Tori Amos

[jason.finegan@ehbbs.com (Jason Finegan)]

Reply to "Re: tori amos" by woj@remus.rutgers.edu

WOJ:"not fantastic, but fantasies. perhaps i wasn't clear enough in my
:wording, but the point is this: KaTe's songs are for the most part
:stories about things that have probably never happened to her and
:probably never will. tori's music is for the most part coming from her
:experiences. big difference."

What do you know of what has happened to Kate and what hasn't?  Sure, a
lot of details are known publicly about her private life and her past,
but no Kate fan can claim to actually KNOW her, just because they've
read a book and listened to _The Dreaming_ once a day for the greater
part of their "adult" life.  To my ears there are several Kate songs
that appear to be at least loosely based on her past experiences.  She
changes them to make them less personal, but they're still there.  Tori
has made a big point of writing about herself.  Kate, from the start,
has been more mature than that.  What's so attractive about brooding
about the past?  That's all Tori seems able to do. Kate's "fantasies" at
least show that she is thinking ahead.

WOJ:"okay, so "watching you without me" and "happy phantom" have a
:common context: the spirit of a person observing the real world. but
:how does a lyrical similarity like this make tori a raving
:KaTe-wannabee? does every song with a similar kernel of an idea
:indicate this? does that mean that robyn hitchcock is guilty of
:KaTe-wannabeism since his "globe of frogs" has a simliar idea?"

No, Robyn Hitchcock is a self-admitted Syd Barrett wannabe.  It is quite
obvious that Kate greatly influenced Tori Amos.  If you can't see that,
there's no point in trying to explain it to you.  I have no problem with
Tori stealing some ideas from Kate's early years.  Kate has pretty much
stopped writing and performing the same kind of piano/vocal music of her
early years, so there's no problem with someone else picking up that
torch and running with it.  I just wish Tori'd been more honest about
her ideas.  So many new fans of Tori Amos wow over the how original she
is, never realizing that even her ALBUM COVER is stolen from _The Kick
Inside_.

Jason Finegan

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