Strange

Tori Amos is easily one of the most influential artists of our time period. I just wish more people would wake up and realize it.

well, the romantic in me can easily equate this to a love story wherein the lovers are having a fall-out. Only one of the lovers try to hold on as his partner is slowly slipping away. In some relationships, there is a time where the lovers become more distant to each other.

I was obsessed with the Laci Peterson case, and this song always made me think of her: She kinda knew things weren't right with Scott, but that she "had enough love for the both of" them. She had signs things weren't right- she knew of a past affair, I think- "when will I learn". In the song, really, I think the woman leaves the man- but you can also hear a haunting, beyond the grave message, "woke up to a world that I am not a part of", Laci is dead, but seeing things as they happen. The whole last verse is about her finding peace and leaving, ie, her spirit is at rest. I'm not usually into the supernatural so much, but Laci's death was such a shame; this song isn't about her, but to me, it fits well. Just what I think about when I hear it.

I know she wrote much of this album when she was in the southwest. And the first time I really listened to this album was this past summer when I lived in new mexico (and I have always lived in new york - quite a change!) So I know so much of the Scarlet Walk songs are references to this part of the country and to the legacy of the native americans.

the very first verse is precisely how I felt upon coming to new mexico: "Strange Thought I knew you well Thought I had read the sky Thought I had read a change in your eyes so strange Woke up to a world that I am not a part except when I can play it's stranger"

I thought I knew the USA, my home country, until I lived in NM. It was so different than what I was used to. There was even a different language. I literally woke up to a world that I was not apart of, except when I played the stranger.

this may be nothing of what she was thinking when she wrote it, but this is how I always feel when I hear this song - that theres such a disconnect (or, there was) between me and my lifestyle in NY, compared to the land and the way of life in the southwest.

For a long time I took this song to be about the end of a romantic relationship, but now I think Tori has cleverly hidden a political song within a song that seems to be about a breakup. "Blue isn't red"-- Tori (or Scarlet) is wandering through her country (having lived elsewhere, in Tori's case) and thinking, "What happened? I love this country. I thought everything would be different after 9/11. I thought we'd come together. Why do I feel like everything is changed and I'm now an outsider? Why don't I understand this country's actions anymore? And why do I keep trusting that the government has our best interests at heart? When will I learn?"

Tori Amos songs have touched me deeply and have spoken to me directly for years. I didn't get the message she was telling me. She gave me the courage to leave an abusive relationship and I wanted so badly to be loved that I went right into another relationship without allowing myself to heal. He was not an abuser but he was verbally abusive in some ways. This song is about our relationship. Particularly "So I left my life tried on your friends tried on your point of view" I tried to be everything he wanted me to be loosing myself in the process.

Woke up to a world that I am not a part except when I can play it's stranger" I woke up and realized I had to leave but....I couldn't. I stayed on and on until he had a stroke and I was forced to put him in a nursing home. Even though I knew it wasn't healthy I stayed and years later I feel guilty for abandoning him. So when the Bridges froze and you did not come home I put our snowflake under a microscope He drank every single night, didn't come home, didn't call. We lived in a wintry area and I imagined him dead in a ditch night after night and over analyzed our relationship putting it under a microscope. Looking forward to Unrepentant Geraldines, maybe the answer will be in there.