The Sigma Label Tapes
As we know all kind of Madonna related memorabilia come up for sale on Ebay, and every now and then some of the stuff is quite interesting.
An example is this set of eight reels of tape, mixed directly from the 24-track masters to chart the progress of the making of Madonna’s first album much in the same way film rushes are made of the day’s work.
These tapes come from “Doc” Dougherty, one of the engineers on Madonna’s first album late in 1983. All are 15ips, 1/2 track stereo with no noise reduction. They date between 11-17-82 and 2-24-83. Some of the takes here have rough vocal tracks and not all the instrumentation.
Most of the tapes have slates and/or countoffs at the beginning of the songs. Two of them are Doc’s voice at the head. There are three takes of “Physical Attraction“, three takes of “I’m Burning Up” and one take each of “Borderline” “Lucky Star” “Aint No Big Deal” and “I Know It.”
Some of the tapes have the Sigma label on them and others do not. One of the tapes contains hand-written lyrics to “Physical Attraction” but it’s not known who’s handwriting it is.
