Re: Monologue from Hello Earth

[nbuchwa1@ix.netcom.com (Norman Buchwald)]

Alan.Stonebridge@durham.ac.uk (Alan Stonebridge) wrote:

>On Wed, 8 May 1996, Sharon Nelson wrote:

>> Every time I listen to Tori, she makes me sick with her pathetic
>> replications of Kate's music.  I wish she would at least give Kate credit
>> for "influencing" her music, rather than never admitting that she is even
>> aware of her existence!!!!!!!!!!!

>I agree fully. The covers of "Little Earthquakes" and the US (?) version 
>of TKI are 'evidence' of a sort that she has at least heard Kate's music. 
>I mean, it must have inspired her in some way - would you 'adapt' a cover 
>of somebody's album simply because you'd seen it once or twice and 
>thought it looked good. (Notice that's a rhetorical 'question') No, there 
>has to be more to it than that. Also, I feel that Tori's music is very 
>much like the "Cathy Demos", and TKI and Lionheart. It seems that Tori is 
>even changing her style to sound more aggressive - take a listen to NfE 
>and TD, and then listen to the differences between "Under the Pink" and 
>"Boys for Pele" - to me, at least, there seems to be a much more angry 
>sound to BfP, and some of the tracks from NfE and TD have this too (e.g. 
>"Breathing", "Get Out Of My House"). I hope that all makes sense. 
>Although I like Tori (up to UtP, and some of BfP, especially "Marianne"), 
>she does seem to lack imagination at times - it seems the press give the 
>impression of her being 'deep', and she plays on that. Anyone else got 
>any thoughts on this?

>Alan.


I believe that she's influenced by Kate and that she was thinking of
her when she was especially recording "Little Earthquakes," though I'm
wary to make the comparisons as others have made as deliberate
conscious echoes (Hello, Robb.  :)   ) 

I use the term "deliberate conscious echoes" to make a point that Tori
may not be fully consciously lying when she does not consider Kate an
influence (she has admitted listening to Kate) and I still feel that
early on she had an animosity towards Kate because the press, etc.
kept comparing to her when in fact Little Earthquakes (and her later
albums) are really very different from Kate's.  

There are times they seem to be on a similar wavelength, but Kate's
more Western Canon oriented (though she plays around with it) while
Tori's more personal oriented.  Her most recent album, Boys For Pele,
takes the personal and a juxtapositional nature (brought in I think
art form in "Silent All These Years") to an almost very personal,
enigmatic feat that in some ways may end up only being "admirable
failures" (but I find it more intriguing than "Under The Pink")

I have heard rumours made the other way around such as Kate didn't
want to tour with a piano because it was recently done by another
female artist.  Come on!  :)  They're comparable because they are both
female artists interested in creating new and innovative sounds and
taking lyric writing very seriously in the form of art.  Kate Bush
probably has succeeded in terms of album creation and very good,
provacative songs with The Dreaming and Hounds of Love.  Tori Amos
still hasn't improved (for me) Little Earthquakes, whose benefit came
from exposing herself clearly through often juxtapositional but more
clearly coherent lyrics.

My thoughts.  This time around.  :P

The Storm

Deeper.  Deeper.  Somewhere in the depth there is the light.