We have reached the ‘Bedtime Stories‘ section of the year – one of the seminal fall releases that this week celebrates its 30th anniversary. That’s right, it was three decades ago when Madonna released this quietly revolutionary album – one that set her up for the remarkable career that has sustained and endured the ensuing decades. Prior to ‘Bedtime Stories’, each and every Madonna moment was earth-shaking and taboo-shattering, culminating with the one-two knockout punch of ‘Sex‘ and ‘Erotica‘. For her die-hard fans, that 1992-1993 era was heaven; for casual observers it was deemed too much, too far, too whatever.
By the fall of 1994, Madonna was looking to rebound from that, and managed the remarkable feat of putting out a successful, if less hyped album, one that featured solid song-craft and continued her trademark trick of reinvention. The whole affair was a soft, pastel-hued work of delicate introspection, percolating R&B beats, and lush vocals. Opening with the jubilantly-defiant ‘Survival’, Madonna immediately and directly addressed the trauma and drama of the previous years, while introducing an of-the-moment sound that felt both fresh and slightly nostalgic.
Lead single ‘Secret’ provided our official introduction to this new era, grounded with a delicious acoustic guitar that built to a string-backed climax; it was a laid-back yet thoroughly intoxicating effort that returned her to the charts with surprising lasting power. It didn’t quite reach number one, but it bobbed around the top ten for far longer than some of her #1 hits stayed in orbit. The same would prove true for the album, which bubbled under the surface for weeks, resurging with her longest run of a #1 single, follow-up ‘Take A Bow’.
As if proving she didn’t want or need the #1s, she released the Bjork-penned title track ‘Bedtime Story’ – one of the most challenging and idiosyncratic songs she’s ever recorded. I’m not sure it even made the top forty, and by that time it seemed to be the point; this marked the major transition of Madonna in my eyes – she was creating music and videos for the sake of artistic purpose, not for chart positions or pop culture milestones. Hence ‘Human Nature’, which was never a chart hit, or one of her more creative videos in my opinion, but said what Madonna wanted, and needed, to say.
The rest of the ‘Bedtime Stories’ album was muted and hazy brilliance – from the soft-focus barely-disco shuffle of ‘Don’t Stop‘ to the lovelorn loss inherent in ‘Inside of Me’ to the sizzling slow-burn beauty that was the triumvirate of ‘Forbidden Love‘, ‘Love Tried to Welcome Me’ and ‘Sanctuary’. Taken as a whole, ‘Bedtime Stories’ was one of those rare cohesive albums whose sound and atmosphere was mostly consistent and sustained, rather than a haphazard selection of power singles for which Madonna had, wrongfully or rightly, become renowned. It was a transitional totem, one that paved the way for her next original studio album, the iconic ‘Ray of Light’ – and without ‘Bedtime’ there would likely be no ‘Light’.
As for my personal memories of the fall of 1994, they were and remain some of the most fiery, salient, and lasting memories of my adult life. It was the first time I ever kissed a man. It was the first time I felt distinctly and terrifyingly on my own. It was the first time I felt like an adult. And throughout it all, I still wanted someone to tuck me in at night and tell me tales of comfort and warmth. Madonna became my mother-figure that fall – and she would remain so throughout all the years that followed.
