Marianne
Music and Lyrics by: Tori Amos
Instrumentation: Vocals, Acoustic Piano (Bosendorfer), Strings
Brief Summary: Tori often tells interviewers and audiences about the inspiration for her song “Marianne.” Marianne Curtis, a high school friend of Tori’s, was the nicest girl around…someone everyone would turn to and who seemed to have an inner calm that drew everyone in…including Tori. Marianne died while in high school–the cause thought to be suicide, although Tori thought Marianne just wasn’t paying attention to the drugs she was mixing. Having had such a profound effect on Tori’s formative years, she took her death hard and Tori felt drawn to write a song about her.
Tori’s Comments: (from a show…) “Basically when my mother said, ‘hey, um, oh my god…Marianne killed herself.’ The only thing I could think of was, ‘Fuck you, mom.’ Because, in truth, nobody was really the same after Marianne killed herself.”
Fan Comments/Interpretations: Most fans take this song literally, and, the unfortunate thing is that many of us relate to it all too well, teenage suicide and accidental death being as rampant of an issue as it is. As for the more obscure lyrics (i.e. tuna rubber, purple monkeys), most fans chock it up to pure stream-of-consciousness or perhaps “inside” jokes between young Ellen Amos and Marianne.
China2Ny’s Comments: In high school, we were asked to bring in songs about death…it was a theme we were dealing with in English class. I brought in Marianne. People seemed to dig the song, until the album jacket made its way around the classroom. The infamous pig suckling photo did not bode well with the “Fellowship of Christian Athletes” set (which comprised 80% of my entire school), and they all gave me strange looks. I was genuinely hurt and it made me hate them even more.
Hiya—
“Purple monkey” is actually a reference to Tori’s imaginary playmate while growing up. She also references this in the opening lyric of “Bliss” (”Father, I killed my monkey, I let it out to taste the sweet of spring…).
I can dig around for the reference for this if you would like, but I do know it is from a magazine interview.
As far as the “tuna blubber” line, according to some interpretations I’ve heard, it has to do with a graphic description of sex.
Cool blog, by the way.