From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V3 #165 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Monday, May 4 1998 Volume 03 : Number 165 Today's Subjects: ----------------- US LP [Jon & Janet Haverman ] ***TIME SENSITIVE*** [Beth Winegarner ] A Positve Tori Article from Philly [Beth Coulter ] spark on 120 minutes 5/3/98 [Cindy26471 ] TOUR DETAILS? [Mac456789 ] me and a gun cd single [Lisa ] All these damn reviews . . . [becky ] Another Tori Article [JupiterCMS ] help!? [jls7@monadnock.keene.edu (Jenn)] From the Choirgirl Hotel is awesome! ["Ryan Obermeyer" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 00:10:02 +0000 From: Jon & Janet Haverman Subject: US LP woj asks: > does anyone know if the >lp will not be released after all? > I was notified by the one stop that it has been delayed, not canceled. The UK version is still scheduled to be released on time. jon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 17:52:30 -0700 From: Beth Winegarner Subject: ***TIME SENSITIVE*** I just wanted to let everyone in the San Francisco area know that in today's (Sunday) Chronicle there's a review of the new album, and tomorrow (monday) will have an interview with Tori. James Sullivan, one of my editors, did both (*sniffle*); he's a good guy though. Anyway, folks out here should pick those up, and those elsewhere in the country can find them by going to http://www.sfgate.com and clicking on the SF Chronicle icon, and following their noses to the Datebook section. Enjoy! - -- "With her litany of complaints and demands, [Meredith] Brooks has been much more of a bitch than a mother or a child or a lover." (Jancee Dunn) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 19:40:41 -0400 From: Beth Coulter Subject: A Positve Tori Article from Philly I'm am so tired of negitive press being about the only thing I've read today. For those of you who haven't yet read this one, do so. Tom Moon and Dan Rubin (who wrote about the Toriphile phonomena) both did their homework. Enjoy something good for a change. FB beth Taken from the Philidelphia Inquirer Web Site: A gift of song Tori Amos believes it's selfish not to share one's talents. The pop singer's work shows how generous she can be. Loud and clear Tori Amos believes her songs are gifts and it's selfish not to share. But she takes a firm line with fans who say her messages have saved them. By Tom Moon INQUIRER MUSIC CRITIC The most important thing to know about singer, songwriter and sometime deity Tori Amos: She has no proprietary attachment to the songs she writes. She knows that her melodies are cherished by melancholy adolescents who hear in them their own struggles to define themselves. She knows that the lyrics to songs such as "Crucify" and "Cornflake Girl" are analyzed endlessly on the Internet, every far-out image (the "ice-cream assassin") scanned for hidden portent. Yet she insists that her emotionally charged songs about victimhood, identity and salvation lead lives of their own. "Once I put it out there, it's not mine anymore," Amos said on Sunday, as she nursed a broth of ginger, honey and lemon in her heavily humidified hotel suite. She was on a short club tour to introduce her fourth album, From the Choirgirl Hotel (Atlantic), which arrives in stores Tuesday, and waging all-out war against spring allergies. "Right after I started writing songs, probably when I was 11, the songs came to me and said, 'Let us go do our own thing.' I decided that their relationships with people are none of my business." Distancing herself from the songs isn't always easy. "Somebody will come backstage and go, 'You saved me.' And I have to go, 'Stop right there. You saved yourself.' That always gets the big eye-roll from Tori. I have to remind them that the works [ they're ] talking about are windows, or a lightbulb going on. Nothing more. "Or I'll hear someone's description of what a song means to them and the only thing to do is go, 'Well,' and realize that people are going to interpret things any way they want." Like many artists, Amos, 34, who grew up in Maryland and studied classical piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, considers herself a channel for the muse. She says composing is her primary creative outlet -- she doesn't keep a journal -- and follows the Native American wisdom that you don't receive gifts until you give things away. Songs are her gifts, she says: "You're selfish unless you pass them on. If you do, then other things come. If not, you're empty." Amos talks a mystic blue streak, and her conversation, like her music, is a torrent of unlikely associations and freakish juxtapositions. She starts by joking about her feline nature (she's a Leo born in the Year of the Cat -- a "double cat," she says), then offers an observation on the techniques of male and female inquisitors ("the men smell an equal opponent and are usually respectful; the women think they can be nasty"), and pretty soon she's decrying the ways the music business exploits artists. "I've seen so many artists get sucked in by fame and torch themselves," she groans. "They think it's all about being prom queen." For someone so worshiped, Amos has remarkably few illusions -- about stardom, her influence, or anything else. Curiosity, not fame, is what drives her to write. She's fascinated by people and their belief systems, the things they value. Though much has been made of her rich imagination -- not everyone can turn lonely-heart odes into sprawling Dungeons and Dragons epics -- she maintains it's her connection with the real world that gives her songs energy. She turned the experience of her own date rape into the harrowing "Me and a Gun," and founded the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, an organization dedicated to fostering awareness of violence against women and children. Other songs explore the meaning of sacrifice, psychologically destructive relationships, and the tug of war between instinctual desire and institutional doctrine. Conveyed with outlandish imagery ("You don't need a space ship," she sings on Hotel's elliptical ballad "Black-Dove," "they don't know you've already lived on the other side of the galaxy") and delivered in music that is proudly ornate, her weighty themes have made Amos an unlikely rock hero, one whose work doesn't align with either the riot grrl punks or the sensitive Shawn Colvin-style singer-songwriters. It didn't start that way: Amos' first attempt at music making was an ill-advised L.A. pop-metal band called Y Kant Tori Read, which released one album in 1988 before dissolving. She learned from the experience and relocated to England to begin writing highly personal, idiosyncratic piano ballads. Amos' solo debut, 1992's Little Earthquakes, was a tumultuous ride from comforting coo to vitriolic wail that established her as an original voice. Since then, she has refined her dramatic technique on two more albums -- 1994's Under the Pink and 1996's Boys for Pele -- filled with cathartic songs that give victims a voice or simply mourn. Each of her CDs has sold at least a million copies. Paramount among Amos' gifts is the ability to cultivate and sustain simmering tension, to scream without screaming. Even when she tackles what she considers the hypocrisy of organized religion, Amos doesn't just blast away: She employs calm, hymnlike processionals to create a feeling of ritual, then bends traditional symbolism into lyrics that fantasize about whether a mortal woman could satisfy a God. The daughter of a Methodist minister, Amos has spent much of her adult life in a debate with her father about the "deceptions" of Christianity. Some of the volleys wind up in songs: "Icicle" contains the line "I think the Good Book is missing a few pages." "I have a speedboat, and every once in a while I'll go out with my dad," says Amos, who lives in England. "We'll have a cup of tea and talk theology. We go round and around on things: He'll give me the line that God can save people if they're devout, and I'll argue that that power is not outside of ourselves. . . . The church needs for people to view it almost as a hedge against bad things. Fear is a motivation. But bad things will happen to good people. [ Going to church ] is no insurance against rape or incest or death." Amos is still trying to understand religion. "Every Friday night I have a margarita with a Christian God. I'll share the observations of my week, and ask for answers and try to keep an open mind. Then we both move on," says the singer, who politely declines to answer questions about her recent marriage and how it has influenced her creative process. She doesn't reveal God's reaction to Boys for Pele, whose artwork featured a pig suckling at Amos' breast. She describes the photograph as her "Madonna and child," and says it was "my Christmas card to my dad." But she says the pictures -- and the rambling, almost free-associative lyrics of Pele's songs -- were misinterpreted. "The media misses the humor, when there is humor. They missed the fun of that. Even the Christians who listen to my songs know that I'm chasing the dark side of myself and at the same time chasing the dark side of Christianity." From the Choirgirl Hotel continues that chase. It's a series of character studies, an inventory of female archetypes -- the space cadet who gets lost on her wedding day, the predator who exploits a man's vulnerability, the Playboy mommy in platform shoes. Its songs are more focused than those of Little Earthquakes, and reinforced by a sumptuous range of sounds that take Amos far from the pathos-drenched style that marked her debut. Stately arpeggiating piano patterns remain the organizing force of the songs, but this time, they're not alone. They're accompanied by thundering guitars, droning synthesizers, and unusual string arrangements that provide an almost orchestral sweep. As she scoops honey with her fingers from a small room-service jar, Amos explains that because she wanted each of the songs' characters to have a unique identity, she sought an assortment of sounds and textures. She spent longer than usual in a studio near the English coastline, fussing over tiny details. "The idea of a series of songs with the same basic sound didn't appeal to me. The woman in 'She's Your Cocaine,' which is about a reptile woman who has no fidelity to sisterhood, had to be distinct from the woman in 'Spark,' who's addicted to nicotine patches." She adds that she hears more sorrow in the record than in anything else she has recorded. "I was pregnant and miscarried at three months. Right after that I started writing. There was nothing else I could do. You know how people say their life changed becoming a mother? My life changed becoming an un-mother. I began to see the preciousness of the miracle of life." At her show at the Electric Factory Sunday night, Amos - -- who will return to the area this summer -- unveiled her first-ever touring band. For years, she had performed solo (or with longtime guitarist Steve Caton, who is a part of the band) because she couldn't find musicians who shared her sense of timing, her penchant for drama. She's found them now: Anchored by poised drummer Matt Chamberlain and bassist Jon Evans, the trio follows the emotional riptides of her songs, one minute supporting Amos with splashes of cymbal color and delicate chords, the next surging to bellowing climaxes. The windblown grooves and featherweight implied backbeats are impressive, but the mood swings are even more so: The music grows heavy with a flick of Amos' wrists, and as fast as the storm gathers, it dissipates, leaving serene blue skies. There are outbreaks of funk stomping followed by moments of fragile, impressionistic beauty: Now when Amos writhes on the piano bench, she's responding to an intoxicating, all-consuming rhythm her music has hinted at before, but rarely attained. "What I've found is the primal rhythm," Amos says, enthusiastically. "I knew the songs could hold their own, but what's been amazing is the way they've opened up and blossomed. It's like the songs gained three new mothers." She chuckles at the suggestion that the primal beat might be traced to her late maternal grandfather, who was part Cherokee. But then she chews on the thought. "It's true that my music has a sense of ritual in it. I very much want to create an atmosphere, a feeling of reverence. That was my grandfather completely. . . . He really instilled in me the beauty of all things. We'd go for walks when I was a little girl and he'd say, 'What do you see?' I'd tell him I saw a pile of dirt. He'd go, 'You are not my granddaughter. What do you see?' And I'd try to describe the dirt, and that wasn't it either. "For him, every word held an association. Everything was a metaphor for something larger. Even in tragedy he would find a lesson or a rite of passage. . . . It's really hit me recently that that's one thing I've been trying to do. . . . I had no idea I would carry him so close to me." ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 21:19:15 EDT From: Cindy26471 Subject: spark on 120 minutes 5/3/98 according to 120 minutes' web site they are set to air "spark" tonight. 120 minutes comes on at 12am ET. this is for those of you who havent seen the video yet... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 21:23:20 EDT From: Mac456789 Subject: TOUR DETAILS? Hi. The tickets to some shows go on sale this Friday May 8th. Does anyone know the details? I want to go the Madison Square Garden show. I'm wondering if there are going to be any things like vouchers or wrist bands? Thanks s. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 21:28:24 -0400 From: Lisa Subject: me and a gun cd single Hello. I finally got a copy of the me and a gun single and i have a question. I know there is a UK version and a Germany one. The one i have, has the numbers 75559-2 and under it, it has yz618cd then under that it says France ca711. The back of the cd case just has like the words tori amos and the names of the 4 songs. the front is tori sitting in a chair and it says me and a gun. This is the part that confuses me as to which cd i have (german or Uk) the german one which i thought i had is supposed to be a cd that has the EW on it. The cd i got has i guess hair on it. If anyone knows what this cd is, please let me know. thank you Lisa ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 21:25:00 -0400 From: becky Subject: All these damn reviews . . . You know - truthfully, I'm thankful that Tori isn't well-liked by the general public. Think about what her concerts would be like!!!!!! I've seen one too many of my favorite musical artists get washed away by a sea of popularity involving every genre of persons, so . . . Tori belongs with the people that understand and love her. I have no problem understanding her lyrics because I do enough work to figure out what she means. She keeps our minds constantly clicking and I appreciate that to no end. There are many artists out there that just assume that their audiences are idiots so there lyrics are as simplistic as possible. Tori is definitely NOT lacking a poetical sense. Poetry is like paintings. You take what you get out of it - - nothing more. Oh, well. Don't get discouraged by these reviews. I'm certainly not. Tori is just too much for the average schmo to take. Rebecca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 21:09:41 EDT From: JupiterCMS Subject: Another Tori Article Hey...its from Seventeen Magazine but I am a teenager & I read this kinda stuff & its a good article ...enjoy =) by Fiona Gibb, Seventeen Online Music Columnist NEW THIS WEEK: From the Choirgirl Hotel, Tori Amos' fourth full-length album, hits stores May 5. Her best CD to date (and that's saying a lot -- I totally live for Under the Pink), Choirgirl marks a break from the usual Tori-plus- her-piano formula -- on the album's 12 tracks, the "Caught a Lite Sneeze" chanteuse is backed by a bunch of other musicians. This only adds to album's diverse sounds. Although tunes like the sweeping "Northern Lad" and "Spark," the album's first single, sound pretty much like classic Cornflake Girl, songs like "Hotel" and "Raspberry Swirl" show a techno influence, while others, like "She's Your Cocaine" reflect the classic rock roots that Tori's shown us before (on her "Crucify" EP, she covered Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, and also included a rendition of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"). But Tori fanatics, I mean, fans, fear not: Even with all Choirgirl's innovations, some things haven't changed. Tori's vocals are still breathtaking - -- and her lyrics are as obscure and intriguing as ever. This is a must-have disc. ******** ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 22:44:33 -0400 From: jls7@monadnock.keene.edu (Jenn) Subject: help!? where should I purchase spark from, both disks?? umm I tried igg but they're not getting back to me - -Jenn :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Once you get to know sad... she's got some sweet little dresses, you know?" - -Tori Amos - -Spin, 1994 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "boy you better make her raspberry swirl.. things are getting desperate when all the boys can't be men" ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 19:46:16 PDT From: "Ryan Obermeyer" Subject: From the Choirgirl Hotel is awesome! I heard the album in its entirety today and it is incredible! Everyone is in for a VERY PLEASANT SURPRISE! It is definately the Tori cd people will drive around listening to really loud. The funny thing is that she didn't lose the depth. It's still gorgeous imagery and incredible lyrics, it's just that this is an album full of singles. There isn't one song that you shrug off or simply respect. They are all gorgeous. It has been well worth the wait! My expectations were really low compared to how great it is! It's breathtaking. Ryan ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 23:07:59 -0400 From: Tripp Gwyn Subject: The BEST day Today was so awesome. Mom decideds I'm going with she and my grandma to see my grandma's sister who lives 2 1/2 hours away. I was PI$$ED, but I wasn't going to fight with mom. So I went, dreading it. Halfway there we stopped in mid-sized town to get lunch. While my mom and grandmother we're finishing up, I walked to a nearby shopping center hoping to convince someone to sell me a copy of FTCGH a little early. I get to this store, and I about freaked when I saw that they had FRESH AND PINK for sale. I had no cash on me though. Before, I walked out I asked the guy working there "When is the new Tori Amos CD going to be released", hey I wanted to start off rather subtle. He's like, Oh we'll be selling them tomorrow at midnight, and we'll also be giving away posters and lyric booklets. I was like wow, wish I didn't live so far away. So I walk back to find my mom, convince her to let me borrow $35 for Fresh and Pink. Luckily, she agrees. I go back in and begin to pay for the CD. The guy's like "I really with we had the new CD in already, I'd sell it to you if we did." Then he said "Do you think you'll be able to come tomorrow?" I was like "No, I live to far away", so then he turns around a picks something up and hands it to me. "Here you can have this 4 track promo, we have like 4 or 5 copies." I almost freaked. I thanked him dearly and left to listen immediatley! so you see, you never know how your days might turn out! Seeing my great aunt wasn't THAT bad after all. I'm listening to Playboy Mommy right now! Tripp Gwyn tgwyn@infoave.net ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V3 #165 *************************************