Four years ago, the fine folks @torisongs polled Tori Amos
fans for their Top 50 Amos tracks. Now the task is to create a Top 100 list of the greatest Amos songs. Double
the number, double the fun! Or double the difficulty: Amos is a true "album artist" and so it can be very challenging
to prise songs from the context of the records in which their meaning comes, in part, from associations and transitions, and claim them as favourites or "best." But
here’s my attempt at it anyway. I can’t quite believe that even a list of 100 songs
wasn’t enough to allow me to include every Amos track that’s meant something to me (particularly as the great Light Princess songs, written by Amos with Samuel Adamson, are also list-eligible) but that
difficulty does make clear once again the - still often undervalued - range and breadth of her artistry. Anyway, my list is below, as before complete
with a favourite lyric from each song, and preceded by some wise words from one of Amos’s
most insightful critics, Jon Pareles. Get voting! Here are links to the information and ballot form.
"Ms. Amos’s songs combine meticulous musicianship with
willful abandon. Some repeatedly shift mood and tempo as her voice
metamorphosises from croon to embittered rasp to near operatic declamation. Her
classical piano training shows in strenuous keyboard parts that can be as
brawny as Elton John’s two-fisted chords or as dainty as Baroque counterpoint.
And her lyrics dive into unexplained memories and allusions, emerging with a
line that rings true for her listeners: 'I hear my voice and it's been here, silent all these years.'
"Some use melodies as concise
as lullabies while others are
rhapsodic, leaping from bruised low notes to pure soprano heights. To pull off such idiosyncratic songs takes unwavering conviction, something Ms. Amos has never lacked. She merges
the calculation of a recitalist with the intensity of a torch singer, and she
[makes] every keening, wordless note sound heartfelt." (Jon Pareles)
My Top 100
1. Silent All These Years - “Do you think there’s a
heaven where some screams have gone?”
2. Yes, Anastasia – “It’s funny, the things that
you find in the rain.”
3. Liquid Diamonds – “Surrender, then start your
engines.”
4. Me And A Gun – “I haven’t seen Barbados so I
must get out of this.”
5. Code Red – “Sometimes I love myself best alone.”
6. Tear in Your Hand – “I know I know you
well - well, better than I used to.”
7. Taxi Ride – “Even a glamorous bitch can be in
need.”
8. Hey Jupiter – “Took my leather off the shelf.”
9. Forest of Glass – “Lift up your head, lift up
your heart.”
10. Jackie’s Strength – “My bridesmaid’s getting
laid.”
11. Pretty Good Year – “Some things are melting
now.”
12. Caught A Lite Sneeze – “I’m hiding it well,
Sister Ernestine.”
13. Spark – “How many fates turn around in the
overtime?”
14. Winter – “When you gonna love you as much as I
do?”
15.
Leather – “But why do I need you to love me?”
16.
A Sorta Fairytale – “I don’t know what takes
hold, out there in the desert cold.”
17.
Precious Things – “Little fascist panties tucked inside the heart of every nice girl.”
18.
Welcome
to England – “Who can stay strong, when they only give us lies to lean on?”
19.
Datura – “Golden shower tree.”
20.
Scarlet’s Walk – “What do you plan to do with
all your stories?”
21.
iieee – “Need a lip-gloss boost in your America.”
22.
No H20 – “I have a choice and it's cling to my
life or I die.”
23.
Purple People – “Thunder wishes it could be the
snow.”
24.
Sugar – “Cold war with little boys.”
25.
Dragon – “I will bring kisses for the beast.”
26.
Upside Down – “You always find my faults, faster
than you find your own.”
27.
Gold Dust – “You can see in the dark, through
the eyes of Laura Mars.”
28. Barons of Suburbia – “We’re on the other side of
midnight.”
29.
Professional Widow – “Strike a deal, make him
feel like a Congressman.”
30.
Cool On Your Island – “Sometimes I’m not afraid
to let it show.”
31.
Zero Point – “We are now in the Photon band.”
32.
Nothern Lad – “You change like sugar cane.”
33.
Invisible Boy – “Jump on a Triumph like Steve
McQueen.”
34.
Glory of the 80s – “I’ll clone myself like that
blonde chick that sings Bette Davis Eyes.”
35.
Girl – “Yes, with a message for my heart.”
36.
Digital Ghost – “Your heart only beats 1s and
0s.”
37.
Josephine – “In an army’s strength, therein lies
the denouement.”
38.
Hotel – “I have to learn to let you crash.”
39.
Pancake – “Seems in vogue to be a closet
misogynist homophobe.”
40.
Crucify – “You're just an empty cage, girl, if you
kill the bird.”
41.
Smokey Joe – “One’s past is not a destination.”
42.
Cooling – “Is your place in heaven worth giving up these kisses?”
43.
Job’s Coffin – “All forces are being called to
dismantle this.”
44.
Twinkle – “She worked at an abbey in Iona and –”
45.
The Beekeeper – “I will comb myself into chains.”
46.
Juarez – “The Indian is told the Cowboy is his
friend.”
47.
Honey – “Cowboys know cowgirls ride on the
Indians’ side.”
48.
Playboy Mommy – “A good friend of American
soldiers.”
49.
Mother – “You raised your hand for the
assignment.”
50.
My Own Land – “Father, I would rather stay
confined.”
51.
Etienne – “As the gypsy crystal slowly dies.”
52.
Reindeer King – “Ice you were the one most
tender with the rivers.”
53.
Almost Rosey – “He bats as the Virginian Slim.”
54.
Beauty of Speed – “Even still I was built to
tolerate your temper.”
55.
Climb – “The temple of the soul will have to
heal the flesh.”
56.
Cloud on My Tongue – “I don’t need much to keep
me warm.”
57.
Black Dove (January) – “They don't know you've already lived.”
58.
Little Amsterdam – “Her best friend is a
sundress.”
59.
Shattering Sea – “Every brutal word.”
60. Velvet Revolution – “Feeling radical in cotton.”
61.
Body and Soul – “ Boy, I think you need a
conversion.”
62.
The Waitress – “And is her power all in her club
sandwich?”
63.
Blood Roses – “God knows I know I’ve thrown away
those graces.”
64.
Battle of Trees – “In our enemy, his own
laureate.”
65.
Baker Baker – “If you see him, say hi.”
66.
Sister Janet – “Slipping the blade in the
marmalade.”
67.
Concertina – “I’m not policing what you think
and dream.”
68.
Little Earthquakes – “Black-winged roses that safely change their colour.”
69.
Fearlessness – “Did we begin without knowing
it/To find fault in every gift?”
70.
To the Fair Motormaids of Japan – “The last
banana hairdo got a laugh from the samurais.”
71.
Ruby Through the Looking Glass – “Don’t you
think she feels us fighting?”
72.
Flying Dutchman – “They say your brain is a
comic book tattoo.”
73.
Amber Waves – “They told me to tell you they’re
waving.”
74.
Althea – “A vision of golden light falling.”
75.
Spring Haze – “My only way out is to go so far
in.”
76.
Garlands – “Phileda's Lesson: We're not his possession.”
77.
Marys of the Sea – “There’s a new Jerusalem.”
78.
Girl Disappearing - “I’m boycotting trends, it’s my new look
this season.”
79 . Bang – “One story's end seeds another to begin.”
80.
Bouncing off Clouds – “I think fate is now,
waiting on us.”
81.
Virginia – “To ghetto pimps and presidents.”
82.
Star Whisperer – “I saw a me I didn’t want to
see.”
83.
Father’s Son – “Can we blame Nature if she’s had
enough of us?”
84.
Putting the Damage On – “I say her skinny legs
could use sun.”
85.
Past the Mission – “Some things only she knows.”
86.
General Joy – “Is that why you gave her dress to
happiness?”
87.
In the Springtime of His Voodoo – “Every road leads back to my door.”
88.
Cruel -
“My vine twists around your need.”
89.
Secret Spell – “18 wheels in a high heel.”
90.
Take to the Sky – “This house is like Russia.”
91.
Lady in Blue – “I wronged the right man.”
92.
Way Down – “Yes, I am the anchorman, dining here
with Son of Sam.”
93.
Carry -
“In the procession of the mighty stars.”
94.
Dolphin Song – “I sought shelter in our child’s
room.”
95.
Suede – “I walk the missionary way.”
96.
Talula – “Ran into the henchman who severed Anne
Boleyn.”
97 . Nautical Twilight – “Every alchemist knows
fusion and fission can unify or drive a force to split.”
98.
The Wrong Band – “She says it’s time I open my
eyes.”
99. Mary's Eyes - “Patterns matter, stringing sequences together matters.”
100. Seven Sisters
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