you for a while

Crucify

Lyrics, Music, and Commentary by Tori Amos

“I’ve always had a fascination with the beheading of Anne Boleyn. It’s haunted me. I’ve always had a fascination with baptism, water, and Christianity. That’s haunted me too. Of course, because the Protestant Reformation is entwined with Queen Elizabeth’s mother…I guess I’ve always seen Anne Boleyn as the elicit mistress of the Protestant Reformation. I’ve also really been able to see what a powerful force that she was. Um, to be able to be part of a group that broke away from the Catholic church.”

“Politics and Christianity, what a marriage! Within Christianity, of course, baptism is very important. As a minister’s daughter, I feel like I’ve been baptized in the Christian doctrine…so to be able to dive into it and to come out the other side, maybe even with, um, fins on, has been sort of my life’s mission.”

“Cindy Palmano, the director, spent a long time talking with me about this song. And when she came up with the idea of a bathtub, and going into the bath dressed as, um, an Elizabethan woman…I, at first, I realized that I needed to re-baptize myself as a woman that is independent of that doctrine that I had been, um let’s say, immersed in as a young girl growing up.”

“Now the thing about,um, this shot, is that once that you get in this bath, you can’t go back to being this Elizabethan woman, so it was, um, really a liberation. And I felt I was being emancipated from the patriarchy. That’s what this is all about really.”

“The girls, um, the twins that you see. These were my cheerleaders and waitresses. I’ve always had a thing for waitresses. And I thought that, um, we needed some cheerleaders…so we decided to put them in the video a bit more…that it balanced out I think, um, you know, the historical tone. And I liked the idea that Anne Bolyn had these cheerleaders. Um, I think she deserved some cheerleaders.”

“So in a weird way, I guess um, religion and politics became an investigation with this video. And, um, I wanted to, maybe, have a giggle in the end because I think you really do need to cheer your team on and I’ve always been a real fan of Anne Boleyn, so this was sort of my, um I don’t know, my Superbowl Sunday for the girls.”

~Tori Amos on Crucify (From Fade to Red)