Little Earthquakes (1992)
Under The Pink (1994)
Boys For Pele (1996)
From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998)
To Venus and Back (1999)
Strange Little Girls (2001)
Scarlet's Walk (2002)
The Beekeeper (2005)
American Doll Posse (2007)
Abnormally Attracted to Sin (2009)
Midwinter Graces (2009)
Night of Hunters (2011)
It's a given now that I worked up the ambition to do a Smashing Pumpkins thread that Tori would be next. Tori Amos, real name Myra Ellen Amos, IMO has the best body of work ever created by a female artist. Like the Smashing Pumpkins shes created a mythos for herself that is larger than life which fits because she is an artist larger than life. She defines the word artist period! Every song she writes is a concoction of her own personal life, pure unadulterated sexuality, feminine theory and religious doctrine.
Tori is her own culture and her lyrics may be so coded that they are indecipherable in parts but the way she sings and plays is the universal code breaker and it's a beautiful thing. There is a beautiful harmony between Tori and her audience like none other! I don't always understand Tori but I feel Tori more than almost every artist out there!
One thing that's also synonymous with Tori is the instrument in which she channels her energies to the world!
The Piano
Tori has done perhaps more than any other artist for the piano in rock music. She played the piano with the sexual prowess and rock presence that she admired growing up listening to Led Zeppelin. Whether playing an intimate ballad or rocking out and straddling her piano bench like a sexual partner Tori makes the piano as powerful as any guitar, drum or bass!
So let me take you slowly through the history of this amazing artist! I'll do my best to transition as we journey from the preachers daughter who learned rock and sexuality to the big haired 80's vixen to an artist who found herself and down the road from there! I hope that you'll follow and if you already know the story reminisce! It's time to for Tori's presence in this forum to no longer be silent!
S & S I'm in agreement 100%. Tori Amos is my favorite female Artist and agree she has turned out amazing piano works. I've been a devoted fan since I first heard Crucify back in the early 90's.
I love taking pictures of her and have told her so. I've been lucky enough to meet her a few times. I believe I've taken over 1000 pictures of her since 2000. Have to dig my old ones out but here is 2003 on:
Nov 16, 2002
March 8, 2003
October 9, 2007-Palace theatre,Albany
October 12, 2007-Theatre at MSG
October 16, 2007-Wallingford-playing Scarlet's Walk
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The National/Wye Oak/War on Drugs
Tori Amos
Wow! I've got to get back to this thread! I love the picture Aktivator and MetalPriest, the videos are awesome as well! Tori sang Silent All These Years in a different way than I've heard in that performance! It was really cool! I'm inspired to jump start this thing!
Honestly, this is going to be as involved asa making a Smashing Pumpkins thread because while both have long productive careers with tons of material and limitless takes on the material. Both have a legacy that is involving BUT Tori is waaaay more complex. Besides what I've absorbed I have the internet and this as reference:
Tori Amos:Piece by Piece
(Written by Tori herself with the aid of music journalist Ann Powers)
I've read this book and it's a great read but it shows that if I was to give you a complete story on Tori I would, well have to write an online book. I'll be simply making an visual/audio outline which afterwards will hopefully make the uninitiated and unfamiliar want to explore even deeper. At that point, I strongly recommend the above book!
At the age of two, Tori, born Myra Ellen Amos (1963) moved from Newton, North Carolina to Baltimore, Maryland area which would be where this true prodigy would start honing her craft. At just two years of age Myra started to be classically trained on piano. In an 2009 interview it was correctly stated that gives her 44 years (now 45) as a musician!
Piano Prodigy Amos
Her family says that she could play piano before she even started talking. Like most true musical geniuses she started learning by ear. By age four she could play Mozart by ear! Early on Tori also had an ear for pop music despite being raised in a religious environment! She's stated being equally inspired by Jesus and Robert Plant as a young child. This mixed with her mothers side of the family and the Cherokee culture passed down to her by her grandparents has deeply been entrenched in her music philosophies ever since.
While these two grandparents on her moms side
Calvin and Bertie Copeland
are often reminisced in the greatest of fashion by Tori her other grandmother who along with her Grandfather was an ordained minister:
Addie Ellen Amos
was the one who showed Tori the side of Christianity that she continues to rebel against. Tori saw her as a wise woman that used her wisdom in a way she sees as "dangerous". Tori always talks about the sexism and guilt involved with religion and her grandmother even more than her minister father seems to be at the roots of that!
Here in the greatest of Tori fashion is a story Tori has about her grandmother before she plays:
Tori Grandmother Story
At age six after getting a scholarship at age five Tori entered the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore with a full scholarship!
The Peabody Institute
As I click on "Submit Reply" I'm hoping I'm not leaving anything crucial out before part 2!
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Last edited by Soot and Stars; 02-13-2010 at 06:23 AM.
Great reading!! Good stuff going on Soot! Curious as to what you find as a favorite or an often spinned disc. Me I find myself always listening to Under The Pink the most.
I saw Tori live back in '99 and I remember all throughout the show various women yelling "I love you Tori"
Yeah, I heard that two with my two Tori concert experiences! She has a very huge connection with her audience and even though she has male and female fans there's sure to be an even deeper connection with her female fans for obvious reasons. I love her but she's definitely a feminist and focuses most of her content on that! She's an intelligent, lovable feminist though!
I had a roommate introduce me to her debut album (No, not Y Can't Tori Read) and I was hooked right away. My roommate had always been a sucker for redheads and had every single CD/single Tori released and a few nice posters of her.
Tori Amos (Official Thread) 
Early on Tori also had an ear for pop music despite being raised in a religious environment! She's stated being equally inspired by Jesus and Robert Plant as a young child. This mixed with her mothers side of the family and the Cherokee culture passed down to her by her grandparents has deeply been entrenched in her music philosophies ever since.
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