submissions
| Tori Amos – Oom La Boomleigh Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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From what I can discern, the title is Dutch and means something along the lines of "Uncle Lee the Tree". I don't know if it is a Netherlands pop culture reference, an expression or just something Marcel translated over the P.A. for Tori when she was composing during a soundcheck. No one seems to know much about where and when this song originates from. I've heard that there is an unreleased studio recording, maybe from the Pele era, which wouldn't be surprising, as Tori did reportedly record over 65 songs during those sessions but I've also heard of a demo which could be a misnomer. The only recording I've heard is a broadcast recording during which Tori performed two unreleased original songs, "Oom la Boomleigh" and "Abbey Road". That recording matches the published lyrics word for word and could easily be mistaken for a demo recording, as the fidelity is not great but the recording is clearly audible. It's roughly equivalent to bootlegged demo versions of "Honey" and various songs from Little Earthquakes.
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submissions
| The Smiths – Handsome Devil Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I'm pretty sure this song refers to a nerdy boy seducing his more athletic peer, presumably in an all boys' boarding school. It always reminds me of the Cadinot film "Sacré collège!" I do think there's a power dynamic at play but I think it has more to do with intelligence than age. I think the song was a b-side more for it's being blatantly queer at a time when that wasn't overtly done.
It was the Smiths' song "Reel Around the Fountain" that generated controversy when the band lobbied for the song to be their first single and their label thought it was about a pervert stalking a playground. The song the label chose instead was "This Charming Man", which, while more upbeat, is actually about a young man being picked up in a park by a much older man. It's funny what people can read into one song and completely miss in another. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Dragon Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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During Tori Amos' 1996 Dew Drop Inn tour, she began writing songs for an album to be centered around the theme of vampirism, hinging on the story of Vlad Dracula. Ahmet Ertegun, long time president of Amos' then label Atlantic, had personally arranged for Tori to take a tour of Romania in 1997 as part of her research for the project. Due to the string of devastating miscarriages she suffered during and following the tour, Amos was unable to make the trip. Taking refuge in her Florida home, she wrote about themes related to healing and water, songs such as "Purple People", "Pandora's Aquarium" and "Liquid Diamonds", which graced the album and corresponding singles she recorded later that year in Cornwall, England, From the Choirgirl Hotel. Songs from the lost 'vampire' album, as it has come to be referred to, also made Choirgirl, reportedly among them "Cruel" and "i i eee", both of which Amos was recorded playing during soundchecks while on tour in 1996. It seems quite likely, though it has yet to be confirmed, that "Dragon" may also have been a key song in this lost work, as the literal translation of 'Dracula' is 'Son of the Dragon'. The theme of a man owning his personal darkness seems a logical progression from the themes of Boys for Pele, an album that centers around the theme of a woman finding her own power and identity, independent of the men in her life. |
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