💤 Susan Thomas’ Nap Time 💤

[prettydarq 8]

8 hours ago, steady75 said:

No no no awful picture.

it looks like her sleeping tablet hadn’t worn off in Truth or Dare Vibes. 
 

I don’t really like the Bedtime Story artwork. I wish the Bedtime Story single had been the album cover tbh but I’m not sure it fits with the sound too well. I’d love it for a deluxe tho. 

I’ve been saying this!!! It gives more a more alternative vibe rather than R&B but I’ve always thought it was beautiful enough to be the album cover. 

[Adonna 21,545]

5 hours ago, Redha DBL said:

Same. The artwork is absolutely not up to her level. To this day i still have a hard time understanding how such an intimate album has such a generic and cheap artwork. Madonna in the middle of the 90's could have done million times better. How could she validate that artwork is still a mystery to me. For Hard Candy i can blame it on the fact the 50yo crisis had just hit her but in 1994... Notice how they are her two rnb albums that have the two worst artworks (in my opinion).

Are you and @steady75 referring to the original commercial released artwork of Bedtime Stories or this pic below which has been rumored to be the original proposed cover?

I agree this doesn't do the album justice, but what was released commercially was beautiful. 

[GregVsMatt 3,938]

The black and white photo was rumoured on the internet since the early 2000's to be the original proposed cover for the album in 1994

[sbrombolessio 1,540]

1 hour ago, GregVsMatt said:

The black and white photo was rumoured on the internet since the early 2000's to be the original proposed cover for the album in 1994

The first time I saw this was on the MCatalog website I remember

[GregVsMatt 3,938]

1 hour ago, sbrombolessio said:

The first time I saw this was on the MCatalog website I remember

Yes Steve posted it and said it was the original planned cover but no evidence - it is an outtake from the session later used for Bedtime Story (UK Hologram 12") but no evidence M or Warner ever intended it as the cover art 

[Burroughs 926]

5 hours ago, Adonna said:

I agree this doesn't do the album justice, but what was released commercially was beautiful.

Agree. It's sophisticated and elegant. 

[steady75 10,347]

6 hours ago, Adonna said:

Are you and @steady75 referring to the original commercial released artwork of Bedtime Stories or this pic below which has been rumored to be the original proposed cover?

I agree this doesn't do the album justice, but what was released commercially was beautiful. 

Both tbh. The Bedtime Stories artwork it pretty below average for M. It’s more of a Sunday magazine supplement shoot. 
I like the font and the pink and blue though. 

[Redha DBL 7,888]

6 hours ago, Adonna said:

Are you and @steady75 referring to the original commercial released artwork of Bedtime Stories or this pic below which has been rumored to be the original proposed cover?

I agree this doesn't do the album justice, but what was released commercially was beautiful. 

 

43 minutes ago, steady75 said:

Both tbh. The Bedtime Stories artwork it pretty below average for M. It’s more of a Sunday magazine supplement shoot. 
I like the font and the pink and blue though. 

I'm talking about the released artwork (The back and white picture is mote interesting in my opinion). Sure the released picture is beautiful, i'm not denying it but the album artwork needed more than a "beautiful" picture. It needed a more artistic layer in my opinion. We know that the artwork went through some changes. What has been released was not Madonna's original idea and concept. Her original idea was way more original and artistic and for some reasons that i don't remember ( i'm sure some fans will explain to us) she had to modify her artistic vision and go for something beautiful but generic. Ironically that's excatly what happened too with Hard Candy, the artwork went through some changes and we also know Madonna has a strong idea and concept in mind while recording the album (The black Madonna concept wich in my opinion was genius. Controversially genius) and Guy O killed her artistic decision by saying to her "No you're not doin it it's too controversial" and as result she went through many directions (the boxing ring theme, then the boxing wallpapers background, to end with the lollypop candy theme...). Record companies, managers etc... should never comprimise Madonna's artistic visions, especially when it comes to her visual image. If she had her way for Bedtime Stories and Black Madonna (her original title for Hard Candy) those two albums would be even more iconic to this day and for history.

[DanK 12,596]

Hard to judge this unreleased photo until we get to see it uncropped and in decent quality. But the released Roversi photos from that same shoot look rather wonderful, imo.

[Redha DBL 7,888]

30 minutes ago, DanK said:

Hard to judge this unreleased photo until we get to see it uncropped and in decent quality. But the released Roversi photos from that same shoot look rather wonderful, imo.

Way better than the released imagery. That is her original artistic vision for the album and it shows.

[cosmic_system 3,391]

6 hours ago, GregVsMatt said:

The black and white photo was rumoured on the internet since the early 2000's to be the original proposed cover for the album in 1994

Actually it was confirmed by her in the Aperture interview from 1999 (the magazine that published the photo). 
 

I also had my photograph taken by this other photographer who I adored, but the photographs never got used: Paolo Roversi, he does beautiful work. They were going to be pictures for my album cover—not this record but the record before—but the people at the record company were all too freaked out; they thought the pictures were too blurry, they weren’t going to read well—whatever.

https://archive.aperture.org/article/1999/3/3/madonna-with-vince-aletti

Since Aperture published that picture I believe it was the one intended for the cover. 
Or maybe it was the one used for the BS limited vinyl. 

[chaseturtle 216]

6 hours ago, sbrombolessio said:

The first time I saw this was on the MCatalog website I remember

I miss that site & Steven Caraco! What ever happened to him?

[sbrombolessio 1,540]

10 minutes ago, chaseturtle said:

I miss that site & Steven Caraco! What ever happened to him?

Really don't know.

He closed the site, there was a sort of statement he made regarding M fans and moving forward, but it was so long ago, I don't recall exactly.

[nito84bcn 3,005]

2 hours ago, Redha DBL said:

 

I'm talking about the released artwork (The back and white picture is mote interesting in my opinion). Sure the released picture is beautiful, i'm not denying it but the album artwork needed more than a "beautiful" picture. It needed a more artistic layer in my opinion. We know that the artwork went through some changes. What has been released was not Madonna's original idea and concept. Her original idea was way more original and artistic and for some reasons that i don't remember ( i'm sure some fans will explain to us) she had to modify her artistic vision and go for something beautiful but generic. Ironically that's excatly what happened too with Hard Candy, the artwork went through some changes and we also know Madonna has a strong idea and concept in mind while recording the album (The black Madonna concept wich in my opinion was genius. Controversially genius) and Guy O killed her artistic decision by saying to her "No you're not doin it it's too controversial" and as result she went through many directions (the boxing ring theme, then the boxing wallpapers background, to end with the lollypop candy theme...). Record companies, managers etc... should never comprimise Madonna's artistic visions, especially when it comes to her visual image. If she had her way for Bedtime Stories and Black Madonna (her original title for Hard Candy) those two albums would be even more iconic to this day and for history.

Guy Oseary did the correct thing. No black face Madonna. 

[stefo 7,707]

I agree about the Roversi pic being much more interesting and coherent with the album. It was a simple and expressive idea: no make up, no masks. Intimacy, authenticity and softness. That's what Bedtime Stories is actually. Roversi is italian and he perfectly fitted the tone of the album as he's well known as a fashion photographer to be able to confer emotional layers to his pics. So, yes, the released one is more beautiful and glamourous but M's plan was more ... M. Especially from that kinda rough esthetic period, wich remains the most inspired and interesting of her career imo.

Said that, I sooo agree with @steady75 about the helvetica font and the pastel chromatic range, it's the most elegant she ever used. Imagining that on the Roversi blurry pic really makes a great cover for me! I suddenly looked for the name of the font when I had my first computer in my teen years as obsessed as I was with that  I still remember the lettering animated effect of the italian tv promo, where the letters originally separated moved to grow on each other getting the cover shape so softly and romantically, with the Secret beats and guitar sound on the background. It all looked like an elegant cloud, unfortunately I can't find the adv on YT.

About Hard Candy, I have to say that I'm not sure honestly the black Madonna being a good idea. It could have caused controversy, wich is a very good thing IF there's a real content, something meaningful, behind it imo. In that case the album was lirically (and musically) so ordinary and flat that it would have not fitted. And in a fan like me it could have created much higher expectations ... at least that trashy cover was honest: I had to do this, I had no ideas and no ispirations so let's just make some generic trandy noise and let's hope I'll get some more US sales back   The pic with the papers on her back would have been better though.

[Adonna 21,545]

3 hours ago, DanK said:

 

 

I love this photo, but I don't think this would have made for a good album cover. However, I think it would have been awesome as a lithograph inserted in the album if not part of the booklet.  I personally loved what was actually released and thought she looked very beautiful on that cover and throughout the booklet along with other press images coming out during that era.  I would have no issue with the above (or other rare images)  being included in part of some new re-issue or some other curated project surrounding this album.