From: owner-precious-things-digest To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V1 #23 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest 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 Sunday, 10 March 1996 Volume 01 : Number 023 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Tori Live etc. etc. Two more things Re: Tori Live etc. etc. Going To D.C. Twee Meter Sessies music & lyrics Re: Tori Live etc. etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Donald G. Keller" Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 09:09:21 -0500 (EST) Subject: Tori Live etc. etc. The thing I like best about Tori Amos is her piano playing: if I were to learn she was going to play a concert and never sing a note, I'd still go like a shot. It's not only her technical ability (as good as anyone I can think of who's worked in the rock/pop field), but her extraordinary natural musicality: the music just flows out of her. This does not alter the fact that I seem to have a bottomless fascination with her songwriting, that some of the things she does with her voice have a tremendous physical impact on me, or that her lyrics can have a devastating emotional effect. But it all starts for me with the piano playing. It's really fascinating to hear her talk, or read what she's written (in prose), because she writes and speaks exactly like she writes lyrics: pithy, alternately zinging superhonest one-liners and elusive metaphors. In a sense she's not really a word person; her verbal communication lacks connective tissue, the kind of flow and verbal logic we word people seem to think important. That may be part of why some people find her vague and uncommunicative. But the music sure speaks clearly. Thanks to Paul Tweedy for the concert review! Because of course we're all dying to find out what she's up to this time. Sounds like a really terrific show, though I'm wondering two things: 1) was that all the songs? This adds up to 3/4 of an hour regular set, it looks like. 2) was there harpsichord at all? None of the harpsichord songs are on the set list, and no mention is made of what she played "Bells for Her" on. Really curious about this, because unlike some people I'm really =hoping= to hear her play harpsichord live. Speaking of new words, I confess myself quite bemused but fascinated by "toriadore"... I found "Butterfly" to be an ok but not great song; but it's her cover of "Losing My Religion" (a great favorite in its original version) that I can't decide if I like or not; it's a really eccentric version. I'm not doubting that "Buildings tumbling down..." are the correct lyrics; it's really interesting, though, that Meredith and I heard it wrong =the same way=. Lastly, the issue of why music can't always be comfortable. I don't even know where to begin on this. Myself, when I hear "comfortable music" I tend to think "muzak," and I =can't listen= to muzak, it drives me crazy. I'm not denying the concept of "comfort music"--when I'm working hard or in an irritable mood I tend to go back to familiar old favorites--but on the whole what I'm looking for in music is something new, something different, something to stir me up, perk my ears up, challenge my listening, open up new vistas. And Tori's music is not particularly comfortable, anyway; I don't listen to "Me and a Gun" very often, for example. ------------------------------ From: "Donald G. Keller" Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 09:14:10 -0500 (EST) Subject: Two more things The last =Billboard= I saw lists =BfP= at #23 in its fifth week. Holding on pretty steady, there; and it may well rise again when she reaches the States on her tour. The most recent =Pulse= magazine (the umpteenth in the last few months with Ministry on the cover) has a review column which gives the new Lou Reed one star and =BfP= two; title? "y cant lou reed, tori?" (should be "kant," of course, but still). ------------------------------ From: Grendel The Spectacular Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 18:37:10 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Re: Tori Live etc. etc. On Sat, 9 Mar 1996, Donald G. Keller wrote: > Thanks to Paul Tweedy for the concert review! Because of course we're all > dying to find out what she's up to this time. Sounds like a really > terrific show, though I'm wondering two things: 1) was that all the > songs? This adds up to 3/4 of an hour regular set, it looks like. 2) was > there harpsichord at all? None of the harpsichord songs are on the set > list, and no mention is made of what she played "Bells for Her" on. > Really curious about this, because unlike some people I'm really =hoping= > to hear her play harpsichord live. Okay.. I'll do my best to amend things, Donald... please bear in mind I wrote the review not two hours after the concert had finished and I was still a little dazed.. Tori's Set List, Newcastle City Hall, UK, 5/3/1996. 1) Beauty Queen/Horses 2) Losing my Religion 3) Muhummad my Friend 4) Bells for Her 5) Little Amsterdam 6) Space Dog 7) Cornflake Girl 8) The Doughnut Song 9) Icicle 10) Precious Things 11) Not the Red Baron 12) Leather 13) Blood Roses 14) Honey 15) Marianne (which she didn't do - it's also spelt wrongly: Marriane!) ************ 16) Silent all these Years 17) Putting the Damage on ************ 18) Wrapped around your Finger 19) Tori's Choice (she played the Happy Phantom) 20) Hey Jupiter She played Bells for Her on the harpsichord, and it actually sounded a lot better. She didn't use it too much though, concentrating on the Bosey, and using the Harmonium for Hey Jupiter. Glad to amend things, Paul :) ============================================================================ "I'm trying not to move, it's just your ghost passing through" - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- St Aidan's College, University Of Durham. http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d550du ============================================================================ ------------------------------ From: Troy Cockrell Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 15:11:52 -0500 Subject: Going To D.C. Was able to get tickets to both shows in D.C., thanks to all the people out there supplying Tori information, tour date, etc.... Hope to see some RDT'ers, Precious Things people at the shows Take Care Troy ------------------------------ From: "Sister Ray" Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 23:12:02 CET Subject: Twee Meter Sessies ::: Yippy! I've got them. Just a few seconds ago i heard Ms Amos' performance on 'Twee Meter Sessies', a programm on the dutch radio and television. She played the songs: Fool On The Hill (a cover, originally played by The Beatles), Horses, This Old Man and Putting The Damage On. Too bad they didn't broadcast all of the six recorded songs of the one hour session. ::: What do i have to say about the songs? They're all very good. Fool On The Hill is played very intimate, very close. I don't what the original version is like, so i can't compare them. But the way Ms Amos played it is very cool anyway. Horses is a little more vehementlier than on Boys For Pele. If you love her gasping breaths, you will love this one. Horses and Fools are played in each other, mixed up in each other (don't know what you call it, why don't we make a language switch on this list, to dutch...). ::: Jan Douwe Kroeske, the presentator, said the songs were recorded in Januari, the 25th as i correct recall. A lot of fans were in the studio as well as some television camera's. After playing the first song, she told that she didn't like it, she would have had rather sex with the audience than this. But this is , Jan Douwe told this, what she had said four years earlier (they did a session then with Ms Amos too) already once. ::: Hearing this, reading the story of another member about the gig in England, makes me really look forward to next Friday. The day she will play in The Hague, the day i will see Ms Amos live... ::: If you want to know more, ask me! I wonder whether one of those who were there are on this list? ::: Love, Sis. ********************************************************************* SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SCENE! - --------------------------------------------------------------------- email: sisterra@pi.net Sister Ray Headqtrs. or email: sisterra@mediaport.org (<20kB) url homepage: http://mediaport.org/~sisterra - --------------------------------------------------------------------- "First came fire, then came light Then came feeling, then cam sight." - Lou Reed to Sterling Morrison ********************************************************************* ------------------------------ From: "Sister Ray" Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 23:12:01 CET Subject: music & lyrics ::: Hi! ** On 7 Mar 96, Adam Thomas Heath wrote: >It seems like people study her lyrics more than her music. Which is >understandable, because they are there for us to discuss. ::: I'm not one of them. Although i like Ms Amos a lot, i haven't 'studied' her lyrics. Her music neihter. I listen to the songs, and i love them the way they come to my ears. I know a little what she says in her lyrics, i sometimes read the lyrics, but i don't try to figure out what Ms Amos meant to say. Although i love to read the opinons of others, i wouldn't analyze lyrics deeply by myself. I just read or hear them, and the thing that comes to my mind at that time, that's ok. I cannot see what other people try to find out when they analyze lirics. Do they (you?) want to figure out what Ms Amos meant to say? From my own experiences i've learned it's very difficult to know what was mean to say when you don't know the person privatly, something most of you won't. And even then, if you don't know the situation that person was in, the mood, it will be hard... ** On 8 Mar 96, Neile Graham wrote: >It's funny how it's the music that I always get attached to first, >then the lyrics enhance that. ::: Not really. The music, the melody is easy to hear. You don't have to think while listening to it, to say it in a corny way. At the time you listen to the lyrics more precisly (what do they tell you) you are much more concerned with (or 'at', i'm not this good in english...) the song. >I guess as a writer the music and words are inseparable, ::: I don't think you're correct. I have a book called 'Stranger Music' of the great singer songrwriter Leonard Cohen. This book features many many lyrics (and poems) of the Man. If you don't know the songs, you won't know whether the texts were lyrics to songs or poems. Every single text could have been a lyrick, but also it 'just' could have been a poem. 'Between Thought And Expression' is a book containing a lot of lyricks of Lou Reed, compiled by himself. Most of them, not all, can be read as a poem without music without any problems. You don't need the music to understand them better, or different or whatever. >As a listener I can stand horrible lyrics as long as the music is >good, but the lyrics can be wonderful and I still won't like the song >if I don't like it musically. ::: I can stand horrible lyrics with horrible songs too. Punkrock never has high quality lyrics (never meant to), and it's music isn't that highquality too. But i love them, just beause of their hapinessm their anger. At the other point, loving the lyrics but hating the music, i don't know a song in that way. Can you name me some? ** On 8 Mar 96, Valerie Nozick wrote: >In fact, that's why, although I still love BfP and UtP, they'll never >be my favorite albums. Tori's lyrics have gotten so obscure and >bizarre, that I don't feel as strong a connection to the songs. It >doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the lyrics, just that they don't >make me go, "Yes, that's it!" And that's why I will forever be just a >little disappointed in both of these albums. ::: I don't like Under The Pink and Boys For Pele as much as Little Earthquakes too. But that's because of the music. Little Earthquakes has something of a style which the other two don't have. Difficult to explain... Under The Pink and Boys For Pele aren't worse, but i don't think Ms Amos will ever get back to the Little Earthquakes level. ::: Take care! Sis. ********************************************************************* SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SCENE! - --------------------------------------------------------------------- email: sisterra@pi.net Sister Ray Headqtrs. or email: sisterra@mediaport.org (<20kB) url homepage: http://mediaport.org/~sisterra - --------------------------------------------------------------------- "First came fire, then came light Then came feeling, then cam sight." - Lou Reed to Sterling Morrison ********************************************************************* ------------------------------ From: Richard Holmes Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 14:53:23 -0800 (PST) Subject: Re: Tori Live etc. etc. "Donald G. Keller" writes: >The thing I like best about Tori Amos is her piano playing: if I were to Her playing *is* amazing, isn't it =8^) [snip] >It's really fascinating to hear her talk, or read what she's written (in >prose), because she writes and speaks exactly like she writes lyrics: >pithy, alternately zinging superhonest one-liners and elusive metaphors. >In a sense she's not really a word person; her verbal communication lacks >connective tissue, the kind of flow and verbal logic we word people seem >to think important. That may be part of why some people find her vague >and uncommunicative. But the music sure speaks clearly. I've said before that I'm very much a *lyrics* person when it comes to music, but of course, music complements lyrics well. I haven't seen or read much of her interviews, being a "media-phobe", but I *did* finally break down and purchase the "SPIN" that interviewed her. I was surprised that she speaks like she writes. It could get difficult in this world if one communicated this way all the time... perhaps she felt comfortable enough with the interviewer to "let loose"? (anyone who watches tv care to comment on this idea?). I am almost regretful that I don't watch the toob, since so many of my fave artists occasionally make appearances there... I don't think I could stomach the commercials >:~P It is refreshit for me to hear someone who's communication is capable of being both coherent, commmunicative, but non-linear and existing in different planes at once. [snip] >Lastly, the issue of why music can't always be comfortable. I don't even >know where to begin on this. Myself, when I hear "comfortable music" I >tend to think "muzak," and I =can't listen= to muzak, it drives me crazy. [ipsnay] >And Tori's music is not particularly comfortable, anyway; I don't listen >to "Me and a Gun" very often, for example. [snayip] Well, I tend to listen to whole CDs, so I hear it as often as I hear the CD. It *is* uncomfortable... but as a whole, I find all of Tori within comfort levels. Which I can't say the same for Skinny Puppy or Diamanda Galas' "Plague Mass", although I do enjoy Diamanda quite a bit. Well, gotta run, sing the song and dance the dance.... - - Richard. \@/ | Richard A. Holmes (rholmes@cs.stanford.edu) \|/ | "Drum to your future, Sing your dreams alive!" , , | , , ' ' ' ' ' Loreena McKennitt / Kate Bush / Tori Amos / Katell Keineg / Happy Rhodes / Dar Williams / Renaissance / Sheila Chandra / Laura Love / Jane Siberry / Fairport Convention / Kiva / Libana/ Danielle Dax / Dog Faced Hermans ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V1 #23 ************************************