you for a while

Music and Lyrics by: Tori Amos

Instrumentation: Vocals, Acoustic Piano, Bass, Drums, Percussion, Mandolin, Ukulele (yes, you heard me…I said Ukulele), Background Vocals

Category: Diary, Angsty

Brief Summary: Tori asks the world a simple, yet soul-piercing question. “Why do we crucify ourselves?” Why? she asks, when all “they’ll” do is point, stare, and make us feel guilty for indulging in even the simplest human pleasures? When we give everything of ourselves only to be shamed or made to suffer unrelenting guilt? Good question, Tori! And one many of us never thought to ask until you came along to open our eyes to it. From here, she ventures forth to lead by example, resolving to “never go back again.”

Tori’s Comments: (taken from the Little Earthquakes songbook) “Bells started going off every time I wouldn’t stick up for myself. I accepted Quasimodo was a squatter in my cerebral area. A rhythmic pattern kept chasing me around. I dub out the drum machine and put the pattern down. I would leave that pattern on for hours while I just sat and argued with myself about stuff. This first music to get put to the pattern was the ‘B’ section ‘I’ve been looking for a ’saviour’ … a door opened and the demons started to show up.”

Fan Comments/Interpretations: Tori fans flock to this song, many finding themselves trapped living their lives in order to please others–others who who inflict guilt without a trace of compassion, who take, take, take without once thinking to give. Many Tori fans hold this song near and dear to their hearts as it was one of the first released off of the girl-and-her-piano debut, “Little Earthquakes.” Hence, one might be tempted to refer to this angsty anthem as the Tori Amos Gateway Drug…unless Silent All These Years wants to fight for the title.

China2Ny’s Comments: While Crucify was not the song that introduced me to Tori, whenever I hear it I am taken back to another time and place…15 years old and lying in my bedroom feeling as though no one in the world understood me as much as this crazy red-headed woman. Crucify belongs on everyone’s “coming of age” soundtrack…and for Crucify alone I give each of my teenage cousins a copy of Little Earthquakes on their 15th birthday.