Introduction

Introduction: Can I Be You for a While?

Some aficionados believe that Tori Amos is ahead of her time. Others believe that she was born too late; but can't we agree on both? I believe that Tori Amos is one of the 21st century's most progressive artists, yet like Michelangelo, Tori could have been a Renaissance cause celebre with her triple-threat talents, or even further back: a cave-dwelling cantor.

Tori's creativity has rarely waned over an almost three-decade-long career. Her repertoire, seemingly unfazed by time, often rekindles memories of our own youthful fantasies and follies.

Still, even timeless artists must switch gears. In fact, Tori once said: 'Girls you've gotta know when it's time to turn the page.' So, I'm anxious to turn the page on her vast body of work, but first, let's talk.

Who becomes a Tori Amos fan and why? And once stricken, is this condition contagious? A quick look at fan forums reveals that some viewers commiserate online with like-minded others after nursing a broken heart - a tearful ballad brought them onboard. Others bond after parsing out a peculiar string of images - was Tori talking to me? Once the affliction takes hold, there's the question of longevity. Many yearn to bring a neophyte into the fold but don't know where to start. I mean, how do you rifle through hundreds of songs when asked to make a proper first choice?

You can't really fit a Tori Amos fan into a box (although she actually did just that on her debut album cover), and stereotypes still persist - but truthfully, Tori Amos fans come from all walks of life and every corner of the world. As such, her discography holds time and space for all.

Regarding Tori's legacy, there's rarely a hyphen after her moniker: she's not half of a team: a Lennon to a McCartney, a Goffin to a King or a Taupin to a John. Tori has consistently surrounded herself with talent, but as a songwriter/ composer, she's pretty much a lone wolf, more in line with the likes of Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, the late Laura Nyro or Joni Mitchell in terms of writing independently and taking charge of lead vocals and core instrumentals.

The likes of Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Bela Bartok, Robert Plant, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles inspired Tori; her work too, has inspired a myriad of diverse acts, including, but not limited to: St. Vincent, Evanescence, Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple and Regina Spektor.

She wears many hats, yet when an American talk show host asked how she'd like to be remembered, Tori emphatically replied: 'Composer.' Of course, female composers, historically, acquired little formal training, or if they exhibited talent, they likely hid behind a pseudonym, garnering little fanfare. But Tori's trajectory alters previous historical perceptions - she not only composed but produced the lion's share of her studio albums. That said, I aim to give fair shrift to her compositional and lyrical output. With fifteen studio albums alone, we'll have plenty of opportunities to chronicle her development.

Born with a strong visual acuity, Tori Amos has described 'seeing music as structures of light': a phenomenon that suggests a condition called chromesthesia. Perhaps that's led to her frequent alignment with visual artists. For each album project, her team has vividly carried out her concepts. For that reason, we'll leaf through album art, and profile three-dimensional tours.

We'll call out sexism: has a critic ever described Robert Plant as a male Tori Amos? Has a male act been reviewed solely on the basis of physical posturing, as opposed to the setlist?

In an interview with Nick Levine of The Independent, published on 8 December 2020, Tori reacted to a query regarding misrepresentation in the media: '.even if somebody doesn't really like what I do, they have to acknowledge that I've lasted. I mean, I turned pro at thirteen and I'm 57 now. You do the math.'

'The math' - she certainly put in her 10,000 hours. But what led to the achievement of that milestone? What made Tori Amos so musical? To what degree was young Myra Ellen Amos influenced by the tranquility, beauty, and perhaps, the birdsong of Newton, North Carolina, her birthplace, and where she spent many childhood summers? After all, images of natural settings abound in her work. In the novel, Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens, 2018), the narrator observes, 'Birds sing mostly at dawn because the cool, moist air of morning carries their songs and their meanings much farther.' Did the 'cool, moist air of morning' inform Tori's creativity? Or did it evolve from the music and language at home, which flowed as freely as fresh water from a country stream? Was she influenced by her father's scriptures? Or the colorful stories told by her maternal grandfather, 'poppa,' who carried on the Cherokee oral tradition and mindfulness to the environment?

Tori's father, Dr. Addison Amos, was a respected Methodist minister. Her mother, Mary, a homemaker with a poetic soul. Tori's upbringing provided the schema for countless ballads. But did her lyrical depth stem from a desire to break away from the Judeo-Christian tradition and forge a unique spiritual path?

At two-and-a-half, she displayed a talent for memorizing piano melodies, although she needed telephone books to keep her slender frame from falling off the bench. Predictably, she sang in the church choir and eventually led her own: kids loved her, but parents were outraged over her red, leather trousers.

Back at home, her older siblings dropped the needle on a rich tapestry of sonic delights: joyful piano arrangements by Fats Waller and Nat King Cole made a lasting impression.

Picking melodies out by ear so effortlessly was a gift Tori's parents heeded. The prodigy received a Peabody Institute scholarship at Johns Hopkins University at the age of five. Being the youngest member ever admitted was an honor. Moreover, it was exciting to mingle with students in their upper teens, but the pressure to be perfect kept mounting: 'Then, all of a sudden, it stopped being fun,' she told journalist Paul Zollo. The rigor and exclusive menu of classical music study slowly wore her down; she yearned to improvise and compose, not merely interpret. It took forever to memorize a classical piece, and besides, many of her peers could more efficiently interpret a classical work.

She was also developing an appreciation for John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page; her open-mindedness created friction among the teachers. 'Unless it was Chopin and Mozart, they didn't wanna know,' she told Elf99. It wasn't that Tori didn't appreciate the works of the classicists - in fact, she'd explore the genre again seriously for Night of Hunters - but perhaps something she couldn't yet identify was burrowing within her: she longed to tap into it; allow the seeds to germinate on her own terms.

Ultimately, Tori and the Peabody Administration locked horns. She was expelled at eleven for 'musical insubordination' due to a preoccupation with all-things-rock, as well as a desire to create new works rather than interpret classics. To an emerging composer, this dire determination may have been the highest form of heresy, akin to jailing Galileo for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the sun. Still, her parents were devastated after she lost her scholarship.

Tori's eventual success would come at a high, emotional cost: 'Getting kicked out of the conservatory was so traumatic for me; it was like a bad relationship ending,' she also revealed to Zollo.

Her songwriting talent became evident in autumn of 1980, when she and her brother Michael co-wrote the single 'Baltimore' in honor of the Baltimore Orioles' baseball team and garnered an impressive press clipping.

Tori's greatest fan, her father, stood fast in his determination to promote her professional career, which she first forged as a piano bar singer in Baltimore and in the Georgetown bars of Washington, DC. Ellen was still a minor, but the proprietor at Mr. Smith's agreed she could play if her father chaperoned. Dr. Amos knew his clerical collar alone would ward off potential predators. So, when Tori nabbed a steady gig at the popular gay bar amid a community with which she found unconditional support, worries about harassment were laid to rest. To that end, the LGBTQ community has continued to support Tori's career; she remains grateful.

'Being exposed to the gay community at thirteen would change my views forever and I have stayed close with that community ever since,' Tori exclaimed to Kalen Rogers in All These Years.

So, Tori earned her 10,000 hours, much like her heroes, The Beatles, did in Hamburg, Germany, churning out catchy standards from the Great American Songbook at night; attending junior high during the day, until a concerned friend mentioned that if she played the piano bar circuit too long, she'd hit a wall.

In 1984, Tori left for Los Angeles with conflicted feelings. There was the loneliness of being in a strange, new city, coupled with a self-identity crisis. But as luck would have it, she got back in touch with her muse after noodling around at a friend's piano. There would be rough times ahead (including a sexual assault which Tori has alluded to in interviews and which would...