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The Erotic Body of Girlie Sex Show Era


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·         The Pre- Madonna Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/11688-the-pre-madonna-era/?p=542015

·         The First Album Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/11796-the-madonna-first-album-era/?p=547412

·         The Like a Virgin Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12035-the-like-a-virgin-era/?p=557045

·         The True Blue Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12055-the-true-blue-era/?p=557777

·         The Who’s That Girl/You Can Dance Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12085-the-whos-that-girlyou-can-dance-era/?p=558619

·         The Like a Prayer Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12134-the-like-a-prayer-era/?p=560321

·         The Immaculate Breathless Blond Ambition Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12230-the-immaculate-breathless-blond-ambition-era/?p=562946

·         The Erotic Body of Girlie Sex Show Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570519

 

 

Body of Evidence / SEX / EROTICA / GIRLIE SHOW

 

Legacy: http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570520

 

Sources: http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570522

 

Timeline:

·         Overview http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570524

·         Unreleased http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570525

·         1990-1991 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570526

·         1992 [January – June] http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570527

·         1992 [July – December] http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570528

·         1993 [January – June] http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570529

·         1993 [July – December] http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570530

·         1994 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570531

 

 

Press:   http://madonnaunderground.com/madonna-live/album-promo/erotica-promo-tour/'>http://madonnaunderground.com/madonna-live/album-promo/erotica-promo-tour/

 

Memorabilia:  http://madonnaunderground.com/madonna-live/album-promo/erotica-promo-tour/

 

Videos: http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570532

 

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Legacy

Slant Magazine listed Erotica at number 24 on "The 100 Best Albums of the 1990s", calling it a "dark masterpiece". 

 

Miles Raymer of Entertainment Weekly said that "in retrospect it's her strongest album â€” produced at the peak of her power and provocativeness... and helped elevate her from mere pop star to an era-defining icon."

 

According to J. Randy Taraborrelli, the author of Madonna: An Intimate Biography, "At the time of Erotica's release in October 1992, much of society seemed to reexamining its sexuality. Gay rights issues were at the forefront of social discussions globally, as was an ever-increasing awareness of AIDS. A generation seemed increasingly curious to explore, without guilt, shame or apology, a different slice of life, something more provocative, maybe darker."

 

Music critic Sal Cinquemani commented about the album's impact:

By 1992, Madonna was an icon—untouchable, literally and figuratively—and Erotica was the first time the artist's music took on a decidedly combative, even threatening tone, and most people didn't want to hear it. Erotica's irrefutable unsexiness probably says more about the sex=death mentality of the early '90s than any other musical document of its time. This is not Madonna at her creative zenith. This is Madonna at her most important, at her most relevant. No one else in the mainstream at that time dared to talk about sex, love, and death with such frankness and fearlessness.

Eric Henderson from Slant Magazine recalled that Erotica was met with a louder backlash and was more rampantly misrepresented than any of Madonna's other albums. Madonna was banned from entering the Vatican and her music was banned there as well. The accompanying music video for "Erotica" also suffered mainstream condemnation due to its explicit sexual imagery. MTV put the video into heavy rotation, but only after midnight. It was completely banned from broadcast on NBC and Times Square because its bondage imagery was deemed too racy. The first album of her career to bear Parental Advisory label, Erotica was also banned in several Asian countries, such as China and Lebanon. In Singapore, after Erotica's worldwide release, the album was on hold for its release, because their government censors thought the track "Did You Do It" was too explicit.

 

When asked to name her biggest professional disappointment, Madonna answered, "The fact that my Erotica album was overlooked because of the whole thing with the Sex book. It just got lost in all that. I think there's some brilliant songs on it and people didn't give it a chance. That disappointed me, but I'm not disappointed in the record itself... Every review of the movie or the album was really a review of the book. It was transparent: they weren't even talking about the songs or the music. OK, I thought, I get what's happening here. It was a shame, but I understand it." PopMatters ranked the album at number three on a list of "15 Overlooked and Underrated Albums of the 1990s".

 

Musician Doug Wimbish noted that Erotica was a record ahead of its time. In the early 1990s, Seattle grunge had kicked in, the bass-driven beats of jungle were emerging on the dance floor, and hip-hop hit a new level with the funky, conscious rap of acts such as De La Soul. "Madonna's enough of an artist to take the hues and shades of what's happening and put a concept together. It's not just bash out a record", he said. "She had Maverick, she'd done the book, the film Dick Tracy, she dated a big-ass Hollywood actor [Warren Beatty], This was her first record with her concept. She just freaked everybody out. She turned the system upside down for a moment, and they had to deal with the shock and awe of it all". Wimbish believes that Madonna forged a path for the next generation of female pop artists: "She was bringin' it from her point of view as a woman, bringing it to the forefront for real. That set the template now for your Christina Aguileras, Britneys, Beyoncés. She paved the road for a lot of that. You can be nice and clean and then a freak. And there'll be a lot of money for you in it at the end!"

 

SEX

At a time when most pop artists would be abhorred at the idea of a nude photo leaking out to the public, Madonna worked with legendary photographer Steven Meisel to assemble 128 pages of provocative photographs that feature adult content and softcore pornographic — as well as simulations of sexual acts, including sadomasochism and analingus. The rumor is that she signed an agreement with Warner Brothers not to show ‘child pornography’ or ‘anything of a religious nature’ – a contract that she was also rumored to dismiss a few months later when she founded Maverick, her own company.

The sleek, aluminum-bound book had a range of influences – from punk rock to earlier fashion iconoclasts such as Guy Bourdin and his surrealism, and Helmut Newton, in its stylized, sado-masochistic look. Madonna wrote the book as a character named “Mistress Ditaâ€, inspired by 1930s film actress Dita Parlo. It also includes cameos by actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano, actor Udo Kier, socialite Tatiana von Fürstenberg, and nightclub owner Ingrid Casares. With an initial print run of one million copies of the first edition in five continents and in five languages, the price of the book was $50 ($84 in 2016 dollars) at retail, making Sex an “expensive visual bookâ€. Nevertheless, the book managed to break records regarding the number of copies pre-ordered before the release. Nicholas Callaway pointed out that the book was an unprecedented hit, because the print run of an average art book ranges between 5 and 10,000 units. He described it as “the largest initial release of any illustrated book in publishing historyâ€.

 

Although a commercial success, the book immediately received negative reaction from critics, conservative and feminist “anti-porn†groups, due to its sexually explicit photographs which many characterized as “hardcore pornographyâ€. Writing for Spin magazine, Bob Guccione, Jr.gave the book a particularly unfavorable review:

 

“Madonna has overstayed her welcome. She’s becoming the human equivalent of the Energizer Bunny, flashing us her breasts in every magazine that’ll let her. […] Her book Sex, is a rip-off. Because it’s not about sex, it’s more about a hatred of it. […] The book is not erotic. It’s all somehow, astonishingly, dead. As sexy as a body chart at the doctor’s office. Because it’s just as precise and soulless. [sex] is a con job because instead of being flagrant pornography, it dresses itself up as Great Art. The text is pretentious and derives most, if not all, of its impact from the fact that it’s Madonna talking, quite a lot… Any other model would sound no more or less coarse, just uninteresting.â€

 

“The overwhelming effect of the book is numbing,†complained Rolling Stone. â€œThe images are derivative, and Madonna herself seems far too eager to shock; that, not even prurient arousal, seems the ideal response the book tirelessly seeks. The potency of Sex’s subject matter is dissipated by Madonna and Meisel’s self-congratulatory – and silly – sense of their own ‘bravery,’ as if their naughty games were somehow revolutionary.â€

 

The Sex book was ripe with flesh and imagery. The gay overtones and the depiction of homosexuality was something that no other major pop star had embraced or promoted at that time. It was groundbreaking to see gay people in this way. Sex was art. Sex was necessary. Sex was liberating. At the height of the AIDS crisis, this message was something that people didn’t hear often.

 

Madonna responded to the negative backlash surrounding the book, “I don’t think sex is bad. I don’t think nudity is bad. I don’t think that being in touch with your sexuality and being able to talk about it is bad. I think the problem is that everybody’s so uptight about it and have turned it into something bad when it isn’t. If people could talk about it freely, we would have more people practicing safe sex, we wouldn’t have people sexually abusing each other.â€

 

Sex is now considered a bold, post-feminist, work of art, besides being labeled a "cultural book". 

 

Martin Amis from The Observer wrote an essay discussing the book's cultural meaning. 

Critical theorist Douglas Kellner affirmed that with Sex "Madonna became herself, an artifact of pop culture". 

French academic writer Georges Claude Guilbert (author of three books about Madonna) described Sex as one of the most successful publicity stunts in history whereas Russell W. Belk, author of Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing mentioned that the book is a quality product in marketing.

 

In 1992, Madonna had generated more than US$500 million ($853,331,752 in 2016 dollars) to Time Warner in sales of both albums and the Sex book, despite the negative feedback. However, Taraborrelli commented in his book, Madonna: An Intimate Biography, that those "who knew Madonna well at that time, knew what was really going on with her: the Sex book—and the outrageous antics that preceded it and would follow it—was really just something she used as a barrier between her and the rest of the world." For years it had seemed to Madonna that both her personal and professional life was extremely scrutinized by the public and media, and although she had started this scrutinizing by her provocative works, she was tired of it. Being vexed at this interest in her personal life, Madonna fought back by creating the persona of a renegade, something so outrageous as to defy explanation, something found objectionable by most people. Taraborrelli said that in Madonna's view, "she had no other way of fighting back". The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert analyzed the singer's provocative attempt in an article published in the newspaper:

 

McNair wrote in his book that "Sex brought out the personal underground to the surface of pop culture". London art critic Sarah Kent wrote in Time Out magazine that the timing of Sex was "impeccable. Obsessions about the human body was in vogue, with Madonna's book as well as artist Andres Serrano's "cumming shots" and Jeff Koons' The Jeff Koons Handbook, the latter portrayed fairytale pictures of the artist having sex with his pornographic actor wife, Cicciolina.

Sex has also become an important book in the LGBT community. Ben Shapiro, author of Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future wrote that due to its iconic status "Sex adorns the coffee tables of hundreds of gay men and sperm banks". Mark Blankenship, from the LGBT-oriented website New Now Next stated that "literature changed forever" with the publishing of Sex. Madonna's portrayal of lesbian love scenes in the book sparked debates about her own sexual orientation. This was an adjunct to the singer's public relationship with comedian Sandra Bernhard, with whom she cavorted around, visiting lesbian night-clubs as well as partying. The LGBT community felt it was an important portrayal for them. As Carolin Grace from Diva magazine noted: "Madonna became meaningful in early nineties, when Sex came out, and at that point lesbian culture was really changing." She noted how women were coming out about their sexuality and the book's handling of the taboo issue were "a legacy, our contribution to the show. The lesbian sub-cultural references borrowed by Madonna aren't our only possessions." 

 

O'Brien argues in her book Madonna: Like an Icon, that the book had a confusing philosophy. According to the female critics, who pointed out the vacuousness of Madonna's remarks about porn and abuse, the singer did not have a correct idea that behind these fantasies the "reality is too hard for her to endure", referring to the daily hustles that women have to face at red light districts and brothels. The author felt that despite the courageous premise of genuine exploration of queer sex, the book crossed over into pornography and a wrong portrayal for the community, while being flippant and commercial. She drew an example of the death of pornographic actor Joey Stefano, one of the models of the book, from drug overdose. Stefano had been thrilled to be a part of the book, but was underpaid. Once Madonna and her team were done with the shoot, "they packed up and left the Gaiety... They left behind the mundane reality and the boys who have to deal with it seven days a week.

 

Artists Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas in Queer Style (2013) noted Madonna transmogrified from virgin to dominatrix to Ãœber Fran, each time achieving iconic status. Added Madonna was the first woman to do so-and with mainstream panache and approbation, bell hooks teach that her "power to the pussy" credo worked only to solidify Madonna's positioning on the backs of the marginalized. The sexual icon she constructed may indeed, then, accord power to the pussy. Academics from European School of Management and Technology felt that Madonna became in one of the world's first performers to manipulate the juxtaposition of sexual and religious themes. American editor Janice Min wrote that "long before Sex and the City, Madonna owned her sexuality. She made people cringe but also think differently about female performers. Her role as a provocateur changed boundaries for ensuing generations. She was a one-woman reality show." As Min, Shmuel Boteach, author of Hating Women(2005), felt that Madonna was largely responsible for erasing the line between music and pornography. He stated: "Before Madonna, it was possible for women more famous for their voices than their cleavage to emerge as music superstars. But in the post-Madonna universe, even highly original performers such as Janet Jackson now feel the pressure to expose their bodies on national television to sell albums".

During her career, Madonna has several provocative works. Perhaps, her book Sex is most notorious, considered by many as the artist's most controversial and transgressive period. Some authors noted that Sex helped Madonna make a name in the porn industry, and earned her the title of S&M's first cultural ambassador. Steve Bachmann, on his book Simulating Sex: Aesthetic Representations of Erotic Activity pointed out that "perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Madonna's sexual phenomenon is the extent to which her book marked a new threshold in the pornographic franchise". Brian McNair, author of Striptease Culture: Sex, Media and the Democratisation of Desire (2012) praised this period of Madonna's career, saying that she had "porno elegance" and that "Sex is the author of a cultural phenomenon of global proportions [due to the critics] and thanks to this Madonna established her iconic status and cultural influence. Professors in Oh Fashion(1994) book felt that "Madonna is a toy for boys, but on another level boys are toys for her".

 

 

Nearly twenty-five years later, Sex is now considered a bold, post-feminist, work of art, besides being labeled a “cultural bookâ€. Critical theorist Douglas Kellner affirmed that with Sex “Madonna became herself, an artifact of pop cultureâ€. French academic writer Georges Claude Guilbert (author of three books about Madonna) described Sex as one of the most successful publicity stunts in history whereas Russell W. Belk, author of Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing mentioned that the book is a quality product in marketing.

 

In 1992, Madonna had generated more than US$500 million ($843,134,930 in 2016 dollars) to Time Warner in sales of both albums and the Sex book, despite the negative feedback. However, Taraborrelli commented in his book, Madonna: An Intimate Biography, that those “who knew Madonna well at that time, knew what was really going on with her: the Sex book—and the outrageous antics that preceded it and would follow it—was really just something she used as a barrier between her and the rest of the world.â€

 

For years it had seemed to Madonna that both her personal and professional life was extremely scrutinized by the public and media, and although she had started this scrutinizing by her provocative works, she was tired of it. Being vexed at this interest in her personal life, Madonna fought back by creating the persona of a renegade, something so outrageous as to defy explanation, something found objectionable by most people. The Boston Globe’s Matthew Gilbert analyzed the singer’s provocative attempt in an article published in the newspaper:

“Madonna’s motive for baring her breasts to the public feels more like personal gratification, less like commitment to a cause. She’s not out to change the world. Let’s face it: Few people get erotic in front of millions of viewers for purely selfless political reasons. It’s hard to escape the view of Madonna as a difficult Catholic adolescent aiming the finger at everything repressive. And many of her songs are addressed to an authority figure of her youth – from God and Jesus Christ to her own father. The heart of Madonna’s outrageousness seems to lie beneath her liberal rationales, as if she’s acting out something private and the world is her couch, not to mention her bank. Her politics are largely electorial.â€

 

The book opens up with the introduction: “Everything you are about to see and read is a fantasy, a dream, pretendâ€. Throughout Sex, Madonna offers poems, stories, and essays. She also uses the pseudonym “Mistress Ditaâ€. The book also reflects a great part on Dita’s perspective towards her own sexuality. Dita writes in Sex that her “pussy†is a temple of learning and that exposing it, is really a homage to it. I suspect the same can be said of Madonna’s pussy. In 1992, an impressionable pre-internet generation was exposed to Madonna’s calculated, and perhaps reckless, public reveal of her vagina — and the entire culture was forever shifted because of it. Sex created a dialogue and stoked the fire of a much more important conversation during a time of sexual repression and fear. This is a conversation we’re still having today. Thankfully.

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Sources:

·         http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1992.html

·         http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1993.html

·         http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1994.html

·         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotica_(Madonna_album)

·         Genesis from MadonnaNation for the timeline

 

·         Anderson, Jamie; Reckhenrich, Jörg; Kupp, Martin (2011), The Fine Art of Success: How Learning Great Art Can Create Great Business, John Wiley & SonsISBN 1119992532

·         Beemyn, Brett; Eliason, Mickey (1996), Queer studies: a lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender anthology, NYU Press, ISBN 0-8147-1258-4

·         Fouz-Hernández, Santiago; Jarman-Ivens, Freya (2004), Madonna's Drowned Worlds, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., ISBN 0-7546-3372-1

·         Lenig, Stuart (2010), The Twisted Tale of Glam Rock, PraegerISBN 978-0313379864

·         Morton, Andrew (2002). MadonnaSt. Martin's PressISBN 0312983107.

·         O'Brien, Lucy (2008). Madonna: Like an IconBantam PressISBN 9780552153614.

·         Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (2003). Hollywood Songsters: Garland to O'Connor. Taylor & FrancisISBN 0415943337.

·         Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin. Keuruu: Otava. ISBN 951-1-21053-X.

·         Salaverri, Fernando (2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002. Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 8480486392.

·         Taraborrelli, Randy J. (2002), Madonna: An Intimate BiographySimon & SchusterISBN 0-7432-2880-4

·         Tassoni, Leo (1993), Madonna: Mitografias Series (in Spanish), Icaria Editorial, ISBN 9788474262070

·         Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits. Billboard books. ISBN 0823076776.

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·         Morgan, Michelle (2015). The Mammoth Book of Madonna. Running Press Book. ISBN 978-0762456215.

·         Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja [Finland list of Songs and chartings] (in Finnish). Helsinki: Tammi. ISBN 951-31-2503-3.

·         Rettenmund, Matthew (2016). Encyclopedia Madonnica 20. Boyculture Publications. ISBN 978-0-692-51557-0.

·         Rooksby, Rikky (2004). The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna. Omnibus PressISBN 0-7119-9883-3.

·         Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (doc). Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.

·         Salaverri, Fernando (2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002. Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.

·         Taraborrelli, Randy J. (2008). Madonna: An Intimate BiographySimon & SchusterISBN 978-1416583462.

·         Wade, Chris (2016). The Music of Madonna. Wisdom Twins Books. ISBN 978-1-326-53580-3.

·         Borzillo-Vrenna, Carrie (2008). Cherry Bomb: The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Better Flirt, a Tougher Chick, and a Hotter Girlfriend--and to Living Life Like a Rock Star. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1416961161.

·         Guilbert, Georges-Claude (2002). Madonna As Postmodern Myth. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1408-1.

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·         Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988-2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.

·         Taraborrelli, Randy J. (2008). Madonna: An Intimate BiographySimon & SchusterISBN 9780330454469.

·         Bret, David (2015). Joey Stefano: The Life, Loves & Legacy of the Prince of Passion. LuluISBN 1326195158.

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·         Guilbert, Georges-Claude (2002). Madonna As Postmodern Myth. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1408-1.

·         Lenig, Stuart (2010). The Twisted Tale of Glam Rock. PraegerISBN 978-0313379864.

·         Metz, Allen; Benson, Carol (1999). The Madonna Companion: Two Decades of Commentary. Music Sales GroupISBN 0-8256-7194-9.

·         Rooksby, Rikky (2004). The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna. Omnibus PressISBN 0-7119-9883-3.

·         Rosenthal, Mark (2012). Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years. Yale University PressISBN 0300184980.

·         Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988-2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.

·         Taraborrelli, Randy J. (2008). Madonna: An Intimate BiographySimon & SchusterISBN 9780330454469.

·         Timmerman, Dirk (2007). Madonna Live! Secret Re-inventions and Confessions on Tour. Maklu. ISBN 978-9-085-95002-8.

·         Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (2003). Hollywood Songsters: Garland to O'Connor. Taylor & FrancisISBN 0415943337.

·         Rooksby, Rikky (2004). The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna. Omnibus PressISBN 0-7119-9883-3.

·         http://www.liveleft.com/sex/

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·         http://madonnaunderground.com/madonna-live/album-promo/erotica-promo-tour/

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Overview

·         Madonna practically started her Erotica/SEX era on September 24 1992 during a fashion show in LA for AmFAR. The night’s climax: Madonna joining Jean Paul Gaultier on stage with a very reveiling outfit

·         In Holland RTL breakfast news premiered a few seconds of the Erotica video, the video was so interesting that they dedicated a whole segment to it

·         Ray Cokes who then had his own show on MTV was one of the first to show the actual Erotica CD artwork during one of his shows

·         Erotica was released on Madonna’s own label Maverick (with Time Warner)

·         The song Goodbye to Innocence that was originally planned to be on Erotica (but was replaced with Fever) was released a few years later on the Just Say Roe compilation

·         Even though Erotica’s release was completely overshadowed by the SEX book in 1992, it is now being hailed as one of her most important and best albums in her career, an album that is known to have broken many boundries

·         In January 1993 Madonna performed at Saturday Night Live and sang both Fever and Bad Girl live, she caused quite a bit of a stir by ripping up a picture of Joey Buttafuoco right after the performance. Referring to Sinead O’Conner’s ripping of a pic of the Pope

·         She performed at the 1000th Arsenio Hallo show where she sang a jazzed up version of Fever, she made some mistakes and said to the crowd ‘we all make mistakes don’t we’, she also added ‘I’m not taking anything off okay?’, later she performed with Anthony Kiedis singing their version of ‘The Lady is a Tramp’

·         In September 1993 Madonna opened the MTV Awards with Bye Bye Baby, a taste of what was to come at The Girlie Show

·         In Holland Erotica reached number 8 in the charts and was certified Gold

·         The book SEX was of course the subject of attention in the media, it was a ‘scandal’ that an artist was releasing an erotic picture book, but still the book sold out in record time and was a huge success

·         In Holland the book was for sale at stores such as FAME, Waterstones and ABC, priced anywhere between 59 and 90 Dutch guilders ($30-45)

·         To promote Erotica and Sex Madonna was scheduled to do a lot of interviews in several countries such as Italy and the UK. In London it was Jonathan Ross that had an exclusive interview with her as well as Steve Blame for MTV. MTV also created a special titled In Search of Madonna in which Ray Cokes was on a search to find her

·         In America Madonna attended her ‘Coming Out’ party to launch SEX as Heidi holding a little (fake) lamb, the launch was of course widely discussed in the USA

 

In 1992, Madonna had a role in A League of Their Own as Mae Mordabito, a baseball player on an all-women's team. She recorded the film's theme song, "This Used to Be My Playground", which became a Hot 100 number one hit. The same year, she founded her own entertainment company, Maverick, consisting of a record company (Maverick Records), a film production company (Maverick Films), and associated music publishing, television broadcasting, book publishing and merchandising divisions. The deal was a joint venture with Time Warner and paid Madonna an advance of $60 million. It gave her 20% royalties from the music proceedings, one of the highest rates in the industry, equaled at that time only by Michael Jackson's royalty rate established a year earlier with Sony. The first release from the venture was Madonna's book, titled Sex. It consisted of sexually provocative and explicit images, photographed by Steven Meisel. The book caused strong negative reaction from the media and the general public, but sold 1.5 million copies at $50 each in a matter of days. At the same time she released her fifth studio album, Erotica, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. Its title track peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. 

 

Erotica also produced five further singles: "Deeper and Deeper", "Bad Girl", "Fever", "Rain" and "Bye Bye Baby". The provocative imagery continued in the 1990s with the erotic thriller, Body of Evidence, a film which contained scenes of sadomasochism and bondage. It was poorly received by critics. She also starred in the film Dangerous Game, which was released straight to video in North America. The New York Times described the film as "angry and painful, and the pain feels real."  In September 1993, Madonna embarked on The Girlie Show World Tour, in which she dressed as a whip-cracking dominatrix surrounded by topless dancers. The show faced negative reaction, specifically in Puerto Rico where she rubbed the island's flag between her legs on stage. In March 1994, she appeared as a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, using profanity that was required to be censored on television and handing Letterman a pair of her underwear and asking him to smell it. The releases of her sexually explicit films, albums and book, and the aggressive appearance on Letterman all made critics question Madonna as a sexual renegade. She faced strong negative publicity from critics and fans, who commented that "she had gone too far" and that her career was over. 

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Unreleased

 

MADONNA - FROM GENESIS TO REVELATIONS by Bruce Baron

from http://www.buysellmadonna.com/bruce.htm

Collaborations with Shep Pettibone however, continued with the album "Erotica". It is rumored that some of the songs from this album started out as demo productions with her DJ and remixer  Junior Vasquez including a title called "Love Hurts". This song is said to have evolved into the Madonna-Pettibone song "Erotica"  which became the album title track. Copyright records do not support this claim, but handwritten alternate lyrics (said to be  Madonna's) did appear on the auction block featuring this alternate chorus:
   
"Sometimes you cross that line - Love Hurts- You gotta be cruel to be kind - Love Hurts-Tell me whats on your mind-Love stings- Love burns- Love sings- Love yearns- But most of all love hurts."
                                    
There are also other unreleased orphans from the "Erotica" period. These include "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" which is copyrighted separately from the released "Words". Another title called "Cheat" appears to contain a line that was used in "Thief Of Hearts", but the copyright records also refer to the alternate title for "Cheat" called "Drunk Girl" which may have some connection to the released song "Bad Girl" which does appear on the album. "Deeper And Deeper" also started out with alternate  arrangements and lyrics according to reports that Pettibone gave to EQ magazine. Two other tunes "Shame", and "You Are The One"  have never seen the light of day in any form, but do have copyright registrations. In fact, "Shame" has an original Madonna demo on file at the Library Of Congress.
   

Evidence does not support the other rumored titles from the "Erotica" sessions which include "Freak", "No Entry", and "Throb" even though they appeared in trusted media publications. Early press for this album also spoke of "Show And Tell", "Eating Out", and "Out To Lunch" which have not surfaced, and they do not appear in the copyright records. They may be early re-writes of the  released "Where Life Begins", or media error. Another title which  was called "Queens Pearls" or "Queen Of Pearls" by the media  eventually turned up as the club hit "Queens English" by former 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour dancers Luis and Jose. This song features Madonna backing vocals and was produced by Junior Vasquez. Alternate Madonna versions of this song could not be confirmed to exist.
   
Just after Erotica Madonna gave a demo of "Just A Dream" co-written and produced with Patrick Leonard to Blonde Ambition Tour dancer and backing vocalist Donna DeLory. Donna used the song on her MCA Records debut, but the Madonna lead vocal recording remains unreleased. Today, Donna is the vocalist in the duo group Bliss.
 

http://s3.invisionfree.com/Madonna_Dot_Refugees/ar/t144.htm

Erotica

1991 ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS Registered seperately from "Words" at Library Of Congress. PAU-1-605-641. Bruce Baron recently visited the Library of Congress in Washington DC, and he had a chance to hear this track. He writes: I always thought that "Words" and "Thief Of Hearts" were two overlooked potential singles from the "Erotica" album, and I was pleased to find a few alternate mixes on Shep Pettibones copyright submission from Feb 11th, 1992. Date of creation 1991. He sent in several songs on two tapes (track list to follow). The copyright office calls this the "Rain" album because it was the first song listed on the first tape. I was able to review alternate mixes that I had not requested because they were all together. The "Rain" title was written centered on the title card, while the others below it where written to the left margin of the card. This makes it look like the title of the collection. I will reference his demo this way in the future because of this registration. This "Actions Speak..." registration is not exactly a different song than "Words". It is the original title name from the handwritten title card that was used to label the cassette. It is actually the same song. Two similar versions of "Actions Speak..." were provided. Both were without the repeating indian instrument that eight years later seems so annoying in the released version. Instead the synth keys that we are used to hearing only at the end of the song are used in chorus sound in each chorus. There is also a subtle guitar-like sound. The vocal take seemed a little different that the released recording. It must have been re-recorded later. Additional lyrics include "Your love is for fools", and "You're so cruel". The backing vocals and bridge arrangements are slightly different. These were good ! 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1991 CHEAT (aka DRUNK GIRL) Library Of Congress PAu-1-605-639. Contains part "Theif Of Hearts" lyric, and "Bad Girl". Written by Madonna, Pettibone, Shimkin. Here are Bruce Baron's research notes on this track: This submission is from a cassette tape sent in by Shep Pettibone which features several songs and alternate mixes from the "Erotica" album. I will provide a complete track listing later. From what I can tell this is exactly the same version as the released version of "Bad Girl". I didn't notice any changes. The name of the song comes from the hand written tittles on the tape and is not a typo. This indicates to me that this is the original song tittle of "Bad Girl" which must have been changed prior to it's release on "Erotica".
-------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------
1991 GET OVER Madonna demo written & produced with Stephen Bray given to Nick Scotti to record on his debut Reprise album. Existence confirmed. 
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1991 SHAME Never released written by Madonna, Shep Pettibone and Tony Shimkin. Existence confirmed at Warner-Chappell Publishing website. Also at Library Of Congress PAU-1-605-637. Bruce Baron notes that this totally unreleased song is from the "Erotica" sessions with Shep Pettibone. It's actually very good. It's similar in dance style to that of "Deeper And Deeper", and "Vogue", Perhaps a little slower. This demo is high enough quality that it could have been sent to another artist to use (like "Love Wont Wait"). If it had been included on the album, it would have been too similar in sound to have enough variety on the album with the other tracks. I guess this made room for the Andre Betts collaborations. In the song Madonna talks down to the object character of the song (or perhaps the listener). This is part of the developing Dita persona that we did not get to see. The song opens with a spoken intro: "Look what you have done with your life, it's such a shame". Later she says "anyone can learn to fly" as if she is asking why haven't you learned yet ? She also says "you're the one to blame". The chorus starts with "It's a Shaaaaaame" which sounds an awful alot like the song of the same title by Monie Love. This is probably the source of the old rumour that they were going to do something together. The similarity ends there, and then it breaks off into it's own unique melody. It's hard for me to remember the rest of the lyric for the chorus, because my brain tries to fill in the memory with the rest of it from the Monie Love song. It sounds that close in that first line only. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1991 WHY ITS SO HARD Original versions included rap by Jamaiki according to Shep Pettibone article. 
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1991 YOU ARE THE ONE PAU-1-605-636. Written by Madonna, Shep Pettibone, Tony Shimkin. Bruce Baron has listened to this track at the Washington DC Library of Congress, and he notes that this is another unreleased song from the "Erotica" sessions found on the "Rain tapes". This one could use some more work. It's not that good, and no surprise that it was abandoned at the demo stage. The sound is very dance/club/house. As with "Shame" it would have been redundant to include it on the album. That sound would get old with "Deeper And Deeper", "Fever", "Words", and "Thief Of Hearts" on the same album. It's sound it remotely similar to the released versions of "Goodbye To Innocence". The lyrics a rather forgettable. The ones I do recall are "You are the one for me", "I have chosen you". 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1992 DEEPER AND DEEPER PAu-1-605-634. According to a Shep Pettibone (Erotica album collaborator) recording industry article , first versions recorded used alternate lyrics. Bruce Baron notes that this one isn't all the different from the released version. Again there is a great deal of recorded distortion. Surprising for the head of Mastermix productions. This version is missing the latin guitar break which Shep told EQ magazine that Madonna insisted on. This one must be closer to his original vision with the house pattern. In that same EQ article Shep also mentioned that "Fever" grew out of the arrangement from the developing "Goodbye To Innocence" which was later abandoned. The great demos of GTI don't sound anything like the versions of "Fever" that we know. According to the "Rain tapes", that report does not match up to the evidence that I heard. There must be additional versions of GTI? The end of "Deeper And Deeper" is also a little different using the same lines. It also goes on for a longer period. Unused lyrics in an unreleased version of "Deeper And Deeper" include: "I can't keep from falling in love, and you know it.....I can't keep from falling in love, so I show it." 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1992 EROTICA / YOU THRILL ME PAu-1-605-642 (Shep Pettibone Demo Version). These Pettibone demo versions of "Erotica" are very different from the released album version. The verse lyrics are mostly the ones that we know from "Erotic" which was included in the book "Sex". The chorus is totally different. There is no trace of "Erotic, Erotic, put your hands all over my body" that we all know so well. Instead madonna sings a different line with a different melody in the same type of voice. She sings, "You are who your are (and I) wouldn't want to change a thing (in spite of) all the pain that love can bring (tell me) what can I do? I'm so in love with yooouuuuu thrill me, surround me you fill me....you send me...you put me in a trance...you fill me, inside me you take me....you thrill me, you put me in a trance..." At another time she says "you upset me". The word "Erotica" appears only in the intro. This is a darker S&M theme than the version that became the final cut. The instrumentation is approximately the same, but everything is mixed in a different proportion than the released version. This makes it sound kind of odd, and it's a little more generic sounding. The released mix is more unique sounding, more exotic. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1992 THIEF OF HEARTS (Alternate mixes, PAu-605-643). Bruce Baron notes that this song was not part of his original request of songs to listen to, but was included on the same tapes as some of those that he did request. It was a nice surprise to find. These alternate mixes are not that different from the released verions. It does seem to be a different vocal take. Some of the backing vocals are in a different proportion which sounds kind of funny. This is common on several of the "Rain tape" demos. It's kind of like when comparing Shep's released remixes of "Rescue Me" when he reverses the dominance of the high vocal part and the low vocal part from one mix to the other. Most of the difference is in the arrangement of the intro, the middle break and the ending. In one version the Madonna spoken "sit your ass down" ending is at the begining. In another mix that line is at the end like we are used to, but it is spoken by the voice of a southern black woman (probably a sample from a movie). The recordings of this song have way too much input on the copyright demo and there is a lot of distortion on this copy. The scale was way into the red. It's probably not from the master tape, just the way it was copied. The "new music", "old music" descriptions on the title card on two of the mixes didn't sound all that different from eachother to me. The changes were subtle. It could have been labeled incorrectly? 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1992 EATING OUT Unconfirmed outtake of released "Where Life Begins" aka "Out To Lunch" Media Rumor. Supposedly, "Out To Lunch" was the original title of the "Erotica" song "Where Life Begins". A later title for the song was "Eating Out" (as mentioned in 'Smash Hits' magazine). The original version of "Out To Lunch" was said to be about lesbian lust so could be quite different to the used version of "Where Life Begins". 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1992 FREAK "Erotica" album outtake. Media rumor. 
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1992 GOODBYE TO INNOCENCE - PAu-1-605-640. Bruce Baron writes: The versions submitted by Shep Pettibone on the "Rain" demo tapes are TOTALLY, TOTALLY different from the release versions that we know of from the "Just Say Roe" collection, and the "Rain" B-side remix - TOTALLY different !! They are better !! This was a great surprise because it was not one of the recordings I requested to pull! The released versions sounded dated back at the time of release with 80's house being taken over by harder techno like "James Brown Is Dead" in American clubs at the time. It's also hard to understand the words that Madonna is singing. The demo versions use the same theme and many of the same lyrics, but everything is switched around. It's a different vocal recording (strong and clear). Much of the song's melody is different including the chorus. The arrangement is pure pop-funk-dance, no club remix style here. It's very catchy ! It could use a little fixing here and there, but when I heard it, I couldn't believe that they didn't finish it up and use it on the album. Madonna is credited for words alone, and Pettibone/Shimkin are credited for music alone as is the rest of the "Rain" demo collection. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1992 LOVE HURTS Unconfirmed early version of "Erotica" with different lyrics produced with Junior Vasquez. From what I've heard, the track is called "Love Hurts" and all the music is different -- except the verses are the same as "Erotic" (the Sex book version). The chorus is "Love Hurts, Love Hurts...Do you remember the time, Love Hurts, Love Hurts, when we -- fell in love..." (or something like that.). Then she does this sing-songy "La-Da-Da-Dee-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da..." I'm sure it'll never see the light of day, which is a shame because it sounds pretty cool. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1992 NO ENTRY Unconfirmed throw-a-way from "Erotica" album. Supposedly, Madonna recorded this before the "Erotica" album and she is said to have even made a video with Patrick Swayze and Michael J.Fox. The song was dropped after the "Erotica/Sex/Body Of Evidence" project got under the way. It was due for Christmas release. One source claims that a 15-track promo-CD album for "Erotica" exists, and contains this track, but was never officially released, not even to promote the EROTICA album. A 15-track "Erotica" album is physically imposible though, because the 13-track ("clean" version) has a total disc time of 70:30, and the 14-track "nasty" version (with "Did You Do It?") has a total disc time of 75:24). Since the maximum recording time on a CD is 74 minutes (even though some albums out there, such as the 14-track "Erotica" push the limits by a minute or two, it is physically impossible for a 15th track to fit on this album, unless it was literally 30 or 40 seconds in length, which doesn't make sense. And 80-minute CDs didn't "come out" until years later. Anyhow, this song ("No Entry") was supposedly meant to be released on the "Erotica" album, but it was rejected or deleted at the very last minute before the release of promos. If this CD really does exist, it would most likely be the all-time rarest and most valuable Madonna CD - EVER! 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1992 DEAR FATHER "Dear Father" is confirmed (yes that old rumor) to exist as an unreleased co-write with Andre Betts (Erotica period). Not to be confused with the Like A Prayer era "Oh Father". 
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1992 QUEENS PEARLS Unconfirmed early version of "Queens English" recorded by Luis & Jose and released w/ Madonna backing vocals. Media rumor. 
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1992 SHOW AND TELL Unconfirmed throw-a-way from "Erotica" album. Media rumor. However, Peter Magennis <peter_magennis@hotmail.com> mentions that in 1992, NME magazine had a two-part interview for the release of 'Erotica'. The journalist visited Madonna at her New York apartment and listened to some tracks from the (then still unreleased) album. One of the tracks was confirmed as 'Show And Tell' and was described as a ballad. Perhaps it didn't finish up on the album because it didn't fit the mood. Madonna can be very selective and quality tracks can be easily discarded if they don't fit in with the tone of the album. A prime example of her rejection of recorded songs is her last album 'Music' as confirmed by William Orbit and Madonna herself. So perhaps this is what happened with 'Show And Tell'. This is a pity as Madonna obviously liked it enough to chose it as one of the few taster tracks for the lucky journalist. 
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1992 THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKIN Rumoured Nancy Sinatra Madonna cover circa 1992, demo existance not confirmed, possibly produced with Patrick Leonard. Media rumor. 
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1992 THIS USED TO BE MY PLAYGROUND According to a Shep Pettibone interview, Madonna did a second vocal at the last minute, leaving the 1st version unreleased. 
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1992 THROB Unused throw-a-way from "Erotica" album (existence unconfirmed). Supposedly Written and Produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone. News of this track surfaced around the same time as the "No Entry" track but again it was not released or put on the "Erotica" album. Chances of a release now are unlikely because of Janet Jackson stole the title for a track on her latest album. It had been strongly denied by Janet Jackson that she stole the whole song from Madonna and insists that she wrote her own version. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1992 JITTERBUG - Bruce Baron recently listened to this track at the Library of Congress, and he notes that JITTERBUG has no official copyright registration This one was a major surprise !! In addition to the songs I requested, the tape contained alternate mixes of several songs (to be discussed later) and about 30 sec to the end of a song called JITTERBUG. It was mostly taped over, but showed up between two of the tracks. It is listed on the handwritten label to the whole tape, but it has no copyright registration of it's own. No song writer is listed. It was originally spelled with a "G", but was written over darker with a "J" in blue ink. It's typical generic Shep dance music with Madonna finishing up with "Jitterbug, Jitterbug". Perhaps it's a cover ? There is not enough to tell... She stops but the music continues. She says "Ya that one has some good ideas to it". The music continues, and she says "How long is this one going to go on"?. The music continues and she say "Isn't anyone going to turns this damn thing off"? It abruptly ends. It seems to just silly studio fun, and not really "Erotica" album material but there was more before Shep recorded over it. He might have a longer copy on file ?

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1990

May 27-29, 1990: The backing track for "Thief of Hearts" can be heard coming from a tape player briefly in Truth Or Dare during the backstage Toronto footage. The intro can be heard briefly in "Truth Or Dare" movie at the part when Madonna's brother goes to her to inform about the Canadian Police in Toronto being there to arrest her.

 

Fall (probably late November): Judith Regan, an editor at Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books has an idea for a book of erotica and sexual fantasies which she felt would be ideal for Madonna. She sends an imaginative box of material to Freddy DeMann’s office in which includes erotic photos and the kind of text she thought would be appropriate. In a matter of weeks, Regan scores a meeting with Madonna and Freddy DeMann in his Los Angeles office. In the meeting, Madonna demands 100% control over the project and says she will not even think of doing it if it was already offered to another celebrity. She is quoted as saying, "It has to be unique to me." By the end of the meeting, Madonna agrees to do the book, “in principle†and they agree to call it: Madonna’s Book of Erotica and Sexual Fantasies. Six months later, Regan learns Madonna has used her very same pitch to secure a deal with Warner Books for the same concept. (paraphrased from Madonna: An Intimate Biography by J. Randy Taraborrelli who interviewed Judith Regan) https://books.google.com/books?id=yj1PTnse9-gC&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=Madonna%E2%80%99s+Book+of+Erotica+and+Sexual+Fantasies&source=bl&ots=nprpqecJaJ&sig=uxkd4vu8qx4EOETDxgk03Wl7nqA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOj6qwpZrVAhXCbT4KHbnsDMMQ6AEIRDAG#v=onepage&q=Madonna%E2%80%99s%20Book%20of%20Erotica%20and%20Sexual%20Fantasies&f=false

LATER:

In an interview to promote Erotica with the UK's Jonathan Ross (in November 1992), she admits that soon after "Justify My Love" was released, she received several offers to write erotic prose for a book.

 

1991

March: Madonna does an interview with Carrie Fisher for the June 13, 1991 issue of Rolling Stone. In the interview, she mentions she is using the nickname 'Dita' which will later become her persona for the album. The name is drawn from a German actress, Dita Parlo, who gain fame starring in German and French films in the 1930's.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/carrie-fisher-interviews-madonna-about-men-sex-drugs-death-w457927

She also does a photoshoot with Steven Meisel which may serve as a dry-run of sorts for the

SEX

book. This is what was written about the photospread for RS:

The pictorial, "Flesh and Fantasy," casts Madonna as a seductive member of the Paris demimonde of the '30s. Inspired by the work of Brassai, the pictures show bordello scenes, cross-dressing, women lying together and kissing. These are, according to Brassai, "The Secret Paris" and his pictures of these subjects were not published until the '70s. Unfortunately, these scenes of a hidden alternative are not presented as a part of the history of sexual minorities, although most of us would identify them as such. Instead, according to Madonna, "It was a great chance to re-create an era that I feel I would have really flourished in, that nothing I would have done would have been censored." This statement is certainly mysterious. First, how could Madonna be more accepted than she already is? Second, this is certainly a romanticized view of the culture of Paris in the '30s, which marginalized rather than accepted the behaviors of the underworld members portrayed by Brassai. However problematic the motivations, the pictures are charming and I still give Madonna points for yet another great performance.

 

March 20: (20) USA TODAY: Madonna and Michael Team Up

Call it Blond Ambition meets the Man in the Mirror.

Madonna and Michael Jackson have decided to mix their professional magnetism. “They're working on a musical project,†say Madonna's spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg.

Record? Video? Concert?

“I can't elaborate,'' Rosenberg says. They don't even know if they'll work for her label, or his.

They have been friends for a long time, Rosenberg says, but the decision to mesh musicalities was “fairly recent.â€

Saturday night, the duo was spotted having dinner together at Los Angeles' Ivy restaurant.

Jackson is ``just finishing'' his long-overdue album, says his manager Bob Jones, who expects it in stores by June. Could Madonna be in there? ``If (he) comes up with something great, it could be,'' Jones says.

 

May 7: From an interview with The Advocate to promote Truth or Dare:

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-interview-advocate-may-7-1991

1991-madonna-advocate.jpg

MADONNA: I keep telling Michael Jackson, "I'd love to turn Jose and Luis on you for a week (her lead dancers Jose Gutierez and Luis Camacho)." They pull you out of the shoe box you're in. Anybody who's in a shoe box in the closet cannot be in one after hanging around with Luis and Jose. Or me, for that matter.

I have this whole vision about Michael. We're considering working on a song together. I would like to completely redo his whole image, give him a Caesar - you know, that really short haircut - and I want to get him out of those buckled boots and all that stuff. What I want him to do is go to New York and hang out for a week with the House of Xtravaganza {a group of drag queen performers and their coterie}. They could give him a new style. I've already asked Jose and Luis if they would do it. They're thrilled and ready.

Don Shewey: Is he up for it?

MADONNA: I don't know. He's up for a couple of things that surprise me. The thing is, I'm not going to get together and do some stupid ballad or love duet - no one's going to buy it, first of all. I said, "Look, Michael, if you want to do something with me, you have to be willing to go all the way or I'm not going to do it." He keeps saying yes . . .

 

May 15: Any musical collaboration between Madonna and Michael Jackson reportedly is off. "He ran away from me," the Material Girl told reporters Monday at the Cannes Film Festival. "When I was 8 or so, I wanted to be Michael Jackson. Not the Michael Jackson that we know now."

 

May 25: He [shep Pettibone] is mulling over offers to write and produce songs for several platinum artists, as he is slated to work on forth-coming albums by Madonna and Liza Minelli. The future looks bright. (Billboard)

July 8: Shep Pettibone began putting tracks together with his assistant Tony Shimkin. Today, he gives Madonna a cassette of three songs (instrumental demos) when he visits her in Chicago (where she is filming A League of Their Own). Madonna listens to the material and calls him a few days later to say she likes all three songs – so he decides to work on more. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone) https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992'>https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992'>https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992

LATER: These 3 songs were probably "Erotica," "Deeper and Deeper" and/or "Rain" or "Thief of Hearts." At least judging by Shep's later comments that those were the first songs they did together.

Shep: I remember when Madonna and I first started working together on Erotica. We were listening in my home studio to one of the first songs and I turned to her and said It’s great, but it’s no Vogue. She told me that not every song could be Vogue – not every cut could emerge as the top-selling record of all time. She was right, but I pressed my case anyway: I guess I’m always trying to out-top myself, I told her, the next thing should be bigger than the last. Madonna just turned and looked me straight in the eye. It had been a long time since I’d been star-struck by her, but she was glowing differently now. Shep, she began, no matter how fierce something is, you can’t ever do the same thing twice. She sat down to record the final vocals on Erotica and looked out onto the terrace and into the New York City night. Ever, she repeated.

The Erotica Diary (July-August 1991)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992

I wanted to start writing again. The last project I had worked on with Madonna was The Immaculate Collection but that was just a month and a half of working with that QSound stuff. I knew I could do something great after Vogue and Rescue Me so I just started putting tracks together with my assistant, Tony Shimkin. I wanted to have a few songs for Madonna to listen to when I went out to Chicago, were she was filming A League Of Their Own. I had no idea that she was planning to do an album at that time, but then again, neither did she. I arrived in Chicago on July 8th and gave Madonna a cassette. I told her to give it a listen and tell me what she thought. She said she’d listen to it in the car, in the trailer, wherever she could. A few days later, I heard back from her. Madonna liked all the songs – three out of three. I decided to work on a few more.

Usually, when I sit down to write, it isn’t as if I have a specific person in mind for any one song. By the time I get to a certain place in the music, it begins to mold itself an identity and I think, Hey, this person would like that. At the time, Cathy Dennis, Taylor Dayne, or Madonna were the primary inspirations for a variety of songs.

Oct 9: Truth Or Dare is released on home video.
 

Oct 27: Madonna wins Best Female Solo Singer and Most Fanciable Female at the 4th annual Smash Hits Awards in London, England.
 

Oct 30: Madonna completes filming A League Of Their Own in Evansville, IN.

Oct 31: Madonna attends Sandra Bernhard's Halloween show in NYC. She has just returned from filming in Indiana today.

Madonna returns to NYC and she begins working on demos with Shep in his apartment/penthouse studio. Their initial work is sporadic as Madonna would work with Pettibone for a week and then go off with Steven Meisel to work on her SEX book. Occasionally, she meets with André Betts, her co-producer on “Justify My Love.†(The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone) -

Shep indicates they started working in October, but all the press reports I dug up indicate Madonna was in Evansville, Indiana for the entire month - except for a few days around October 12 when she attended a wedding of her accountant, Allen Grubman, in NYC.

 

LATER: Madonna does a unreleased demo called “You Thrill Me†with Shep Pettibone that winds up being an alternate version of “Erotica.†An acappella version of the demo vocals will surface on the Internet later on.

Madonna also did a demo called “Love Hurts†with Junior Vasquez (a protégé of Shep Pettibone) which contains similar lyrical content as “Erotica†and is an early version of that recording. Madonna reportedly intended to work with Vasquez as a producer on this album but changed her mind to Shep Pettibone for unknown reasons.

 

The Erotica Diary (October-November 1991)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992

Madonna returned to New York and we began to work on demos in my apartment. It’s cool working at home. It’s convenient, cozy and there’s no studio time ticking by. Plus, if you wake up in the middle of the night and have an idea, you just go upstairs, turn on the equipment, and go. Our schedule was kind of sporadic in the beginning. I’d work with her for a week and then she’d go off to work with Steve Meisel on her book (Sex) for two weeks. Occasionally, Madonna would meet with Andre Betts, her co-producer on Justify My Love. While she was away, I would spend time coming up with other tracks or work on Cathy Dennis and Taylor Dayne material. At this point, I wasn’t working on any remixes – just writing.

Deeper and Deeper, Erotica, Rain and Thief of Hearts made up the first batch of songs we worked on together. I did the music and she wrote the words. Sometimes I’d give her some ideas lyrically and she’d go: Oh, that’s good, or That sucks. I remember when I gave her some ideas lyrically for Vogue and she said, very curtly, That’s what I do. Essentially, her songs are her stories. They’re the things she wants to say.

I did everything upstairs in my home studio: keyboards, bass lines, and vocals. Depending on the mood I was in, I chose from an Oberheim OB8, Korg M3, or a Roland D-50. On the sampling side, the Akai S1000 was our prime workhorse. We used it to sample snake charms for Words and Kool & The Gang horns for Erotica.

When it came time to record demos, we laid down a track of SMPTE on the last track of my 8-track Tascam 388 Studio 8 reel-to-reel, which has dbx. Usually we’d put the track down on tracks 1 and 2 in a stereo mix, and then bring Madonna’s vocals in on 3 through 7 – a lead, a double lead, the harmonies, and the background parts. Ninety-eight percent of the time, the vocals recorded in my apartment were the keeper vocals, the ones you hear on the album. It took about two or three days to write a song from beginning to end. Still, sometimes even after they were done we’d want to change the flow of the song and ask the song a few questions: Where should the chorus hit? Should it be a double chorus? Sometimes Madonna would call me in the middle of the night and say Shep, I think the chorus should go like this, or I hate this verse, fix the bass line. Deeper and Deeper was one of those songs she always had a problem with. The middle of the song wasn’t working. We tried different bridges and changes, but nothing worked. In the end, Madonna wanted the middle of the song to have a flamenco guitar strumming big-time. I didn’t like the idea of taking a Philly house song and putting La Isla Bonita in the middle of it. But that’s what she wanted, so that’s what she got.

 

November 3: While shooting her MTV 10 spot in Los Angeles with Alek Keshishian, Madonna does a brief interview with Australian Molly Meldrum. In the interview, Madonna says of starting a new album:

“Well, I’m gonna go to New York next week and start writing again. Thank God. I’ve missed it.â€

November 13: Madonna records the final demo for “Deeper & Deeper†and new vocals for the first demo of “Rain†today with Shep Pettibone. (The Rain Tapes)

November 15: Madonna went out tonight to the men-only Gaiety Theatre in midtown Manhattan. She goes with Steven Meisel, designer Marc Jacobs, Alek Keshishian and some other guys. (this could be when she decides to use the space for her upcoming book or maybe she was scouting locations).

(sometime in November): The Erotica Diary (October-November 1991)

Shep says Deeper and Deeper, Erotica, Rain and Thief of Hearts made up the first batch of songs they worked on together.

He says they sampled horns from Kool & the Gang for “Erotica†and snake charms for "Words."

Shep says Madonna always had a problem with “Deeper & Deeper.†They tried different bridges and changes but nothing worked. In the end, Madonna wanted a flamenco guitar in the middle of the song – a decision Shep did not like as he felt the tune should stay “a Philly house song.†(The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

November 23: Madonna is named Most Popular International Solo Female Artist at the 1st annual Australian Music Awards.
 

November 27:  Madonna contributes a pre-taped monologue on ABC-TV special MTV 10.


 

 

The Erotica Diary (December 1991)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992

I hate them. That’s what she said to me when we listened to the first bunch of songs we’d recorded. I thought it sounded great beacause some of the songs had a New York house sound and some of them had an L.A. vibe. If I had wanted the album to sound like that, I’d have worked with Patrick Leonard in L.A., she told me. I got the point pretty fast. Madonna wanted Erotica to have a raw edge to it, as if it were recorded in an alley at 123rd street in Harlem. She didn’t want some light glossy production to permeate her sound. I got back into my usual style of mixing, which is pretty bass oriented, analog, hit-you-over-the head kind of stuff. When you’re recording songs for Madonna, the attitude is: Either make a song work, or it’s not going to be on the album. Thet’s that.

Typically, Madonna would get over to my place by one in the afternoon and we’d work until eigth or nine at night. Improvising vocals took one or two passes and by the time the third pass came around, she’d get on the mic and say Let’s go. Madonna has an incredible mind; she locks the melody into her head and memorizes the words immediately. She doesen’t even have to read the words off the paper when she’s singing.

The only problems were during sequencing, when we had to do something on the Mac that would take some time. Two minutes into it, Madonna would ask us: What are you guys doing that’s taking so long! – and this was just after the first few minutes. We’d tell her to go downstairs and make some popcorn or phone calls so that we could put the song together and she’d do that for about five minutes before screaming: Come on, guys, I’m getting bored! I had to keep things moving as fast as possible beacause it’s one of my jobs to keep Madonna from losing interest in what she’s doing. As far as the music went, it was getting a little melancholy by that point. It definitely wasn’t up-and-happy music. Maybe I inspired songs like In This Life and Bad Girl beacause they were written in a minor key. But Madonna’s stories were getting a lot more serious and intense and she was definitely driving the creative direction of the songs into deeply personal territory.

 

December 4: The Immaculate Collection is certified 3x platinum (3 million units). A rumor is announced that Madonna has tested HIV positive for AIDS: a statement denying the rumor is released by her representatives.

December 6: Today, Madonna records final demo vocals and new harmonies for “Rain.†(The Rain Tapes)

mid-December: Madonna ends up disliking the first bunch of songs recorded. Shep says he liked them because some tracks had a NY house sound and others had an L.A. vibe. Madonna didn’t want the L.A. vibe – she wanted a raw sound. She wanted it to sound like it was recorded in an alley at 123rd St. in Harlem. She didn’t want any glossy production. Shep went back to his usual style of mixing – bass-oriented, analog, hit-you-over-the-head stuff.

He says that Madonna was coming over to his apartment by 1PM and they would work until 8 or 9PM. During the sequencing (putting the song together) Madonna would get very impatient and yell at Shep. He recalls that this was about the time the music he was writing became more melancholy and written in minor keys – songs like “Bad Girl†and “In This Life.†He also says Madonna was driving the creative direction into personal and intense territory. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

December 8: In a TV Guide magazine interview, Madonna causes a controversy when she complains about filming A League Of Their Own in Evansville, IN: she calls the town "boring", complains that the house she rented didn't have cable and says, "I may as well have been in Prague" - the citizens of Evansville are enraged by her comments: 300 townspeople gather in a parking lot to spell her name inside a circle with a line through it and send her a televised message: "Madonna, get a life!".
 

December 10:  Madonna is honored with the Award Of Courage by the American Foundation For AIDS Research (AMFAR) at a Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel dinner, Beverly Hills, CA.

December 23: What Madonna did for vogueing, she may soon do for stripping.

Early next month, the superstar films her next music video - in Times Square's Gaiety Male Burlesk Theater, with the X-rated guys doing PG versions of their stage acts.

“Three weeks ago on a Friday night, Madonna went to the Gaiety and was entranced - she stayed and watched for three hours,'' says Ken Graziano, one- half of the gay performance duo, Bone Boyz.

“Strippers are very in vogue right now,†he says.

The Bone Boyz, based in Miami, were hired to coordinate last week's stripper auditions at the Gaiety. “We had to have 25 guys there at 10 a.m. for (fashion photog) Stephen Meisel and (Madonna's Truth or Dare director) Alek Keshishian,'' adds Scott Drnaerz, the other Boyz.

“They were looking for guys who had the best act in terms of costume, dancing ability and specific burlesque routine, not necessarily the best bodies,'' Graziano says. “Most of them were Latin go-go boys. It was easily the most exciting thing that's ever happened to them.'' (USA Today)

 

December 25: Shep spends Christmas vacation in Jamaica. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

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1992
 

 

In 1992, Madonna founded her own multi-media entertainment company, Maverick, consisting of a record company (Maverick Records), a film production company (Maverick Films), and associated music publishing, television broadcasting, book publishing and merchandising divisions. The deal was a joint venture with Time Warner and paid Madonna an advance of $60 million. It gave her 20% royalties from the music proceedings, one of the highest rates in the industry, equaled at that time only by Michael Jackson's royalty rate established a year earlier with Sony. Madonna said that she envisioned the company as an "artistic think tank" and likened it to a cross between the Bauhaus, the innovative German arts institute formed in Weimar in 1919, and Andy Warhol's New York-based Factory of artists and assistants. She stated: "It started as a desire to have more control. There's a group of writers, photographers, directors and editors that I've met along the way in my career who I want to take with me everywhere I go. I want to incorporate them into my little factory of ideas. I also come in contact with a lot of young talent that I feel entrepreneurial about." The first two projects from the venture were her fifth studio album, Erotica, and a coffee table book of photographs featuring Madonna, entitled Sex.

January: Madonna and photographer Steven Meisel begin work on a book of erotica and sexual fantasies in Miami, FL.

January 2: Pettibone returns from vacation in Jamaica with a reggae sound in his head. He put it down on tape and Madonna took to it – this song became “Why’s It So Hard?â€

When the song was completed they had the idea of bringing in a Jamaican rapper to do some stuff on the record. They found a guy named Jamaiki who ran a Jamaican record store uptown. He was this big guy with real deep-ass voice. When we they trying to explain the song to him, he just looked at them and said, "Do you have any rum, man?" By the time Jamaiki was laying down the tracks in my studio, he was dancing around swigging rum and spilling it everywhere. They ended up not using the track beacause it sounded too rough for the song. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

January 11: Madonna is involved in another project with her photographer that reportedly seeks to reveal more of her inner secrets -- Entertainment Weekly says the collaboration is rumored to be an illustration of Madonna's sexual fantasies. (Miami Herald)

January 15-16: Madonna records the final demo vocals for “Erotica.†(the Rain Tapes)

Shooting Madonna: Is Madonna playing truth or dare again? We hear her next stab at attention-grabbing headlines will be with a book of pornography that she's collaborating on with photographer Steven Meisel. "It's definitely hard-core," one source said. Meisel and Madonna have been working on the book for the past couple of months. (Last week, they reportedly took over the male theater, The Gaiety, for a shoot.) "There was one image," we're told, "that was shot with a knife at Madonna's vagina." "Was she wearing the nun's habit?" spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg asked. Then she said: "Madonna and Steven are working together on a series of portraits of personalities from the past. What form it's going to take has not been determined. It may be a book, it may be a magazine layout." Yes, and about the pornography? "I just don't know," Rosenberg said. "I haven't been at the shoots." In the meantime, Madonna was on her way to a recording studio - or was it a photo shoot? - the other day when fans, two boys and a girl who were stationed outside her apartment, followed her limo in a cab. (Inside New York, Jan. 15 edition)

January 17: Madonna, who trades in nothing if not shock, is involved in a photo project designed to "turn on the Sapphic and sadomasochistic sets," reports the New York Post. In one scene, Madonna supposedly is tied to a chair while two confederates cut off her duds and do unmentionable things with a knife. The paper says the pop star is having secret sessions with fashion photog Steven Meisel that feature whips and chains and all those things. (Liz Smith)

January 21: A lawsuit is filed against Madonna by 3 ex-dancers: Oliver Crumes, Kevin Stea and Gabriel Trupin - they are charging her with invasion of privacy, fraud and deceit, intentional misrepresentation, suppression of fact, and intentional infliction of emotional distress for exposing their private lives in her 1991 film documentary Truth Or Dare.

The Erotica Diary (January-February 1992)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992

I spent the Christmas on vacation in Jamaica and when I got back on January 2, I was like Oh man, I am not ready for this. There were a lot of intense songs to work on for Madonna, but all I had was this reggae-ish vibe going around in my head. Jamaica had really had an impact on me. I put the vibe down on tape and played it for Madonna, who immediately took to it. Once she got all the lyrics down, the song became Why Is It So Hard.

After it was done we thought: How about if we get a male Jamaican rapper in here to do some stuff on the record? We found this guy, Jamaiki, who runs a jamaican record store uptown. He was this big guy with real deep-ass voice. When we were trying to explain the song to him, he just looked at us and said, Do you have any rum, man? By the time Jamaiki, was laying down the tracks in my studio, he was dancing around swigging rum and spilling it everywhere. We ended up not using the track beacause it sounded to rough for the song, but it was a very fun day – completely different.

By this point, people had begun to realize that Madonna was recording in my penthouse. All her fans would wait outside, even though it was freezing, just to catch a glimpse of her or take a picture. One particular day, when I walked her down to her car, the lobby was filled with building residents getting the mail, hanging out at the front desk, sitting on benches. It was weird beacause usually the place is empty. After I walked her outside and ran across the street to get the day’s newspaper, I came back to find nobody there. People were comming downstairs to the lobby just to get a look at her, even if it was out of the corners of their eyes.

February 11: Shep Pettibone registered a number of songs with the U.S. copyright office today. The 2 tapes he submitted was titled ‘The Rain Album’ and featured “Rain,†“Words†and “Thief of Hearts.†The song “Words†was originally called “Actions Speak…†and had several different mixes and incarnations. One mix did not feature the Indian-sounding instrument on the released version, and instead used guitar. Also, synth keys (used at the end of the song) were repeated in the chorus. The lyrics also included: “Your love is for fools†and “You’re so cruel.†The vocal is different than the one on the album release, so they must have been re-recorded at some point.

The songs were all created in late 1991.

Tape# 1

1) Rain (final demo w/new harms) 12/6/91 5:14

2) Rain (new vocal) 11/13/91 5:27

3) Deeper And Deeper (final demo) 11/13/91 5:29

4) Bye Bye Baby (first day ruff) 5:44

5) Bye Bye Baby (second day ruff)

6) You Are The One (final edit demo) 4:15

7) Shame (final demo) 4:30

8) Shame (straight pass) 6:02

9) In This Life (edit) 6:29

10) Cheat(Drunk Girl) edit 6:15--------------------------------this became “Bad Girl†most likely

11) Goodbye To Innocence (final edit) 5:25

12) Goodbye To Innocence (straight pass) 6:00

13) Goodbye To Innocence (madedit/Sheps neck(choice)5:22

14) Actions Speak Louder Than Words (final edit)

15) Erotica (final demo) 1/16/92 5:05

Tape# 2

1) Actions Speak Louder Than Words (1st day)

2) Actions Speak Louder Than Words (final edit)

3) Erotica (rough mix) 1/15/92

4) Erotica (final demo) 1/16/92

5) Thief Of Hearts 1/17/92

6) Jitterbug 1/17/92

7) Thief Of Hearts (new music) 1/20/92

8) Thief Of Hearts (old music again) 1/22/92

S.Pettibone/M. Ciccone/T.Shimkin - Madonna is credited for all the lyrics on the tapes, while Shimkin/Pettibone are credited with the music.

 

“SHAME†- The totally unreleased song is from the "Erotica" sessions with Shep Pettibone. It's actually very good. It's similar in dance style to that of "Deeper And Deeper", and "Vogue", Perhaps a little slower.

This demo is high enough quality that it could have been sent to another artist to use (like "Love Wont Wait"). If it had been included on the album, it would have been too similar in sound to have enough variety on the album with the other tracks. I guess this made room for the Andre Betts collaborations.

In the song Madonna talks down to the object character of the song (or perhaps the listener). This is part of the developing Dita persona that we did not get to see. The song opens with a spoken intro:

"Look what you have done with your life, it's such a shame".

Later she says "anyone can learn to fly" as if she is asking why haven't you

learned yet ?

She also says "you're the one to blame".

The chorus starts with "It's a Shaaaaaame" which sounds an awful a lot like the song of the same title by Monie Love. This is probably the source of the old rumour that they were going to do something together. The similarity

ends there, and then it breaks off into it's own unique melody.

GOODBYE TO INNOCENCE is completely different than the version released later as the B-side to “Rain.†This original version is considered better. It’s pure pop-funk-dance and the vocal is stronger and the melody different. The theme is the same and many of the lyrics remain intact.

EROTICA in its original version, contained the verse lyrics found in the “Erotic†song included with SEX. The choruses were also different using the “you thrill me, fill me deep inside†instead of “erotic, erotic put your hands all over my body.†The mix is more generic and the released version is definitely more exotic and unique.

THIEF OF HEARTS did not change too much from beginning to end of creation. The “sit your ass down†line at the end of the song was originally used in the beginning and was a sample of a Southern black woman. There were also subtle modifications to the bridge.

DEEPER & DEEPER: This track also did not change much from its original demo. The Spanish guitar bridge (which Madonna insisted upon) is not present and the song follows its typical house pattern. The demo version is a little longer with the ending lines slightly different.

YOU ARE THE ONE: This demo is reportedly not that good and was abandoned for good reason. The music is very house/dance and remotely similar to the released version of GOODBYE TO INNOCENCE. The lyrics are forgettable – “You are the one for me†and “I have chosen you.â€

JITTERBUG: It's typical generic Shep dance music with Madonna finishing up with "Jitterbug, Jitterbug". Perhaps it's a cover? There is not enough to

tell...

She stops but the music continues. She says "Ya that one has some good ideas to it". The music continues, and she says "How long is this one going to go on"?. The music continues and she say "Isn't anyone going to turns this damn thing off"? It abruptly ends.

It seems to just silly studio fun, and not really "Erotica" album material but there was more before Shep recorded over it.

(Bruce Baron article)

February 14-16: Madonna is reportedly in Miami this weekend - with Vanilla Ice no less. Madonna was also reportedly shooting on Golden Beach and staying at The Alexander. She is seen at restaurant Barocco Beach, every imaginable club and theme evening, as well as renting furniture from Carlos Betancourt's studio for some stylized posing. On Saturday night, she attends the opening of The Marlin.

February 19: Miami as the new Ibiza, a hothouse for international jet set types. It's Madonna in town - no, really in town this time - shooting her new book with photographer Steven Meisel and living out the Don Johnson/Star Island scenario for the Nineties.

The really quite juicy story about Madonna's girls-night-out-evening, relayed by New York Post columnist George Rush: Material Girl backstage at Jackie 60 in New York, inserting the handle of a switchblade in her not-so-private regions, as part of some no-doubt artistically provocative lesbo-land scenario. (Miami New Times)

 

February 22: Madonna makes a surprise guest appearance in "Coffee Talk" skit with Mike Myers, Roseanne Arnold and Barbra Streisand on NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live.
 

February 25: "Madonna: Blond Ambition World Tour Live" wins Best Music Video - Long Form at the 34th annual Grammy Awards at Radio City Music Hall, New York.

The Erotica Diary (March 1992)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992

Now I knew we were doing an album. We had fifteen songs demoed and she liked them all. The last song we did was for the movie, A League Of Their Own. Madonna just started singing a melody over and over again into the Shure SM57 microphone while the Mac with Vision was playing strings, organ, piano and a basic rim-shot loop. It sounded really timeless, very nostalgic. I spent all night filling in the verses and the song became This Used To Be My Playground.

The day after Playground was finished, Madonna went to Oregon to work on her next film Body Of Evidence, with Willem Defoe. This gave me some time to wrap up some work on some songs with Cathy Dennis and Taylor Dayne at Soundworks Studios in New York. The workload had grown quite intense since the beginning of the year and it showed no signs of letting up. Thanks to my manager Jane Brinton, we were able to coordinate all the ongoing projects without a hitch.

March: Pettibone knew by now that they were doing an album. They had 15 songs demoed and Madonna liked them all. The last song they did was “This Used to Be My Playground†for her movie A League of Their Own. Madonna just started by singing a melody over and over into the mic while piano, strings and organ. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

The song was completed the day before Madonna flew to Portland, Oregon to film

Body of Evidence

which began shooting April 6, 1992.

 

March 5: Madonna wins Best-Dressed Female Artist in Rolling Stone magazine's 16th annual Readers Poll.
 

March 20: Shadows And Fog is released.
 

March 30: Madonna attends Swifty Lazar's annual post-Academy Awards party at Spago's restaurant, Los Angeles, CA.

April: Madonna begins filming Body Of Evidence, co-starring Willem Dafoe and directed by Uli Edel.

April 5: Madonna at the Body Of Evidence Press Conference

Madonna at the Press Conference for her film "Body Of Evidence" in Portland, Oregon

rec: April 05 1992

April 20: Time-Warner announces a new $60-70 million deal with Madonna. The first two projects will be a book of erotic fantasies and a new album due in the fall. (NY Times)

Madonna tells the NY Times (reporting on her $60 million deal with Time Warner) that she has already written the songs for her next album. Madonna described the album, whose songs she has already written, as "soulful, with a jazzy undertone and lot of beatnik-style poetry in it."

 

April 15: MADONNA INTERVIEW : SMASH HITS (APRIL 15 1992)

1992-madonna-smash-hits-s.jpg
 

April 20: Madonna signs a $60 million, seven-year contract with Time Warner Inc. as a joint venture to form a new multi-media entertainment company: she is made CEO of her own record and music publishing company called Maverick, which will also include TV, film, merchandising and book publishing divisions; she also re-negotiates and extends her contract with Sire Records: a $5 million advance per album, a 20% royalty rate and all her future recordings will be released by Maverick/Sire Records.

On April 20 1992, Madonna signed a deal with Time Warner to set up her own multimedia entertainment company called Maverick.

The 7-year arrangement (with an option to extend to 11 years) allowed Madonna to run Maverick with her then long-time manager, Freddy DeMann, and have its headquarters based in Los Angeles.

Madonna was advanced as much as $60 million for the deal that included music publishing, television, film, merchandising and book-publishing.

David Geffen said this of the deal:

“Madonna’s deal is certainly extraordinary, but I think she’s a great talent with a great will, and if she wants to do something she’ll do it. She works very hard, takes big risks and stays at the cutting edge of what’s happening.â€

Charles Koppelman, the chief operating officer of EMI Records North America, had this to day:

“If anyone is going to get a deal of this magnitude, she is the kind of artist to give it to, she’s the exception: someone who taps into artists and musical genres before the rest of the world does. In other deals where artists get their own labels, such perks are usually window dressing to satisfy their egos. Madonna’s different. I would bet on her to make something more of it.â€

The first two projects released under Maverick included Madonna’s own Erotica album and her coffee table SEXbook, in October of 1992.

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/maverick-records-april-1992-1.png

 

April 25: There are rumors in the dance community that Madonna has penned a song called “Deeper & Deeper.†Sources close to the singer have no knowledge of such a song but admit she has been writing new material with producer Shep Pettibone and will enter the studio this summer to record her next album. There are also rumors of a song called “Eating Out/Out to Lunch†– a paean to lesbian sex. Other works in progress: “No Entry,†“Freak,†“Show & Tell†and “Smoked Too Many Cigarettes.†(Billboard, Dance Trax section)

April 30: A black bustier worn by Madonna in "Open Your Heart" video is stolen from Frederick's Of Hollywood's lingerie museum during the 3-day riots in Los Angeles, CA.

The Erotica Diary (May 1992)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992

I met Madonna at Oceanway Studios in Los Angeles to complete the orchestra parts for This Used To Be My Playground. We had to record a string arrangement – something I was excited about but had never done before. Madonna chose Jeremy Lubock to do the arrangements beacause he had done such a good job with her I’m Breathless Material and came highly recomended. Everything went fine until the point when the orchestra played their parts; we didn’t like what we heard. Madonna and I had to change the whole arrangement, right there in the studio, with a full orchestra sitting there getting paid for taking up space – around $15,000 for three hours, $3000 for every half hour over that. And of cource, Lubbock was talking to two people who didn’t know a C from a B natural. The pressure was on.

I can only sing the notes I hear at the moment, so that’s what I did. Madonna and I stood there over my little Mac, singing the notes, and Lubbock would go, Oh, that’s a G; Oh,that’s a B and that’s how it got done. We completed the session in 2 hours and 58 minutes – two minutes away from another three grand. The last day of recording fell on Memorial day. Madonna wanted to do the lead vocals again, insisting that it would sound better. It did. I finished off some edits before going over to a party Madonna was throwing in her Hollywood mansion.

May: MTV / VH-1 Global Warming - Madonna and Seal appeared in a commercial for MTV / VH-1 Global Warming TV campaign May 1992

May 4-5: Madonna shot her scenes at the State Court House in Olympia, Washington today (for Body of Evidence) causing an uproar that state facilities were used for a *reportedly* NC-17 film.

(mid-May): Pettibone met Madonna at Oceanway Studios in Los Angeles to complete the orchestra parts of “This Used to Be My Playground.†Madonna had Jeremy Lubbock do the string arrangement because he had done such a good job with her I’m Breathless material. When the orchestra began to play their parts, Madonna and Pettibone did not like what they heard, so they changed the entire arrangement right there by singing the notes to Lubbock who has perfect pitch. The orchestra cost $15,000 for the first 3 hours and $3,000 for each half hour after that – the strings were done in 2 hours and 58 minutes. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

May 6: Frederick's Of Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA offers a $1,000 reward for the return of Madonna's bustier.

May 25: Madonna wanted to re-record the vocals for “This Used to Be My Playground†because she knew they could sound better. Today was the last day of recording for the song, and Pettibone finished some edits before going to a party at Madonna’s Hollywood mansion. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

May 29: The FBI recovers 44 nude photographs of Madonna from a collection used for her upcoming Sex book: a man is arrested in West Hollywood, CA for trying to sell the pictures for $100,000 to an undercover FBI agent.

June: US Magazine says Madonna's new album is "reportedly rave and techno influenced."

June 8: Madonna & Pettibone recorded “Erotica†at Soundworks in NYC. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

June 9: Madonna & Pettibone recorded “Words†& “Why’s It So Hard†at Soundworks in NYC. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

June 10: Madonna & Pettibone recorded “Why’s It So Hard†& “Thief of Hearts†at Soundworks in NYC. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

June 11: Madonna & Pettibone recorded “Thief of Hearts†& “Goodbye to Innocence†at Soundworks in NYC. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

June 14: MADONNA INTERVIEW : YOU (JUNE 14 1992)

1992-madonna-you-s.jpg

June 16: "This Used to Be My Playground" is the theme for the film A League of Their Own, which starred Madonna, and portrayed a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Madonna was asked to record a song for the film's soundtrack. At that time she was busy recording her fifth studio album, Erotica, with producer Shep Pettibone. They had just completed working on the ballad "Rain". Madonna admitted that she did not have any material for the film and Lars explained that Marshall wanted only a ballad. Pettibone composed a track the same night and Madonna had some ideas she wanted to incorporate. During an interview with The Guardian, Madonna described the process as "assignment writing" since it was completely separate from her Erotica sessions. It took them two days to write and produce the song, and the final version was submitted to Marshall's team. Lars recalled that they "immediately loved it... We all thought it would be a very successful record and we knew right away it would be perfect."

Once presented to director Penny Marshall's team, the song was released as a standalone single on June 16, 1992, by Warner Bros. Records. However, it was not available on the film's soundtrack due to contractual obligations and was later added to the Olympics-inspired Barcelona Gold compilation album, released that summer. The song was included on Madonna's 1995 ballads compilation Something to Remember.

Written and produced by Madonna and Pettibone, "This Used to Be My Playground" was the first time that Pettibone worked with live string arrangement. Madonna recorded the song on a Shure SM57 microphone, with instrumentation from piano, organ, strings and a basic drum sounds. During the final recording, the duo had to redo the whole orchestra section to tailor it for the song. "This Used to Be My Playground" starts with a keyboard introduction and strings, with Madonna singing in expressive but subdued vocals. Its verse and chorus merge into each other for having a continuity in the song, but the track ends abruptly. Lyrically it discusses visiting one's childhood places and not letting go of the past.

Recording the track was a new experience for Pettibone since it was the first time that he worked with live musicians and arrangements. Pettibone took the demo of the song, and added live drums, piano and strings to it. They did not have any strings written originally for the song, and chose composer Jeremy Lubbock for the music arrangement; Lubbock had previously worked with Madonna on her soundtrack album I'm Breathless (1990). Madonna recorded the song on a Shure SM57 microphone, with the melody being played over and over again, accompanied by the piano, organ, strings and a basic rim-looping sound on a portable Macintosh computer. Pettibone spent the rest of the recording session working on the verses and final structure of "This Used to Be My Playground" was completed. The day after the song was finished, Madonna traveled to Oregon to work on her next film, Body of Evidence, giving Pettibone the time to finish off the songs for Erotica.

The duo met again in May 1992 at Oceanway Studios in Los Angeles to complete the orchestration of the song. Lubbock's arrangement was chosen for adding the final touches and the recording started. However, Madonna and Pettibone did not like the orchestra parts and wanted to redo the whole composition. The producer recalled, "Madonna and I had to change the whole arrangement, right there in the studio, with a full orchestra sitting there getting paid for taking up space—around $15,000 for three hours, $3000 for every half-hour over that. And of course, Lubbock was talking to two people who didn't know a C from a B natural. The pressure was on". So they stood near Pettibone's Mac and sang the notes, with Lubbock correcting them. The total recording was finished off in 2 hours and 58 minutes, thereby saving to pay the orchestra the extra fees. The last recording of the song was on Memorial Day where Madonna re-did the lead vocals and improved them. Together they did some final edits of the track and finished it.

June 15: Shep does 8-track dumps with no time-code. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

June 16: Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell (co-star of A League Of Their Own) guest together on Fox-TV's The Arsenio Hall Show.

Madonna on The Arsenio Hall Show - Madonna and Rosie O Donnell interviewed by Arsenio Hall for his "The Arsenio Hall Show" air: June 16 1992 

June 16: Madonna & Pettibone recorded “Deeper & Deeper†at Soundworks in NYC. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

June 18:  “This Used to Be My Playground†retail single is released.

June 24: Madonna on Fox News - Madonna interviewed by Robyn Carter for Fox News at the "A League of their Own" Premiere rec: June 24 1992


 

June 25: Madonna attends the New York premiere of A League Of Their Own at the Ziegfeld Theatre.
 

June 30:  "This Used To Be My Playground" video premieres on MTV. Madonna contributes a remixed version of "Supernatural" (originally released on B-side of "Cherish" single in 1989) to AIDS benefit CD Red Hot & Dance.

The accompanying music video, directed by Alek Keshishian, was filmed in June 1992 at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, California and Malibu Beach. It premiered on MTV on June 30, 1992, a day before the release of A League of Their Own. The video shows a man viewing a photo album, as Madonna sings in different settings from within the various pictures. Scenes from A League of Their Own also appear on the album during the song's instrumental break. As the video ends, the man having reached the end of the album, then scrolls backwards through the previous pages. The video was commercially released in 2004 as a bonus feature on the 2-disc special edition DVD of A League of Their Own. According to Rettenmund, unlike most music videos related to film soundtracks, "This Used to Be My Playground" did not give emphasis on having shots from the film in the video itself. Instead Keshishian and Madonna chose introspection as the theme, with simple images to portray them. Rettenmund notes, "At the end, the man who has been looking back at his scrapbook of Madonna lays his head down, sealing the video with the perfect bit of sadness to resonate with Madonna's ennui."

The video has been compared to Boy George's video for his 1987 single, "To Be Reborn", released less than five years before "This Used to Be My Playground". In George's video, he also appears on pages of a photo album, performing the song. George himself stated in his autobiography that he was "furious" after watching Madonna's video and renamed it "This Used to Be My Video"

 

June 30: The video for "This Used to be My Playground" debuts on MTV. Directed by Alek K.

The Erotica Diary (June-July 1992)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992

The schedule for recording at Soundworks in New York went something like this:

June 8 – Erotica
June 9 – Words; Why’s It So Hard
June 10 – Why’s It So Hard; Thief Of Hearts
June 11 – Thief Of Hearts; Goodbye To Innocence
June 15 – 8-track dumps w/no time-code
June 16 – Deeper And Deeper

And so on, and so on…

We transferred everything we had on the Tascam 8-track onto 24-track. I decided to produce the tracks 15 ips with Dolby SR beacause it has this warm bottom in the bass and I wanted to capture that for Erotica. Plus, I was listening to some of my old remixes, which were recorded at 15 ips, and was amazed at how much more you could feel the music. Compact discs seem to move you one step away from the music, while records put you right in the mix. So I figured that if I overemphasized that LP feeling, it would rub off on the CD, which is the primary format manufactured for American audiences today. Strangely enough, our country can’t get any LP’s of Erotica, while the rest of the world can.

On July 7, we did the mixing for Erotic the ode to S & M that Madonna wanted to include in her book, Sex. She felt it should sound the same as Erotica (the song on the album), with just a bass line, her voice and some sensuous Middle Eastern sounds. But by then I had seen the book and had come up with an interesting idea.

You have all these great stories in the book, I told her, Why don’t you use them in the song? I knew that Madonna was developing a 1930s dominatrix look for Erotica, but I didn’t realize how far she was willing to go before I saw Sex. It contained stories authored by her mysteriously dark alter, Dita. Madonna took the book and walked out of the room and didn’t come back until about half an hour later. Suddenly she was on the mic, speaking in this very dry voice. My name is Dita, she said, and I’ll be your mistress tonight. I knew that the original Erotica would never be the same again, and it wasn’t. The chorus and bridge were changed entirely and the whole psyche of the song became sexier, more to the point. It seemed as if Dita brought out the best in her, actually serving as a vehicle for the dangerous territory she was traveling. Actually, it was the same name Madonna used when she’d stay in hotels around the world. Not anymore.

When July 10 came, I felt my thirty-something years hit me full force. It was the day of reckoning – my birthday, and yet I was stuck in the studio with Madonna, Tony Shimkin, and an animal-ballon-twisting clown to celebrate it with. It was fun for about five minutes, until Madonna said, Shep, you gotta get back to work.

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July 1: A League of Their Own is released nationwide.

July 4: In the United States, "This Used to Be My Playground" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 35, for the week of July 4, 1992. The debut was aided by just airplay points which enabled it to enter the Hot 100 Airplay chart at number 14. The song received immediate heavy rotation in US radio stations like Hot 97 in New York and Wild 107 in San Francisco. One week later, the song jumped to number 17 on the Hot 100, having had the largest sales and airplay points of any record on the chart. 

In Canada, the song debuted at number 60 on the RPM Top Singles chart on July 4, 1992. After seven weeks it reached the top of the chart and was present for a total of 19 weeks. It also reached number two on the RPM Adult Contemporary chart.

July 7: Madonna contributes "This Used To Be My Playground" to Special Olympics benefit CD Barcelona Gold.

July 7: Madonna & Pettibone did the mixing for “Erotic†the ode to S&M that Madonna wanted included in her Sex book. Madonna wanted it to sound just like “Erotica†but just a bassline, her voice and some sensuous Middle Eastern sounds. Shep gave her the idea to use the ideas and stories in the book in the song and this is when Madonna started using “My name is Dita, I’ll be your mistress tonight.†The chorus and bridge of the original changed completely. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

July 10: Today was Pettibone’s 30-something birthday and he spent it working in the studio with Madonna, Tony Shimkin and an animal-balloon-twisting clown.

July 29: Liz Smith reports that Madonna’s new album will be titled Erotica.

August 8: "This Used To Be My Playground" hits US #1.

On August 8, 1992, the song reached the top of the chart for one week, becoming Madonna's tenth number one single, breaking her tie with Whitney Houston as the female artist with the most number one singles at that time. The song replaced "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot although it was number three on the Hot Singles Sales and Hot 100 Airplay charts. According to Michael Ellis from Billboard, the song edged out "Baby Got Back" by a small margin of chart points. The song spent a total of 20 weeks on the chart and ranked at number 21 on the Hot 100 year end chart for 1992.

"This Used to Be My Playground" also reached peak positions of number two on the Hot 100 Airplay and number four on the Adult Contemporary charts.

August 14: Madonna attends a Peggy Lee cabaret show at Club 53 in the NY Hilton tonight (Liz Smith).

The Erotica Diary (August 15, 1992, MO’s Birthday)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992

One of the tracks, Godbye To Innocence, just wasn’t working. There was something about the song that didn’t grab Madonna, so we had to fix it. I worked overnight in my studio and came back to Soundworks with a brand new bass line that seemed to do the trick. Madonna put on headphones and got ready to lay down the vocals for Goodbye To Innocence. But instead of singing the original words, which were written last year, Madonna started toying with the lyrics, singing the words to the lounge-lizard act staple, Fever. At first we thought: This is cool, and it was. It sounded so good that we decided to take it one step further and actually cover the tune. Too bad no one knew the words. What we needed was a copy of Fever if we were going to record it that day. So, Madonna got on the phone with Seymour Stein at Sire Records, and within an hour, we had the lyric sheets, the Peggy Lee version, and the original version of the song in our hands. I was really impressed by how quickly we got it all. That was the last track on Erotica and we finished mixing it just in time to celebrate another birthday – Madonna’s.

That night, she had a birthday party on a boat circling Manhattan. Picture about 50 people dancing on a boat with disco blasting out of the portholes and you get the idea. In between dancing and celebrating, I spent the time reflecting on the album. I was confident that it was a great compilation of songs, but I was wondering how people would react to it. It was definitely a different album for her in that it was a dance/pop album, instead of a guitar-laden pop album designed just for top 40. That was a conscious decision on her part beacause it seemed that the more pop she went, the fewer of her albums people were buying. This time, she’s giving the people what they want.

August 15: Pettibone says that “Goodbye to Innocence†wasn’t working. He worked overnight on a new bassline that he brought into Soundworks (NYC) today and it seemed to fix the problem. However, when Madonna started putting down the vocal track, she started toying with the lyrics and started singing the words to “Fever.†He says it sounded so good they decided to actually cover the tune. Madonna called Seymour Stein and in less than an hour, they had the lyrics to the Peggy Lee original. This was the last track they did for Erotica. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

interesting...she attends a Peggy Lee show the night before and the next day - bam! - "Fever" is reborn as a Madonna track. Just goes to show you how much can change with her in the drop of a hat.

 

August 16: "Madonnathon 92: The 1st International Madonna Appreciation Convention" is held at the Holiday Inn, Southfield, MI.

MADONNA ON KEITH HARING : KEITH HARING – THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY (1992)

1992-madonna-keith-haring-authorized-bio

August 22: The music video for "Erotica" was directed by fashion photographer Fabien Baron. The video intercalates scenes of Madonna, dressed as a masked dominatrix with a gold tooth, with actual footage of the making of her Sex book; in these scenes Madonna is seen sitting topless in the lap of an older man, kissing model Naomi Campbell, wearing BDSM gear and riding a bicycle in the nude. The video also counts with cameos by celebrities such as Isabella Rossellini, and Big Daddy Kane. Shooting for the footage of Madonna singing the song, took place on August 22, 1992 at The Kitchen in New York City while shootings for Sex took place at Hotel Chelsea and Times Square's all-male burlesque Gaiety Theatre. In order to imitate the look of old home movies and stag films, the entire video was shot with super 8 mm film. 

 

August 25: In the United Kingdom, the song TUTBMP debuted at number five on the UK Singles Chart, and reached a peak of number three the week of August 25, 1992, and was present on the top 100 for a total of 9 weeks. It was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on September 1, 1992, for shipments of 200,000 copies. The single has sold over 275,000 copies as of October 2010. The song also achieved great success across Europe, hitting number one in various countries including Italy, Finland, and Sweden and charting within the top ten in other countries. It resulted in the song achieving a peak of number two on the European Hot 100 Singles chart. In Australia the song reached a peak of number nine on the ARIA Charts and received a gold certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipment of 35,000 copies.

September: This will be the first release on Madonna's new MAVERICK label.

September 10: "This Used To Be My Playground" single is certified gold (500,000 units).

On September 10, 1992, it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 500,000 copies. Billboard ranked it at number 22 on their list of "Madonna's 40 Biggest Hits" on the Hot 100. 

September 12: Pettibone leaves Soundworks (NYC) with the completed master for Erotica. He said they spend three and a half months in the same recording studio to complete it. Everything had gone smoothly at the end except for “Why’s It So Hard†and “Words,†both of which were recalled for changes. (The Erotica Diaries, Shep Pettibone)

1.8 million copies of the album are already advanced ordered in the U.S. (Billboard)

Madonna says Shep Pettibone is more commercial and dance-oriented while Andre Betts has a more street vibe, jazzy, hiphop feel. Shep’s production is more heavily synthesized while Betts features more live drums, acoustic piano and saxophone. (Vanity Fair, October 1992)

September 23: Madonna is featured in a public service announcement on MTV's Rock The Vote.

Rock the Vote - Madonna calling people to vote in MTV's Rock The Vote Commercial September 23 1992 


 

September 24: Madonna exposes her breasts in front of 6,000 people at a Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion show benefit at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA; the show raises $750,000 for the American Foundation For AIDS Research (AMFAR).

September 29: "Erotica" is the title track from her fifth studio album Erotica (1992), and was released as the album's lead single on September 29, 1992 by Maverick Records. It was later included on her greatest hits albums GHV2 (2001) and Celebration (2009).

The song was written by Madonna, Shep Pettibone and Anthony Shimkin, while production was handled by the singer and Pettibone. The track continued Madonna's exploration of potent spoken-word vocals, which she had previously introduced in "Justify My Love". The song contains a sample of Kool and the Gang's "Jungle Boogie". It also samples "El Yom 'Ulliqa 'Ala Khashaba, by Lebanese singer Fairuz. This sample caused controversy after Fairuz claimed her vocals had been used without her consent, and said the lyrics "he crucified me today", which are sung in Arabic, are taken from a religious song that is traditionally heard during Easter services. This led to a lawsuit that was settled out of court.

Musically, "Erotica" contains spoken word vocals, and is an ode to S&M, with Madonna using a pseudonym called "Dita". She invites her lover to be passive while making love to her and leads him to explore boundaries between pain and pleasure. In 1992, Madonna founded her own multi-media entertainment company, Maverick, consisting of a record company (Maverick Records), a film production company (Maverick Films), and associated music publishing, television broadcasting, book publishing and merchandising divisions. The first two projects from the venture were her fifth studio album, Erotica, and a coffee table book of photographs featuring Madonna, entitled Sex. For the album, Madonna primarily collaborated with producer Shep Pettibone. Pettibone first began working with Madonna during the 1980s, providing remixes for several of her singles. Alongside Pettibone, Madonna enlisted help from producer André Betts, who previously co-produced "Justify My Love" for The Immaculate Collection. Madonna said that she was interested to work with Pettibone and Betts due to their ability to remain plugged into the dance underground, "They come from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their music style and approach to music, but they're both connected to the street and they're still young and hungry".

According to Pettibone in an article "Erotica Diaries" published on Madonna's Icon magazine, he produced a tape with four songs, for Madonna to listen to, before he traveled to Chicago, where she was filming A League of Their Own. She listened to the songs and liked all of them. After filming was complete, Madonna met Pettibone in New York City to start working together in November 1991. Their schedule was sporadic in the beginning. They were in the studio for a week and then she would work with Steven Meisel on Sex, for two weeks. Occasionally, Madonna also would meet André Betts. The first batch of songs Madonna and Pettibone worked on were "Erotica", "Deeper and Deeper", "Rain" and "Thief of Hearts"; she would write the lyrics as Pettibone worked on the music. Pettibone recalled that the singer preferred to be in control of the writing process because "her songs are her stories. They're the things she wants to say". While they were mixing a song called "Erotic", which was released as promotional single on her Sex book, Pettibone recalled:

"You have all these great stories in the book," I told her, "Why don't you use them in the song?" I knew that Madonna was developing a 1930s dominatrix look for Erotica, but I didn't realize how far she was willing to go before I saw Sex. It contained stories authored by her mysteriously dark alter, Dita. Madonna took the book and walked out of the room and didn't come back until about half an hour later. Suddenly she was on the mic, speaking in this very dry voice. "My name is Dita," she said, "and I'll be your mistress tonight." I knew that the original "Erotica" would never be the same again, and it wasn't. The chorus and bridge were changed entirely and the whole psyche of the song became sexier, more to the point. It seemed as if Dita brought out the best in her, actually serving as a vehicle for the dangerous territory she was traveling. Actually, it was the same name Madonna used when she'd stay in hotels around the world. Not anymore

The Erotica Diary (September – October 1992)

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-erotica-diaries-shep-pettibone-icon-magazine-1992

After three and a half months of working in the same studio and hearing the same songs day after day, it was a relief to have the album finished. Everything went smoothly except the last two songs, Why’s It So Hard and Words, both of which we had to recall for changes. On September 12, I walked out of Soundworks with the completed master of Erotica in my hands.

A month later, I went to the Sex party. The Erotica blitz was about to hit in music, video, and book form and a variety of stars were coming out for the party. Madonna herself surveyed the scene during the midnight hour. I walked over to meet her in the DJ Booth.

There was all this wild stuff going around us: people tattoing one another, couples simulating sex – it was crazy. And when I went to talk to Madonna, who was in the middle of it all, our conversations turned to music. For all the multimedia extravaganzas that were braying for her attention, it was still the music that mattered and it was the record that we fawned over. I realized that no matter how far I’ve come, I still feel the same way that I always did.

And then she put the handcuffs on me. NOT!

October

Madonna on MTV - Madonna interviewed by Steve Blame for MTV rec: October 1992

Madonna on Notte Rock - Madonna interviewed for Rai Uno's "Notte Rock" TV Show rec: October 1992

Fritz Meets Madonna - Madonna interviewed by Fritz Egner "Fritz Meets Madonna" TV Special rec: October 1992

Madonna on ORF - Madonna interviewed for ORF TV rec: October 1992

MADONNA INTERVIEW : VANITY FAIR (OCTOBER 1992) 1992-madonna-vanity-fair-s.jpg

October 2: At midnight on MTV, the video for “Erotica†premieres. It is shown 3 times before the network pulls it completely. It is helmed by French art director/designer Fabien Baron and features footage shot with an 8mm camera during the making of her book, SEX. It features Udo Kier, Isabella Rossellini, Tatian Von Furstenberg, Naomi Campbell, and Big Daddy Kane. Bobby Woods from Heart Times Coffee Cup Equals Lightning Productions produced the clip.

LATER: In an interview with MTV in Milan, she talks about the “Erotica†video and how it was shot with Super 8 video for a “scratchy and antique-looking†feel. She also says all the people in the video were either friends of hers or Steven Meisel’s.

In an interview with MTV, Madonna says that most of the album’s tracks are in their raw 8-track demo form for a “rougher sound.â€

Madonna says SEX was partly inspired by the 1920’s French photographer George Brassaï’s Paris de Nuit (Paris by Night). The book also features notorious gay (and HIV positive) porn star Joey Stefano in several shots. He is seen on the page after the dog photo and has a tattoo on his right arm. In 1994, he will die of a heroin overdose. (source not listed)

The ballad “In This Life†was written in memory of two of Madonna’s closest gay friends – her childhood dance teacher, Christopher Flynn and her best friend in NYC Martin Burgoyne. Both passed away from AIDS-related illnesses.

It shipped 4 million units worldwide prior to its release. (Entertainment Weekly, October 1992)

The video had its world premiere on MTV, on October 2, 1992. Upon its release, it was met with controversy; Susan Bibisi, from Los Angeles Daily News, called it a "virtual advertisement" for Sex". Entertainment Tonight had previously reported that Madonna herself had initiated the mayhem surrounding the video by walking bare breasted at designer Jean Paul Gaultier's fashion show and posing nude in Vanity Fair magazine. Richard Harrington from The Washington Post wrote:

"In the video, Madonna becomes Dita Parlo, a masked, gold-toothed dominatrix from an indeterminate age, ready to help us cross the street at the corner of Pleasure and Pain [...] assuming different dominatrix roles and investigating assorted bondage scenarios before finishing up with some nude hitchhiking on a street remarkable free of pile-ups. Shot in grainy black and white, 'Erotica' has the feel of a stag film, though its quick cuts keep the viewer from seeing all that much".

After its release, it was aired by MTV a total of three times, all of these after the 10pm watershed, due to its highly charged sexual content, before being permanently banned; this made it Madonna's second video to be banned from airing by the channel, after "Justify My Love" in 1990. MTV spokeswoman Linda Alexander said, "The themes of the video are clearly aimed at a more adult audience. It is not appropriate for a general viewing audience". Madonna herself said she understood the channel's ban on the video; "MTV plays to a huge audience and a lot of them are children, and a lot of themes I'm exploring in my videos aren't meant for children, so I understand that they say I can't show it [...] I accept it". Rolling Stone's Anthony DeCurtis said that "This is pretty much normal Madonna fare, [...] But how much longer can you continue mining sexuality? In checking off your list of taboos, how far can you take them? At what point does it just stop being interesting?†Similarly, David Browne from Entertainment Weekly, asked "Haven’t we seen most of this stuff before? Can we be bored with the subject matter already? [...] no emotion is attached to the mechanics of these acts, so it’s difficult to identify with or care about the characters". The video was nominated for the 1993 Billie Awards in four categories: Consumer print, trade print (music) and consumer print (retail), the most for a single entry. It also was ranked at number 16 on VH1's "50 Sexiest Video Moments". The video was made commercially available in 2009, when it was included, albeit in a censored version, on Madonna's Celebration: The Video Collection compilation; it had previously been excluded from 1999's The Video Collection 93:99

 

October 4: Madonna visits Milan, Italy to begin her Sex and Erotica promotional tour: she attends the opening of Milanese Fashion Week and is presented with a Telegatto Award for Best International Female Artist.

October 5: Madonna is guest of honor at a disco party hosted by Italian designers Dolce and Gabbana in Milan, Italy. In US, NBC-TV's Friday Night Videos announces it will not broadcast "Erotica" video because of its controversial images of sex and bondage.

Madonna on MTV - Madonna interviwed by MTV at the Dolce & Gabbana party in Milan rec: October 05 1992

 

October 6: On October 6 1992, Madonna was interviewed by Steve Blame in Milan, Italy during the Sex/Erotica promo tour.

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October 7,8: Madonna visits Hamburg, Germany to promote Sex and Erotica.
 

October 9: In Paris, it is announced that Madonna owes $2 million to the French government in back taxes from 2 concerts in 1987.
 

October 10: Madonna visits Paris, France on her Sex and Erotica promotional tour.

Madonna on 7 sur 7 - Madonna interviewed by Anne Sinclair for TF1's "7 sur 7" TV Show air: October 10 1992

October 10: On October 10 1992, Madonna made a stop in Paris, France where she conducted press interviews during her Sex and Erotica promotional tour. She was interviewed by Anne Sinclair as the featured guest for weekly current affairs program, 7 sur 7.

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October 11: Madonna guests on 7 Sur 7 TV show in Paris, France.

Madonna on 7 to 9 - Madonna interviewed for Swedish "7 to 9" TV Show rec: October 11 1992


 

October 12: Madonna visits London, England to complete Sex and Erotica promotional tour.
 

October 13: Madonna is interviewed on BBC1-TV's Jonathan Ross Presents �

Madonna interviewed by Jonathan Ross for his BBC1's "Jonathan Ross Presents" TV Show. The interview was recorded in London during the Erotica and Sex promo tour. The interview also aired on Canada’s MuchMusic during their January, 1993 day-long Madonnathon.

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Madonna on Jonathan Ross Presents - air: October 13 1992

October 14: Madonna denies she owes $2 million to France in back taxes and says: "I think the commissioner just wants to meet me".
 

October 15: Madonna is guest of honor at her Sex book party at the Industria Superstudio, Manhattan, NY.

On October 15, Madonna threw a pre-release party at New York City's Industria Superstudio, and signed all the invitations under her Sex alter ego "Dita". During the party, Madonna showed up dressed as Little Bo Peep and even carried with her a stuffed toy lamb. Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg showed concern at first due to "what the parents of America's impressionable teens will soon be thinking" but later said that it "all depends on your idea of lovemaking, which in Madonna's case, should give new meaning to the word erotic". Both Waldenbooks and Barnes & Noble prepared corporate statements that the managers could share with customers who are offended by Sex. (Both statements defended the right of bookstores to provide "diversity and choice" to customers and say censorship is not the role of bookstores.) Many book stores, too, stated that the book would not be sold to anyone under 18 and that it would be for display only behind the cash register. Bookstore owner David Epstein stated that "The feeling of most people who have ordered the book is that Madonna is something special, that this is cutting-edge art, [...], they're not the kind of people who are buying it because it's smut and dirty pictures. People are interested in it as art."

 

October 17: On October 17, 1992, "Erotica" debuted at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, which at the time of its release placed Madonna in a fifth place tie with Mariah Carey's rendition of "I'll Be There" as the highest debut for a song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. The song ultimately peaked at number three on the week of October 24, 1992. It eventually received a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on December 10, 1992, for shipments of 500,000 copies. "Erotica" also had the highest debut in the history of the Hot 100 Airplay chart, entering at number two, on October 17, 1992. 

In the United Kingdom, "Erotica" debuted at number 11 in the UK Singles Chart, the week of October 17, 1992, ultimately peaking at the third position. The song was present a total of 9 weeks on the chart. As of 2008, the single has sold over 270, 800 copies in the United Kingdom. In France, the song debuted at number 30 of the SNEP Single Charts, on the week of November 11, 1992, before peaking at number 23. The song was successful in Italy, where it topped the FIMI Single Charts. On the year-end Italian charts, the song was ranked at number 13. The track was also commercially successful in other places such as Spain, Ireland and Sweden, where it managed to peak within the top five of the charts. "Erotica" also reached the top spot of the European Hot 100 Singles, the week of October 23, 1992

October 20: The Erotica album is released. One day later, SEX is released.

On October 20 1992, Madonna’s fifth studio album, Erotica was released by Maverick Records.

Music critic Sal Cinquemani commented on the album’s impact:

By 1992, Madonna was an icon—untouchable, literally and figuratively—and Erotica was the first time the artist’s music took on a decidedly combative, even threatening tone, and most people didn’t want to hear it. Erotica’s irrefutable un-sexiness probably says more about the sex=death mentality of the early ’90s than any other musical document of its time. This is not Madonna at her creative zenith. This is Madonna at her most important, at her most relevant. No one else in the mainstream at that time dared to talk about sex, love, and death with such frankness and fearlessness.

 

Erotica is the fifth studio album by American singer and songwriter Madonna. It was released on October 20, 1992, by the Maverick and Warner Bros. Records. The album was released simultaneously with Madonna's first book publication, Sex, a coffee table book containing explicit photographs featuring the singer. It marked Madonna's first release under her own multimedia entertainment company, Maverick. Erotica is a concept album about sex and romance; she incorporated an alter ego named Mistress Dita, inspired by actress Dita Parlo. Some songs also take on a more confessional tone, influenced by the loss of Madonna's two close friends to AIDS.

According to Pettibone in "Erotica Diaries" published on Madonna's Icon magazine, he produced a tape with three songs for Madonna to listen to, before he traveled to Chicago, where she was filming A League of Their Own. She listened to the songs and liked all of them. After filming was complete, Madonna met Pettibone in New York City to start working together in November 1991. Their schedule was sporadic in the beginning. Madonna and Pettibone were in the studio for a week and then she would work with Steven Meisel on Sex, for two weeks. Occasionally, Madonna also would meet André Betts. At first, Madonna did not like the first group of songs she had recorded. She wanted Erotica to have a raw edge to it, as if it were recorded in an alley in Harlem, and not a light glossy production to permeate her sound, according to Pettibone. "Deeper and Deeper" was not working for Madonna. Pettibone said they tried different bridges and changes, but in the end, Madonna wanted the middle of the song to have a flamenco guitar.

They had problems during sequencing and had to repair the songs, taking some time. Pettibone had to keep things moving as fast as possible as he did not want Madonna to lose interest in the music. At this point, as far as the music went, it was getting a little melancholy. However, as Pettibone explained, Madonna's stories directed the creative direction of the songs into deeply personal territory as they were more serious and intense. Madonna left the album's production to work on her next film Body of Evidence in Oregon. Shortly after, Pettibone started on a song called "Goodbye to Innocence", which was not working. He further commented that he made a new bass line for the track. When Madonna went to record her vocals for "Goodbye to Innocence", she started singing Little Willie John's song "Fever" instead of singing the original words. They decided to record it, as they felt it sounded good. As they did not know the words, Madonna called Seymour Stein from Sire Records, and within an hour, they had the Peggy Lee version, and the original version of the song. This song was the last to be recorded for the album, in August 1992, and it was finished within a month later.

Erotica is a concept album about sex and romance. It is a pop and dance record which incorporates elements from classic disco, modern house, techno and new jack swing. Madonna incorporated an alter-ego named Mistress Dita, heavily inspired by actress Dita Parlo.

In the United Kingdom, Erotica debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart on October 24, 1992. It remained at its peak at number two for three weeks, being held off the top spot by Simple Minds' greatest hits collection Glittering Prize 81/92, and a total of 38 weeks on the chart. The album was certified two times platinum on June 1, 1993, by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 600,000 copies. In France, the album debuted at number one on the French Albums Chart on October 28, 1992, staying there for two weeks, then descending down the chart, selling a total of 250,000 copies. In Germany, the album reached the top five on the Media Control Charts and was certified gold for shipments of 250,000 copies. In Sweden, the album debuted in its peak of number six and spent only seven weeks on the chart. Similarly in Switzerland, Erotica peaked number five and was certified gold by IFPI Switzerland. It also received a platinum certification in Spain and gold in Brazil. To date, Erotica has sold more than six million copies worldwide.

 

October 21: October 21: Sex, a 128-page book of erotica and sexual fantasies written by Madonna, photographed by Steven Meisel, designed by Fabien Baron and edited by Glenn O'Brien, is released; the spiral-bound, metal-covered book is wrapped in a silver mylar bag with a copy of "Erotica" CD single, an 8-page comic book and priced at $49.95 US. Shadows And Fog is released on home video.
 

Sex is a coffee table book written by Madonna, with photographs taken by Steven Meisel Studio and film frames shot by Fabien Baron. The book was edited by Glenn O'Brien and was released on October 21, 1992, by Warner Books, Maverick and Callaway Books. Approached with an idea for a book on erotic photographs, Madonna expanded on the idea and conceived the book and its content. Shot in early 1992 in New York City and Miami, the locations ranged from hotels and burlesque theaters, to the streets of Miami. The photographs were stolen before publishing, but were quickly recovered.

The book had a range of influences, from punk rock to earlier fashion iconoclasts such as Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe. Sex has photographs that feature adult content and softcore pornographic as well as simulations of sexual acts, including sadomasochism. Madonna wrote the book as a character named "Mistress Dita", inspired by 1930s film actress Dita Parlo. It also includes cameos by actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano, actor Udo Kier, socialite Tatiana von Fürstenberg, and nightclub owner Ingrid Casares.

The packaging for the book is made of aluminium, which was Madonna's idea, and is spiral bound and enclosed in a Mylar sheet. Due to the scandalous nature of the photographs and the media mayhem surrounding it from the initial preview of the book, Madonna did not have to promote Sex, except for a pre-release party and some television specials. Her publishers were extremely apprehensive about the release as well as its commercial potential. Sex was released alongside her fifth studio album Erotica, which was released a day earlier.

The book was an instant commercial success, managing to sell over 150,000 copies on its first day of release and topping the New York Times Best Seller list. It was received negatively by both critics and fans of the singer, who felt she had "gone too far." Through the years, however, critical reception towards Sex has become more positive, with academics deeming it a defining phase in Madonna's career. Sex is noted for its impact on society and culture as well as on Madonna herself, and is considered a bold, post-feminist work of art. The book has since become one of the most sought-after out-of-print books ever released and still remains the fastest-selling coffee table book of all time.

According to Giselle Benatar of Entertainment Weekly, there are two versions of how Madonna came up with the idea for the book. One was that she conceived the idea of an erotic photography book during the shooting of the film A League of Their Own in the summer of 1991. The second one is that Judith Regan, vice-president and editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, flew to Los Angeles in March 1991 to meet with Madonna and her manager Freddy DeMann, armed with a proposal for a similar collection of photo-erotica. The singer had initially verified whether Regan had approached any other celebrities with this concept, as Madonna would be interested to be a part of it only if it was a unique idea. By the end of the meeting Madonna had agreed "in principle" to do a book called Madonna's Book of Erotica and Sexual Fantasies. She told Regan that DeMann would call her and work out the details regarding the book. However, Madonna never got back in touch with Regan, who assumed that the singer did not want to proceed with the idea. Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg never confirmed nor denied Regan's claim, but according to Benatar, Madonna started working on Sex before wrapping up A League of Their Own. At first Warner Bros. Records and the executive directors at Time Warner were reluctant to allow Madonna to publish such a book, but finally gave in to the idea. Madonna, however, was forced to sign a contract that forbade her from showing child pornography, bestiality and religious imagery. Not long after signing this agreement Madonna founded Maverick, a multi-media entertainment company. Since by contract she had total artistic control over any of the work released by Maverick, the agreement she signed with Time Warner concerning what not to do in Sex became obsolete.

The pictures were taken almost entirely in Super 8 format, and most of the photo shoots took place in New York City and Miami. Locations in New York City included the Hotel Chelsea and Times Square's all-male burlesque Gaiety Theatre (dancers from theatre participated in one of the book's photo sessions), whereas in Miami the majority of the sessions were shot at a house Madonna had purchased just before starting the project, and in several beaches and streets. One morning during the four-day Florida shoot Madonna was prancing around her 14-bedroom house in Miami completely naked, when someone jokingly suggested she go out on the street, then, according to Baron "the next thing we're in the street" where allegedly "cars screeched to a halt, motorists whistled, and one entranced cyclist fell off his bike." This was just one of the many crazy episodes that took place during the shooting of the book. According to Baron, during the photo shoots "[Madonna]'d do something crazy and then we'd come up with something even crazier". One of the most shocking photographs made for the book, which featured two women in post-punk attire flanking Madonna with one of them holding a knife to Madonna's crotch, was dismissed as it was considered too violent. At some point, while the book was being produced, some of the photographs were stolen, but were quickly recovered by the FBI. According to New York magazine, there were approximately 80,000 photographs taken for the book, but only a handful made the final cut. The printing of the book was extended for 15 days making the total production process last about eight months.

 

SEX Design

Wrapped and sealed in a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) Mylar bag, Sex contains 128 pages and is spiral bound with an aluminium cover that has the word "Sex" stamped in the middle and a warning label. The front page also shows Madonna against a sky blue backdrop. Three different types of paper were used for the printing of Sex and the design was overseen by Madonna and Baron & Baron Inc. (consisting of Fabien Baron and the photographer Siung Fat Tjia) who had previously collaborated with the singer designing the cover art of her fifth studio album, Erotica. As this was the first project for Maverick, the packaging was crucial; however Madonna did not have faith in Warner Book's "mass-market" publication process. Hence Baron suggested to transfer the packaging job to Nicholas Callaway's bespoke Callaway Editions. Charles Melcher, co-publisher with Callaway for the book, said that they usually did "exquisite art books, $100 high end, beautiful things". But it was a challenge for them to process Madonna's ideas into reality. The artist wanted the packaging to be sealed, so that the reader had to tear it up and read. They considered various kinds of clasps before zeroing on the idea of the sealed bag as a reference to a condom package. The metal cover was Madonna's idea, who took the inspiration from the 1979 album, Metal Box by the band Public Image Ltd. Melcher recollects, "We were talking about materials for the cover, and we went into her kitchen. [Madonna] pointed at the metal plate at the back of her stove and said, 'I want something like this'. I was very impressed with the way she interacted with her world to source things." The company bought about 1,500,000 pounds (680,000 kg) of aluminium, a pound for each book. The designers had to do the front and the back covers, while rolling, stamping and ionizing the metal.

The book opens up with the introduction: "Everything you are about to see and read is a fantasy, a dream, pretend". Throughout Sex, Madonna offers poems, stories, and essays. She also uses the pseudonym "Mistress Dita" as a homage to German actress Dita Parlo; her friends in these stories are Bunny, Dex, Stella, Chiclet and Stranger. According to biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, a big part of the book is read as a letter to a pornographic magazine. As a thank you for recovering the stolen pictures during the making of the book, in the credits of the book Madonna mentioned the FBI for " ... rescuing photographs that would have made J. Edgar Hoover roll over." Madonna also wanted to explore the notion of power in Sex. Melcher said that the artist wanted to talk about "gentle and hard, soft and violent [in Sex]. She was playing out all those elements in her book. That was reflected in the materials: uncoated, soft paper on the inside and hard metal coating on the outside."

SEX Release

The initial preview of the book was met with a huge amount of controversy, as it showed a nude Madonna wearing a rabbit's tail, shaving the pubic hair of a naked man, and cavorting outdoors with a dog, suggesting bestiality. The Vatican urged its people to boycott the release, saying that it was "morally intolerable". Indian customs officials said that the book offended the country's public morality. The Press Trust of India (PTI), India's domestic news agency, quoted a top customs official as saying the book would be seized under a section of the Customs Act prohibiting entry of indecent literature. Citizens of Alexandria, Louisiana filed a complaint with the city's police department on behalf of a group called the Rapides Parish Chapter of American Family Association, claiming that it violated Louisiana's anti-obscenity laws. South US Baptists did not want their Bibles coming off the same printing presses as Madonna's Sex and threatened to stop doing business with a Chicago printer. The Nashville-based Baptist Sunday School Board, a division of the Southern Baptist Convention, reviewed their $2.1 million ($3,583,993 in 2016 dollars) printing contract with R.R. Donnelley & Sons. Board President James Draper said he was infuriated that Donnelley also printed "such an obscene book". Entertainment Tonight reported that Madonna herself had initiated the mayhem with the explicit content in the music video for "Erotica", walking bare breasted at designer Jean Paul Gaultier's fashion show and posing nude in Vanity Fair magazine. A writer for The Sacramento Bee said that since the press wanted "controversy", Madonna was willing to provide them "fodder" with her "antiques".

Madonna then said she was "doing this to liberate America — free us all of our hang-ups". She told Spin magazine "We live in a very repressed society, and I deal with erotic themes. The point I try to make is: Why should we feel ashamed of our sexuality?". Later she revealed that "[This book] does not condone unsafe sexual practices". Nicholas Callaway from Callaway Arts & Entertainment said that the book was "inevitably going to be controversial. The book explores every aspect of sexual fantasy. It's hard to calculate the effect, [but], Sex should be considered 'art'". Originally it was rumored that Time Warner was nervous about the release of the book; however, in an interview with Vanity Fair, William Sarnoff, president of Warner Books, said he felt that Madonna "should pursue all avenues of creativity as she defines it". The Warner company had also previously assured that they would make sure Sex reached its main target audience and also reminded that the book was safely wrapped in a Mylar bag to prevent in-store peeping and contained a warning label. Michael Kilian of the Chicago Tribune published an article on October 7, 1992, regarding the then upcoming release of Sex: "Prepare thyself, [...], The mega-event of the millennium is to occur in precisely two weeks. It's an event far more mega than the November election, the collapse of communism or even the crowning of Leanza Cornett as the new Miss America." Kilian also described it as the "personal sexual fantasy picture book in all Christendom, then it goes far beyond all previous 'truly twisted' personal sexual fantasy picture books—perhaps beyond all imagining what such a book could be".

Social Impact & Aftermath

Dubbed at the time "The Queen of obscene", Madonna and the Sex era is considered by many as the artist's most controversial and transgressive period. The book, widely panned by the press, is regarded as one of the factors that shaped the social reaction and critique towards Madonna during the early 1990s. Her fifth studio album Erotica was affected by the negative press surrounding the book. In March 1993, Spin magazine wrote an article praising the book, but months later in Mexico, social communicologist Nino Canún dedicated an episode of his morning talk show Â¿Y usted qué opina? (English: So what's your opinion?), to Madonna. Some members of the audience, among them a priest, presented their arguments as to why "this morally clueless singer shouldn't be allowed to perform in the country", making reference to The Girlie Show World Tour, which was set to visit Mexico. Later, during the concert, Madonna wore a charro sombrero and simulated an orgy with her dancers onstage, as a response to these comments. Continuing her provocative imagery, Madonna starred in the erotic thriller Body of Evidence, which featured the singer fully nude and in scenes engaged in simulated sexual acts. In March 1994, Madonna appeared as a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, using profanity that was required to be censored on television and handing Letterman a pair of her underwear and asking him to smell it. The releases of her sexually explicit film, album and book, and the aggressive appearance on Letterman all made critics regard Madonna as a sexual renegade. She faced strong negative publicity from critics and fans, who commented that "she had gone too far" and that her career was over. Later on the song "Human Nature" from her sixth studio album Bedtime Stories (1994), Madonna addressed the public backlash the book was still receiving, particularly with the lines "Did I say something wrong? Oops, I didn't know I couldn't talk about sex. I must have been crazy," as well as the line "What was I thinking?".

The perfect iconic goddess of True Blue had all gone. In the same way that sixties beauties like Nico, Marianne Faithfull and Brigitte Bardot set about destroying their beauty after they were famous, the very thing they felt limited them, Madonna annihilated hers. Within a few short years she moved from teasing flirtation to desperate sexual display. It is ironic that after the triumph of Like a Prayer, she hits this bathos. Being a blond again set her off in the wrong direction. It was as if with the Sex book she showed the underside of the Hollywood dream.

— Lucy O'Brien, Madonna: Like an Icon, page. 254

 

Madonna herself would later say: "I wouldn't say I regret it. I've made mistakes and learned from them. Most people want to hear me say that I regret publishing my Sex book. I don't. What was the problem was releasing my Erotica album at the same time. I love that album and it got overlooked." However, author Andy Koopmans in his book Madonna (2002) would comment that the singer regretted both publishing Sex and recording Erotica and that the book "had affected everything she did later". It was not until 2003 that Madonna would once again declare that she regretted nothing; "I'm not apologising in any shape or form [...] I was interested in pushing buttons and being rebellious and being mischievous and trying to bend the rules. There was a lot of irony in the Sex book and I am poking fun at a lot of things and I am being kind of silly and adolescent and I am being very f you, if a man can do it, I can do it." A year earlier on 2002, Naomi Campbell confessed to "have a lot of respect for Madonna being bold enough to come out and do a book on sex. I've never reneged on that". However, in 2009, rapper Vanilla Ice, who was Madonna's boyfriend at the time of the book's creation, confessed to not being happy with the book once he saw it. "My friends were like, 'Dude, that's cool man', but I was like, 'I'm dating her, it's not cool to see your girlfriend with all these other people' [...] It kinda ruined the whole thing. I wonder what her kids think of that book? Here she is writing kids' books now but they're going to see it and go, 'Mommy, what were you thinking?'" Another of the book's models, actress Isabella Rossellini, told Out magazine that she regretted her participation on the book; "I don't think the book worked, even though the photos were extraordinary, and some of them quite memorable. I think there was a little bit of a moralistic sort of 'I'll teach you how to be free!' – and that bothered the hell out of me."

Later reviews towards Sex have become more positive. The authors of The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What It Means, and Where We Go from Here (2008) have commented that "the book is particularly interesting in the way that, like many of Madonna's works, it portrays sex in terms of domination and power", whereas Jane Raphaely, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan praised Madonna's "liberated behavior on Sex [...] the fact that she takes all forms of pornography and systematically demystifies it by putting it under her control", in an article in 1996. Brian McNair, author of Striptease Culture: Sex, Media and the Democratisation of Desire (2002) praised this period of Madonna's career, saying that she had "porno elegance" and that "Sex is a cultural phenomenon of global proportions and thanks to this Madonna established her iconic status and cultural influence". Priya Elan from The Guardian, wrote: "That the Sex book came after a record-breaking album and tour felt like a shrinkwrapped curve ball. But Madge was expressing something unique". Elan felt that the book was part of a "slower reveal that began with confessional tracks such as 'Oh Father' (from 1989's Like a Prayer) and continued with the many scenes of narcissism captured in [the documentary] In Bed With Madonna"

Sex has also become an object of modern culture references. American performance artist Ann Magnuson, who had worked with Madonna on the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, released a parody of the book's photo sessions, where she simulated sex with a giant stuffed bear. In 2010, writer-performer Greg Scarnici released a book parody of Sex, titled Sex in Drag, which featured over 70 parodied images from the book. In a deleted scene from a 1993 episode (Krusty Gets Kancelled) of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, aired as part of The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular, Krusty the Clown attempts to market a book extremely similar to Sex as a means of resolving his financial woes. Krusty is seen in a suggestive pose on the front cover. Unlike Madonna, however, Krusty apparently never appeared fully nude, as he quickly claimed that he used a body double.

In 2008, Madonna's look and attire she wore to the Sex pre-release party was ranked by People magazine as one of Madonna's "50 Looks We Can't Forget". In April 2012, a nude picture of Madonna taken by Meisel was put up for sale. The picture, an outtake from the book, features a naked Madonna lying on a bed, sporting bleach-blonde hair and dark eye make-up, smoking a cigarette and partially covered by a sheet. The picture was bought by an unnamed collector for almost US$24,000 ($25,037 in 2016 dollars. In 2011, according to the BookFinder.com, Sex was the most requested out-of-circulation publication and still remains the best-selling coffee table book. In 2015, the book was included on Rolling Stone's list of "20 Great Moments in Rock Star Nudity". Author Keith Harris wrote: "No celebrity had ever commanded control over her own naked image so audaciously as Madonna in [sex]".

October 22: Sex has sold a record 150,000 US copies on its first day of release.

October 23: In Europe, Sex has sold over 100,000 copies in 2 days: England (100,000), France (25,000) and sold-out in Australia.
 

October 24: "Erotica" single hits US #3.

October 25: In Australia, "Erotica" debuted at number 16 on the ARIA Singles Chart, the week of October 25, 1992. It reached a peak of number four, having spent a total of eleven weeks on the chart.

October 26: In Japan, Sex is banned due to its controversial photos which violate the country's censorship law.
October 30: In Mesa, AZ, public libraries have cancelled Sex book orders after local residents have called to protest its purchase.
October 31:  Sex has sold a record 500,000 copies in only one week.

November 1: Sex hits #1 on the Washington Post non-fiction bestseller list.

MADONNA INTERVIEW : NEWSWEEK (NOVEMBER 02 1992)

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November 3: Sex is banned in New Delhi, India and police officials announce they will confiscate copies of the book entering the country.

November 6: “MADONNA, MONEY AND ‘SEX’ – THE UNTOLD STORY†: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY (NOVEMBER 06 1992)

1992-madonna-entertainment-weekly-s.jpg
 

November 7: In Canada, the album debuted at number seven on the RPM Albums Chart on November 7, 1992. It reached a peak of number four on November 21, 1992. The album was present for a total of 38 weeks on the chart, and was certified two times platinum by Music Canada (MC) for shipments of 200,000 copies.

November 7-8: The music video for "Deeper and Deeper" was shot on November 7–8, 1992 at Ren-Mar Studios and The Roxbury nightclub in Hollywood, California, and was directed by Bobby Woods. The video has been seen as a tribute to American artist Andy Warhol and Italian director Luchino Visconti. Georges Claude Guilbert wrote in his book Madonna As Postmodern Myth:

[Madonna] simultaneously pays tribute to Warhol and Visconti. She moves from the twenties and thirties to the sixties and seventies and back again. She evokes Isadora Duncan, Dita Parlo and Ingrid Thulin in La caduta degli dei (The Damned, Luchino Viscoti, 1969). She recreates the atmosphere of the underground films of Warhol, Morrissey, particularly Flesh (1968) and Trash(1970). She echoes John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (1977). The mirror balls in the disco show evoke the thirties and the seventies.

The video begins with a male character, played by German actor Udo Kier (who had appeared in the Andy Warhol films Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula and had previously collaborated with Madonna in her "Erotica" video and Sex book), in a darkened room speaking German words that are subtitled in English: "Beware! Our idols and demons will pursue us. Until we learn to let them go!". However, he is actually speaking two lines from Goethe's "Faust", there words by the devil: "Here, measure that junker (noble man) clothes, you measure him pants!". This is followed by scenes of Madonna, who portrays a character inspired by Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick with her eyebrows shaved off, driving a Mercedes-Benz W111 Convertible, visiting and walking around a nightclub where she dances with her friends and looks for her lover, Kier's character. According to Guilbert, the viewer is "obviously meant to gather [Madonna's character] has signed some kind of Faustian pact with the diabolical Udo Kier. But on second thought, you don't know exactly who possesses whom". Also present in the video are Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn, gay porn director Chi Chi LaRue, gay porn star Joey Stefano (who had also appeared on Sex), Madonna's long time friend and collaborator, actress Debi Mazar. Guilbert felt that by including gay porn performer Stefano and drag queen/gay porn director La Rue, Madonna was connecting with her gay audience as well as cementing her status as a gay icon:

"The images of 'Deeper and Deeper', associating drag, modeling, narcissism and lesbianism, provide a typical commentary on the construction of Madonna's success...[&] comfort Madonna's gay icon status, especially when you spot on the disco dance floor the voluminous drag queen Chi Chi LaRue, famous singer and director of gay pornographic movies".

Other Warhol references in the video include a scene where Madonna and her girlfriends peel and eat a banana, sit on a couch and watch a long haired male stripper flex and exhibit himself on a mattress on the floor. The bananas have been thought to be a reference to the cover art of The Velvet Underground & Nico, designed by Warhol. Guilbert also noted that during this particular scene, Stefano looked like "a cross between Andy Warhol's fetish actor Joe Dallesandro and Iggy Pop"; Dallesandro himself was allegedly approached by Madonna's people to do a cameo but declined the offer. Guilbert also pointed out the scenes of Madonna driving the Mercedes as a direct reference to Visconti's works; "She likes Visconti so much (even more than Fellini) that it is possible to wonder whether her tributes to Marlene Dietrich are not occasionally filtered through her memorable scene of La caduta degli dei, when Helmut Berger impersonates Dietrich". Up until 2009, the music video had never been commercially available; for unknown reasons, it wasn't included on 1999's The Video Collection 93:99. It was not until 10 years later that it was finally included on Madonna's Celebration: The Video Collection compilation In March 2015, LGBT-oriented magazine Out placed the video at number 20 of their list "Madonna's 20 Most Stylish Videos"

 

November 11: * (7) Erotica hits US #2.

On November 7 1992, Madonna’s Erotica hit #2 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart in the USA with first week sales of 167,000 copies. It was held off from reaching the top spot by Garth Brooks's fourth studio album, The Chase, which that same week sold 4,000 copies more than Erotica. The next week, the album dropped to number four on the chart. It was eventually certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of two million units. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Erotica has sold 1.91 million copies in the United States as of December 2016, along with 79,000 sold through BMG Music ClubsIn Australia, the album debuted at number one on the ARIA albums chart, and was certified triple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 210,000 copies. It also reached the top five on the New Zealand Albums Chart. Erotica reached a peak of number five on the Japan Oricon albums chart, and received a double platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for shipping 400,000 copies.

Arion Berger of Rolling Stone magazine gave Erotica 4 out of 5 stars and said:

It took Madonna ten years, but she finally made the record everyone has accused her of making all along. Chilly, deliberate, relentlessly posturing. Erotica is a post-AIDS album about romance — it doesn’t so much evoke sex as provide a fetishistic abstraction of it. She may have intended to rattle America with hot talk about oral gratification and role switching, but sensuality is the last thing on the album’s mind. Moving claustrophobically within the schematic confines of dominance and submission, Erotica plays out its fantasies with astringent aloofness, unhumid and uninviting. The production choices suggest not a celebration of the physical but a critique of commercial representations of sex — whether Paul Verhoeven’s, Bruce Weber’s or Madonna’s — that by definition should not be mistaken for the real thing. It succeeds in a way the innocent post-punk diva of Madonna and the thoughtful songwriter of Like a Prayer could not have imagined. Its cold, remote sound systematically undoes every one of the singer’s intimate promises.

Clinical enough on its own terms when compared with the lushness and romanticism of Madonna’s past grooves, Erotica is stunningly reined in; even when it achieves disco greatness, it’s never heady. Madonna, along with coproducers Andre Betts and Shep Pettibone, tamps down every opportunity to let loose — moments ripe for a crescendo, a soaring instrumental break, a chance for the listener to dance along, are over the instant they are heard. Erotica is Madonna’s show (the music leaves no room for audience participation), and her production teases and then denies with the grim control of a dominatrix.

Against maraca beats and a shimmying horn riff, Erotica introduces Madonna as “Mistress Dita,†whose husky invocations of “do as I say†promise a smorgasbord of sexual experimentation, like the one portrayed in the video for Justify My Love. But the sensibility of Erotica is miles removed from the warm come-ons of Justify, which got its heat from privacy and romance — the singer’s exhortations to “tell me your dreams.†The Madonna of Erotica is in no way interested in your dreams; she’s after compliance, and not merely physical compliance either. The song demands the passivity of a listener, not a sexual partner. It’s insistently self-absorbed — Vogue with a dirty mouth, where all the real action’s on the dance floor.

Look (or listen) but don’t touch sexuality isn’t the only peep-show aspect of this album; Erotica strives for anonymity the way True Blue strove for intimacy. With the exception of the riveting Bad Girl, in which the singer teases out shades of ambiguity in the mind of a girl who’d rather mess herself up than end a relationship she’s too neurotic to handle, the characters remain faceless. It’s as if Madonna recognizes the discomfort we feel when sensing the human character of a woman whose function is purely sexual. A sex symbol herself, she coolly removes the threat of her own personality.

Pure disco moments like the whirligig Deeper and Deeper don’t need emotional resonance to make them race. But the record sustains its icy tone throughout the yearning ballads (Rain, Waiting) and confessional moods (Secret Garden). Relieved of Madonna’s celebrity baggage, they’re abstract nearly to the point of nonexistence — ideas of love songs posing as the real thing. Even when Madonna draws from her own life, she’s all reaction, no feeling: The snippy Thief of Hearts takes swipes at a man stealer but not out of love or loyalty toward the purloined boyfriend, who isn’t even mentioned.

By depersonalizing herself to a mocking extreme, the Madonna of Erotica is sexy in only the most objectified terms, just as the album is only in the most literal sense what it claims to be. Like erotica, Eroticais a tool rather than an experience. Its stridency at once refutes and justifies what her detractors have always said: Every persona is a fake, the self-actualized amazon of Express Yourself no less than the breathless baby doll of Material Girl. Erotica continually subverts this posing to expose its function as pop playacting. The narrator of Bye Bye Baby ostensibly dumps the creep who’s been mistreating her, but Madonna’s infantile vocal and flat delivery are anything but assertive — she could be a drag queen toying with a pop hit of the past. Erotica is everything Madonna has been denounced for being — meticulous, calculated, domineering and artificial. It accepts those charges and answers with a brilliant record to prove them.

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November 8: Sex hits #1 on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list.
 

November 16: Madonna attends the New York premiere of Spike Lee film Malcolm X at the Ziegfeld Theatre.

November 17: "Deeper and Deeper" was written by Madonna, Shep Pettibone and Anthony Shimkin, and produced by Madonna and Pettibone. It was released by Maverick Records as the album's second single on November 17, 1992. A shortened version of the song was included on Madonna's second greatest hits compilation, GHV2 (2001). "Deeper and Deeper" is a dance-oriented song, and features instrumentation from acoustic guitars and castanet beats on its bridge. Lyrically, the song talks about sexual desire, though it has been argued that it's actually about a young man coming to terms with his homosexuality.

Pettibone recalled:

"Deeper and Deeper" was one of those songs she always had a problem with. The middle of the song wasn't working. We tried different bridges and changes, but nothing worked. In the end, Madonna wanted the middle of the song to have a flamenco guitar strumming big-time. I didn't like the idea of taking a Philly house song and putting 'La Isla Bonita' in the middle of it. But that's what she wanted, so that's what she got.â€

November 21: Madonna is named Most Popular International Solo Female Artist at the 2nd annual Australian Music Awards.
 

November 24: "Deeper And Deeper" video premieres on MTV.

In Canada, the song Erotica peaked at number 13 of the RPM Top Singles chart, the week of November 21, 1992

November 26: In Paris, a Catholic group called The Future Of Culture files 2 lawsuits against Madonna and her publisher for corrupting the French youth with pornography and to have all copies of Sex book destroyed.

December

MADONNA INTERVIEW : VOX (DECEMBER 1992)

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Madonna on Australian TV - Madonna interviewed by Richard Carleton for Australian TV rec: December 1992

https://vimeo.com/88735467

 

Madonna on Mexican TV - Madonna interviewed on Mexican TV rec: December 1992 https://vimeo.com/87932305

 

Madonna on The NewMusic - Madonna interviewed by Jana Lynne White for The NewMusic TV Show

rec: December 1992

https://vimeo.com/90417962

 

Madonna on Japanese TV - Madonna interviewed for Japanese TV rec: December 1992 https://vimeo.com/90450005
 

December 1: Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles, CA declares this day "Frederick's Of Hollywood Day" to celebrate the return of Madonna's bustier which was stolen on April 30 during the Los Angeles riots.

December 5: Upon its release, "Deeper and Deeper" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 38 the week of December 5, 1992. It quickly climbed up the chart, ultimately peaking at number 7 on the week of January 30, 1993. The single also topped the Hot Dance Club Play chart and reached number two on the US Pop Chart. On the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart, "Deeper and Deeper" came in at number 66. In Canada, the song debuted at number 5 on the RPM Top Singles chart, the week of January 23, 1993. It eventually reached the second position of the chart, on February 13, 1993, after three weeks. It also reached number 35 on the RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. It ranked at number 34 on the RPM Year-end chart for 1993.

December 6: Madonna wins Best Female Solo Singer and Most Fanciable Female at the 5th annual Smash Hits Awards in London, England.
 

December 7: The Future Of Culture group loses a court battle against Madonna to have copies of her book destroyed in France.

December 9: Madonna attends a press conference to promote her new film Body Of Evidence at the Rihga Royal Hotel, Manhattan, NY.
 

December 10: "Erotica" single is certified gold (500,000 units).

December 11: Madonna is interviewed by Valerie Pringle on CTV's Canada A.M. and on ABC-TV's Entertainment Tonight.

December 12: In the United Kingdom, "Deeper and Deeper" reached a peak at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart the week of December 12, 1992, and was present on the top 100 for a total of 9 weeks. As of 2008, the single has sold over 136,800 copies in the United Kingdom. 

December 13: In Australia, "Deeper and Deeper" peaked at number 11 on the ARIA Singles Chart the week of December 13, 1992. It remained on that position for three weeks and a total of 10 weeks on the chart. In France, it became the only single from Erotica to reach the top 20, peaking at number 17 of the SNEP Single Charts. It remained on this position for one week and a total of 7 weeks on the chart. The song was successful in Italy, where it topped the FIMI Single Charts. On the year-end Italian charts, the song was ranked at number 44. In Austria the song peaked at number 30. In other countries such as Belgium, Ireland and New Zealand, it managed to peak within the top 10 of the charts.

December 14: Madonna wins the Sour Apple Award given to a celebrity "who most believes his or her own popularity" from the Hollywood Women's Press Club at the 52nd annual Golden Apple Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA.

December 14,15: Madonna is featured in a 2-part interview with Bryant Gumbel on NBC-TV's Today.
 

December 19: Sex is voted Hype Of The Year by readers of NME magazine in UK.
 

December 28: Madonna is named one of the "25 Most Intriguing People In The World For 1992" by People magazine.

 

MADONNA INTERVIEW : YM MAGAZINE (DEC 1992 / JAN 1993)

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1993

January 6: Erotica is certified 2x platinum (2 million units).

On January 6 1993, Madonna’s Erotica album was certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of 2 million units in the USA.
 

January 15: Body Of Evidence is released nationwide.

Body of Evidence is a 1993 American erotic thriller film produced by Dino De Laurentiis and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and originally had the rare NC-17 rating. It was directed by Uli Edel and written by Brad Mirman. The film stars Madonna and Willem Dafoe, with Joe Mantegna, Anne Archer, Julianne Moore and Jürgen Prochnow in supporting roles.

The first theatrical release was censored for the purpose of obtaining an R rating, reducing the film's running time from 101 to 99 minutes. The video première, however, restored the deleted material. Madonna's performance in the film was universally derided by film critics and it marked her fourth film acting performance to be widely panned, following Shanghai Surprise, Who's That Girl and Bloodhounds of Broadway.

In France and Japan, the film was released under the name Body. In Japan Madonna's other 1993 film Dangerous Game was released there as Body II even though the films have nothing in common nor are related to each other in narrative.

January 16: Madonna is musical guest on NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live: she performs "Fever" and "Bad Girl".

Saturday Night Live NBC TV Show - Location: NBC Studios in New York City, NY, United States

January 17: Body Of Evidence grosses $6.5 million at the US box-office on its opening weekend.
 

January 18: Madonna is interviewed on CBS-TV's This Morning.
 

January 20: Madonna guests on Parita Doppia TV show to promote Body Of Evidence in Rome, Italy.

January 22: Madonna on TF1 - Madonna interviewed for TF1 Channel in France rec: January 22 1993

January 23: Pippo Baudo Interview with Madonnam - Pippo Baudo interviewed Madonna for Rai Uno TV Show Partita Doppia January 26 1993


 

January 30: "Deeper And Deeper" hits US #7.

On January 30 1993, the second single from Madonna’s Erotica album, Deeper and Deeper, hit #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA.

Slant Magazine ranked Deeper and Deeper at number 33 on their list of 100 Best Singles of the 1990s:

“Among Madonna’s finest achievements, the angsty pop anthem Deeper and Deeper is both an acute distillation of Erotica ’​s smut-glam decadence and the singer’s lifelong blond ambition.â€

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January Interviews

Madonna on Entertainment Tonight - Madonna interviewed on Entertainment Tonight January 1993

Madonna on Showbiz - Madonna interviewed for CNN's Showbiz rec: January 1993

Madonna on GR-TV Movie Preview - Madonna interviewed on GR-TV's Movie Preview Show January 1993

Jimmy Carter Interview with Madonna - Jimmy Carter interviewed Madonna for his "Crook & Chase" TV Show January 1993

Madonna on NBC Today - Madonna interviewed by Bryant Gumbel for NBC Today January 1993

Madonna on Showtime - Madonna interviewed for Showtime January 1993

Madonna on MTV - Madonna interviewed by Kurt Loder for MTV January 1993 https://vimeo.com/86834532#at=3

Madonna on Channel 7 - Madonna interviewed by John Klekamp for Channel 7 rec: January 1993 https://vimeo.com/90392456#at=1

Madonna on 60 Minutes - Madonna interviewed by Michael Wallace for Australian TV Show "60 Minutes" rec: January 1993

https://vimeo.com/86973023

 

Madonna on Japan TV - Madonna interviewed for Japanese TV rec: January 1993 https://vimeo.com/87745657

 

February 2: "Bad Girl" single is released.

"Bad Girl" was written by Madonna, Shep Pettibone and Anthony Shimkin, and produced by Madonna and Pettibone. The song was released as the third single from the album on February 2, 1993 by Maverick Records. Lyrically, the song describes a woman that is unhappy with her life because she believes she is behaving badly, due to the sadness that has overwhelmed her since the end of a romantic relationship.

In late 1991, Madonna started meeting with Shep Pettibone in his apartment studio to begin working on her forthcoming album Erotica. "Bad Girl," along with the songs "Erotica," "Deeper and Deeper," "Rain," and "Thief of Hearts" made up the first batch of songs that they worked on together - Madonna writing the lyrics to the songs as Pettibone worked on the music. The mindset of the sessions was one of "low-tech standards." For example, the vocals to "Bad Girl" were recorded using an older style SM57 microphone because Pettibone felt that "sometimes, older is better." According to Pettibone, the writing of "Bad Girl" (along with the album track "In This Life") was evidence that the Erotica album was taking a more melancholy turn, instead of just being "up-and-happy music." Pettibone went on to say that at that point Madonna's stories were getting a lot more "serious and intense" and she was definitely driving the creative direction of the songs into "deeply personal territory.†Bad Girl was released as the third single off of Erotica in February 1993.

 

February 8: Madonna begins filming Dangerous Game, co-starring Harvey Kietel and James Russo, directed by Abel Ferrerra.
 

February 11: "Bad Girl" video premieres on MTV.

On February 11 1993, Madonna’s Bad Girl video premiered on MTV. The video was directed by David Fincher.

Matt Dillon has a short uncredited cameo in the video

After directors Ellen von Unwerth and Tim Burton both rejected offers to direct the music video, it was eventually directed by David Fincher, who worked with Madonna on her videos for "Express Yourself", "Oh Father" and "Vogue." it was filmed on location in New York City on January 12–18, 1993. Besides Walken, the video also features appearances by actors Mark Margolis, Tomas Arana, Rob Campbell, James Rebhorn, and an uncredited cameo appearance from Matt Dillon, who plays a crime scene detective.

The video clip was the first time that Madonna was shown wearing penciled-on eyebrows, after shaving them prior to the filming of the video for her previous single "Deeper and Deeper." Madonna said her idea for the video was influenced by the 1977 American film "Looking for Mr. Goodbar - a film in which the main female character is stabbed to death by a one-night stand. It also took inspiration from the 1987 Franco-German romantic fantasy film "Wings of Desire" - a film which includes invisible, immortal angels populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of the human inhabitants and comfort those who are in distress.

When Scott Kearnan of Boston.com included "Bad Girl" on his list of "30 Best Madonna Songs," he commented that the cinematic music video for the song reinforces the fact that "while Madonna is indisputably sex-positive, her outlook on the complex emotional intersections of sex, power, and self-confidence is not without nuance." In his book Madonna as Postmodern Myth, author Georges-Claude Guilbert describes the video as "a masterpiece of the [music video] genre" which coveys a "conventional moral message" of the possible dangers of a one-night stand. In a 2012 Billboard Magazine reader's poll which ranked Madonna's best music videos, "Bad Girl" was voted in at number nine.

February 17: A League Of Their Own is released on home video.

February 20: In the United States, "Bad Girl" debuted at Billboard Hot 100 at number 75 in the issue dated February 20, 1993. In its sixth week of charting, the song peaked at number 36, becoming Madonna's first single to miss the top 20 and breaking her streak of 27 consecutive top 20 hits that had begun with "Holiday", in 1983. The single remained on the chart for 11 weeks. "Bad Girl" performed moderately well on the Hot 100 Singles Sales and Hot 100 Airplay charts, peaking at numbers 36 and 44 respectively. However, it reached the top spot on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart, thanks to the remixes of "Fever", which were included on the maxi single.

February 27: On February 27 1993, Madonna’s Bad Girl hit #60 (second week on the chart) in the USA, after a #75 debut the week before (February 20 1993).

Bad Girl is the only single release off of Madonna’s Erotica album that she did not perform on her Girlie Show World Tour of 1993.

February 27: Christophe Dechavanne Interview with Madonna - Christophe Dechavanne interviewed Madonna for TF1 February 27 1993

https://vimeo.com/90619410

March 4: Madonna wins Worst Video ("Erotica"), Worst Album Cover (Erotica) and Sexiest Female Artist in Rolling Stone magazine's 17th annual Readers Poll.

March 13: In the United Kingdom, "Bad Girl" debuted at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and reached its peak one week later, peaking at number ten on March 13, 1993. It remained on the chart for a total of seven weeks. The song also entered the top 10 in Italy and top 20 in Canada, where it peaked at numbers 3 and 20 respectively. The song also peaked at number 20 In Ireland, spending a total of five weeks on the IRMA singles chart. 

March 22: "Fever" (a remake of 1958 Peggy Lee song) is released as a UK single.

In 1992, Madonna was in the studio putting down tracks for the album and had just recorded a song called "Goodbye to Innocence". She was going through the final stages of production on the song and suddenly started singing the lyrics to "Fever" over "Goodbye to Innocence". Madonna liked the way it sounded so much that she recorded it. "Goodbye to Innocence" was never released on a Madonna album, although it did appear on Just Say Roe, a charity record, and a dub mix of it titled "Up Down Suite" was a bonus track to the "Rain" maxi-single. In September 2008, Madonna's version of "Fever" was used in television promos for the fifth season of Desperate Housewives.

According to author Rikky Rooksby, Madonna changed the composition of the original version by adding drum rhythms, accompanied by a beatbox sound like snare drums. Removing the chord progression of the original, Madonna introduces original lyrics into the song. Instrumentation of the track includes strings, marimba and finger-pops at various intervals throughout. Rooksby noticed that Madonna sang with a distant and disembodied voice, and relegated it to the dance music accompanying the lyrics. Describing it as Madonna's "unsexy music", Rooksby called it a "sterile track" and "certainly misplaced as the second track of her [Erotica] album".

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March 27: "Bad Girl" hits US #36.

On March 27 1993, Madonna’s Bad Girl peaked at number 36 on the Hot 100 in the USA, becoming her first single to miss the top 20 and breaking her streak of 27 consecutive top 20 hits that had begun with Holiday, in 1983.

The single remained on the chart for 11 weeks. Bad Girl performed moderately well on the Hot 100 Singles Sales and Hot 100 Airplay charts, peaking at numbers 36 and 44 respectively. It reached the top spot on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart, thanks to the remixes of Fever, which were included on the maxi single.

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April 3: "Fever" hits UK #6. (In US, "Fever" is unreleased as a single and only appears on B-side of "Bad Girl" CD maxi-single).

On April 3 1993, Fever entered the UK Singles Chart at its peak position of number-six. Without the support of a proper music video at the time of its release (Warner UK instead issued a rarely seen compilation video of previous clips), the single spent only six weeks on the UK charts, dropping to number-seven the following week.

Strangely, Madonna did eventually decide to film a video for the song in late April  – nearly a month after its release in Europe. By the time the video premiered during the second week of May, Fever was spending its final week on the UK Singles Chart.

In North America the remixes for Fever had been issued commercially on Madonna’s previous international single, Bad Girl. Fever was also serviced to clubs as a promotional single in its own right, but it was not promoted to radio despite the video being added to into rotation on MTV and MuchMusic. While the release of the music video managed to coincide with Fever’s single week atop the Hot Dance/Club Play chart, its number-one status had already been confirmed several days prior to the clip’s debut, making the video’s intended purpose and the timing of its release all the more puzzling.

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April 10,11: The music video for "Fever", directed by Stéphane Sednaoui, was shot on April 10–11, 1993 at Greenwich Studios in Miami, Florida, and received its world premiere on May 11, 1993, on MTV. It has since been made commercially available on the DVD collection, The Video Collection 93:99. The music video alternately features Madonna with a red wig and silver bodypaint in a variety of costumes dancing in front of funky, kaleidoscopic backgrounds. It showcases her posing like ancient goddesses. She is enveloped in a flame-like atmosphere and eventually burns up. In a review of the video, Jeremy Kinser of The Advocate criticized Madonna's look saying that the outfit by Jean Paul Gaultier she wears was "bizarre" and made her look "like she's pregnant with a duck-billed platypus". Charles Aaron writing for Spin magazine classified the clip as "dub".

April 11: In Australia, "Bad Girl" reached the top 40, peaking at number 32 on the ARIA singles chart the week of April 11, 1993. It spent a total of seven weeks on the chart. It also achieved top 40 success on the Swiss Singles Chart, New Zealand's RIANZ Singles Chart, and the Netherlands' Dutch Top 40 chart, peaking at numbers 25, 35, and 34 respectively. The song achieved modest success on the German Singles Chart, charting for nine weeks and peaking at number 47. On the French Singles Chart it peaked at number 44, charting for a total of four weeks.

April 15: Fever peaked at number one on the Finnish Singles Chart on April 15, 1993. In Ireland it managed to enter the top ten of the Irish Singles Chart, peaking at the position of six and charting for four weeks. Elsewhere, it peaked at numbers 12 in Italy, 17 in New Zealand, 22 on the Ultratop chart of the Flanders region in Belgium, 31 in France and 51 in Australia.

April 27: Madonna is honored for Best Songwriting for "This Used To Be My Playground" at the 8th annual ASCAP Film & Television Music Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA.

May:  The Box - Madonna and Anthony Kiedis (RHCP) appeared together in a Commercial for The Box cable channel. May 1993

https://vimeo.com/187446970
 

May 11: * May  "Fever" video premieres on MTV.

On May 11 1993, the music video for Fever premiered on MTV.

May 13:  Madonna performs "Fever" and a rendition of "The Lady Is A Tramp" on the 1,000th episode of The Arsenio Hall Show at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA. (The show will air on Fox-TV on May 14).

May 15: Although "Fever" was never officially released as a single in the United States, it managed to become a dance hit, becoming Madonna's 15th song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play. It topped the chart for the issue dated May 15, 1993 in its eleventh week of ascending.

MADONNA INTERVIEW : INTERVIEW MAGAZINE (JUNE 1993)

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May 16–19: The music video for "Rain" was filmed by director Mark Romanek during May 16–19, 1993 at a Santa Monica Airport hangar in Santa Monica, California. Other production crews include Krista Montagna as the producer, Harris Savides as the director of photography, Jon Peter Flack as the production designer, Robert Duffy as the editor, and David Bradshaw as the wardrobe stylist. The video was entirely shot in black and white and then hand-painted with blue tones. It displays Madonna during a film shoot, with Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto playing the director alongside a Japanese film crew. Romanek and Madonna initially wanted to get Jean-Luc Godard or Federico Fellini to play the director in the video. Romanek commented: "I came up with the basic idea of setting it in Tokyo and showing the film crew. It was very Zen, very stripped away. She was this accessible, vulnerable creature surrounded by the high-tech and the global." The director's primary inspiration came from watching a commercial by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, starring actress Catherine Deneuve. Madonna was also seen reclining on a riveted aluminium chaise lounge known as the Lockheed Lounge, designed by then unknown Marc Newson.

In the video, she wore a wig which provides "a waif-like cap of short black hair with spiky bangs." She also removed her trademark mole and got her eyebrows back, which had been virtually invisible in her previous videos. The look took inspirations from Paris in the 1940s, cabaret singer Ã‰dith Piaf and ingenues in general. Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons provided the minimalist black clothes in the video, while the ethereal white clothes was designed by Vivienne Westwood.

May 17: Arsenio Hall Show - 1000th Show Paramount TV Show - FEVER

THE LADY IS A TRAMP(with Anthony Kiedis)

Location: Hollywood Bowlin Los Angeles, CA, United States

https://youtu.be/8gaIFapiizk

https://youtu.be/AoDcctI6r5Y

June 16: Madonna signs a contract with ABC-TV to jointly develop and produce TV specials, movies and a 4-hour miniseries.
 

June 18: Body Of Evidence is released on home video.
 

June 21:  "Rain" video premieres on MTV. Madonna attends the New York premiere of film Sleepless In Seattle.

The video premiered on June 21, 1993 on MTV, and later won two categories for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards. It was ranked number 70 on Slant Magazine's "100 Greatest Music Videos" list. Sal Cinquemani from the publication called it as one of Madonna's most beautiful music video and said, "The waterlogged clip was a simple and refreshing break from the singer's visually sex-drenched Erotica period." He also pointed out that despite its innocent look, "it's difficult to separate the images from the song's double entendres." Jef Rouner from Houston Press called the video "one of Romanek's more light-hearted and definitely the most... purple of his work," as well as "a fascinating treatise on the act of creating a music video itself." Bryant Frazer from Studio Daily described it as a futuristic, overexposed look influenced by Japanese fashion imagery." He noted that the video "pushed the boundaries of telecine work at the time." Rettenmund called the video a "masterpiece about art and artifice". He noted that although Romanek expressed to create a video "devoid of nostalgia", instead the "Rain" clip "created a modern enigma [out of Madonna] who herself was no stranger to overexposure". The video was later commercially available on Madonna's video albums The Video Collection 93:99 (1999) and Celebration: The Video Collection (2009)

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July 6:  "Rain" single is released.

"Rain" is the album's fifth single internationally and the fourth single in North America. The song was written and produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone. The single release featured a previously unreleased track, "Up Down Suite", which is a 12-minute dub version of "Goodbye to Innocence", an omitted track recorded during the Erotica sessions. This version of the single also included a Danny Saber remix of the album track "Waiting" which features a rap by Everlast. In the United Kingdom, the single included the 1986 track "Open Your Heart" which was being used in a Peugeot car commercial at the time. "Rain" was later included on Madona's ballads compilation Something to Remember (1995) and has not appeared on any other compilation since.

A pop ballad with influence from trip hop and new-age music, "Rain" features a more "friendly" composition than the other singles released from the album. Lyrically the song likens rain to the empowering effect of love, and as with water's ability to clean and wash away pain. Like the other songs on Erotica, sexual contact is also a possible interpretation of the song.

She had initially written the song for a musical version to be directed by Alek Keshishian  based on the 1939 film, Wuthering Heights. Pettibone also sequenced, programmed, and played keyboards for the song. The recording process was engineered by P. Dennis Mitchell and Robin Hancock, while the mixing was engineered by Goh Hotoda. Another musician involved was Tony Shimkin, who provided the drum programming.

In the United States, "Rain" peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent a total of 20 weeks on the chart. On its component chart, the song reached number 11 on the Hot 100 Airplay and number 31 on the Hot Singles Sales. "Rain" was a considerable hit on Top 40 and adult contemporary radio stations, reaching number seven on both the Mainstream Top 40 and the Adult Contemporary charts. Additionally, the single also peaked at number 38 on the Rhythmic Top 40 and number 13 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales. The song was eventually allocated the number 67 position on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart for 1993. In 2013, Billboard ranked it as the 40th Madonna's biggest hit in the United States. In Canada, "Rain" achieved its highest chart placement, peaking at number two on the weekly Top Singles chart compiled by RPM magazine on September 18, 1993. It also became a top-ten hit on the RPM's Adult Contemporary chart, reaching number seven on October 23, 1993. It became the 15th best-selling single of 1993 in Canada.

"Rain" also found commercial success on several countries outside North America. In Australia, the song debuted at number 21 on the charts before rising and peaking at number five. The song remained her longest-charting single, staying in the charts for 20 weeks, until "Hung Up" (2005) remained on the charts for a total of 23 weeks. It was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 35,000 copies. In the United Kingdom, the song was also a success, peaking at number seven on the UK Singles Chart. According to the Official Charts Company, "Rain" has sold 130,771 copies in the United Kingdom as of August 2008. "Rain" also reached the top ten in Ireland and Italy, as well as the top twenty in New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland.

July 8:  Madonna begins rehearsals for a new tour called "The Girlie Show

July 17:  On July 17 1993, Rain was released as a single in North America. It was the fourth and final North American single from the Erotica album.

Following a cold reception to Madonna’s previous North American single – the bleak-but-beautiful Bad Girl â€“ Rain was given a glossy makeover by French record producer Daniel Abraham to help ensure that it would receive a warmer welcome from radio programmers. The U.S. promotional CD that was serviced to radio by Maverick/Warner offered the choice between the sweetened “Radio Remix†(in full-length and edited form) or an edited album version, which was fittingly used in the song’s gorgeous music video. As her label had correctly predicted, radio indeed favored the smoother sound of the “Radio Remix†over the darker, more dynamic (and in our opinion – more interesting) production-work of the original mix. While not an all-out smash hit, Rain was the first single from the Erotica album to impact Billboard’s Hot AC chart, where it reached the Top 10, and it is generally viewed as an initial recovery step following the backlash Madonna had faced in the wake of the Sexbook.

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Written and produced by Madonna & Shep Pettibone (unlike the majority of the tracks from Erotica, Tony Shimkin has not been added as co-writer, according to the Warner-Chappel publishing database), Rain was one of the earliest songs conceived during the Erotica album sessions. It appears as the first track on a two-cassette collection of demos from the album sessions submitted to the U.S. Library Of Congress for copyright registration. The infamously sought-after set is often referred to by fans as The Rain Tapes because of the song’s prominent placement in its sequencing and also due to the likely unintentional visual prominence of the song’s title in the handwritten sleeve notes that accompanied the tapes.

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The Rain maxi-single was perhaps most notable for its inclusion of a non-album track, Up Down Suite, which was for all intents and purposes a dub remix of album outtake, Goodbye To Innocence (which remained unreleased at the time, aside from some vocal samples used in a promo-only remix of Fever). A new remix (featuring Everlast) of the album track, Waiting, was also included on the North American maxi-single, while its original album version served as the single’s North American b-side.

With its poetically poignant and emotionally charged lyrics, percussive urgency and one of Madonna’s most ambitious uses of layered self-harmonization (not to mention it being accompanied by one of the most beautiful music videos ever created), it isn’t difficult to understand why Rain remains such an enduring fan favorite.

 

July 31:  On July 31 1993, the fifth single from Madonna’s Erotica album, Rain, debuted at #7 on the UK Singles Chart.

In Japan, a ten track Rain mini album or EP was later released to celebrate the single and the upcoming Girlie Show concerts.  As usual, Australia copied the release, but eliminated the obi-strip from their pressing.

The EP included the following tracks:

Rain (Radio Remix)
Waiting (Remix)
Up Down Suite
Rain (Album Version)
Bad Girl (Extended Mix)
Fever (Extended 12″)
Fever (Shep’s Remedy Dub)
Fever (Murk Boys Miami Dub)
Fever (Oscar G’s Dope Mix)
Rain (Video Edit)

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August: Madonna interviews Rosie O'Donnell for an article titled "Coming Up Rosie!" in Mademoiselle magazine.

September 2: Madonna performs "Bye Bye Baby" at the 10th annual MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA; "Rain" wins Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography.

MTV Video Music Awards

September 4: On September 4 1993, Madonna’s fifth single taken from her Erotica album, Rain, moved to #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA (after 7 weeks on the chart).

“Rain is a gorgeous romantic moment from Madonna’s sorely under-appreciated Erotica opus. A slow and seductive rhyme base surrounded by cascading, sparkling, synths inspires a sweet and charming vocal…A wonderfully constructed, memorable tune that deserves as much attention (and airplay) as it can garner.â€

– Billboard Magazine

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September 9: Dangerous Game premieres at the 50th annual Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy.
September 11: "Rain" hits US #14.
September 20: The Immaculate Collection is certified 4x platinum (4 million units).
September 25,26: "The Girlie Show" opens with 2 sold-out concerts at Wembley Stadium, London, England. "The Girlie Show" ends December 19, 1993

The Girlie Show World Tour (also referred to as simply The Girlie Show) was the fourth concert tour by Madonna, in support of her fifth studio album, Erotica. The tour visited the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia for the first time, selling 360,000 tickets in this leg only. Madonna's inspiration for the name of the tour was a painting called "Girlie Show" by Edward Hopper. The tour is estimated to have grossed over US$70 million. Two separate television specials were broadcast during the tour, one made during the Japanese leg of the tour and shown only on Japanese television; Madonna Live in Japan 1993 – The Girlie Show and an HBO special Madonna Live Down Under – The Girlie Show which was later released in 1994 by Warner Music Vision on home video.

Proclaiming after her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour that she would "never go on tour again", it only took her three years until she hit the road again. After that, she said that if "you ever hear me say again 'I'm never going on tour again', don't believe me."

The Girlie Show was launched in support of Madonna's 1992 album, Erotica. The show had the central visual theme of a "sex circus". Described as "a mixture of a rock concert, a fashion show, a carnival performance, a cabaret act and a burlesque show", the show had a more complex stage than those from Madonna's previous tours: it had a runway that led from the center of the main stage to a minor stage, a revolving elevated platform in the middle of the main stage, balconies in the rear of the stage, and a giant illuminated "Girlie Show" sign above stage, among other features. The tour was directed by Madonna's brother, Christopher Ciccone; costumes for the tour were designed by Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana.

Madonna played an unusually few five dates in the U.S. It was speculated that this was related to the Erotica album's particularly low sales in that country and the extreme negative backlash surrounding Madonna's book Sex and film Body of Evidence. The tour was chronicled by the photo book The Girlie Show, which included a CD with three live tracks: "Like a Virgin", "In This Life", and "Why's It So Hard."

Photography for promotional material, posters and publicity for the show was by Herb Ritts. The same imagery was used on the "Bye Bye Baby" single cover, which was released during the Australian leg of the tour and also on a Brazilian promotional EP, The Girlie Show which included the tracks "Erotica", "Deeper and Deeper", "Bad Girl", "Fever", "Rain" and "Bye Bye Baby". Other images from the same shoot were also included in The Girlie Show book released in 1994 and also on the 1993 single release, "Rain".

Some venues forbade nudity, so dancer Carrie Ann Inaba wore a halter top at those shows. Uproar developed in Puerto Rico after Madonna rubbed the Puerto Rican flag between her legs on stage. Trouble in Israel occurred when Orthodox Jews staged protests to force the cancellation of the singer's first-ever show in that country. The rallies were unsuccessful as the show was sold out and went on as scheduled.

The show was divided into four sections: Dominatrix, Studio 54, Weimar Cabaret, and Encore.

The broadcast was produced in association with HBO and was titled Madonna Live Down Under: The Girlie Show. Initially, the November 20 show, the second of two dates at the Sydney Cricket Ground, was to be filmed and aired. However, a massive storm forced the cancellation of the show, so the November 19 show, which had been filmed as a "safety show", was aired instead in USA (HBO) and Germany (Premiere). A month later an edited version of this original broadcast was shown on UK TV (Sky). A re-edited version of this concert was released worldwide on VHS and Laserdisc on April 26, 1994 as The Girlie Show: Live Down Under. It was nominated for the Grammy Award of Best Long Form Music Video in 1995.

Additional video recordings were made during the Japanese leg of the tour and shown only on Japanese television, Madonna Live in Japan 1993 – The Girlie Showand the October 7 show at the Inonu Stadium in Istanbul was aired on ATV in Turkey. UK radio station, BBC Radio 1, broadcast the entire second show at Wembley Stadium on December 26 and Brazilian radio broadcast the show at Maracanã stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with live commentary.

September: Juliette Hohnen Interview with Madonna - Juliette Hohnen interviewed Madonna for MTV's The Girlie Talk Special September 1993

September 28,29; October 1: Madonna performs at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, France.

October 2: Madonna's concert at the Festhalle in Frankfurt, Germany is cancelled due to technical difficulties.

October 4: Madonna performs at Hayarkon Park, Tel Aviv, Israel, despite protests staged earlier by jewish groups to cancel her show.
October 5: Madonna is profiled on A&E-TV's Biography.
October 7: Madonna performs at Inonu Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey.
October 11,12:  Madonna opens the North American leg of "The Girlie Show" at the SkyDome, Toronto, ON, Canada.
 

October 13:  Madonna attends the New York premiere of film Farewell, My Concubine, co-released by Maverick Pictures for US release.
 

October 14:  Rolling Stone: The 100 Top Music Videos includes "Express Yourself" #10, "Like A Prayer" #20, "Borderline" #24, "Vogue" #28, "Justify My Love" #43 and "Oh Father" #66 - Madonna has more videos on the list than any other artist or group.
 

October 14,15,17: Madonna performs 3 sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY.
October 19:  Madonna performs at The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA.
October 21:  Madonna performs at The Palace Of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI.
October 23:  Madonna performs at Olympic Stadium, Montreal, QC, Canada.
October 26:  Madonna performs at Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium, San Juan, Puerto Rico and causes a controversy when she pulls a Puerto Rican flag to her crotch in front of 26,000 fans; the Puerto Rican House of Representatives charges her with desecration of the flag and passes a resolution to condemn her.
October 30,31: Madonna performs at the River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

November 3: Madonna performs at Morumbi Stadium, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
November 6: Madonna performs to a sold-out crowd of 120,000 at Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
November 10,12,13: Madonna performs 3 sold-out concerts at Hermanos Rodriguez Autodromo, Mexico City, Mexico (which grosses a record $8,928,000) despite attempts by religious groups to keep her out of the country.

November 15: "Bye Bye Baby" was released on November 15, 1993, as the sixth and final single from the album. "Bye Bye Baby" was written by Madonna, Shep Pettibone, and Anthony Shimkin and was produced by Madonna and Pettibone. The song is inspired by Madonna's emotions of that time and her S&M thoughts. The song was recorded at Sound Works Studios in Astoria, New York.

Musically, it is a hip hop song, sampling a hook from LL Cool J's track "Jingling Baby", released in 1990. Madonna's vocals were filtered to make them appear as sound coming out from an antique radio. "Bye Bye Baby" features instrumentation from keyboard and lyrically finds Madonna asking questions to a lover she is about to abandon.

After the completion of filming A League of Their Own, Madonna began working on her fifth studio album Erotica with Shep Pettibone. The singer was feeling miserable after a string of failed relationships, and she vented out the frustration and depression in her music. According to Lucy O'Brien, author of Madonna: Like an Icon, there were no "sugar-coated" songs on the album, most of which dealt with Madonna's emotions. She appropriated a dominatrix persona called Dita, and the songwriting for the album, as well as the imagery in the coffee table book Sex, reflected her S&M thoughts. "Bye Bye Baby" was one such song written, dealing with strong emotions.

The release of "Bye Bye Baby" in Australia on November 15, 1993, coincided with Madonna's Australian leg of her Girlie Show World Tour. The single release of the song was accompanied by remixes, which did not vary much from the album version. Some of them have additional beats and horn sounds thrown into the original mix. In his review of the single, Jose F. Promis from AllMusic expressed that the album version was the best, and the "Madonna's Night on the Club" remix featured "swirling organs and guitar effects" set against an early-1990s house beat, making it the most interesting of the bunch.

November 17: Madonna arrives in Sydney, Australia and, as a gift, she is presented with a didgeridoo, a sacred Aboriginal instrument that only men are allowed to play or touch; the Australians are enraged to see her accept it as a gift.
 

November 19: Madonna performs at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia. Dangerous Game premieres in New York, NY.
 

November 20: Madonna - Live Down Under: The Girlie Show (taped Nov 19 at Sydney Cricket Ground) is broadcast on HBO-TV. In Australia, Madonna cancels a scheduled concert at Sydney Cricket Ground due to severe weather conditions.
 

November 24: Madonna performs at Brisbane Anz Stadium, Brisbane, Australia.

November 25: "Bye Bye Baby" received limited release, being officially released in Australasia, Germany and Japan. However, it peaked at number seven on the Italian Singles Chart despite not being officially released as a single in that country. It became the fifth single from the Erotica album to place within the top 10 there. On November 25, 1993, "Bye Bye Baby" debuted at number 39 on the Swiss Hitparade chart, and after three weeks it rose to its peak of number 28, before dropping off the chart. 
 

"Bye Bye Baby" entered the New Zealand charts at number 49 the chart week of November 25, 1993, but fell off the chart the following week. It re-entered the chart week of January 23, 1994, ultimately peaking at number 43.

On November 25 1993, Madonna’s Bye Bye Baby debuted at #39 on the Swiss Hit Parade chart, and after three weeks it rose to a peak of number 28, before dropping off the chart.

The Bye Bye Baby single cover was shot by Herb Ritts. This post includes outtakes from that photoshoot.

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November 26,27,29: Madonna performs 3 sold-out concerts at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia.
 

November 27: Madonna is named Most Popular International Solo Female Artist at the 3rd annual Australian Music Awards.

December 1: performs at Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, Australia.

December 3,4: Madonna performs 2 sold-out concerts at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia.

December 5: On December 5 1993, the final single from Madonna’s Erotica album, Bye Bye Baby, debuted at 31 on the Australian Singles Chart. The next week it peaked at number 15 on the chart. On February 6, 1994, after eight weeks, it fell off the chart. 

The single included the following versions of Bye Bye Baby:

Album Version

N.Y. Hip Hop Mix

California Hip Hop Jazzy

Madonna’s Night On The Club

Rick Does Madonna’s Dub

House Mix

Madonna Gets Hardcore

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December 7,8,9: Madonna performs at the Fukuoka Dome, Fukuoka, Japan.
 

December 13,14,16,17,19: "The Girlie Show" ends with 5 sold-out concerts at the Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan.

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1994

 

March 8: "I'll Remember (Theme From The Motion Picture With Honors)" single is released.

 

March 12: Madonna makes a surprise unannounced appearance at the AIDS Dance-A-Thon benefit in San Francisco, CA.

 

March 15: Madonna attends the 8th annual Soul Train Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA.

 

March 17: "I'll Remember (Theme From With Honors)" video premieres on BBC1-TV's Top Of The Pops.

 

March 20: wins a Razzie Award for Worst Actress in Body Of Evidence at the 14th annual Golden Raspberry Awards at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Academy Room, Los Angeles, CA.

 

March 21: I'll Remember (Theme From With Honors)" video premieres on MTV.

 

March 31: Madonna guests on CBS-TV's Late Show With David Letterman: during the 20-minute interview, she says the word "fuck" 13 times, makes obscene remarks and wisecracks, refuses to leave the set and is rude to her host; her lewd and vulgar behavior causes a public and media controversy and Letterman also expresses his displeasure by her appearance on his show.

https://vimeo.com/87932321

MADONNA INTERVIEW : LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN (MARCH 31 1994)

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April 26: "Madonna: The Girlie Show - Live Down Under" is released on home video and laserdisc. Madonna attends the Los Angeles premiere of Alek Keshishian film With Honors.

May: “MADONNA MAKES DANCE!†BY MADONNA : HARPER’S BAZAAR (MAY 1994)

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May 14: "Madonna: The Girlie Show - Live Down Under" hits US #3 on Top Music Videos chart. Madonna attends the opening of Planet Hollywood restaurant in Miami, FL.

May 18: Madonna makes a surprise appearance on NBC-TV's The Tonight Show (hosted by Jay Leno).

* (28) "I'll Remember (Theme From With Honors)" hits US #2.

Madonna interviewed by Jay Leno for his The Tonight Show air: May 18 1994 https://vimeo.com/90392457

June 14: "I'll Remember (Theme From With Honors)" single is certified gold (500,000 units).

June 15: Dangerous Game is released on home video.

June 24: Madonna attends "The Beat Goes On: The LifeBeat Benefit Concert" at the Beacon Theatre, New York, NY.

July: Madonna films a cameo appearance as a singing telegram girl for Wayne Wang and Paul Auster movie Blue In The Face.

 

July 19: Madonna contributes "Goodbye To Innocence" to benefit CD Just Say Roe.

 

July 26: Madonna files a temporary restraining order against 26-year-old Todd Lawrence, a deranged fan who is stalking Madonna at her Los Angeles, CA mansion and also claims to be her husband.

August: MADONNA INTERVIEW : ESQUIRE MAGAZINE (AUGUST 1994)

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August 23: Todd Lawrence is sentenced to one-year in jail on misdemeanor charges for stalking Madonna.

September 1: Madonna is named Diva Of The Decade by CD Review magazine.

 

September 8: Madonna and David Letterman present the Best Video Of The Year award to Aerosmith for "Cryin'" at the 11th annual MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY.

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Videos

 

Music Videos

1992

This Used To Be My Playground Music Video

Directed by Alek Keshishian

Cast: Madonna, Geena Davis and Rosie O’Donnell

 

Erotica X-Rated Music Video

Directed by Fabien Baron

Cast: Madonna, Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell, Udo Kier, Ingrid Casares and Big Daddy Kane

 

Erotica Music Video Edit

Directed by Fabien Baron

Cast: Madonna, Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell, Udo Kier, Ingrid Casares and Big Daddy Kane

 

Erotica Video Montage

 

Deeper And Deeper Music Video

Directed by Bobby Woods

Cast: Madonna, Udo Kier, Holly Woodlawn, Chi Chi LaRue, Joey Stefano, Debi Mazar and Sofia Coppola

 

Deeper And Deeper Music Video Censored

Directed by Bobby Woods

Cast: Madonna, Udo Kier, Holly Woodlawn, Chi Chi LaRue, Joey Stefano, Debi Mazar and Sofia Coppola

 

Deeper And Deeper Shep’s Classic 12″ Edit Video

Directed by Bobby Woods

Cast: Madonna, Udo Kier, Holly Woodlawn, Chi Chi LaRue, Joey Stefano, Debi Mazar and Sofia Coppola

1993

 

Bad Girl Music Video

Directed by David Fincher

Cast: Madonna, Christopher Walken, Mark Margolis, Tomas Arana, Rob Campbell, James Rebhorn and Matt Dillon

 

Bad Girl Music Video Censored

Directed by David Fincher

Cast: Madonna, Christopher Walken, Mark Margolis, Tomas Arana, Rob Campbell, James Rebhorn and Matt Dillon

 

Fever Music Video

Directed by Stephane Sednaoui

Cast: Madonna

https://youtu.be/rBjw9qqyk8I

 

Fever Video Montage 1993

 

Fever Murk Boys Miami Edit Remix Video

Directed by Stephane Sednaoui

Cast: Madonna

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x659a0_fever-murk-boys-miami-mix-edit_music

 

Rain Music Video

Directed by Mark Romanek

Cast: Madonna, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jenny Shimizuand Rika Ohara

https://youtu.be/t452MyUT_ts

 

Rain Radio Remix Video

Directed by Mark Romanek

Cast: Madonna, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jenny Shimizuand Rika Ohara

1994

 

Bye Bye Baby Live Down Under 
The Girlie Show Tour Live Montage Video

Directed by Mark Aldo Miceli

Cast: Madonna, Ungela Brockman, Christopher Childers, Michael Gregory, Carrie Ann Inaba, Jill Nicklaus, Ruth Inchaustegui, Luca Tommassini, Carlton Wilborn, Nicki Harris and Donna DeLory

https://youtu.be/pwhHjS9dXLE

 

The Rain Tapes

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQFGAH9DvFwDaIcQAY6nlG8zpE1UKICwM

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The Erotica articles are starting to appear in the media as we approach the 25th anniversary of this incredible album. Madonna faced a huge worldwide backlash over her SEX book and Erotica album and time has proven how brave and visionary she was by expressing herself and her sexuality in a very conservative time. No other major popular singer has ever dared to do what she did with these projects in the years since which is one reason why their legacy is so important and relevant 25 years later. Madonna broke down boundaries and changed the world #MadonnaForever (matt)

 

MADONNA’S ‘CAREER-ENDING’ ALBUM ‘EROTICA’ GETS ROCK HALL OF FAME RECOGNITION

http://www.inquisitr.com/4467746/madonna-erotica-hall-of-fame-sex-1992-backlash/

 

AUGUST 30, 2017

Daryl Deino

 

When Madonna released her album Erotica in October of 1992, she was called a slut, whore, and every other name used to demean women. She was even compared to Hitler. Madonna talked about the aftermath of the backlash while receiving an award from Billboard last December.

 

The book SEX, which was (incorrectly) seen as a pictorial accessory to the album, also caused a lot of backlash. It was at this point in her career that headlines ran day after day about Madonna’s career being over with. People were celebrating her alleged failures even though the book sold over a million copies worldwide while Erotica, which might not have lived up to sales of previous Madonna albums, still sold around six million copies.

 

The album actually earned some praise before the backlash really settled in. Rolling Stone gave the album four stars in November of 1992, calling it a post-AIDS album about romance. Entertainment Weekly, a magazine that had been so pro-Madonna throughout the early 1990s that some even joked they were on Madonna’s payroll, completely turned on Madonna with the release of Erotica. Music critic David Browne ripped on Madonna’s voice, her “coldness,†and her bad lyrics.

 

Erotica became known as the album that ended Madonna’s career. Of course, two years later, she released Bedtime Stories, which has sold around eight million copies worldwide and launched the longest-running No. 1 song of Madonna’s career,â€Take a Bow.†Then, there was 1998’s Ray of Light, an album many consider the peak of Madonna’s career. However, 25 years later, Erotica is considered a classic. Some even say Madonna’s most maligned album (at the time) became a groundbreaking moment for feminism.

 

1992 was a bad year for Madonna

Both ‘Sex’ and ‘Erotica’ arrived to seething criticism in October of 1992. [image by Kevork Djansezian/AP Images]

 

This past week, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has recognized Erotica as one of the most revolutionary albums of all time.

 

“If Madonna spent the ’80s detonating sexual boundaries, then she doubled down on her provocative stance with the release of 1992’s Erotica. From the first track, Erotica celebrates the agony and ecstasy of sex and desire. To articulate her lustful vibe, the album blends sinewy hip-hop grooves and glittery club beats,†the narrator says in the video, which features scenes from the video of Erotica, which was banned.

 

While Madonna fans celebrate the album being recognized, the sexual imagery in the video (as well as the book) has continued to be divisive within her fan base. There are those who think Madonna made an absolute mockery of herself at the time. However, there are others who think that by exploring her sexual fantasies, Madonna was groundbreaking in giving the world hardcore sexuality from a woman’s point of view – something that was a definite taboo in 1992.

 

It’s important to note that the album Erotica, as a whole, isn’t aural sex; it deals with self-destruction, AIDS awareness (another taboo topic at the time), tolerance of homosexuals (even more taboo for 1992), and one who is yearning for love. It produced some minor hits. The title track was one of the highest debuting singles ever, but immediately dropped off the charts. However, “Deeper and Deeper†became a decent hit in January of 1993. When the third single “Bad Girl†only peaked at No. 36, even Madonna’s biggest supporter Kurt Loder at MTV did a segment which announced the end of her career. It was a truly dark time for Madonna and the supporters she had left.

 

There are fans that are begging Madonna to release an updated 25th anniversary edition of Erotica in time for the holidays. However, judging by the way she was treated when the album was first released, perhaps Madonna doesn’t want to invest in something that will only bring back horrible memories.

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