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Gold Dust

Lyrics by Tori Amos

Sights and Sounds
pull me back down
another year

I WAS HERE
I WAS HERE

Whipping past
the reflecting pool
me and you
skipping school

And we make it up
as we go along
We make it up as we go along

You said -
You raced from Langley -
pulling me underneath
a Cherry Blossom
canopy
- Do I Have -
Of course I have,
Beneath my raincoat,
I have your photograph.
And the sun on your
Face
I'm freezing that frame

And somewhere Alfie cries
and says, "Enjoy his every smile
You can see in the dark
Through the eyes of Laura Mars"

How did it go so fast
you'll say
as we are looking
back
and then we'll
understand
we held gold dust
in our
hands

Sights and Sounds
pull me back down
another year

I WAS HERE
I WAS HERE

Gaslights
Glow in the street
(flickering past)
Twilight held us
in her palm
as we walked along

And we make it up
as we go along
We make it up as we go along

Letting names
Hang in the
Air
What color hair
(auburn crimson)
Autumn knowingly
Stared
and the day that
She came
I'm freezing that
Frame
I'm freezing that frame

And somewhere Alfie smiles
and says, "Enjoy her every cry
You can see in the dark
Through the eyes of Laura Mars"

How did it go so fast
You'll say as we are looking back
and then we'll understand
we held gold dust
in our
hands

in our
hands





Tori Quotes

Last year, Tori gave birth to a daughter, and at the end of her journey, so does Scarlet. On the birth of her child in "Gold Dust," she is finally able to see the map she has lost.

From being the woman of adventure, she now has another life dependent upon her. And she sees that which is permanent and that which is transitory in a new light. When the Twin Towers went down we realized that what is permanent rests in your heart. [Scarlet's Walk bio]

"Gold Dust" is very much about being other people and feeling how they feel and feeling how you felt at another time when you've been another place. And it really isn't your past because somehow these frames are written on your body and they've made you what you are. Nothing is gone... it's just, on your body map. And this project has been very much about finding, I guess, my body map. I think if you're going to um, really write a work about a road trip and about America and who she is, then you have to go see her in, um, all her glory and all her uh... bad fast-food joints and good truck stops and everything in between. You know, you can't just go to the coast and then fly, do the fly-over-country trip. You really have to experience it. And the crazy thing about it is, the gold that we found, you find it so much when you're not even thinking that you're in it. And you turn around and you see this pair of eyes and somebody puts a bowl of chili in front of you and... it's Heaven, it doesn't get any better than that. [Scarlet Stories]


Live Versions

"Gold Dust"
April 27, 2003 - Houston, Texas



"Gold Dust"
October 10, 2009 - Warsaw, Poland



"Gold Dust"
November 2, 2017 - Boston, Massachusetts




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