These days, you can’t escape news involving Madonna, some of which of her own making like her divorce or her tour Sweet and Sticky, and some which she might otherwise like to forget. Madonna’s toying with the media shows us that sometimes the media toys with her, as is the case with a sensational article at Tina Brown’s news site, The Daily Beast.

The former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker may have left print media behind, but she hasn’t stopped making news. Not only has Ms. Brown salvaged stories otherwise doomed to be scrapped to the editing floor, like she did with a recent JLo story, but she’s given a home to lost gems that might otherwise be mired in legal red tape, such as the lost Madonna tapes presented with the help of NYT bestselling biographer Andrew Morton.

Morton, who braved the beast himself by writing a biography on the Material Girl, gifts us with further, as well as, never before heard tapes of the fledgling stages of Madonna’s emerging talent, a talent mind you, which has amassed her a fortune close to half a billion dollars (some of which she may be forced to turn over to soon to be ex-hubby Guy Ritchie).

Here’s a excerpt from Morton’s article, click here to read the entire piece.

I was reminded of how far and fast Madonna has come in a conversation with Ed Gilroy, one of the men Madonna credits with setting her on the yellow brick road to stardom. Back in the early 1980s he and his brother Dan had a modestly successful band, the Breakfast Club. Dan was dating Ms Ciccone as she was trying, and failing, to get work in her chosen profession as a dancer. She moved in with Dan and tried her hand at drumming – with a little help from Ed – practicing in the basement of the disused synagogue in Queens where they all lived. She soon graduated to singing, songwriting and after a couple of years she moved onwards and upwards. Seen by everyone but never seen by the boys again.

Ed still lives in the synagogue and recalled those days when Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March this year. He took his own walk down memory lane and ventured again into the dingy basement where Madonna spent hours practicing the four guitar chords Dan taught her. Amidst the detritus of old amplifiers, beaten up electric guitars and drum kits was a tatty white plastic bag. Inside were five of Ed’s old tape cassettes that were used to make some of her earliest recordings of her performing– as well as her thoughts on life, nose picking and scratching her ass.

To listen to portions of the tape, click on the player below.

Morton, who I became acquainted with during my investigation into the Church of Scientology, mentioned such tapes existed. I may or may not have heard portions previously, which if nothing else, proves I can keep a really big secret — and so can Andrew Morton — well, until now

UPDATE: Dawn Olsen of Glosslip called in to Shaun Daily’s BTRToday show and got to speak with Ms. Brown about this story and about her fantastic new site. Click here to listen to Shaun’s interview with Tina Brown.