Re: "The Official" Tori Amos Thread
Becoming Tori: The Path Starting With Sylvia Plath: Age 16-17
As Tori fans know, Tori's writing has many influences from literature ranging from the Bible itself to strong female authors and beyond. One such author that Tori looked to strongly was
Sylvia Plath
Here's a small excerpt about Plath from Wikipedia:
Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, children's author, and short story author who lived and worked in the United Kingdom for much of her life.
Known primarily for her poetry, Plath also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Plath, along with Anne Sexton, is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry initiated by Robert Lowell and W. D. Snodgrass.
This was due to the influence of her 11th grade teacher Ms. Barrett who Tori respected very much for her strength and wisdom at a young age. Ms. Barret encouraged Tori that their were strong woman and figures in general to idolize outside of the Rock music realm.
The other authors that Tori absorbed the work of because of this experience were:
Tennessee Williams
Rimbaud
Baudelaire
At age 17
Tori would make a big move towards her current persona. This is the age she went from Myra Ellen Amos to her the name that would stick with her ever since. Myra Ellen would now take on the stage name Tori! Here's Tori talking about it herself!
I just hated my name. If a guy even started to look at me and they heard my name was Myra Ellen, it just created... a limp dick immediately. I couldn't bear it. You wouldn't have believed some of the names I was going through at the time... I'll give you one. Sammy Jaye. Obviously that was my Dallas period. That was my late-70's prime-time soap opera name. Or it could've been my porn name. I'll remember that when I date Tommy Lee... A friend of mine at the time was dating some guy and she brought him to one of the clubs I was playing and he just looked at me and said, 'You're a Tori.' I just went, 'you know what? I am.' So from then on, I made out my cheques aka Tori. Then of course I found that it meant 'little chicken' in Japanese. [Q - May 1998]
That's it for this entry but it's going to get better for me personally because 18 is the age Tori makes her first official song and the music officially starts!
She's one of those artist that I could print out the song lyrics seperately like you said right up there with The Smashing Pumpkins and Fiona Apple in High School! Just great imagery and larger than life material! 
