I just want to thank everybody for their contributions in this thread! I went through the whole thing and their is amazing pictures, artwork, great song choices and great surprises as so many members with taste so diverse from each other have all come in and admitted to liking this one particular artist! That's really awesome!!!!!!
She's A Beauty Queen
I admit, I think Tori is pretty hot!!!! Everything about Tori embodies sex! Her fiery red hair, her luscious lips, the way she moves onstage, her subject matter, etc. Sexuality is a subject matter that she loves dealing with in her music as well! Having said that I'm still surprised to find that she was:
Homecoming Queen
This isn't a position just based on beauty and looks obviously (but to be honest looks always play a part) but also popularity and achievements! Now Tori definitely had the achievements part but her beauty isn't necessarily the tradition High School age version. As for popularity Tori always described herself as a dork and an outcast! I think it's cool Tori got this though and it shows that things aren't that black and white. Tori attributes winning this to being nice to everybody whether they had status or were a minority. She also took part in many activities, clubs so her name was out there! In typical tori humor she joked that even this lady was Homecoming Queen:
Laura Palmer
This was a David Lynch character from Twin Peaks that seemed perfect but on the other side of her dual life ended up being a cocaine abuser and worked in a brothel! Her death was a huge story in the series and it was found that she was abused, molested and murdered by someone close to her! (I don't want to put a specific spoiler in here!)
So Tori knew the surrealism of her win in an even more humorous way than us!
So after Tori graduated High School she was attending music classes in Montgomery college and sending out demos to record companies! It was the early 80's and the decade had a huge and interesting influence on Tori! It was a decade of learning for Tori! Stay tuned for my next installment which will be "Tori of the 80's"!
That was exactly my thought process! I was almost tempted to skip that excerpt to get to her cool 80's period plus besides graduating that was the only thing that stuck out and I wasn't sure it warranted it's own entry alone. I'm glad that I wasn't the only Tori fan in my own thread nonetheless who didn't know this! I'm not usually up on personal histories on my artist (just the music) so I've been learning from my own research!
The 80's were a weird time for Tori! She had graduated from school and continued to perform and she was persistently sending demos out to record companies. She still hadn't quite found her voice yet and doubts were circling about her identity through this process. While performing she would get comparisons to a singer you all might know:
Kate Bush
Kate Bush was a very ethereal singer songwriter that mixed 80's excess with fantasy and singer songwriter balladry! I can definitely see why people thought that she would be a precursor or influence on some levels to Tori but a s much as I respect Kate I find the comparisons overstated!
During that year in question of 1981 that Tori started hearing this Kate hadn't broken out with her breakthrough material. Tori hadn't even heard her! This was a single that would've been heard during that time:
Breathing
I can hear flourishes of piano slightly similar to Tori but as a whole this is vocally and musically on a different plane other than they are both strange, quirky singer songwriter chicks with a huge rock influence!
Tori speaks on the comparison and the time:
I'll never forget the first time I heard about Kate. I was playing in a club, I was 18 or 19 and somebody came up to me, pointed their finger and said, 'Kate Bush.' I went, 'Who's that?' I wasn't really familiar because Kate didn't really happen in the States until Hounds Of Love. I was shocked because the last thing you want to hear is that you sound like someone else. Then people kept mentioning her name when they heard me sing, to the point where I finally went and got her records. When I first heard her, I went Wow, she does things that I've never heard anybody do, much less me. But I could hear a resonance in the voice where you'd think we were distantly related or something... I must tell you that when I heard her I was blown away by her. There's no question... But I knew that I had to be careful, so I didn't voraciously learn her catalogue. I left the records with my boyfriend at the time, because I didn't want to copy her. [Q - May 1998]
Still, all this ended up in a confusion and identity crisis that resulted in this big haired adventure:
Stay tuned for my coverage of Tori's band "Y Kant Tori Read" in my next installment of "Tori of the 80's"!
Tori went through a lot of doubts while trying to get signed to a label. Some labels were looking for metal. Some were looking for dance music. No one was looking for a chick with a piano. When Tori finally did get someone in the business to check her out,
Micheal "Narada" Walten
it didn't work out. Micheal was a successful producer with a great resume (produced a string of hits for Whitney Houston) as well as in performing (drummed for Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jeff Beck)! His own albums were moderately successful and he's one Grammy's for producer of the year and album of the year (The Bodyguard) and Song of the Year!
Here's a track of his own to give you a picture of what Tori was working with in contrast to her style:
Narada Micheal Walten-I Shoulda Loved You
Aaaaah, the 80's!
So the sessions didn't pan out and no deal was reached. Micheal constantly tweaked Toris vocals. He wanted a more bubble gummy girly sound. He also tried bringing out more suggestive material. Tori went from wanting to work on tracks called "Married Men' and "British Invasion" to ones like Skirts On Fire", "Predator", "Rub Down" and "Score"! Tori hated it and that music relation had reached it's end!
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Everything about Tori embodies sex! Her fiery red hair, her luscious lips, the way she moves onstage, her subject matter, etc. Sexuality is a subject matter that she loves dealing with in her music as well! Having said that I'm still surprised to find that she was:
