Bedtime Story by Madonna Lyrics Meaning – Unraveling the Consciousness in Madonna’s Dreamlike Odyssey
Lyrics
They’ve gone out, lost their meaning
Don’t function anymore
Let’s, let’s, let’s get unconscious honey
Let’s get unconscious honey
Today is the last day that I’m using words
They’ve gone out, lost their meaning
Don’t function anymore
Traveling, leaving logic and reason
Traveling, to the arms of unconsciousness
Traveling, leaving logic and reason
Traveling, to the arms of unconsciousness
Let’s get unconscious honey
Let’s get unconscious
Let’s get unconscious honey
Let’s get unconscious
Words are useless, especially sentences
They don’t stand for anything
How could they explain how I feel
Traveling, traveling, I’m traveling
Traveling, traveling, leaving logic and reason
Traveling, traveling, I’m gonna relax
Traveling, traveling, in the arms of unconsciousness
Let’s get unconscious honey
Let’s get unconscious
Let’s get unconscious honey
Let’s get unconscious
And inside we’re all still wet
Longing and yearning
How can I explain how I feel?
Let’s get unconscious honey
Let’s get unconscious
Let’s get unconscious honey
Let’s get unconscious
Traveling, traveling
Traveling, traveling
Traveling, traveling
Traveling, traveling, in the arms of unconsciousness
And all that you’ve ever learned
Try to forget
I’ll never explain again
In the fabric of Madonna’s extensive discography, ‘Bedtime Story,’ a track that is often overlooked in favor of her more pop-centric anthems, is a rich tapestry of introspective and psychoanalytical threads. Written with the collaborative genius of Björk, Nellee Hooper, and Marius De Vries, the song is an invitation into the labyrinthine recesses of the subconscious mind.
‘Bedtime Story’ eschews the Top 40 fodder for a surreal departure into darker, more contemplative waters. It is a lucid dream set to music, an exploration of the ineffable nature of feelings contrasted against the impotence of language. Through this lyric analysis, the veil is lifted on one of Madonna’s most enigmatic musical ventures.
Surrendering Speech: The Exhaustion of Words
Madonna opens the gates to ‘Bedtime Story’ with a statement of resignation concerning spoken language: ‘Today is the last day that I’m using words.’ This opening gambit is not merely a flight of fancy but a deliberate acknowledgment of the limits of verbal communication. The lines bespeak a frustration, a realization that the most profound experiences skirt the edge of articulability.
The repetition of words having ‘lost their meaning’ and no longer ‘function’ serves as a mantra for the onset of a journey. Madonna posits that to truly touch the essence of feeling and existence, one must move beyond the confinements of structured discourse and dive into the more primordial language of sensation, emotion, and instinct.
The Psychic Voyage: A Dive into the Subconscious
With ‘traveling,’ Madonna continues her thematic odyssey, recurring to it with the insistence of a pilgrim’s steps. This traveling is not one bounded by physical geography but rather signifies a shift from the tangible world into a boundless psychic expanse. She beckons listeners to abandon ‘logic and reason,’ those twin guardians of the conscious mind, to embrace the ‘arms of unconsciousness’ where deeper truths may lie.
By stating ‘I’m gonna relax,’ there is an implication that the surrender to unconsciousness is also a release from the strains and stresses of conscious thought. It is in this mental unmooring that Madonna offers an opportunity for self-discovery and introspection, bolstered further by the hypnotic musical backdrop that emulates the waves of dream states.
The Hidden Meaning: Exploring Emotional Profundity
‘And inside we’re all still wet / Longing and yearning.’ These lines, soaked in visceral imagery, succinctly capture the song’s hidden narrative—our newborn selves, unadulterated by the constructs of reality. Madonna touches on the innate human experience of desire, the intrinsic drive that remains untouched and unexplained by words.
The mention of being ‘wet’ also alludes to a rebirth, as if through the journey back into the unconscious, one emerges anew, stripped of social conditionings. It is through this journey Madonna advocates, where buried impulses and the wellspring of creativity are allowed to surface, inviting listeners to a world in which they can ‘explain how [they] feel’ beyond the shackles of language.
The Melodic Enchantment: A Spellbinding Soundscape
‘Bedtime Story’ is cradled by its ethereal sound, elevating its lyrical message into an otherworldly experience. The beats and electronic textures guide us into a trance, creating a sonic cocoon that mirrors the descent into the depths of Madonna’s dream state. Here, music is its own language, negotiating the spaces words fail to touch.
The production choices are not incidental but integral to how the song communicates its intent. As the track progresses, a crescendo of layers folds into one another, developing into a sprawling sound that defies linear narrative structures, much like the non-sequential logic of dreams themselves.
Memorable Lines: An Invitation to Disremember
In an arresting conclusion to her thoughtful soliloquy, Madonna invokes the verse ‘And all that you’ve ever learned / Try to forget.’ The paradox of seeking knowledge and then being bidden to unlearn it suggests a cyclical view of wisdom.
Here lies one of the song’s most powerful takeaways: to engage with the essence of our beings, we may need to suspend acculturated truths and judgments. It speaks to a liberation from dogma, a cleansing of the mental palate to taste experiences anew, fostering a reacquaintance with the world unencumbered by preconceived notions.
