Barons of Suburbia

Barons of Suburbia to me is about Tori trying to get along with middle-class PTA mothers in her town when she is a multi-millionaire rock star living in the castle down the street.

"Barons of Suburbia is taking on the behavior of the Barons, that they've taken on the patriarchy and their ideology. Whether you're looking at certain governments or certain relationships, we go back to the personal and the political always." -Tori Amos

This is a very important song to me! We're all in a war of sorts, every day, to think that war is just something happening 'out there' is an illusion. I certainly know some carnivorous vegetarians - that's about moral ambiguity. And 'I will let your darkness invade me' - I do try to see things from other perspectives, even if those perspectives intimidate me at first. It is essential to let the darkness invade you, or you'll never really understand. That's the mistake made by so many fundamentalists who are obsessed with 'purity'. What is purity? To me it's the flipside of blank, numb, unfulfilled. 'You could maybe turn this white light into navy' - you could maybe turn the black and white into shades of grey. That's what this song is about, for me, seeing the complexity in decisions, in morality, instead of just having an idea of 'this is totally right and this is totally wrong.'

But I do agree it's about feminism. 'It was a slight miscalculation that our friends would be waiting on the other side of the bridge.' - we've fought so hard for it, and yet so many women, supposedly allies, are demonising feminism. Certain solutions which were once potions are now a poison, i.e. they are now the problems.

'You always liked your wafer sweet in the middle' - about communion, of course. This person wants the sweetness, they want pleasure and fulfillment, and it's not going to come from just eating this dry wafer in a dry ceremony. It has to come from within.

"i'm in my war you're in yours do we fight for peace as they take another piece of us"

It means we are both fighting eachother in a war for peace....were fighting to eachother with main reason peace.....and they take innocents away

I can never catch the compasses or pulses changes in this song!

i love this song. i love all her lyrics and how complicated they are. carnivoirous vegitarian?? that makes me giggle. we will always lose a piece of ourselves to a contridiction.

"i'm in my war you're in yours do we fight for peace as they take another piece of us"

this part makes me think of women. and how so many women these days are bitches to each other. not that i'm a raging feminist or anything, but i think of this line and i think wow, we all really need to stop this petty bullshit and just stick together. does that make any sense? oooyf i'm tired.

"She is Risen She is Risen Boys I said She is Risen"

this is what i listen to the song for.

gawd. the best part of the song is the last couple of lines:

i am piecing a potion to combat your poison. she is risen, she is risen, boys i said she is risen.

who can not love such a powerful ending. I think in that last part she is trying to come up with a way to rid the demons he or she left in her. The poison that is almost killing her. But she wins. She is triumphant. She is risen!

I think the song is referencing Tori's concept of the feminine messiah. Not necessarily a biological woman as we understand it, but definitely feminine, like a gay man, for example (see Rufus Wainwright's "Gay Messiah" and "Tulsa"). I think Tori believes there's a literal messiah sent to save humanity (from ourselves), and Tori seems to know who this person is. The carnivorous vegetarian line is about the specific individual she believes is the messiah: a practicing vegetarian who has a carnivorous urge to fight evil (and he also eats a lot of imitation meat). But, hey, I could be way off. I guess we'll see, right?