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Black-Dove (January)

Lyrics by Tori Amos

She was a January girl
She never let on how insane it was
in that tiny kinda scary house
by the woods, by the woods, by the woods, by the woods
by the woods, by the woods, by the woods, by the woods

black-dove, black-dove
you're not a helicopter
you're not a cop-out either, honey
black-dove, black-dove
you don't need a space ship
they don't know you've already lived
on the other side of the galaxy
the other side of the galaxy
the other side of the galaxy

she had a January world
so many storms not right somehow
how a lion becomes a mouse
by the woods, by the woods, by the woods, by the woods
by the woods, by the woods, by the woods, by the woods

but I have to get to TEXAS
said I have to get to TEXAS
and I'll give away my blue, blue dress
my blue dress

black-dove, black-dove
you're not a helicopter
you're not a cop-out either, honey
black-dove, black-dove
you don't need a space ship
they don't know you've already lived
on the other side of the galaxy
the other side of
the other side of the galaxy

but I have to get to TEXAS
said I have to get to TEXAS
and I'll give away my blue dress
because cowboy
the snakes they are my kin
are my kin

she had a January girl
she never let on how insane it was
in that tiny kinda scary house
by the woods, by the woods, by the woods, by the woods
by the woods, by the woods, by the woods, by the woods
by the woods, by the woods, by the woods
black-dove


Tori Quotes

When I sleep I often have nightmares. I can already hear your readers saying, "I knew that. The way your songs sound you must really have horrible nightmares." Just like the one I'm describing in the song "Black-Dove" off my last album From the Choirgirl Hotel. I see a black dove. I see its face clearly. The dove is transparent. Like it is made of ice. I can see my hand through it. An auger goes through it and it is bleeding water.

To get the same atmosphere musically, I had to describe a scene of the movie Fargo to my musicians. A car is coming towards the camera from a long distance, very slowly. You know it will arrive in a moment. But you hope that this will never happen. My nightmares are so bad, that I mostly reject it when my friends want to take me to a cinema to watch a horror movie. Then I say, "No, thank you. I will dream in a few hours."

Sometimes I feel like Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf... The nightmares have agonized me since my childhood. I am the daughter of a Methodist preacher and as a child I was sexually abused by a friend of the family. I think the nightmares are telling me things about me I need to know. And I try to understand what they mean. Maybe so I can get to know something more about my soul. [Die Zeit (Germany) - November 11, 1999]


Live Versions

"Black-Dove (January)"
May 22, 1998 - London, England
Later... with Jools Holland



"Black-Dove (January)"
May 2, 2003 - Chicago, Illinois
Soundstage



"Black-Dove (January)"
December 9, 2009 - New York, New York
Live from the Artists Den



"Black-Dove (January)"
August 13, 2014 - New York, New York



"Black-Dove (January)"
October 27, 2017 - Chicago, Illinois




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