little earthquakes

Tori Amos found her voice and made her solo debut with this powerful personal artistic statement. She had released an album with her band Y Kant Tori Read; but the band had broken up and Atlantic Records still expected her to fullfill her six album contract. The label was not pleased with the first recordings done with producer Davitt Sigerson at Capitol Records in Los Angeles. The next batch of songs were recorded with her boyfriend Eric Rosse at his home studio and at Stag Studios for their Yamaha grand piano. Finally, Amos went to England to record with producer Ian Stanley on two more tracks. Atlantic was finally satisfied with the album (using six of the tracks from the original sessions, three of which were released as singles) and sent her back to England to promote the album in small clubs and playing for executives in her apartment. 'Little Earthquakes' was a critical and commercial breakthrough for her with its confessional and cathartic lyrics dealing with heavy subjects like religion, sexuality, and identity with a sparce and evocative atmosphere that evokes the music of Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell. 'Little Earthquakes' went to number fifty-four in the US, forty-nine in Canada, and peaked at fourteen in Australia and the UK.








http://www.toriamos.com/










'Crucify' was one of the original Sigerson tracks. The single went to eighty-three in Australia, seventy-four in Canada, twenty-five in Ireland, twenty-two on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, seventeen in France, and peaked at number fifteen in the UK.

"Every finger in the room is pointing at me
I wanna spit in their faces
Then I get affraid what that could bring
I got a bowling ball in my stomach
I got a desert in my mouth
Figures that my COURAGE would choose to sell out now.
I've been looking for a savior in these dirty streets
Looking for a savior beneath these dirty sheets
I've been raising up my hands
Drive another nail in
Just what GOD needs
One more victim"







'Silent All These Years' was another Sigerson track. It hit number twenty-seven on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and number fifty-one in the UK. Re-released in the UK a year later, it went to number twenty-six. Five years later, it was released again in the US were it made it to number sixty-five on the Hot 100 chart and number twenty-six on the Hot Adult chart.


"What if I'm a mermaid?
In these jeans of his with her name still on it
Hey, but I don't care
'Cause sometimes
I said sometimes I hear my voice
And it's been here
Silent all these...
Years go by
Will I still be waiting
For somebody else to understand?
Years go by
If I'm stripped of my beauty
And the orange clouds raining in my head
Years go by
Will I choke on my tears
Till finally there is nothing left?
One more casualty
You know we're too easy, easy, easy "








'Precious Things'

"So I ran faster
But it caught me here
Yes my loyalties turned
Like my ankle
In the seventh grade
Running after BILLY
Running after the rain
These precious things
Let them bleed
Let them wash away
These precious things
Let them break their hold over me"

'Happy Phantom'

"Oo who the time is getting close
Oo who time to be a ghost
Oo who every day we're getting closer
The sun is getting dim
Will we pay for who we been"







'China' was an old song that she had rewritten and recorded with Ian Stanley. The single peaked at number fifty-one in the UK

"China all the way to New York
I can feel the distance getting close
You're right next to me
But I need an airplane
I can feel the DISTANCE as you breathe
Sometimes I think you want me to touch you
How can I when you build a great WALL around you
In your eyes I saw a future together
You just look away in the distance





Recorded acapella with Ian Stanley, Tori says 'Me and a Gun' is "a song about brutality and invasion on the deepest level." She had been kidnapped and raped by a fan and, after years of struggling with the aftermath, used the writing of the song to process the pain. "To heal the wound, you have to go into the dark night of the soul." She describes it as: "Difficult work. Raw. I had seen 'Thelma & Louise' and after seeing it I went off and spent some time by myself. Days. Days. And days. Processing so much that I hadn't been able to begin to become conscious about. And it was through gut-wrenching pain - hysteria, I think - that the music began to come. In the quiet, in the silence, being alone. I couldn't speak to or be with anybody so I just went off to one of my secret private haunts that you go in the world You just leave everything you know and go. And that's what I did. And when I came back out again, this song was walking hand in hand with me. It became something I had to sing to move forward. I had to claim it and be the necklaces of somebody I came to work with a few years later. She ran the Cedars-Sinai ward; her name was Dr. Rita Lynn. I worked with her for many, many years because after this song came out, I then began to retreat and put up all those shields again because I couldn't deal with the invasion of all the questioning. It became a whole other process in which people were getting off on that. Nothing was enough, so I needed to retreat. By retreating, I began to take a few steps back in my process. So I began to work with her after Under the Pink, when things just got to a place where I needed to do that. And she would say, 'We have to bead a necklace of truth.' And sometimes we have to bead little bits at a time so we can assimilate. And that's kind of key, because in singing the song, it was the thing that kept me breathing and conscious."

"5am friday morning thursday night far from sleep
I'm still up and driving can't go home obviously
So I'll just change direction cause they'll soon know where I live
And I wanna live
Got a full tank and some chips
It was me and a gun and a man on my back
And I sang "holy holy" as he buttoned down his pants"








'Little Earthquakes' was another of the Rosse tracks.

"We danced in graveyards with vampires till dawn
We laughed in the faces of king never afraid to burn
and I hate
and I hate
and I hate
and I hate disintegration
Watching us wither
Black winged roses that safely changed their COLOR
Oh these little earthquakes
Here we go again
These little earthquakes
Doesn't take much to rip us into pieces"






'Little Earthquakes' 
full album:




All tracks written by Tori Amos.

1. Crucify 0:00
2. Girl 4:58
3. Silent All These Years 9:06
4. Precious Things 13:18
5. Winter 17:45
6. Happy Phantom 23:27
7. China 26:45
8. Leather 31:44
9. Mother 35:05
10. Tear in Your Hand 41:54
11. Me and a Gun 46:34
12. Little Earthquakes 50:18