| Tori Amos – Curtain Call Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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With Curtain Call, Tori is reflecting back on her life and choices so far in the industry. Hence the line, "The looking glass reflects". She knows she's not the only one, obviously, this happens alot in the same sorts of ways in the entertainment industry. By the time you're 25 They will say, "you've gona and blown it." By the time you're 35, I must confide, You will have blown them all Right on cue just act surprised When they invite you to take Your curtain call This part isn't necessarily Tori's life, but it's what generally happens to starlets in the industry. They try and manipulate you to make you feel like a loser. So then you change yourself to become what they want, to please them all. Then, after all this manipulation and control they have you under, you have to have known that they'd just take it all away anyway and make you take your final curtain call. Ebony Beauty to me isn't about piano keys. It's about the beauty existing within darkness - but she wants the shade to pass. Finding the power of a bad situation, and growing with it. There are two different events in this song: 1) The time when perhaps a label told her, "This isn't personal, but you have to go. It's just circumstantial that you're not selling as much as we'd like". And she replies, "you're right, it never is personal, it's actually the opposite with you cold people." Then she "rams her hand into her bag" to deal with this pain however she needs to. Whether it be a substance, or whatever...she just doesn't know to PROTECT herself yet like she learns later in life. 2) The second part of the song is when she signed on with this current new label through friend. But now, she's not so trusting after going through what she has in her life. They're saying to her, "This is not business, it's more like spiritual". But she can't trust anymore. This time instead of ramming her hand in her bag for just a way to make her feel better - now she's learned to protect herself. She's parallelling herself with a drug addict, turning into a prostitute, obviously. That's how things can progress in this business. She's still a whore, in other words since she still has to be signed to a label to put out music. But at least she's protecting herself this time. |
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| Tori Amos – Code Red Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Hahah, everworld made me smile VERY big. Funny. Anyway, I'm also sure this is a direct reference to issues with the cheap taste of the record industry. A six pack of Coke and a bottle of Jack is nothing compared to some classy wine. The industry is mostly for six packs of coke and bottles of jack, not wine. I kept telling my boyfriend when I first heard this song, "This is her last tour or her last record with this label or something, she sounds like she is aggrivated. She wants to write abstract music they wont let her do" Hence the line, "I'll do this last one, and I'll grow me some wine." And boy has she made wine with Abnormally Attracted to Sin! That is the wine she's talking about. I also like the line, "What you stole, I would given freely". Well, the opening of Abnormally Attracted is called Give. |
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| Tori Amos – Amber Waves Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Benzodiazepine Dave is right - every one of the Scarlet Walk tunes has duel meanings, they can be songs to individual people (a porn star, prostitute) however, you must remember the overall theme of this album. There is a common thread of America having to come to terms with who she has become, and whether or not she has fallen into the right hands of the right people. This song places America as the prostitute, or porn star. Pretend she's alive. Because she is! And the Northern star to her, is like a sign of hope. It could be sort of a nice man that America is in love with. America is looking up at the Northing Lights every night, telling Scarlet, "Those northern lights are like a healing machine that glows in the dark..they have a sign of hope" then America says, "Listen, Scarlet (tori) there's not much more of me left, though, so forget it. I've been tailored to become what everyone wants. No one cares about me anymore. However....if you DO ever have the time, and you DO bump into the Northern Lights...please tell them to keep shining for me. Because lately, I don't see any sign of hope" Amber waves is both the name of Julianne Moore's character in Boogie Nights (porn star)and a nickname for America. (Amber Waves of Grain) In her early years, America used to be something pure, and full of hope until the "white man" came in and their goverment and people manipulated it so much to tailor it to "Every boy's sweet dream". "He fixed you up real good till I don't know you anymore". Laws are changed every day so that everyone in this country can get what THEY want - more cars, more technolgy, more laws on this and that. Instead of taking care of the land itself more. Instead of nurturing America, we're taking from America and changing her. She can't believe what's happening to her, it seems like it's completely out of her control. She's watching it happening and wonders how she got here when she started off so pure. She feels as though she was tricked by men who sort of changed her, much like a porn star or prostitute may feel they were destroyed by all men. "He cold light you up and summon every swan or the Lakesie" So this song is a conversation between America (amber waves) who is losing hope, and Scarlet who is trying to protect her friend. This also seems to be a reference to the "Not Waving But Drowning" Poem about losing hope by Stevie Smith. At the end of the song the Scarlet character goes to Amber Waves (America) this shell of a being who has been so changed, and tries to give her hope for the future by saying, "Yeah, I made time for you because I care. I went by because I made the time. And the Northern Lights wanted me to tell you that they are there for you more than you will ever know...they're actually waving to you....not drowning at all!" So now knowing all this, the term "Amber Waves" in terms of the album as a whole takes on a whole nuther meaning....that Amber is now Waving in the present tense. Maybe waving to us? ...Amber waves to us to let us all know she still has hope in her future. And that's a GREAT album opener!! |
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| Tori Amos – Digital Ghost Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Nope, I dont think this has anything to do with Trent Reznor. But, I do think it is definitely what alot of people have said: a personal song from Tori to Mark. Mark is always on the computer online. Maybe because Tori knows Mark is always online, she tried to reach him through the web that way? Perhaps Tori created a new chat name and tried to send him an IM to see if she could turn him on? "It started as a joke just one of my larks to see if SOMEHOW I could reach you" Maybe after she tried to reach him this way through the web, under another name, he still wouldn't bite. He's just a digital ghost. That's what it seems like, "I swam into your shores through an open window, only to find you all alone. Curled up with machines. Now it seems you're slipping out of the land of the living" Through this song, she wants him to take a closer look at himself...to see what it is that's really bothering him. Because who he used to be towards her as a human being, is fading away. |
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| Tori Amos – Starling Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I'm going to take a stab at this and say that this is a song about being jealous of your offspring when it comes to your mate. (example: a wife living seperate from her family being jealous of a daughter when it comes to spending more time with the husband or father) Your offspring may feel this jealousy immediatly, and may even call you out on it. You deny it, but then you realize perhaps they are right. When you ask them what they are doing all day long they respond, "Well, you he's online most of the time these days"...."Is that right?" I say. Tori seems to imply in few places (Digital Ghost) how Mark is always online on the computer. I'm thinking this song was written while Tash was living in England with Mark and Tori was "shut out and confined even within her nest" or, at her Florida home. Birds symbolism! "If a feather lined with his word becomes a blade" to me means, feathers can just fall out or off and they seem harmless. They seem like soft, insignifigant nothings, however, if they are lined with a meaning and you see that meaning, it can become as hurtful as a blade. The bridge to this song is great, I think. Most people hate it, however, it is necessary to show the sudden optomism or sarcasm of optomism...then it slows back down when that mood is over. "So, when they play, sing along sing the song" (pick yourself up with optomism, like a bird, or like Tori herself as a performer) It's like play acting ("if you know the lines"). Act like everything is ok - go through your life day by day and do what you have to in order to feel better. Then she is brought back to reality at the end. "You can find, find him online most of the time these days" "Is that right," I say. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ A Starling is a bird that has many song types that it sings. It is very gregarious. They have very complex vocalings, and are known to imbed their surrounding sounds into their own calls. For example, they will be singing a song, and suddenly start singing a song they heard - like a car alarm sound, or human speech patterns. A magpie has a loud plain call. This explains the line, "When he screams, he screams in black and white just like the magpie" A Lark has melodious songs - more elaborate than most birds. They have a willingness to expand into anthroponegenic habitats, so long as they are not too managed. A Raven has a very distinct, crow like caw. |
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| Tori Amos – Virginia Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Yes, this song is very clearly about the moment the Native American's lost their land. It touches on the male/female relationship of Pochohantas and John. But it's also talking about America herself. Most people here got that. I just thought it was always beautiful however, that Tori writes about after all this taking men has done to America, America herself has the last laugh when you die because you become her. "But as always the thing that he loves he will change". Obviously about people changing America every day. Ghetto pimps, and presidents will change what she is. But then she writes, "Still she lays down her body, covering him all the same" While this also means a woman laying down her body covering a man though he's trying to change her, I think what Tori wanted us to understand is that when all is said and done, the land itself will cover you when you die. Hence, Virginia. Beautiful song. |
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| Tori Amos – Your Cloud Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Yes, I agree mostly with BerrySwirl. If the rain had to seperate from it self, would it say "Pick out your cloud" is like saying, "If the people had to seperate from themselves, would they say, pick out your land? This cannot be done - people belong to all the land. America knows this. The Native American's had their land, and Americans have theirs. America realizes that she will always have peices of her old self...what she used to be. But it will be within what she has BECOME. She's not quite exactly the same as she was, because she has all these new layers. Who we were isn't lost before we were US. You can't divide the land with a line, just as Native American's are taking this new American into their lives as they did their old world. The line itself wouldn't know where one part ends and one begins. Indigo is his own, blue always knew this implies that they all know that their world was very different before, and that's fine. They will always know it WAS different. But the two together are similar colors. She is saying each entity came together to join what it is now... |
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| Tori Amos – Carbon Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I agree with Erling, this song is definitely all that. However, remember what the theme of Scarlet's Walk is...America realizing that maybe she's fallen into the wrong hands. While Tori wrote this for her manic-depressive friend Beene (which I have read somewhere) she is also relating it to the way America is being chipped away at over and over because it's a beautiful place. America is alive, remember. This would explain all the references to Black Hills of Dakota to Wounded Knee. Bear Claw, Free Fall, and Gunner's view are ski slopes, but this is also where some of the darkest episodes in Native American History took place. So, understandably, America wants to dissapear, kill herself, and not exist anymore because she is so hurt and sick of being manipulated by her people. It's up for Scarlet to "keep her eyes on her horizon" and get there to tell America that dissapearing into nothingness is not the solution. (This was written post Sept 11th when were weren't sure what was happening to this country) |
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| Tori Amos – Maybe California Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Antisheep, there is another song that touches on having a relationship with a person who is Bi-Polar. Tori wrote it for her friend Beene....it's called Carbon. Check that out. My dad is Bi-polar, so I can relate. |
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| Tori Amos – Flavor Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Gorgeous song. Classic Tori thoughts. I always think about what this song is saying. There are so many battles going on here on earth everyday. It seems like such a big deal here on earth, especially battles of religious beliefs. But the real choice that matters most in this life, is the choice of fearing or loving things you don't understand. Because any being looking at this planet from the Milky Way can only see how beautiful it looks. There is just so much beauty, so many different flavors to taste everywhere you look. (Raining Flavor) |
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| Tori Amos – Give Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I don't think this song is about prostitution at all. The haunting vibe and sexy swing surrounding it, I think, is because she's trying to create a sort of sonic opening act that should remind all listeners of horror film music. When I hear Give, I get this instant visual of Tori as a vampire in a graveyard, knowing that the sun is about to rise, and knowing she doesn't have much time. She's back from the dead after leaving her old label, so she knows she was given another chance. But then she realizes, that she is not really a vampire like the rest. She gives love, creativity, and inspiration. She has said over and over in interviews about this album "I wanted to really investigate how we're controlled by the threat of despair. I wanted to look at power – how we think and how you can reclaim the right to think for yourself, to uncover what you believe in as a spiritual, sexual creature...What I am exploring with this record is power, and giving it away with your thinking. How do we become controlled?" Being a vampire means stealing or taking blood (power) from another being to live on yourself. Tori has always said there is something sexy about vampires. The general idea of this song, is that this entity singing realizes that although she likes the idea of vampirism, she knows she does not need to suck the power out of another entity in order to live a healthy life. She is reclaiming that power in her own being saying, "Wait a min, I know that I don't need to take to be powerful. I can gain power all by myself by giving this love and creativity out" I was on a walk the other day as I listened to this, and it made me realize how everything in this world must GIVE in order to somehow continue living on. Trees give us oxygen, bees polinate, there is a huge circle of life where each being has to give positive peices of themselves away so that they can live on in some way. Sure, they all die eventually. But if they Give to this planet If you carefully re-read the lyrics to this song, she mentions “crossing the line” to get away from Pain and Shame as a human being. Pain and Shame are how humans can be controlled and manipulated. At the beginning, she's saying she crossed over the line. (this also implies crossing the line between death and life after leaving her label...but) Near the middle of the song, she's asking who made up this “line” she had to cross - Pain or Shame? She is consicously crossing the line of Pain and Shame as a human and leaving. Does she have regrets? Well, not yet. The answer is people create this deep line of Pain and Shame in the world that other people in society need to understand and hopefully find strength to overcome in order to become a whole, healthy, happy human being. While it has undertones of her coming back from the dead after leaving her major label, she’s relating it to crossing the line between life and death, almost how a vampire is still alive yet dead. But most vampires expect people to give them blood, or they will steal their power and blood from them so that vampire can survive and procreate. She realizes she is the opposite of what a vampire is, while she does possess some of those same traits. Instead of needing to suck life from others to survive, she has to give love in order for her to live happily. She is not the type of person who is giving just to get something back — she is giving because it makes her feel more alive to love and to give creation rather than to hate and take. |
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| Tori Amos – Mary Jane Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The idea that a mother is thinking that a good woman with a good name (from her Father - the male last name is passed down) can come in and "improve" her son is sad. Shakespeare would ask, "what's in a name?" Tori has the Mother repeating over and over, "Mary Jane WHO?!" It turns out, that this young boy isn't trying to use another person to enter certain realms....he's using a substance. Is there anything wrong with that? Not really. But there is something wrong with a Mother thinking that another woman's good last name will "fix" her son, whatever fix means. The overall theme of this album is how we are each controlled in society and our lives by the threat of dispair....what IS power? Is it a good last name? Is it a woman or a man trying to control you? |
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| Tori Amos – Mr. Zebra Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Actually, Jae26, Blood Roses also refers to Trent (although not BOTH trent and Courtney) ...."The Belle of New Orleans tried to show me once how to tango. Wrapped around your feet like good little Roses....can't forget the things you never said" |
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