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Madonna · S2 E4
Dan Gilroy
The boyfriend who taught her guitar and drums in a synagogue in Queens — and why that mattered more than dance
A converted synagogue in Corona, Queens, 1979. Dan Gilroy hands Madonna a guitar and tells her to play something, and she has never held one before.
Into the Groove, official music video (1985). The song that proved she could write a hit that moved a room. Every dance-floor instinct she develops in the synagogue with Gilroy, learning what makes a body move to a beat, is compressed into this three-minute track.
The Synagogue
Dan Gilroy is a musician and comedian living with his brother Ed in a former synagogue they have turned into a rehearsal space and crash pad. Madonna meets Dan through Ed, whom she connected with during her Paris months. She moves in almost immediately, sleeping on a mattress between amplifiers, and asks Dan to teach her everything he knows about making music.
“She would get up before anyone else and go straight to the instruments. Guitar for two hours, then drums, then back to guitar. I've never seen anyone learn that fast. It was scary, actually.”
— Dan Gilroy, VH1 Behind the Music: Madonna, 1998
TAP TO REVEAL: Why did Madonna specifically insist on learning drums before any other instrument?
Corona, Queens
The former synagogue where Dan and Ed Gilroy lived and rehearsed. Far from the Manhattan club scene, this is the place where Madonna stops being a dancer who sings and becomes a musician who performs. The commute to Manhattan from here is over an hour on the 7 train.
The Gilroy Education
The converted synagogue where Dan Gilroy taught Madonna was located in which New York City borough?
Dress You Up, Madonna
From Like a Virgin (1984). A track she co-writes with Andrea LaRusso, rooted in the songwriting fundamentals she develops during the Gilroy period. The hook-first approach, the lean arrangement, the instinct for what a body needs to hear to start moving. This is the synagogue education, polished to a radio shine.
She can play four instruments now, she can write songs, and she has a boyfriend who believes in her talent. Next: Breakfast Club forms, and Madonna discovers that being the drummer is not the same as being in charge.
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