Under the Pink
Tori Amos Biography Part 4
Fresh off the Little Earthquakes tour…which took Tori everywhere from Australia to Israel…Tori made her way back to the states–New Mexico to be precise, settling down with boyfriend and producer Eric Rosse. Tori, never able to sit still for very long, especially when it comes to writing and recording, quickly began work on her second album (well…third if you count Y Kant Tori Read), to be titled Under the Pink.
Tori had written her diary already…Little Earthquakes couldn’t have been more of a personal album. If there is one thing Tori Amos is not short on, though, its inspiration. She finds it everywhere, and for Under the Pink, Tori looked to arts and history. “Cornflake Girl” was inspired by Alice Walker’s “Possessing the Secret of Joy,” “Yes Anastasia” drew upon the life and death of Russian heiress Anastasia Romanov, the list goes on. “If Little Earthquakes was a diary, Under the Pink is an impressionist painting” she has been quoted as saying. Some of Tori’s best piano work to that point could be heard on tracks such as Bells for Her, Cornflake Girl, and…of course…Yes, Anastasia, which is just about as close to a full on classical piece as Tori had gotten.
As Atlantic could have predicted, Under the Pink soared on the UK charts, (which did well in the US too) although it did not receive the critical acclaim that Little Earthquakes did. A tour soon followed, which did very well…Tori’s audiences long to hear her live…such a beautiful live voice was almost unheard of in the age of grunge.
Under the Pink EPs included God, Cornflake Girl, Pretty Good Year, and Past the mission. Like with Crucify and Silent All These Years, music videos also accompanied these releases, with Cornflake Girl being shot twice…once for the Americans (”who needed more of a storyline”) and once for the Brits. B-sides included Home on the Range, All the Girls Hate Her (instrumental), Over It (instrumental), Daisy Dead Petals, Honey, Sugar, and Butterfly (for the “Higher Learning” soundtrack). Other rarities release included a cover of R.E.M’s “Loosing My Religion” and Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You.”
Ever an advocate for those “without a voice,” particularly those who have endured and survived sexual assault, Tori Amos helped found the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network around this time. RAINN is a sort of hub for all of the rape crisis centers around the U.S. Tori used her fame and publicity to draw attention to and funding for this non-profit agency.
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