Past The Mission

this song... well, they say this is Tori singing from May Magdalene's perspective. The "he" in this song would be Jesus, "She said they all think they know him well. she knew him better" "and she gave him shelter and somewhere I know she knows somewhere I know she knows somethings only she knows" Only Mary, whom they said Jesus had an intimate relationship with (it's history, so don't get ticked off, Fundamentalists), would know him better than a bunch of sandaled guys following him around. Besides, Tori seems to have a fascination with this feminist Mary Magdalene figure in more than one song. See also Talula and Mary.

An interesting point: some pagan groups believe that Jesus and Mary Magdalene represent the balance of male and female, yin-yang, ect. There are also Gospels that were not included in the Bible, due to conspiracy within the Church, the which I will not delve into because my controversialtopic!senses are tingling.

But, yeah... from another point of view, it could be Tori talking about trying to achieve a spiritual connection with the sacred feminine. Also, "roses" are commonly linked as a symbol for Mary Magdalene. ("I smell the roses...") I suppose "past the mission" (mission being where people are being taught christianity) and "she said she knew what my books did not, i thought she knew what's up" could mean that she was going outside the teachings of the Book to go into the story of Mary and Jesus that is so widely disputed, hearing the voice of Mary telling her "some things only she knows."

Then again, I just finished reading The Da Vinci Code. So don't mind me.

From what I could gather, there are 3 viewpoints in this song:

1) I = anyone really but I prefer to think it is an apostle or someone who is a scholar of the time period. Actually though, I think Tori meant this role for us or herself. Thjink about it. It's her way of placing us within the conflict.

2) She = Mary Magdelene

3) He = Jesus

Thanks to previous posters for explaining the Mary angle. The last lines seem to talk about the finding of Jesus' body and the doubt if it is his body. With this line of reasoning, I think Tori is saying that the apostles just continued using HIS name as if he were still alive AND with them in body and philosophy but that Mary took HIM in and really knows where he is. It sets up a doubt on the institutional aspect of Christianity. There is a difference between the faith of Christianity and the institution of Christianity. A definite conflict?

Peace

or maybe i was wrong and it is trent. i know maynard sings something live with tori...

This is one song where I've always wanted to know how much of the music video was Tori's idea. Mostly because, in the imagery of the video, I've always been that little boy in the end who runs off to follow the women and the girls instead of sticking with the men when it came time to pick sides. If that detail was a deliberate choice on Tori's part, then I'll have to thank her for it sometime.

I'm not entirely sure what this is about, but my impression was always that it was a story of two girls (the "hot girl", bold and brave; plus the narrator, a shy and/or younger girl whom the hot girl has taken under her wing.The close female friendship is sort of an echo of the one in "Bells for Her" from the same album) and some lovely, callow guy. The hot girl took him as a lover, and the narrator had a secret crush on him. The guy took advantage of/raped the narrator, and the hot girl killed him in revenge.

This is from an interview about hers and Trent Reznors relationship and such. When asked why she chose him for this song this was her answer. The choice for (`Past The Mission') had to be somebody that represented rage and anger because this is all about a girl trying so hard to work through being a victim,'' she said.I felt like for a guy to be supporting her, it had to be a guy that could rage, because then it would really mean something if he could be tender. Trent is--well, you can't be in all that much rage and pain unless you have a very big heart.'' From just that I am going to have to say its a case of abuse sexual or not. I don't think she would write about something that specific. But the reference to the guy there I'm thinking was the guy who did abuse the character in this story. So prob from a relationship, maybe they were friends before this happened. It's a common reality.

I agree that the Mary Magdalyn/Christ interpretation makes a lot of sense, and a lot of posters have interpreted it well in that way. I've always seen it another way, however. The beauty of Tori's work is that it's often open to multiple interpretations.

Anyway, the melody always seemed spooky and sinister to me, so I always put a dark interpretation on the lyrics. My take is that the singer is a woman who had fallen into the clutches of a femme fatale ("she" and "hot girl" in the song). The first stanza describes the seduction. I picture the singer as somewhat innocent and inexperienced. A man has also fallen for the femme fatale, and she has killed him. She is definitely a psychopath, perhaps a serial killer (very unlikely in real life, of course, most serial killers are men). The singer strongly suspects the femme fatale is guilty of the murder. As for "the mission", I'm not sure about that; it could be where the man was buried by the murderess. Note that there's also a reference to prison, perhaps a foreshadowing of what's going to happen to one or both of the women. If you're the type who enjoys a sad ending, you could imagine that the crime has been discovered, and the singer has been framed by the seductress, and the former is awaiting her execution in prison, remembering the passionate relationship with her lover ("I smell the roses").

Or maybe I've just overdosed on film noir:)

"Yeah, he's singing." And this... When I was writing the song, the song said, "I think Trent Reznor would be really good to sing on me." And I said, "Yeah, I'm sure you do. But I don't really know if that's possible." And the song said, "It's possible. So just, like, make it happen." So I met him and I went up to the Sharron Tate house..." - Tori Amos, on Trent Reznor's singing contribution on "Past the Mission" (from Tea With the Waitress)

`The choice for (Past The Mission') had to be somebody that represented rage and anger because this is all about a girl trying so hard to work through being a victim. I felt like for a guy to be supporting her, it had to be a guy that could rage, because then it would really mean something if he could be tender. Trent is--well, you can't be in all that much rage and pain unless you have a very big heart.''
-Tori Amos, on Trent Reznor's singing contribution on "Past the Mission"from VIRGINIAN-PILOT(Norfolk, VA) (VP) -Wednesday, July 27, 1994 By: SUE SMALLWOOD

"In 'Past the Mission,' desperately wanting to break free from being a victim and having Trent come, the raging man, but being very supportive of the woman." -Tori Amos, from unidentified interview

Q. What does Tori think about his performance on "PtM"?

A. TORI: With "Past the Mission," there's hope. "Past the mission, I smell the roses," and Trent sings on it. I wanted him to sing on it because of his energy. I love Trent's work. "Past the Mission" wanted him to sing on it.

SUN: Parts of "Past the Mission" reminded me of "China." There seemed to be little bits of Elton John.

TORI: We love Elton. "Past the Mission" has -- yeah, I can see that. George Porter Jr. from the Meters played on the whole record, and there's a lot of him on that, as much as Carlo Nuccio from the bottom end. I did the piano vocal first, but they played the track, which gave it that -- especially in the verses, that New Orleans kind of church meets Otis Redding meets, and they had a lot to do with bringing that out of the piece itself. Trent, obviously, it's nothing like he does in his work, which found an interesting choice, because it wasn't for him to sing on something that was his, why do that? "Past the Mission" is a love story. It's kind of a strange one in that it's me again, still trying to find pieces that I've left other places. It kind of breaks my heart when I hear him sing with me, "I once knew a hot girl." Where is she now? She can come back again. It' that same thing, where in "Pretty Good Year" and "Past the Mission" and "Space Dog," where everything is reclaimable.

                                                                    from Interview /The Baltimore Sun