From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V3 #206 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 Wednesday, June 3 1998 Volume 03 : Number 206 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Cooling lyrics [Lavina Elaine Lee ] Re: Cooling lyrics [Beth Coulter ] Re: precious-things-digest V3 #205 ["Dominick W. Olivas" ] Choirgirl Photos [Darren Linder ] Tori's Grammy History [PoetGrrlAC@aol.com] Re: bells for her, Blood Roses and Michael Ondaatje ["Nicole Renee Parker] Re: the world cafe [woj ] bad memory [JoniDoe24@aol.com] Boys For Pele ["Giovanni" ] Ranking Tori [Douglas Bailey ] another Tori dream [Alicia ] Re: Re: 1-word descriptions of Tori's albums [TCook38SPL@aol.com] Re: Northern Lad [HaughtyGrl@aol.com] the hotel [woj ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 16:23:04 -0700 From: Lavina Elaine Lee Subject: Re: Cooling lyrics a bramble, from what i know, is a sharp little plant thing. i just remember it from the story of brer rabbit, and how they made him live in the briar patch that was full of brambles. Lavina At 06:48 PM 6/2/98 -0400, ~*jenn*~ wrote: > >Yasmin Lori Ravard wrote: >> >> Here is what I have deciphered from the single version of Cooling > >mine are very close to yours..i'll just submit my differences and see >what everybody thinks :) >> >> >> And Piggy got a message for me, from Jesus >> And I've heard every word, that you have said > >i hear: >"and piggy got a message for me >from Jesus >and I've heard every word >that Judas said > >> Woman,got too many brambles [I am not sure about "brambles"] > >that's what i hear too..but what exactly is a bramble?? > >> So then I've walked up to like >"so then Love walked up to Like" >> Said I know that she don't like me much >"and said 'I know that you don't like me much'" > >I just *love* that song more than words can say... >-- >~~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~*:~* >We are all Faeries living underneath a leaf on a lily pad.~Tori >~~*Come dance in Jenn's Faerie Ring*~ >http://www.jacksonville.net/~jenn/tori.htm > > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 19:47:42 -0400 From: Beth Coulter Subject: Re: Cooling lyrics At 06:27 PM 6/2/98 EDT, AstroKitty@aol.com wrote: > >Maybe these lyrics make more sense... > >< And Piggy got a message for me, from Jesus> >And Peggy got a message for me, from Jesus >[I like Piggy better as Peggy] > > A discussion with my daughter concerning choirgirl etc. led to a discussion of "The Lord of the Flies" which is mentioned in Pandora's A. In the book, Piggy was the outcast lad of the group. So yes, I think it makes a whole lot of sense with "Piggy" instead of Peggy, and if you should read "Lord", there are a few more references that make sense, imho, in understanding choirgirl a bit more. Fairy Blessings, Bethey I'm OK when everything's not OK cause it's the Fairies Revenge they say and I have always been a Fairy *************************************************************** I gave my life to become the person I am. Was it worth it? - -richard bach- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 16:41:11 -0700 (PDT) From: "Dominick W. Olivas" Subject: Re: precious-things-digest V3 #205 BFP...I'm not really sure, after reading many of the last posts, why many of you seem not to like BFP that much...I personally feel it is one of the most exciting albums of the 90's...few artists are able to capture such emotion, combined with musical talent on a piece of technological plastic (a CD)...I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but wow, perhaps its a mere misunderstanding of the album...please don't flame me, I'm just confused as to why so many don't "get it" for BFP. - -dominick # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # and if I'm wasting all your time, this time maybe you never learned to take and if I'm hanging on to your shade I guess I'm way beyond the pale :::::::::::: -Tori Amos # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 19:47:29 -0400 From: Beth Coulter Subject: Re: Cooling lyrics At 06:27 PM 6/2/98 EDT, AstroKitty@aol.com wrote: > >Maybe these lyrics make more sense... > >< And Piggy got a message for me, from Jesus> >And Peggy got a message for me, from Jesus >[I like Piggy better as Peggy] > > A discussion with my daughter concerning choirgirl etc. led to a discussion of "The Lord of the Flies" which is mentioned in Pandora's A. In the book, Piggy was the outcast lad of the group. So yes, I think it makes a whole lot of sense with "Piggy" instead of Peggy, and if you should read "Lord", there are a few more references that make sense, imho, in understanding choirgirl a bit more. Fairy Blessings, Beth ************************************************************* *We are all in the gutter, *But some of us are looking at the stars" *-Oscar Wilde- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ *I gave my life to become the person I am. *Was it worth it? -Richard Bach- ************************************************************* *Genius does what it must. *Talent does what it can. * - Edward Bulwer-Lytton ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 16:30:45 -0800 From: Darren Linder Subject: Choirgirl Photos Hello all- Here's another idea regarding the strange photos on Tori's new album. I have a book called LADY COTTINGTON'S PRESSED FAIRY BOOK, published in 1994. I think some of you may also have this book. It is a big art book with the premise that Lady Cottington was able to attract fairies and somehow capture their psychic imprint by closing her book on them, proving that fairies exist. It's kind of a bizarre idea, but it's done well. There is even a disclaimer by the RSPCF (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fairies) stating that while it looks like the faires were squished between the pages of the book, no fairies suffered any physical harm themselves. Technology allowed the psychic impressions of the fairies to be retained. Very colorful drawings and diary entries fill the book. The author of the text is none other than Terry Jones, from the Monty Python troup, so it's done with a good sense of humor. Anyway, Tori looking sort of pressed up against the glass is quite similar to the artwork in this book. And since we all know how much Tori loves Fairies, I wonder if she was at all influenced by this book when coming up with the idea for her album photos. Check out the book if you haven't already, it's really cool. :) Darren Linder sleepy1@spiritone.com Portland, Oregon ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 20:12:20 EDT From: PoetGrrlAC@aol.com Subject: Tori's Grammy History Hiya peoples, I am wondering, since I only discovered Miss Amos in March, and am relatively new to her (I HATE admitting that!), I know she got a Grammy nomination for BfP. My question is, was the BfP nomination in best album category? And I don't think she won, but who was she up against, and who won? Next, what other Grammy's has she been nominated for? Can you tell me: Year: Nomination Category: Winner: Competitors: I'll take what info I can get. If you could post this to the list, I think it would take some new EWF out of the dark. Thanks! Peace, Manda C ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 19:15:39 +0000 From: "Nicole Renee Parker" Subject: Re: bells for her, Blood Roses and Michael Ondaatje > Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 18:47:50 EDT > From: KAngela97@aol.com > Subject: bells for her > actually, I'm pretty sure that I heard that Bells for Her was the sequel to > the Banana King (hence, it would be The Banana King Part II). Am I right? > Where did I hear that anyway? > In the July '94 edition of Beat Tori says: "Pretty Good Year is really part two of Ode To The Banana King. Ode To The Banana King is part one - as you see, Lucy reoccurs. That's part two, Pretty Good Year. So I'll probably write part three." ************************************************************** Also while i am thinking about it I have a question: Does anyone know anything about the Tori - Michael Ondaatje connection?? If you didn't know his poem "Women like You" sounds like a male response to Blood Roses. Well, actualy he published this poem in '89 so it would be the other way around. I know about the Alice Walker connection and all that but I wonder if Tori was also reading his work. Specificaly the lines: "Now you've cut out the flute from the throat of the loon at least when you cry now he can't even hear you" Here is his poem: They do not stir these ladies of the mountain do not give us the twitch of eyelids The king is dead They answer no one take the hard rock as lover. Women like you make men pour out their hearts 'Seeing you I want no other life' 'The golden skins have caught my mind' who came here out of the bleached land climbed this fortress to adore the rock and with the solitude of the air behind them carved an alphabet whose motive was perfect desire wanting these portraits of women to speak and caress Hundreds of small verses by different hands became one habit of the unrequited Seeing you I want no other life and turn around to the sky and everywhere below jungle, waves of heat secular love Holding the new flowers a circle of first finger and thumb which is a window to your breast pleasure of the skin earring earring curl of the belly and then stone mermaid stone heart dry as a flower on rock you long eyed women the golden drunk swan breasts lips the long long eyes we stand against the sky I bring you a flute from the throat of a loon so talk to me of the used heart Michael Ondaatje The Cinnamon Peeler 1989 Anyway, I am new around here so I don't know if this has been tossed up before but I am curious to see what everyone thinks. Nicole Renee Parker butterfly@tamu.edu Caught in an identity crisis somewhere between goody-two-shoes and pure evil. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 21:57:42 -0400 From: woj Subject: Re: the world cafe also sprach Leannoth@aol.com: >Right after Boys for Pele came out, Tori did an interview, I believe on "the >World Café" on WNKU, a local station to Northern Kentucky. for what it's worth, the world cafe is a public radio international program carried by many public radio stations which lean towards the adult alternative format. the program originates on wxpn, at the university of pennsylvania in philadelphia. on 'xpn, it is a four or five hour program, two of which are distributed to member stations. that interview was was conducted on january 31, 1996, if memory serves, so it was one of the first interviews broadcast on radio about the record. the world cafe's host, david dye, while a bit of a goofball, is quite knowledgable about music and a better interviewer than most radio personalities. this interview is definitely required listening (and if anyone needs a copy, i'd be happy to send you one). woj ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 20:48:20 EDT From: JoniDoe24@aol.com Subject: bad memory as odd as this sounds, on my calander this friday it says "tori" but it doesnt say why. can anyone help me and tell me what she is doing on friday? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 20:52:14 -0500 From: "Giovanni" Subject: Boys For Pele Sharon, Considering you've just had "Boys For Pele" and "Little Earthquakes" for a couple of days it's not wonder why you still don't like them as much as the others. Believe me... you'll wind up liking BfP so much that you won't believe it! I can tell from experience. Giovanni http://come.to/corncity PS. I loved the way the Q Magazine describe BfP. "Weird and Wonderful". ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 21:04:02 -0500 From: Douglas Bailey Subject: Ranking Tori Frankly, it's hard to rank Tori's music. I love them all....she's my favorite female artist. But if I had to choose, I'd have to admit to preferring LE, followed by BFP, FTCGH, and finally, UtP. My reasoning? LE has the most pure and inspired source: all that dirty laundry Tori had been harboring for so long. This has worked to make the lyrics cutting and the piano work CLASSIC. Why BFP second? Because there's so much of it! An unprecedented 18 songs, and they're all complex and mystical. The piano work is sophisticated and intriguing...the lyrics are fantastical and yet gripping. I consider BFP to be a *masterwork*. As others have said, it's a mature, _adult_ collection of music. UtP looks almost juvenile in comparison. All that said, I feel FTCGH is a close third...it's such a dramatic change, and such a skillful one at that, that I actually prefer it over BFP and even LE in many senses. If it only had 18 or so songs, it'd outrank BFP. I love UtP, and it kicks serious booty in it's own right, what with songs like Baker Baker, Yes Anastasia, Pretty Good Year, etc. But it pales when compared to the rest of Tori's music. It just doesn't seem _mature_ when contrasted against the soul-baring confessions of LE, or the cultured sophistication of BFP, or the daring boldness of FTCGH. But I'd put money on Tori's stuff over the likes of Sheryl Crow or Madonna any day... Doug http:\\ro.com\~dbailey\tori.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 01:44:22 GMT From: Alicia Subject: another Tori dream Hi.. all of you. There are some people who say that if you keep your dreams to yourself and don't tell anyone about them, they might come true. Well, a friend told me this after I had told her about it, so I guess it doesn't matter if I tell you all. The curious thing about this dream is that I had the first half one night, and the other half weeks later. Well, on the first half I dreamed Tori performed in my school, and in the middle of her performance 2 guys from the audience start fighting. Then the rest of the audience gets up and follows these 2 guys outside to watch the fight, so the room is completely empty and I start thinking about begging Tori to continue singing for the 2 or 3 of us who were still there. So at that point I woke up, and I was really angry when I woke up and realized it wasn't real! So anyway, on Saturday night/Sunday morning I had a dream which I consider to be the second half of the other. I remember walking around my school looking for her, and I decide to check the music rooms because she might be somewhere around there. So I go into one and ask my math teacher (!) who was in there if she had seen Tori Amos. So she said, yes, she's inside the music teachers' office. So I go there and many people are leaving the room, I think I saw Beenie and Joel, but I have no idea what they look like so it might be just a guess. Well, so I looked inside and there was Tori and I thought "if I don't talk to her now, I never will". So I went and told her straight out "I have to talk to you" (even though at that point I had no idea what I was going to say). And all the people around her stared at me and then at each other like I was crazy, waiting for me to start speaking, but Tori looked at me with an "ok, I'll listen, go ahead". The others fortunately got distracted by something else and we sat down. I can't remember exactly what I said, but a really nice conversation began, we walked around my school, we climbed up some little hills with trees (I have no idea where those came from) and at the end she said something like "you're really nice", she took out a piece of paper and wrote 2 different telephone numbers. She said that's where I could reach her if I needed to talk to someone. So I asked her where were the numbers from, and she said she couldn't tell me because no one was supposed to know where she'd be. It doesn't make any sense right now. And that's the end. I think I did something else after she was gone, but I can't remember. Yeah, she said something like "I really like it here, but I wouldn't like to live here". So that's it.. the weirdest Tori dream I've ever had. bye-bye, take care, Alicia ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 22:25:49 EDT From: TCook38SPL@aol.com Subject: Re: Re: 1-word descriptions of Tori's albums 1. soulful 2.eloquant 3. brazen 4. blistering ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 22:08:48 EDT From: HaughtyGrl@aol.com Subject: Re: Northern Lad In a message dated 6/2/98 7:14:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time, jenn@se.mediaone.net writes: << .eew..and professional widow...i just don't think so. >> Awwwwwww I'd have to diagree with you there. PW is my second favorite Tori song... only beaten by Yes, Anastasia... :) hg ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 23:27:09 -0400 From: woj Subject: the hotel well, i'm sure none of you have been waiting with baited breath for my take on the new record, but i'm tossing it into the fray anyways. so there! :P ;) anyways, here are, despite having been living with the album for a while (i too had a promo copy -- thanks to your know who you are), some initial thoughts -- as with any other tori record, this one has taken time to digest and process. i should make clear my bias first, though: for me, tori's appeal is primarily the music, though not necessarily the girl and her piano "thang". i don't what it is or how best to explain it, but, for lack of a better word, the "musicality" of her songs has always been what draws me in. the tunes, the bridges (*especially* the bridges), the arrangements, all of that just slay me. this is not to say that i don't like her lyrics. they just don't figure as prominently in the equation -- at least not until i've listened to a song or album for a long time. the intensity or tone in which she sings is very important to me, but the actual words take much longer to sink in and, as we all know, take even longer to decipher. for me, they are important in other ways -- the help to maintain interest over time. anyways, i digress. back to the album. i, for one, was very excited to hear that the new album was to be more band-focused and for the most part, i'm quite satisfied with what she has produced. with a few exceptions, the songs all manage to both explore new ground *and* retain that spark of creativity which has marked her work to date. the exceptions are "raspberry swirl", "she's your cocaine", "jackie's strength" and "northern lad" -- the first two lack whatever it is that makes me take notice of tori's work in general and the last two, while good, are standard toritunes (tm) and seem to be on the album to provide a stepping stone from her past to the choirgirl hotel. the rest of the album is a mix-and-match of styles, all of which seem to *click*. "spark", the perfect first single, entwines her musical past and present and manages to press musical buttons i didn't even know i had, "cruel" elegantly mixes bits or trip-hop with pop, "black-dove" is as cathartic as "little earthquakes" (the song), not the album), "i i e e e" is a weird little ditty, "liquid diamonds" is languishly lovely (it is probably my favorite track off the record), "hotel" is messy enough to keep me wondering, the slide guitar in "playboy mommy" is just perfect, and "pandora's aquarium", despite the awful vocal pitch-shifting in the intro, seems to be the one song which initialy struck me lyrically. _boys for pele_ still seems to the album favorite (listened to that today for the first time since the hotel was released -- very interesting in retrospect, as someone else pointed out earlier today), but there's still a fair amount to chew on with the new record which looks to keep me occupied for a while. woj ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V3 #206 *************************************