you for a while

Music and Lyrics by: Tori Amos

Instrumentation: Vocals and Acoustic Piano (Bosendorfer) through a Leslie Cabinet

Brief Summary: This is me taking a stab at the basic meaning of one of my favorite Tori Amos songs. Given the quote below, Horses seems to be about trying to quickly escape a particular part of one’s life in order to venture forth into another. In the case of the woman/person in Horses, she is searching for something new but feels that some force is chasing her to pull her back to the “old.”. Also, she has an appreciation for the journey from point A to point B, taking the time to reminisce and to consider who she might meet along the way.

Tori’s Comments: (From the 1996 “Making Music” interview) “The record begins with the horses from Winter coming back to take me on this journey. And we ride and go find the demons.”

Fan Comments/Interpretations: One of the more interesting interpretations of “Horses,” one fan suggests that the song is fraught with coming-of-age sexual symbology. For instance, “riding a pony,” pornography (”the camera is rolling), and finding completeness is sex…because demons can’t go there. Some say that the word Horses is a reference to heroine, such that the song may represent struggles with addiction.

China2Ny’s Comments: In my “Tori Story” I tell the story (albeit kind of silly) of how “Horses” was the song that brought me to Tori Amos.