Jamaica Inn

"There's a song Jamaica Inn that I wrote as I was driving along the cliffs in Cornwall on a 'beautiful' English day. And all of a sudden the gales started to come in. My mind started to wander and I pulled over on a cliff. I started to think about the story that I'd been told by some of the locals. When a ship would run a ground the wreckers would come in and take everything. I started to think about this story that was taking over my car in that moment. Jamaica Inn walked into my Saab and she said, 'You might not like my story because I'm not gonna tell you how it ends yet. You need to travel it with me and we're going to have to explore your deepest fears.' What always stops me is betrayal. And what scares me is if I betray someone." -Tori Amos

'are you positive this is a friend? the captain grimaced 'those are cliffs of rock ahead if i'm not mistaken' - subconsciously she knows that this other woman is a potential threat, a wrecker trying to draw her in to destroy her (perhaps by gaining her confidence and telling her that she's not interested in the guy), but she's sailing closer and closer to the rocks - destruction of the relationship. 'tying up along your coast' - she's been distant from him, and is trying to be closer to him again in the hope of seeing off this threat, but maybe the other girl, the pirate, has already done the damage and is moored with him. I think the other girl is an ex, as the Rebeccas she references are from the other Du Maurier book 'Rebecca' where a new wife is haunted by her husband's deceased ex-wife, and the influence she still has over him and all those who know him. She is constantly judged against the ex.

....as I listened to this song I felt as if she's confused. Almost as if what she believed to be within her lover was shot to shit due to infedelity and she's not quite sure where she went wrong. Trust is the sexiest thing...ever. Believing in your significant other and being faithfully in love is beautiful. The dissalution of infedelity within a relationship is, in my eyes, told as a story in this song. Straight forward and to the point. Anyone know any backround on this song?

Moonsine - I was going to write almost the same thing. I think she's confused as to where things went wrong (ie when the infidelity started) "How was I to know the prirates had come".

the background is that the title and the song come from Daphne Du Marier's novel Jamaica Inn. Hitchcock also made a movie Jamaica Inn based on that novel.

What a song. It's amazing how Tori portrays a betrayal in her relationship with such sublime metaphores.. like when the captain is asked about the honesty of this "pirate" coming along, as you foresee rocks=trouble... and then when she says that trust is the sexiest thing you can tell that by asking for someone to sitch her broken jeans out of the hole he made (he hurt her, broke her heart) she's just showing the vulnerable side of being cheated or lied to... the pirates come and they take anything they find, merciless... and she's left second guessing herself... beautiful song... and sad too

I think the opening refers to regret of losing virginity. "a little stitch to mend the hole that he has made"

"The sexiest thing is trust" -- so true!