|
El Dominical “Violence is always
violence. The circumstances might vary, but what I felt when I was raped is
surely the same thing the people affected by the old Yugoslavia war felt,” she gives her opinion. Women are sharing a good slice of
the US record industry cake. And amongst them stands out a remarkable group of
electric singer-songwriters. Girls who, despite being of the same generation, the
one that many insist on calling X, show between them differences more than
evident: they all have their discourse, a defined style, a personal image and a
past, tormented in some cases, that they can draw from. The list includes,
amongst others, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Ani DiFranco, Fiona Apple...
and, of course, Tori Amos. The next lines resume part of the
life of this last singer-songwriter (35 years of age), sincere like few to
some, pretentious to others. And it’s just that she is someone that allows
everyone who listens to her music to fabricate their own image of her. Her
songs, usually very raw, ponder over personal experiences: affective
relationships, masturbation, religion, and even a sexual assault that she
suffered not so many years ago. She is what many would call the musical version
of a TV “reality show”, in that all that you would have to do would be
substitute the depressive and harsh images by sensible words about wounded
people. That is how all her discography as a solo artist is (and very probably
will be) from her debut in 1991 with the magnficent Little Earthquakes to her
last recording, To Venus and Back, which was released to the market last year. Tori Amos- Myra Ellen Amos is her
real name - was born in Newton (North Carolina). From a very young age she
gained interest for music, first classical and then pop, with a stop included
in the heavy metal of Led Zeppelin. Her father, a Methodist preacher from whom
Tori inherited her preaching tone- in her meetings with the press she talks out
of her elbows, like she was giving the Sunday preaching-, needed quite a while
to accept the artistic inclinations of her daughter. But not even that was an
obstacle for Tori to pack her bags and move, first to L.A. and then to
Washington. By the late 80s, being a teenager still, she cheered up with her
voice the nights of some renowned bars of the US capital and even had some time
to make a record with Y Kant Tori Read, her customary band of those years that
went by with neither shame nor glory. But her staying in Washington was
actually for a short time. One night, coming out of one of the concerts, Tori
was raped in her own car. The fact left a mark so strong on the singer that she
decided to leave the city and seek refuge in the country. Specifically she
found it in an English town near London, where she has installed her
headquarters. In 1992, her first record surfaced,
the before mentioned Little Earthquakes. Confessions, many of them from a first
person viewpoint, caused an impact amongst the record industry executives (they
saw a gold mine in her), the critics and the audiences. Amos affirms that her
interest in such raw texts is rooted on wanting to offer something different to
the people. “The audiences are starving for other
viewpoints on things. They are tired of so many anonymous characters”.
And, in her opinion, in this gearing it’s decisive to be “authentic and sincere. The artificiality drives you away
from the people”. Amos believes that in order for a
feeling to be received in a general way it has to be something that was
experienced individually. “The violence is always
violence” - she points out- “The
circumstances might vary, but what I felt when I was raped, and what the people
that were affected by a war like the one of old Yugoslavia have lived is surely
the same”. One of the lyrics that caused a
greater impact amongst the listeners of her first record was Me and a gun, a
self reflection about rape. “I did it sort of like
therapy. The worst thing to do in these cases is to lock yourself inside and
cry”. She even organized a phone line for raped women with funds that
were supplied by her record company Atlantic Records. “The
experience was very positive. Lots of girls called and so I think we did
something good. In my case I had music to tell what I felt. But, other persons
don’t have anyone or anything to hold on to.” she declares. But there
are ones who, in all this discourse and her way to present it, want to see a
commercial exploitation. Like it or not, the polemic sells and a story with a
dark past and problems usually fits in the pages of many magazines, something
that turns out to be actually free publicity for the artist. Tori Amos has been
criticized for some of her statements like “I am a
sort of Mary Magdalene, half prostitute and half mother superior” that
she said during the promotion of her third record, Boys for Pele, that was
edited in 1996. She has also been reproved for the contents of many of her
lyrics, polemic and hurtful, according to part of her public and critics, and
for speaking of themes like masturbation on such a direct way and approaching
religion without much respect. Little Earthquakes reached a
significant level of sales, mostly in the US. Her particular was of writing
like a diary- “I do the same thing as many other
people, give shape on a paper to important aspects of my life”, she
notes- had continuity in 1994 with Under the Pink and, specially, in 1996 with
Boys for Pele, which got to be number one in her country. Songs like Father
Lucifer and Professional Widow were then her therapy to get over her
sentimental break up with Eric Ross (sic), the producer of her first two
records. “I needed serenity”, she explains.
And this she only acquires composing and recording with her piano. “It is the instrument that I started playing as a little
girl. The piano and me are one. When I sit in front of it and lay my hands on
the keys, I calm down”, she assures. She was 3 years old and so short that
her head wasn’t that far from the ground but little Myra Ellen was capable of
interpreting many great composer pieces. And she remains by the piano but now
she uses it to compose heart-rending melodies, close in her vocals to Kate
Bush. In 1996, life, very tough on occasions, had another blow prepared for
her. Towards the end of that year, when she was close to ending the Boys for
Pele tour, Tori lost the child she was expecting. As the singer explained
months after that terrible experience, “the pain caused
by the death of a loved person and the discovery of a strength that I didn’t
thing I had in me” were useful for her as a base to fabricate From the
Choirgirl Hotel, a record more dramatic and intense than its precedent ones. It
saw ligt in 1998 and, for the first time in her career, Tori recorded with a
powerful rythm base formed by the bassists George Potter (sic.) Jr. and Justin
Medal Johnsen (sic.), the guitarist Steve Caton and drummer Matt Chamberlain. From the Choirgirl Hotel shows a
disjointed and estranged Tori Amos, it portrays an existential crisis that, by
the tenor of what is heard in To Venus and Back, the double record with which
the singer said farewell to 1999, is still there. Venus orbiting, the first of
the two CDs, includes 11 new songs, pretty realistic and depressive, while the
second, Venus Live. still orbiting, was recorded during the Plugged tour that
took place in 1998 and is a journey to some of the titles in her intense
discography. One of her last declarations defines which is her actual mood: “I dedicate all my efforts to being free. I practice
piano to forget the keyboard. I always wanted to be a ballerina to forget the
ground. I live in the country to forget the public, the producers and the
journalists”. Little
Earthquakes Boys
for Pele From
the Choirgirl Hotel To Venus and Back |