you for a while

I am not usually asked, “Why are you a Tori Amos fan?” Instead I get the, “Geez, what is it about this woman that you obsess over?” I assume I am not alone…you all get that, too. We Ears with Feet even ask each other that question, at shows, on message boards, standing in line to buy the newest CD…

In my “About Me” post I describe how I was introduced to Tori Amos some 12 years ago (I was 15). Its a boring story, really. If you can refrain from clicking on that hyperlink I would. However, in that post I did allude to the day when I would speak at a deeper level about my Tori Amos fandom…or Ears With Feet-dom. I am still having trouble putting it in words (which is very odd for me), but I came across a quote in Piece by Piece today that I believe is the perfect answer and/or response to that question we all get asked at some point in any given month:

The relationship with the fans is the area where the least bullshit goes on. There’s an agreement. They want this person that will be someone they have a relationship with. I can do that. I know what they need from her. I’ve got no problem with it.

The key question is, Can you listen? You really learn from people’s stories and can see, ‘Wow, these are the people relating to these songs.’ So whatever the record companies are telling me these people want to hear, I have to wonder, what is it based on? Some nefarious demographic exercise that suits and bean counters calculate by monitoring what products people buy at Walgreen’s? Not relevant to my crowd.” ~ Tori Amos

This struck a chord because lately, I myself had been wondering why the hell I’m obsessed with this woman. I mean, c’mon, I’ve started a blog devoted solely to her and I spend at least an hour if not more posting to it each day. Her music is amazing, she is truly gifted, and she’s adorable. Not to mention a role model in the industry’s sea of so-not-role-models. But why the devotion? Why the hanging on her every word?

I think the ‘Wow, these are the people relating to the songs’ line is the kicker. I am such a devoted Tori Amos fan because she is my friend. And not in a psycho, stalker-fan type way. But a very real way…and she would agree. I think it is as simple as that. She writes these songs from a place in herself, they tell her story or the stories of people (real or fictional) that she holds dear. If we relate to that, then we get her. If she writes it, then she gets us. That is what friends do. They get each other, they share life experience, they have thoughts and feelings in common, and they are there for each other. Tori is ever-present and goes out of her way to perform for us just as we spend ridiculous amounts of money to listen to and/or see her.

In other words, Tori Amos is our lightening rod and it is effortless because she feels, thinks, believes, breathes, dreams, experiences exactly what we do. Well, maybe not what any one of us does, but what we do as a collective entity. The relationship between Tori and her fans is natural–no market research needed. She knows better than to bore us with a laundry list of her fancies du jour, or her melodramatic, idiosyncratic break up, or her benign observations of the world. Instead she takes those same experiences, opens them up a bit via obscurity and metaphor in order to bring us all in, make us feel at home, and fulfill her need to be understood at the same time.

Well, that and her irresistible smile

Filed under: China2Ny on November 14th, 2007