| Tori Amos – Mother Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I know this is definitely posited, but it seems to me that this song is about a woman leaving home. It doesn't seem to be about general anxiety about life changes and the like because it's pretty specific to women. Perhaps I'm not an optimist which is why lines like "tuck those ribbons under your helmet, be a good soldier" are complaints of suppression of femininity and perhaps self and of gender roles, stringent rules of conduct. "green limousine for the redhead dancing girl". if you ask me we're all dancing girls. we all seem to want to be desired and beautiful and we all seem to jump through one hoop or another in order to come closer to achieving this goal. the green limousine represents our incentive; what we think we're working so hard for. The end result is a man who is going to take care of us, change our name. Who wouldn't need the sense that they can return home in such a scary transitional period, especially as a woman - marriage was once practically female employment. Women were allowed to have jobs as wives and that's it. How would you feel if you were on your way out of the door of the only home you've known to go live at your first and only job...permanently. It's a little traumatizing I'd say. If that's not what this song is about, there needs to be one. Tori would be my nomination for its composition. "Somebody leave the light on just in case i like the dancing i can remember where i come from" -- so interesting because like i describe above, this process is horrendously unfair to women, HOWEVER, women have lived out their lives in this way for centuries with customs becoming more and more modern and less sexist as time progresses, but the fact is, women lived this way and many were "happy". Many of them liked the dancing so they were willing to do, play the happy role and live prescribed life, but it was also important to hold onto a piece of their identity. Women could easily (and did, ie "the problem that has no name") lose themselves inside a marriage as employment arrangement because it's 24/7/365/lifetime. That's why the woman might have forgotten how to dream her own dream. The arrangement of her marriage stripped her of her individuality, she has a man to stand in and speak for her now. She walked into his dream and will adapt. Poisoning against the moon - conditioning her to believe in her inferiority so that she remains servile. Turn her against a respect for female nature to control for subversion. If women had respect for womanhood, they would not be subjugated. women are taught to shame their womanhood, particularly their sexuality which is proven effective in controlling men. Interesting the social consequences of being a sexual woman all things considered. My charge: NO COINCIDENCE! Im off topic, but I've covered most of what i mean to say. |
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| Tori Amos – Fast Horse Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I cannot know exactly what this song is about. It seems music is so magical that it can mean whatever we personally need it to mean. We're going to make sense of lyrics in a way that is flattering to our present understanding of things. That's why music, esp Tori Amos music, is so important. It is our belief in it. It's the one right religion. Anyway, for me, and most likely very much because I'm intensely insecure inside relationships, that's essentially what it is about. Insecurity ie. jealousy, social anxiety, and self-critical consciousness, as bad medicine, and it is. Because we nourish our insecurity by indulging the emotions they trigger in us and by acting on these emotions which seems the only way to make ourselves feel better (kind of) or at least less helpless, because it really does feel like helplessness for a while. But this indulgence that provides a coping mechanism, unhealthy as it is, is facilitating the insecurity, giving it a reason to stick around. People around nourish them when they accommodate for them or simply do not recognize them as irregular symptoms of dysfunctional insecurity. These lyrics speak directly to me it seems in this regard. Insecurity as bad medicine, good medicine might say: "you got you a fast horse darling, but all you do is complain it ain't a maserati. You had a soul that you left back in Memphis, but your mama ain't new york. she is pure Tennessee." These lyrics are helpful to me. they're quite candid with me. I'm a smart girl, I'm quite attractive, I'm talented and more than capable, but most of my energy is funneled into wondering whether im smart or pretty enough, if my boobs are big enough, if my bf is looking at other women and wondering how badly he truly wants to be with or touch them, and me of course. I have jealous feelings of a cartoon horse. honestly, right? Anyway, I'm totally ruining my relationship and my potential. I have a fast horse and all I do is complain it's not a maserati. As for the new york/tennessee line. I understand it to mean stop being dishonest and unfair to yourself by comparing yourself to things that you aren't and won't be. Learn about what you are and love it. Stop trying to be something you're not and probably don't even truly want to be. For me, it means stop punishing myself for things just because they're not the mainstream hollywood ideal. I know it's a simple message, but a lack of it is obviously pretty consequential. A final reason this song registers with me is that I have this incredible man in my life who is so many things i demand in most men and cannot find. He recognizes this bad medicine of mine and did immediately. He knew he was going to have to smoke it out, and I think he can. Good medicine definitely tells me what Tori says it should. |
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