Tori Amos
Crucify

"I am not a Pleasant Person" (M.B., an EWF after an Amos concert) 

The '90s were a very sad and beautiful decade, full of contradictions but also of sincere thoughts...

Musically, they were a rebirth; sure, almost nothing was created in that decade, but the reworkings that led to the birth of genres like PostRock, TripHop, Drum 'n Bass (and others that I'm not going to mention) and to movements mixing Sociology and Custom like Grunge were astonishing...

Then obviously, they were also the spark of the Era of Global Communication, and the artistic movements (and the Wars in the Middle East) fully took advantage of these new means. The new awareness that (speaking of music) the right Video at the right time could change the game and start new thought styles was used more or less well and more or less honestly. This was the Strength of the Decade, but it is also the crutch on which detractors base their views and also the cause of internal issues among admirers of that strange Decade...

Among the various derivative musical movements (and this is not an adjective used negatively...) there was also the revival of a certain type of female singer-songwriter music that, although it cannot be considered a genre due to a lack of prequisites like style cohesion and technical affinity, can rightfully be placed among the most interesting things produced in the '90s.

Naming names reveals very little, they are well-known, however, to mention the main ones, I can say (in no particular order): Pj Harvey, Bjork, Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, Liz Phair, Liza Germano, and Tori Amos...

Just for a change, I'll talk about the last one mentioned...

Myra Ellen Amos, born in '63, was born in Newton, North Carolina, the daughter of a Methodist Pastor and a Half-Blood Cherokee. A child prodigy, she could already play the piano at the age of three and at five was enrolled in the prestigious Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, only to be expelled at eleven for severe indiscipline (the name of her first Band and massive failure "Y Kant Tori Read" is a reference to that fact). Certainly, her passion for the piano had not waned, and to vent it, the young Myra played covers (something that, as we'll see, would greatly influence her future career) in gay bars in Washington (where, in the meantime, her family had moved), always accompanied by her father, a Pastor, yes, but evidently a liberal one... while seeing her in one of these performances, a friend gave her the nickname Tori (Birdie/Lolita in Japanese) due to certain poses the redhead adopted while playing.

Tori, therefore, once grown up, decided to fly away from the nest and move to Los Angeles to try to make it big in the "magnificent" world of showbiz. Here, in '85, Amos experienced what was one of the events that most deeply marked her Life and her Artistic Path, namely, she was raped after a show by a stranger (in "Little Earthquakes" of '92, "Me and a Gun" is a raw account of the event).

This didn't stop the Cornflake Girl, who eventually was noticed with her group, the aforementioned "Y Kant Tori Read" (a mishmash between Hair Rock and Pat Benatar, where the future "Cult" Matt Sorum was present) by Atlantic (yes, a Major), which had her record a self-titled Album ('88), which was a terrible failure (deserved, by the way, the album is horrible..).

Amos, disheartened by this fact, decided to self-exile in England where she dedicated herself to her origins and influences (the real ones, meaning not Kate Bush as reported by much distracted Press, which unfortunately, due to a bit of superficiality, has reached us) Joni Mitchell, Zeppelin, Beatles, Stones to mention the main ones, resuming a certain discourse with her Bosendorfer. In Albion, she produced "Little Earthquakes", which was proposed by EastWest (a branch of Atlantic... a Major... yes, I know...) however only in '91 because the American heads weren't very convinced that the formula, to use Blackdog's words, "Whining at the Piano" (which Amos would dismiss over the years...) could garner interest, a misjudgment because the album sold 500,000 copies, not a lot but not a dud either, introducing the multimillionaire "Under the Pink" (her biggest sales success to date..)

With the '90s, Myra Ellen, in short, found fame (which I think doesn't disgust any artist, and I say none...), and personally, I thank that decade also, if not especially, for this. But my boring biographical intro ends here because it is the twin EP of "Little Earthquakes" that I want to talk about (briefly though, by life choice...) namely "Crucify" ('92).

Five Songs, two from "Little Earthquakes" a Remix (not a disco one, eh...) of "Crucify" and the delicate "Winter" (I won't talk about these because they've already been reviewed on DeB) and three Covers (remember the discourse on her career beginnings?), two from her old Musical Loves: "Angie" by the Rolling Stones and "Thank You" by Led Zeppelin and one from a group that the previous year had shocked the planet (whether musically or not is hard to establish, but it had a resounding, even media-wise, impact) namely, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, released because, as the redhead herself said, she was very interested in the controversial figure of the leader Kurt Cobain.

All three Covers are presented as Tori played them in her debut performances, in minimal Piano/Voice version, and here arises the usual dilemma... to paraphrase a DeBaserian User on one of my old reviews: "Heaven or Endless Ball-Squeezing"?

I listened to this little disc almost of age "live" and knew, of course, all the original versions, which naturally by Divine Law are better (I think this almost always happens), and I won't go on too long telling you that until a little while before, my favorite band was Maiden (and I can't explain to you the reason for the Maiden-Amos transition... magic of the '90s?), but the fact is, aside from "Angie" (I'm an incurable romantic... what can I do...) it didn't communicate much to me, and even now, I don't listen to it often. I prefer the Birdie when she creates her own, but it's a good document of those years and her beginnings and provides (for those who seek deeply) an excellent alternative point of view (ugly word I know... bear with me...) to certain visions (biased? who knows...) and if you don't stop at prejudices, even a glimpse of pure soul...

Now I should describe the songs... well... imagine a possessed woman and a piano...