In anticipation of Tori Amos’ upcoming fourteenth album, Unrepentant Geraldines, Andrew Darley writes a retrospective of the inimitable singer’s finest B-sides, rarities and cover versions.
(Click images to enlarge)
Tori Amos has established a long-standing and unwavering relationship with her fans since the 1992 release of her debut album, Little Earthquakes. During her career she has placed a particular importance on the music that extends beyond her LPs. She has notably approached single releases as opportunities to issue new material, while her live concerts bear reinterpretations and arrangements of her own music. Andrew has handpicked a small selection of songs outside of her thirteen studio albums that have taken on a life of their own and show the breadth of her work as an artist and composer.
Upside Down 
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Featured on the first-ever Tori Amos single, ‘Me And A Gun’, this B-side set a standard in the quality of the material that accompanied her singles. Written in her twenties, ‘Upside Down’ rolls on a piano melody in minor, as Tori faces her uncertainties and fears of growing up. It neatly captures the intrinsic feeling of not ‘reaching the mark’ in life, by one’s own and other people’s measures. The strength of the song and its powerful lyrics of being “afraid I’ll always be still coming out of my mother upside down” made a promise of the unreleased songs she had to come.
Take To The Sky 
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It doesn’t get much more bleak than a line about house that feels “like Russia”. After the disbandment of her band Y Kant Tori Read in the late ‘80s, this was the first song Tori wrote that began Little Earthquakes. It may be no surprise that it features a pounding drum, like a heartbeat, as she defiantly professes “I dyed my hair red today”. Its lyrics celebrate coming into her own as an artist, reclaiming her creativity and believing in nothing but her passion and music. She invites her failures, her challenges and stifling naysayers to “take a seat” as she transcends the trappings of negativity. It is the sound of an artist energized by a new vitality.
Professional Widow (Merry Widow Version Live) 
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“We love you anyway” screams a fan, as Amos quickly rebuffs “Very good, you’re gonna need to” before commencing one of her most uncompromising live take of ‘Professional Widow’. Initially recorded on harpsichord on Boys For Pele, the 1996 Dew Drop Inn Tour rendition chills the blood of the original, played solely on organ, giving it an ominous power. Her alternate lyrics and falsetto is utterly hair-raising, reaching a pinnacle as she rails “Just like my Daddy, selling his baby”. ‘Merry Widow’ transforms the original, in an almost unrecognizable way, emphasizing her adaptability and fluidity towards her own compositions.
Cooling 
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After a few attempts of trying to make this song fit into her studio albums, it was decided it would prosper quite well as a B-side. Appearing on ‘Spark’ in 1998, it stresses the potency and beauty Tori can deliver in stripping everything down to its minimum of piano and voice. Dealing with confusion of a love coming to an end, dimming passion and the uncertainty of the future, ‘Cooling’ is written with a gorgeously delicate piano melody and lyrics about “fire thought she’d really rather be water instead”. It is a song of clarity in moments of chaos.
Siren 
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Amos’ music has been adopted to soundtrack television and film over the years, including Twister, Higher Learning and Mona Lisa Smile. Tori was invited to work on the soundtrack for Alfonso Cuarón’s adaption of Great Expectations. Her contribution to the film was ‘Siren’, which was written at the time she began flirting with the idea of recording with a full band on what was to become From The Choirgirl Hotel. Over a rumbling bass line, Tori takes to the piano with a fervour as she rambles “Never was one for a prissy girl, Coquette call in for an ambulance”. Much like the title suggests, ‘Siren’ is full of urgency which complimented the original film and remains distinguished in her own repertoire.
Toodles Mr. Jim 
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Tori’s giggle from the studio floor made it onto this Boys For Pele B-side. What may sound like somebody pressed the ‘record’ button a few seconds too soon, it fits the song perfectly as she recounts a childhood squabble. The sprightly song tells the tale of her hometown neighbour, Mr. Jim, who defended her when Amos punched his daughter for insulting her mother. No stranger to humour, Tori has a childlike mischief and innocence, as she explores the way memories always live with us. This and many other songs in her catalogue engage with how people can easily access times that have past and re-experience the emotions of them in the present. If nothing else, you cannot help but smile thinking about a young Amos putting manners on someone where necessary.
The Pool
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This B-side saw Tori immerse herself in an experiment with voice and how it can be used as an instrument. With an elusive title, she layers both hushed sighs and high notes, in a way that gleams and swirls as though it being played on musical glasses. It’s an entrancing moment that features an ethereal atmosphere she can master, sounding as fluid and mystical as the pool she sings of.
Apollo’s Frock 
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Her 2002 album, Scarlet’s Walk, took listeners on a trip through the heart and history of America, both past and present. The album was created from the contentious relationship between Tori and her previous record label, which was documented in her autobiographical book, Piece By Piece. After a hugely lengthy tour of the album, Tori released an EP containing a collection of B-Sides entitled Scarlet’s Hidden Treasures. One standout song of the release is the eight-minute ‘Apollo’s Frock’. Believed to have its beginnings in the 1990s, its official release in 2004 rings evermore true for the artist. After fighting her corner with her record company for years over creative decisions, its sentiment of refusing to stifle one’s spirit for others is unmistakable (“For the last time you have crossed my line”). It sparkles with an awareness that some people in this will life will never understand our truth and the freedom in embracing our own worth.
Sister Janet 
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With this B-Side from the Under The Pink era, we Tori’s sense of connectedness and storytelling that is embodied in her work. Given her reoccurring theme of religion and its influence in her lyrics, here we find her eyeing up a nun whose “veil is quietly becoming none”. She brings us into her image of heaven with “all the angels and all the wizards, black and white”. However, what makes this song special is we pass by Marianne – a girl based on a childhood friend Amos had during high-school who overdosed in an alleged suicide, and whom appeared later on her own song on Boys From Pele. Her appearance on this song and subsequent return, like many other characters, resonates like a cord running through her catalogue. The people in her music are like secrets and clues waiting to be discovered.
Smells Like Teen Spirit 
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Some say the purpose of a cover version is to either add something extra the original or take it somewhere totally new by reimagining it. If this is the case, Tori’s cover of Nirvana’s signature song is a masterclass in the arena. She invites the ‘90s grunge into her world and spins it on its head. Stripping away everything that made the song what it has now become; her minimal approach gives it a new perspective, body and meaning. Although featured as an early B-side, the live recording on the Live At Montreaux 1991/92 is exceptional. Teeming with passion and disorientation, the final refrain of “A mosquito, My libido” may be enough to overlook it was ever written by another artist. Tori makes it all her own.
My Posse Can Do 
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On American Doll Posse, Tori examined and questioned the ways in which society stereotypes and categorizes femininity. She conjured up a ‘posse’ of five distinct characters based on the female archetypes in culture, as she sees them, with their origins stretching back to the writings of Greek Mythology. It is an impressive album as she seamlessly slips into the individual sound and vocal style of each woman. On ‘My Posse Can Do’, we meet Santa: the sassy blonde who freely prizes her sexuality and refuses to feel the shame in it. Derived from the Greek Goddess, Aphrodite, Santa’s prerogative is love and beauty in the world and her refusal to abide the patriarchal requirements of how woman should express their sensuality. She addresses the historical masculine monopoly and the lives prescribed to women, “A formula one racer or the Pope, Presidential posts you say aren’t for girls”, declaring “there be things that my posse can do”. It’s a tongue-firmly-in-cheek moment from an album that takes on the important issues of boundaries, oppression and prejudice in our world today.
Here. In My Head 
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When Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink were released in the early 1990’s, Amos’ music was branded by many as “confessional”. True, there are personal, almost journal-like lyrics across both albums. However, there was something limiting about the term as they contain moments of huge imagination and stream of consciousness-like energy. The term “confessional” felt too starkly realist, in comparison to the energy she was actually tapping into. ‘Here. In My Head’ was written in the interim between these albums. The song addresses our internal worlds and how they can be penetrated by those we love around us. Tori expresses how we internalize our experiences and ideas of people; torturing ourselves with idea of someone else. It portrays the power of what it means to be in love, whatever its nature, and its ability to make one “forget what time it was”. The song’s introspection maintains a weightlessness as she chases the root of her pain and questions the nature of emotional boundaries. What’s more, the song underlines Tori’s dedication and the care she has taken in giving listeners new music on her single releases. ‘Here. In My Head’ underlines that B-sides are not merely the songs that “didn’t make the cut” of the album; they are the ones that are strong enough to stand up on their own.
Tori’s fourteenth album Unrepentant Geraldines is released on May 9th on Mercury Classics.
