Strange Little Girls
Tori Amos Biography Part 8
Tori Amos fans were delighted to hear that she gave birth to a little girl, Natashya Lorien (after the Lord of the Rings character) Hawley. Naturally, Tori took a year off of touring and promoting to focus on motherhood. At home and listening to music rather than playing it, Tori Amos was a bit appalled at the way women were talked about in songs…in the 21st century no less! Tori schemed herself up a plan–she’d cover a bunch of songs by males to provide a female perspective and get out of her contract with Atlantic without giving them any more of “her” stuff. Hence, her 1991 album “Strange Little Girls” was born.
Back in the barn, Tori covered everyone from Eminem to Slayer, from Tom Waits to the Beatles. Her intent (other than inching away from Atlantic) was to “turn these songs around” in a way to highlight the woman’s plight or to prove that sexism does still indeed exist in our pop music.
The press ate it up…the idea was weird if nothing else, but the cover art was the genius behind the album. Tori hired renowned make-up artist Kevyn Aucoin to disguise her as the characters in each song…whether they be male or female! The transformations were amazing, marking another successful collaboration between Tori and Kevyn (he often did her make-up for videos, whereas she often volunteered to appear in his portfolio). Neil Gaiman, graphic novelist and friend of Tori’s, wrote captions for each photo completing the unique and captivating album art. The album did well, hitting #4 in the US (as high as she’d been in a while) and 16 in the UK.
Tori was scheduled to perform “Strange Little Girl” on Letterman prior to September 11th, 2001. On the 18th, she opted to instead perform Tom Waits’ Time, a beautifully delivered ballad which brought Mr. Letterman (and probably half the audience) to tears.
Tori toured with Strange Little Girls alone…which she hadn’t done for a while. And the fans loved it. She played smaller venues, even some churches (i.e. the Ryman auditorium). The gig was short though…the new mother had other matters to attend to.
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