This weekend marked the 20th anniversary of Madonna’s ‘Erotica‘ album and ‘Sex‘ book, and the October of 1992 is one I remember quite well. Being that I’ve already done a number of ‘Erotica‘ album timeline tracks (‘Erotica‘, ‘Fever‘, ‘Bad Girl‘, ‘Thief of Hearts‘, ‘Words‘ and ‘Rain‘), I won’t belabor this much more, but I will revisit two of the best magazine articles and photo shoots of Madonna’s career – the ones she did for ‘Vanity Fair’ and ‘Vogue’ in 1992 – where her collaborator of the moment, Steven Meisel, captured her in some stunning poses, and interviewers Maureen Orth and David Handelman got some choice sound-bites.
In these behind-the-scenes photos of Madonna and Mr. Meisel, we get to see the playful spirit that the otherwise-dark project inspired. A lot of the humor got lost in the shuffle of that season that launched her greatest backlash. I didn’t mind. If there’s one lesson learned in the aftermath and fall-out of ‘Sex’ and ‘Erotica’, it was that Madonna could take a licking and keep on ticking.
“I felt really free. It’s the most unpermissible thing. You’re not supposed to be out in public without your clothes on, and yet there wasn’t anything sexual about it – I couldn’t stop giggling, the looks on these people’s faces when they would drive by. I just had the best time.” ~ Madonna
“I think I’ve been terribly misunderstood because sex is the subject matter I so often deal with – people automatically dismiss a lot of what I do as something not important, not viable or something to be respected.” ~ Madonna
