you for a while

1,000 Oceans by Tori Amos

Lyrics, Music, and Commentary by Tori Amos

“This video was shot in L.A. as a response to the riots. I was trying to hold a space in this video. A space of calm. In my mind I’m not a pariah, in my mind I’m not caged. But it has been deemed that I should be kept away from people…whoever I am. Eric the director and I discussed about what kind of space was I holding? And it sounds kinda funny, but I began to see that the Earth, in a way, as a creature, is very separate from our life. If we live in cities she’s almost like a ghost. You don’t really hear her. You walk through the streets and you don’t think about her as an organism or a Great Mother who loves you and looks after you. Sometimes we can see her in the crazies, the broken hearted, the artists…there is something to be said for the great performers from other countries who express their emotions through dance.”

“The riot scene, um, was incredibly heartbreaking. Because people really took their roles on under their skin. And I think people were really able to play out how they felt. Everybody was local, so they all lived thorugh the riots. And there was a lot of tension on the set, because through art you can play out what you’ve tucked behind your heart to survive something like the riots.

“The division that um, comes between lovers, friends. I liked the, uh, sexuality of certain characters because, if you think about the judgment that some women have against other women…there is no compassion in some of those actions, and yet with other women there is a true understanding of being made separate..and this woman touched me in a deep way..this women you see in the end with her children.”

~ Tori Amos on “1000 Oceans” (From Fade to Red DVD)