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Date Posted: 17:51:19 05/01/07 Tue
Author: Leonardo
Subject: Task Two

Produção de Texto
Leonardo Henrique de Morais

Essay 2


Literary influences upon Tori Amos’ work

The American singer, pianist, and composer called Tori Amos has been a strong name when talking about women in music. Since the year 1992 when Little Earthquakes, her first CD, was released, she has inspired many of other female singers, like Fiona Apple and Alanis Morissete, for instance; however, not only is she a reference for other composers, she is inspired by several writers, philosophers, and painters, amid other. “She’s just so interested to learn. On tour, everywhere we go she asks questions, her radar is out. She buys books, gets the papers, wants to talk to the locals,” mentions one of her managers, Chelsea Laird. All this knowledge goes back to her compositions, cause her songwriting to be rich and very well structure. As Amos says, “The root of the structure of my songwriting is the voice that comes ou of the Piano, and, of course, my mother’s books.” Therefore, Literature has aways been a strong influence on Amos’ compositions, chiefly through Sylvia Plath’s poems, Neil Gaiman’s comics and novels, and, the most important one, The Bible, along with Bloodline of the holy Grail: The hidden lineage of Jesus Revealed, by Laurence Gardner.
First, Sylvia Plath, the American poet who comitted suicide in 1963, plays an important role in Amo’s work. As Amos states, “...there are people I don't really know anymore who turned me on to, say, Sylvia Plath. It's strange how I have no idea where this person is, but my life would have taken a different turn if I didn't have it.” Her influence is present throughout Amos’ compositions, in terms of style and structure, but mostly through references to Plath’s poems, for example in the song Butterfly, and in the CD The Beekeeper. In the lyrics of Butterfly, Amos uses a verse (Daddy dear, if i can kill one man why not two) very similar to that used by Plath in the poem Daddy ( If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two). The album and the song The Beekeeper, released in 2005, are problably a reference to a Plath’s poem named The Beekeeper’s Daughter since Amos uses the word “beekeeper” as a metaphor of death, which is a recurrent theme in Plath’s poems. Referring to Plath’s work, Amos once affirmed: “That's the level I'm striving for.”
Secondly, Neil Gaiman, one of Amos’ best friends, has been inspiring her strongly since they met each other, in the year 1990. “Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite writers and has been a huge influence in my life.”, reinforces Amos. Born in 1960 at Portcheter, England, he has written quite a few things, including novels, comics, and short stories. It is common Gaiman moves to Amos’ house when he is writing something long as he did when he was working on Anansi boys, his last novel. Both Amos and Gaiman make references to each other in their work. In Amos’ compositions, references to Gaiman’s work are present through them all, deserving more attention the song Sister Named Desire, and the albums Strange Little Girls and Scarlet’s Walk. In Sandman, a series of comics started in 1989, there is a character called Delirium who is very similar to Tori. Later, Gaiman incorporated some Amos’ characteristics into Delirium, causing the latter to be more similar to the former. In order to homage Gaiman, Amos wrote a song - Sister Named Desire - as she was Delirium to Desire who, in Sandman, is one of Delirium’s sisters. In Strange Little Girls, released in the year 2001, a conceptual album in which Amos created 13 different personalities, one for every song, , it was Gaiman who wrote the stories for each of the 13 characters. At last, in the CD Scarlet’s Walk, Tori makes references to Gaiman’s work in two songs: Carbon, Get me Neil on the line. No, I can’t hold. Have him read ‘Snow Glass Apples’ where nothing is what it seems; Snow Glass Apples is a short story by Gaiman published in the book Smokes and Mirrors; and Wednesday, which is also the name of a character of Gaiman’s American Gods.
Finally, the strongest influence on Amos’ work is from the Bible. As Amos is always questioning Christianity, she uses parts of the Bible to illustrate what she means. Jesus, names of Apostles, Mary, and Mary Magdalene are, amongst other, words present the great major part of Amos’ compositions. For example, Jesus is cited in songs like Precious Things, Crucify (Amos refers to Jesus using the phrase “The Saviour”), and Cooling; Amos mentions Peter in Mrs. Jesus (where she also cites Mary) and Moses in Muhammed my friend. Now, talking about Mary Magdalene, she is something like a muse to amos because, according to her, Mary Magdalene represents the feminine repressed by the catholic church. Tandem with the Bible, another religious book is very present on Amos’ work when it comes to the life of Jesus and Magdalene: Bloodline of the holy Grail: The hidden lineage of Jesus Revealed, by Laurence Gardner. As Tori points out, “He’s quite the respected genealogist, and it’s the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.”
In conclusion, Literature has always been a large inspiration to Amos’ compositions, being three sources the most present ones: The poems by Sylvia Plath; the novels, comics, and short stories by Neil Gaiman, besides 2 religious books; the Bible, and Bloodline of the holy Grail: The hidden lineage of Jesus Revealed, by Laurence Gardner. “I often think that if I’d been stolen and brought up by somebody who didn’t read to me, I might have music, but I might not be a songwriter.” states Amos.



Bibliographical References

AMOS, Tori; POWERS, Ann. Piece by Piece. Broadway Books, 2005

GAIMAN, Neil. Anansi Boys. HarperCollins Publishers LTD, 2005

PLATH, Sylvia. Poemas. São Paulo: Iluminuras, 1991

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