"Pretty Good Year" as written by and Tori Ellen Amos....
Tears on the sleeve of a man
Don't want to be a boy today
Heard the eternal footman
Bought himself a bike to race
And Greg he writes letters and burns his CDs
They say you were something in those formative years
Hold onto nothing as fast as you can
Well still pretty good year
pretty good year
Maybe a bright sandy beach
Is gonna bring you back, back, back
Maybe not so now you're off
You're gonna see America
Well let me tell you something about America
Pretty good year
Pretty good
Some things are melting now
Some things are melting now
Well,hey what's it gonna take till my baby's alright
What's it gonna take till my baby's alright
And Greg he writes letters with his birthday pen
Sometimes he's aware that they're drawing him in
Lucy was pretty your best friend agreed
Well still pretty good year
pretty good
pretty good year
Don't want to be a boy today
Heard the eternal footman
Bought himself a bike to race
And Greg he writes letters and burns his CDs
They say you were something in those formative years
Hold onto nothing as fast as you can
Well still pretty good year
pretty good year
Maybe a bright sandy beach
Is gonna bring you back, back, back
Maybe not so now you're off
You're gonna see America
Well let me tell you something about America
Pretty good year
Pretty good
Some things are melting now
Some things are melting now
Well,hey what's it gonna take till my baby's alright
What's it gonna take till my baby's alright
And Greg he writes letters with his birthday pen
Sometimes he's aware that they're drawing him in
Lucy was pretty your best friend agreed
Well still pretty good year
pretty good
pretty good year
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-Tori Amos
-from the book In Their Own Words:Songwriters Talk About The Creative Process written/compiled by Bill DeMain
This song always struck me as one about a sad, unhappy guy, "pretty good year" is said in a bittersweet tone.
He doesn't want his good days to be over, but they are soon gonna be "sometimes he's aware that they're drawing him in" - time and history are drawing him in, making him lose his youth, and that makes him unhappy.
"...in New Mexico, where I went to write, and record, this album, was that at one point I was spraying Pledge polish in a cupboard and I inhaled it and I got a lung infection which meant I couldn't speak, or sing, for three weeks. And I really thought my voice was damaged forever and had to do voice lessons on the phone, with this voice teacher to try and get the natural corisone back on the cords. I was thinking 'what if I never sing again?' Then I'd say 'if I can't sing what's the point in being alive, is this person worth anything at all?' And there were moments where the only answer to that question was 'no'. Then i'd give in to the self-pity that comes out in the song PGY, and in the lyric 'They say you were something in those formative years'.
[Tori Amos, Hot Press, 02/32/94]
"mountain biking became a major event in my life for a week, the mud was so thick on the tires we got there just in time to feel the mountain thaw, the sound when these two merged was something like 'thclulpleekooh' i said on an intake of breath with no lips moving and no throat usage, i like this word and i liked the idea of the eternal footman saying 'asta' on a mountain bike"
[Tori Amos, Under The Pink Songbook]
These days everyone burns CDs on their computer, when it was written the only way to burn a CD was to throw it on a fire.
'Greg he writes letters with his birthday pen, sometimes he's aware that they're drawing him in" - 'drawing him in' means a few things. Mostly, that other people are etching him into their minds in a place that is probably misunderstood and casts a shadow. It also means that he is aware maybe that they are affecting his spirit and pushing him farther into isolation. "Pretty good year", to me, is a way of probably downplaying a not-so-good year, but one that may have been better than other much worse ones. The choice of the word "pretty" is irony, and very on point as far as description goes.
And two perspectives are sung - "what's it going to take till my baby's alright" is sung from someone else who loves him - likely his mother, who wishes to protect him, but obviously can't or isn't capable of for probably a number of reasons.
I often wonder too if Greg had SAD? I can relate to most of this song because it seems to reflect of my own experiences as a teenager and into my early 20s. Every decade has its own soundtrack.