friend Carole Belanger did that Egg movie at a house were Belanger was baby sitting at.

Wyn Cooper remembered this about Madonna then : "We developed a friendship and hung out. I had a Mercury Capri with an eight-track tape player. Madonna and I would hop in the car, drive around and listen to Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars while enjoying a little marijuana. She was social but removed at the same time".

Wyn Cooper became a poet and in 1987 he released "The Country of Here Below" a poetry book, only 500 copies were printed. One of the poem was called "FUN" and started like this "All I wanna do is have a little fun before i die".

Crowe's first album was recorded at Toad Hall Studio in Pasadena with record producers Bill Bottrell* and Kevin Gilbert*. Bottrell took a break and went to next door Pasadena's Playhouse and found copy of Cooper's book in an used bookstore, Crowe wasn't satisfied with a track she recorded "Still Love you", they rewrote the whole song adapting the poem hence Cooper getting a credit that bought him millions of dollars.

* What is really strange though is Bill Bottrell and Kevin Gilbert were respectively mixer and sound engineer assistant on Madonna's albums Like A Prayer, I'm Breathless (he even co-produced the Sondheim tracks) and they mixed the concert parts in Truth Or Dare. Gilbert mixed Now I'm following You Part II and the bottom remixes of Hanky Panky. They both were in Pat Leonard's Toy Matinee band. Bottrell was also a producer for Michael Jackson on Dangerous...

(Gilbert was Crowe's bf at the time and they had a big fall out, Bill Bottrell and him accused her of wrongfully crediting herself for the work they did on the album and ignoring them went it became succesful. Gilbert was also mad at Madonna for unknown reasons. He had a mental breakdown and killed himself in the late 90's)

That's a good example of how small the world can be.