Strangely, or fittingly… because I can’t quite see the forest through the trees yet… the notion of driving and traveling is stirring in my mind. More than the usual winter restlessness, it speaks to something else, something greater at work – a healing, a grieving, a running… away from or toward something, I can’t be sure.
A mysterious post perhaps, inspired by the mystics and going back centuries, and if it’s one of the last in this incarnation of the website, so shall it be. (I’ve received word that the hosting platform for this place will be updated and my antiquated version of WordPress may not work after February 20, so if it goes away for a bit or forever, you’ll understand why.) Frozen in time, frozen in space, frozen in place…
It was during this week way back in 1987 that Madonna was reigning on the charts with her #1 hit ‘Open Your Heart’ – one of my all-time favorite songs by her, and one that she recently performed in thrilling fashion on her Celebration Tour. While the Madonna Timeline for ‘Open Your Heart’ has already been written, I am happy to resurrect this extended version of the song in honor of such a recollection of its chart success.
1987 was a banner year for music in my life (even if critics may disagree on its musical merit). Pop songs can infiltrate the mind of a 12-year-old and leave an imprint that may last for decades. The cadence of melody here always brings me back to that winter of 1987 – much else from that winter has been forgotten, the typical loss and degradation from time, and other things occupying the mind. And still, the longing to belong, inherent in this song, the desperate way she begs for another to open their heart, will always resonate with that part of me who never felt like he belonged.
“If you gave me half the chance you’d see my desire burning inside of me, but you choose to look the other way…”
Meanwhile, Madonna’s love for art, and an artist like Tamara de Lempicka, spoke to me on another, more subtle and subliminal level. I had just begun to appreciate her appreciation for certain painters, following her lead less for the specific artists she chose to champion (like Frida Kahlo) and more in her passion and love for the evocation of a scene, of a mood, of a feeling. The greatest works of art elicit an emotion of some sort, ideally many emotions from many different people. The readings and interpretations are as varied as the viewers.
For a 12-year-old in the golden age of MTV, Madonna’s ‘Open Your Heart’ video was a piece of modern-day art – a little story set to music, a mini-movie defined and delineated by costume, dance, movement, and gaze. Madonna’s mastery of the medium made her a star, and an inspiration for many a burgeoning gay man such as myself. She was speaking a language I understood in a way I couldn’t understand the basic communication of other boys my age. They spoke through sports and physical activity, through fights and horse-play and wrestling; I wanted only to whisper, to share a secret, to cast a spell. With wishes, with words, with sheer force of will…
{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}
Madonna has crafted some amazing summer songs – see ‘True Blue‘ and ‘Express Yourself‘ and ‘Vogue‘ and ‘Ray of Light‘ – and songs hit a sweeter spot when they are released in the summer; the season of the sun burns musical memories into the mind more indelibly than perhaps any other time of the year.
It was a darker summer but we didn’t know that then, and so it was a summer of light, the last if I really think about it. The thing is… summer always comes with dark nights, and darker currents underneath all the sun and fun. This Madonna Timeline, a bonus track from her ‘Madame X’ album, hints at that darker undertone, taking things on a slightly more serious turn, one that would find fruition the next year.
Every night, before I close my eyes I say a little prayer that you’ll have mercy on me Please, dear God, to live inside the divine Not like I want to die Teach me to forgive myself, outlive this hell
Is it really love if it hurts? Is it really pain if it’s inside? On the outside, I’m strong Hold my hand, please sympathize Hard enough trying to forgive Hard enough trying to live Please don’t criticize, yeah Please, please sympathize, yeah
The ‘Madame X’ album was an exercise in moody music, even as it came out just as summer was getting started. The drama of ‘Looking for Mercy’ finds Madonna examining a quest for mercy, a search for sympathy – the usual desire for connection and understanding. It’s not the fluffy stuff of previous summer fare like ‘Love Makes the World Go Round‘ or ‘Where’s the Party?‘ It rings closer in theme and import to ‘Live to Tell‘ – a throwback to summers that wanted to be more carefree than they ever actually were.
Somebody to teach me to love Somebody to help me rise above I need to survive, I’m looking for
Looking for, looking for, looking for mercy Looking for, looking for, looking for mercy I’m looking for, I’m looking for love Looking for, looking for, looking for mercy Looking for, looking for, looking for mercy I’m looking for, I’m looking for mercy
Looking back at that summer of 2019 – the summer before we were plunged unwillingly into a worldwide pandemic – it feels both innocent and somber, as though we knew there was something darker coming, and somehow we had to make the most of it. Summer lends urgency to its days, ever-aware that September would arrive sooner than desired. Did we embrace the days? Did we honor the hours? The memories now are mostly questions, the wisdom of hindsight muted and inscrutable, and the gauzy haze that summer wraps around its days closes in cocoon-like fashion.
Is it really faith if I’m weak? Can you tell the truth when you live lies? I’m just looking for the signs Hold my hand, please sympathize Hard enough trying to forgive Hard enough trying to live Flawed, flawed by design, yeah Please, please sympathize
A little over just half a year ago, Madonna was in the hospital and reportedly near the brink of death due to a bacterial infection that left her in the ICU and unconscious for several days. To think that this same woman would have opened such a spectacular show as ‘The Celebration Tour‘ four months after that brush with dying is the sort of commonplace superhuman power and determination that has defined Madonna for four unwavering decades. The journey of how she came to last is told on this tour, which somehow manages to encapsulate all those decades, all those hits, and all that controversy.
Her return to Boston was a long time coming, having had to cancel all the Boston stops of her last ‘Madame X‘ theater tour due to injury and then COVID. We were due for something special, and it came in the spot where she had previously been performing an acoustic version of disco classic ‘I Will Survive’. Boston got the premiere of an acoustic ‘Express Yourself’ which found the entire arena singing along with one of her greatest hits. It was a straight-forward reading in a production otherwise rife with theatrical bombast and effects, and pointed to something that naysayers have always discounted: Madonna comes with a surprising bit of substance, or she simply wouldn’t have lasted. The fortitude of that history is on full display every moment of the Celebration tour.
It opens simply enough, at roughly 9:50 (relatively early for Madonna) with Bob the Drag Queen casually milling about the crowd and asking people to take their seats, which immediately prompts the arena to fill to seeming capacity as Madonna appears on a rising, revolving platform in an elaborate kimono and bejeweled crown, a new interpolation of her ‘Nothing Really Matters‘ video and song from 1998’s ‘Ray of Light’ album – a bold, not-quite-a-proper-hit for the opening, and absolutely perfect for the true fan. This is but a visionary greeting, the lyrics referencing the spiritual over the physical, indicative perhaps of Madonna’s more contemplative view of her past.
She dives headfirst into those early days, and at one point in a surprisingly-emotional show she claims to be in the midst of a mini-nervous breakdown, getting choked up as she spoke with an earlier incarnation of herself from her days living in the Lower East Side. Amid classic performances of ‘Everybody‘, ‘Into the Groove‘, ‘Open Your Heart‘ and ‘Burning Up‘, she introduces the narrative conceit of the evening: previous versions of herself portrayed by her backing dancers in masks and the costume of the respective period. As she meets up with that early Madonna of her 80’s beginning, she hugs the younger version of herself, crying a bit as she offers words no one was there to offer at the time. It thrillingly sets the stage for the emotional heft of the night.
As her early 80’s carefree hey-day hits its climax, with a giddy rendition of ‘Holiday’ (masterfully melded with a snippet of ‘I Want Your Love’), the disco ball slows its spinning, gradually descending as her dancers fall one by one, until only one man is left, ultimately collapsing before Madonna takes off her Keith Haring coat and covers him. The arrival of the AIDS crisis informs a moving ‘Live to Tell’ which locates Madonna rising in a box that flies around the arena as large screens of all the friends she has lost to AIDS appear as so many ghosts. The haunting moment is accentuated as the images shift, evolving into multiple photos of more people lost to AIDS, multiplying to the point where they become an infinite checkerboard of all the lives snuffed out. Madonna knows this history as well as any gay man of a certain age, and it is easily the most powerful, and important, moment of the entire show.
From there, ‘Like A Prayer‘ is about the only thing that could simultaneously sustain the emotion while offering its own sort of healing in the one area which has always rescued Madonna: her music. Navigating a rotating carousel of masked dancers, she makes her way around one of her greatest songs, and the entire audience finds our own salvation in the only temple at which we have all collectively worshipped – the Church of Madonna.
The loose timeline shifts along to the early 90’s and Madonna’s iconic Blonde Ambition period, embodied by the totemic red-velvet bed, where Madonna joins her golden-cone-bra-clad self and indulges in the self-pleasure that caused such a commotion that first time around. Slinking her way through an orgy-fueled ‘Justify My Love‘ and a welcome bit of her ‘Fever‘ cover from the infamous ‘Erotica’ album, she remains as brazenly defiant as ever, gathering her topless female dancers to her side as she whips the group into a rousing version of the dance-floor-shredding ‘Hung Up‘. From the sultry shenanigans of ‘Erotica’ and her ‘Sex’ book period, to all the sexy winking of the ‘Like A Virgin‘ days, and all the sexual provocation which she exuberantly embraced and reflected throughout her career, it’s still telling that her greatest force remains in a simple dance song like ‘Hung Up’. The crowd feeds on it more than the visual feast that came just before – and after the release Madonna proverbially spanks herself with a gem from the ‘Erotica’ album, ‘Bad Girl‘, with piano accompaniment by her daughter Mercy.
Her daughter Esther spins some records for the ballroom portion of the evening, and does some fierce dance moves as a resplendent production of ‘Vogue’ finds Madonna enacting the gay-dance craze that she helped bring to the masses. Such cheeky fun is not without punishment, and for all the early 90’s madness that Madonna reveled in, she gets bound up by several police officers. Throughout the process she sings a bit of ‘Human Nature’ before being rescued by her latex-clad younger self.
That embrace of her former lives (or eras, as Madonna was the original shape-shifting eras girl) finds its most poignant turn as this version of her ‘Human Nature‘ video slowly unbinds her from the ties that the police (standing in for every oppressive entity) have put on her. Madonna sings a verse and chorus of ‘Crazy for You’, dancing with this version of herself in the aftermath of ‘Sex’ and ‘Erotica’, both embracing and forgiving that early 90’s period in one of the most moving moments of the evening. It’s not always easy to accept our past, even if it made us into who we are today; Madonna still proclaims to have absolutely no regrets, but I think she means she has come to a place of acceptance for everything she put herself through.
While I would have been thrilled with a song she has never sung before, say ‘Survival’, the words of ‘Die Another Day‘ might mean more to her, and it ushers in the next section, which features a focus on family and survival. It’s a striking shift and accurate evolution when one looks at how Madonna’s career and family life had progressed. By the mid-90’s, she was starting her own family, and the arrival of her children signaled a change.
In another startlingly confessional moment, she recounts those scary moments near death, and conjures her kids as part of what inspired her to keep going. She launches into a section of defiance that finds her performing with her son David on guitar through ‘Don’t Tell Me‘ and ‘Mother and Father‘ (one of the best cuts from her ‘American Life‘ album). As pictures of their respective parents appear on screen, Madonna and David sing together and seemingly find some sort of joint catharsis.
This particular evening felt even more like a family affair (sadly minus any ‘Keep It Together’ number) with Madonna mentioning that her very own sister Melanie was in the audience for this second Boston show. She referenced her children as a primary source of inspiration when she fought for her life in the hospital last summer. With that seminal event just a few months behind us, it’s amazing to see her dancing and thrilling like she always did, and if the moves are a bit more measured, they are also more meaningful. When she inserts that aforementioned ‘Express Yourself’ in place of what had been ‘I Will Survive’ (my sorry vertical video of that is here), it shows that Madonna is still evolving, still perfecting, still working things out. It what continues to make her so utterly fascinating.
The penultimate section of the show, a 1-2-3 knock-out of ‘Bedtime Story‘, ‘Ray of Light‘ and ‘Rain‘ is an exercise in entertainment show-womanship. It begins with Madonna in a brilliant mirrored catsuit and extra-long pin-straight blonde hair, rising on a box and imploring herself and all of us to get unconscious. With everything that has happened in the last year, it’s a chilling choice, and as the song concludes, and her floating box appears with her son, who gives her a theatrical blue tube of some presumably-life-giving elixir, she rises, literally, over all of us and transfixes with a devastatingly dare-defying ‘Ray of Light’ – proof that music has repeatedly saved her soul. The bonus of one of her best ballads ‘Rain’ from the well-represented ‘Erotica’ era offers a sort of musical resolution that’s been decades in the making.
The finale is a delirious all-too-quick mash-up of ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ and its cheerleading chants, with ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’, which finally truly hits (after years of not quite connecting) as dancers in iconic Madonna fashion moments swirl and surround her. Some obligatory, but woefully-chopped, bits of ‘Celebration’ are thrown in almost as an after-thought (this was the ‘Celebration’ tour, right?) and the night ends a bit too soon as Madonna disappears behind a white veil that reunites her with her virgin days, now fully integrated into a frenzy of fun and acceptance. It’s almost as if she has reached the pinnacle of her career (again) and is simply reasserting that she knows better than anyone how to put on a show. Forty years into that journey, it’s a gift that she is still with us, and an honor to still be completely crazy for her.
Madonna has been through a hell of a lot in the last year – not the least of which was a literal brush with death just a scant few months ago. For her to simply be here at all is a miracle for which we should be grateful – to have her putting on such a show as her current ‘Celebration’ tour (due in Boston today and tomorrow, when I get to see her for the first time since the rousing ‘Rebel Heart Tour’) is blessing and reason enough for great gratitude.
She has said that she wasn’t sure she’d make it, and if Madonna was unsure of herself, that certainly shook those of us who have always relied on her as a bastion of iconic pop royalty, sometimes faltering but never falling. She claimed it was the thought of her children that pulled her through, and in that admission was the often-hinted-at notion that Madonna was human after all. Some of us have known that forever, and loved her all the more for it. We were simply waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.
And so when I saw the first few clips of her ‘Celebration Tour’, my heart rejoiced and rebounded. Our Lady of Perpetual Inspiration was still intact, still inspiring, and still bringing the world joy and music and spectacle and escapism – the very tenets of her first ‘Dreams Do Come True’ mantra from those lovely ‘Like A Virgin‘ days. I remember them well, as I do each musical step she has taken since then, and as I caught a little glimpse of ‘Crazy For You‘ I felt the tears well up just a little bit. And then I remembered that it was always best to trust in her journey.
{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}
The Madonna Timeline is on a bit of a ‘Madame X’ kick of late, with the most recent entry being ‘God Control‘, and this one moving on to ‘Crazy’. One of the most charming and effervescent tracks of that album, ‘Crazy’ brings me happily back to the summer of 2019, a time that feels more quaint and sunny when you realize it was all in the months right before a worldwide deadly pandemic. In so many ways, that summer feels like one of the last great summers, and all the summers since then have been trying to achieve something similar, and all to no success. Maybe I’ve just grown up beyond having a carefree summer. Maybe last summer simply ruined it for me. I don’t know. What I do understand is that there is power in music – and power in this pretty little song.
I spent all night waiting up It’s gonna be the last night I wait up for you Spent a long time wakin’ up Used to think that I was not enough for you
Now I see that I’m just way too much You got your hands full, I’m misunderstood Now I see that I’m who I can trust And you got a lot of room, you tryin’ to make it good
But if you think I’ve been foolish and you only fool me once I guess it’s shame on you Say now if you think I’ve been foolish and you Keep on trying to do it, baby, Imma switch the plans on you
‘Cause you’re driving me crazy You must think I’m crazy
The start of the summer of 2019 was spent in gleeful anticipation of the ‘Madame X’ album – one of the first true summer albums released by Madonna since I can’t remember when (perhaps the most notable one being ‘True Blue’). The magic had begun with ‘Medellin‘ and while some of the album was gloriously experimental, Madonna still knew her way around a heady hook and a magical melody, which she melded with some strong Portuguese influence on ‘Crazy’.
And I won’t let you drive me cray-ay-ay-ay-zy And I won’t let you drive me crazy Você não vai me por tão lo-o-o-ouca Você não vai me por tão louca
Starting the season as early as possible, I remember painting some of our worn backyard plant stands and furniture a bright yellow, unifying the accents with the curtains hanging from the canopy that year. They would be excellent foil for the garishly-colored pots I was using, forming a vibrant fiesta of color and bold hues that would help to make a celebration of summer. All the while, I played the ‘Madame X’ album on repeat, burning these beautiful songs into a summer memory.
I’m a force that I won’t tame, babe Can’t go through this and stay the same, babe I’ve seen a lot of stranger things, babe And I’ll never look at you the same
‘Cause you’re driving me crazy You must think I’m crazy Você me põe tão louca Você pensa que eu sou louca
And I won’t let you drive me crazy-ay-ay-ay-ay-zy And I won’t let you drive me crazy Você não vai me por tão lo-o-o-ouca Você não vai me por tão louca
Once the patio was put together and looking pretty, the canopy assembled and providing some shade, and the pool swirling its chlorinated warmth in circles of wavering blue and aqua, Andy and I would pause and take it all in, enjoying this little oasis in the midst of upstate New York, our own little escape from the rest of the world. His adamant desire to have a pool paid off, and I’ve always been grateful for that. Madonna sang her songs crafted halfway round the world, and they matched the surroundings and the time perfectly.
I put you on a pedestal but statues, they can fall Felt so safe, I let you drive me straight into the wall Paid the hell you dealt me, thought you felt me Was never good at games, now I just forget your name
But if you think I’ve been foolish and you only fool me once I guess it’s shame on you Say now if you think I’ve been foolish and you keep On trying to do it, baby, Imma switch the plans on you
‘Cause you’re driving me crazy You must think I’m crazy
Summer ended all too quickly that year, though we didn’t realize it then. It was just another summer in a long line of summers, and there would always be such summers to come, wouldn’t there? I wish I’d known so I could have held onto it a little longer. Strike that – I’m glad we didn’t know. There was nothing to mar the happiness of the moment.
This Santa took a tumble at Madonna’s latest ‘Celebration’ tour date when a dancer gave hi a bit of a lap-dance that he simply couldn’t handle. All in a Madonna concert, I suppose. The lady herself has never seemed all that big on Christmas, having released but one holiday song, a rather annoying version of ‘Santa Baby’ when she was in full Betty-Boop/Nicki-Finn mode. Still, as the only Madonna Christmas song we have (all stretches of ‘Holiday’ to the side) it has remained a holiday staple, even if nothing could ever come close to the original version by Eartha Kitt. It’s here below because it is, ahem, the season.
Personally, I’m glad we don’t have a Madonna Christmas album, although given her name and religious dabbling, I could see her putting together a majestically sacrilegious romp that might prove very interesting. Until such time, I’ll make do with the songs that remind me of my own personal holiday memories:
{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}
Everybody knows the damn truth Our nation lied, we lost respect When we wake up, what can we do? Get the kids ready, take them to school Everybody knows they don’t have a chance To get a decent job, to have a normal life When they talk reforms, it makes me laugh They pretend to help, it makes me laugh I think I understand why people get a gun I think I understand why we all give up Every day they have a kind of victory Blood of innocence, spread everywhere They say that we need love But we need more than this…
One of the absolute highlights of Madonna’s somewhat-underappreciated (and some might say somewhat-underwhelming) ‘Madame X’ album is ‘God Control’ – a masterpiece of a sonic journey, complete with choir and tongue-in-cheek rapping, that comes with the last great video she’s given us. Give it another listen and viewing below:
We lost God control We lost God control We lost God control We lost God control
This is your wake-up call I’m like your nightmare I’m here to start your day This is your wake-up call We don’t have to fall A new democracy God and pornography A new democracy…
The rise of America’s gun culture, and the apparently unswaying way we are all letting people, including children, just succumb to something that could be so easily stopped is one more tell-tale sign of these changes. Madonna tackled the subject in this song and video, switching out ‘Gun Control’ for ‘God Control‘ because religion plays its part in where we have been, and where we are headed. A hypocritical religion, perhaps, but a religion nonetheless.
People think that I’m insane The only gun is in my brain Each new birth, it gives me hope That’s why I don’t smoke that dope Insane people think I am Brain inside, my only friend Hope it gives me birth each new That dope I don’t smoke, it’s true…
Only Madonna could turn such a controversial topic into a video that is transfixing, enthralling, entertaining, disturbing, and impossible-not-to-watch. At four decades into an unprecedented career of entertainment domination, she’s mastered the art form of the video – hell, she practically invented it – and it remains one of the most vital methods of communicating her message. Images aligned with music, backed with meaning and significance, taking us on a journey of light and dark… this is what Madonna does best.
Everybody knows the damn truth Everybody knows the damn truth (wake up) We need to wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up We need to make up, make up, make up, make up Make up, make up, make up, make up, make up, make up It’s a hustle, yeah It’s a hustle It’s a con It’s a hustle It’s a weird kind of energy A bizarre thing that happens to be An abnormal fraternity And I feel more than sympathy
A message that was depressingly resonant and needed in 2019 has become a message that rings with even greater loss and rage in 2023. Thoughts and prayers have done nothing over the past four years, and will continue to do nothing. Gun violence is the number one killer of children in America. So while you’re worried about drag queens reading books to your kids or an imaginary war on Christianity, ask yourself what Jesus might do when confronted with an epidemic like guns. Pretty sure he wouldn’t be arming himself with an AR-15.
A new democracy!
Everybody knows the damn truth Our nation lied, we’ve lost respect When we wake up, what can we do? Get the kids ready, take them to school Everybody knows they don’t have a chance Get a decent job, have a normal life When they talk reform, it makes me laugh They pretend to help, it makes me laugh…
And so we laugh, and so we float along… In that summer of 2019, my niece and nephew join us for a swim in the pool. Laughing and splashing, the carefree memories of childhood encroach on the present moment, and I remember a time when kids weren’t getting shot in schools. The water is warm, the sun is strong, and, based on all outward appearances, who can tell a summer day by the pool today from a summer day by the pool forty years ago? A disco tune still spins in the background, the gleeful squeals of kids having fun punctuate the beat, and that funny juxtaposition of laughter and tears reminds me that the world has gone mad, and I no longer know how not to go mad along with it.
Madonna resumes her epic ‘Celebration Tour’ today with her first North American date, and I’m hoping she remains healthy and in performance shape for her Boston dates. After she canceled all of her Boston stops of the ‘Madame X Tour’ I’m not holding my breath, but I’m hopeful. And if I end up having to have a Madonna party of one in the condo, so be it.
So, the real line goes, ‘Holiday, celebration, come together in every nation’ and it was immortalized in Madonna’s ‘Truth or Dare’ (read: Blonde Ambition) version of ‘Holiday’, but the title of a blog post has to be more catchy than that. Now that we have officially entered the Christmas season, let’s fire up this seasonally-appropriate chestnut.
“Should we give it one more time for the states, girls? Shall we try to have a holiday?”
This song, this video, this fucking time in my life… it all just screams for an escape, doesn’t it? And for all the fuckery that has circled wildly about me like a goddam hurricane for the past forty years or so, I remain the calm eye, even as the inside begins its own swirl. Whenever it feels like too much, I think of this song, and in my mind I dance, while rooting myself like a stone at the bottom of a river. All around me, I feel the raging, the rushing, the drowning… all the madness of a world that no longer resembles anything I once knew.
Alas, the holidays are here whether we like it or not, and acting like a stone at the bottom of a river isn’t going to make them go away (in literal terms it would likely just kill you). I won’t subject you to a lengthy list of links to all the holiday posts that have been here before (that’s what a post like this is for). I will instead leave you with all the links already highlighted in blue for you to peruse or ignore at your own time, enjoyment and peril.
The only reason for this post is to show off this out-take from the ‘Bedtime Stories’ photo sessions by Patrick Demarchelier – as we have already celebrated the ‘Bedtime Stories’ album in fuller form. This is the time of the year that reminds me of that record, when the chill of November really kicks in, and the realization that there’s no going back to summer now fills one with a bit of dread. Even the sunny days now are aligned with a bit of somber starkness – all bare tree limbs and brown, wilted bedding plants. The season of slumber is at hand.
Madonna was in a downtrodden and plaintive mood during the fall of 1994, and it was reflected in the music, and the moody atmosphere. A reminder of the Madonna Timeline entries from that sleeper of an album:
‘Twas on this date that Madonna released one of the pivotal albums of her career, ‘Bedtime Stories’, and did it in the most subversive and quiet way, restoring the intrigue and mystery that often accompanied her musical motions. In many circles, the album is considered a mini-comeback in the aftermath of the ‘Erotica’ album and ‘Sex‘ book; true fans considered both ‘Erotica‘ and ‘Bedtime Stories’ masterpieces in their own respects. They are two very different beasts, but both are grounded din the singular wisdom and outlook of a woman who has been, at various points, all women. (And a few men too, for that matter.)
‘Bedtime Stories’ has alway personified fall for me, specifically a very precious fall in which I shared my very first kiss with a man. Rife with drama that’s been very thoroughly-explored here it was a time in which Madonna’s musical output matched my own personal journey, which melds music with memory, and some of these songs immediately bring me back to those tumultuous times. Click on the songs to see if they trigger any fall memories of yours.
Near the brink of death just a few short months ago, Madonna has returned in fine form by all accounts, opening her ‘Celebration Tour‘ at the age of 65 and performing a cavalcade of hits that remind of her vaunted and hard-won status as the pre-eminent pop queen. Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo and name-your-current-iconic-goddess all owe a little something to Madonna for blazing the trail before them.
‘The Celebration Tour’ is getting largely-glowing reviews, and the clips I’ve seen (spoiler alert!) show her at her vocal best on such favorites as ‘Bad Girl‘, ‘Crazy For You‘ and ‘Mother & Father‘. True fans have loved every Madonna tour, especially the ones that are album-based rather than hit-oriented (her ‘Drowned World Tour‘ remains my favorite thanks to its focus on the majestic ‘Ray of Light’ album). This time around she is doling out the hits more than the current stuff, meaning there is something spectacular for everyone – and the fans seem to dig it too.
I’m hoping she makes it back to Boston this winter – I missed her the last time around. Welcome back, Queen.
{Note: The Madonna Timeline is an ongoing feature, where I put the iPod on shuffle and write a little anecdote on whatever was going on in my life when that Madonna song was released and/or came to prominence in my mind.}
A quintessential fall album, coming out during one of the most indelible falls of my youth, ‘Bedtime Stories‘ was the soundtrack of a pivotal period in my life. This little soft-focus disco ditty was one of the few upbeat moments in a relatively moody atmospheric album, although ‘Don’t Stop’ felt like one of those unremarkable filler tracks designed to puff out a Madonna album so more solid material like ‘Secret‘ or ‘Survival‘ could shine. Hearing it now brings me back to that time period, to that tricky fall when I shared my very first kiss with a man.
Get up on the dance floor, everything is groovin’ Get up on the dance floor, got to see you movin’ Let the music shake you, let the rhythm take you Feel it in your body, sing la dee da dee
While much of that fall involved experiences with other people, the majority of my time was spent alone – walking the streets of Boston, riding the commuter rail between Boston and Brandeis, writing papers and creating projects in my dorm room within Usen Castle. A sense of loneliness pervaded the chilly air, even as I refused to allow myself to feel lonely; the notion of giving in to that, of being lonely, was an abyss that terrified me more than I can or could explain. It scared me to the point that I backed away from it as soon as I felt it drawing near. Like death.
Such darkness came with the descent of fall, with its early evenings and frosty mornings – the shock of it after the ease of summer, the way it took one’s breath away – the advent of autumn was still a surprise at that time in my life. The ‘Bedtime Stories’ album set an evocative tone with lush orchestral tracks like ‘Love Tried to Welcome Me’, ‘Forbidden Love‘ and ‘Take A Bow‘, while the hazy atmosphere of ‘Inside of Me’ and ‘Sanctuary’ spoke to the private cocoon I’d wrapped around myself, isolating my daily existence from classmates and people in general. The contradiction of not wanting to be lonely and not wanting to be around people was apparent – I just didn’t find a way to put it into words. In some ways, I was happier bopping about alone in my room to a song like this and imagining being around friends and lovers than actually putting such imagined scenes into action.
Come on join the party, let the bass line pump you Bring your body over, baby let me bump you I know I can groove you, you know I can move you Feel it in your body, sing la dee da dee
It was a haunted time, one that I’ve already written about so much it feels more like a book I once read than a life I once led. It’s not a time or place I’d like to dwell, and so we return to the modern day, and the present moment, and a song with the sentiment of ‘Don’t Stop’ carries more resonance on this day, as Madonna kicks off her new Celebration World Tour, proving that she is more concerned with walking her walk than talking her talk.
