ITT: post your favourite Tori Amos lyric

Trying not to over-post in the actual Tori poll thread, but I'd love to hear everyone's favourite Tori lyric.

All my favourite lyrical moments of hers are coupled with some musical feature-- the way the harmony suddenly sours and becomes major/minor at "and when my hand touches myself, I can finally rest my heart" in "Icicle"

Similarly, the moment of stillness on "And last time I knew / she worked in an abbey in Iona / she said, I killed a man, T, I gotta stay / hidden in this abbey" just before the pedal point finally drops to a V-IV cadence after a 90 seconds of twinkling on the I (this is "Twinkle"). Perfect lyric, no judgement on the woman's actions, sympathy expressed, sweetness in the diminutive version of her name, this is one of the best murder ballads ever written

Hard to beat as an opening verse that sets up a song but also as a whole condensed mini-story in itself, and capturing an entire place and time, mood, era, etc in just a few lines;
"A Bouvier till her wedding day, shots rang out the police came / Mama laid me on the front lawn, and prayed for Jackie's strength... "

beyond the ones everyone is going to say, these moments of droll deadpan bitterness in her delivery -- "you're top ten in the charts of pain" (really any of "Cruel"), "if I kill him, there are complications," just savoring every millisecond of the salient word. or the bridge to "Starling," these pretty major-key trilling backing vocals and what from memory I think is a flute line and (sigh) mac aladdin mac aladdining all oveall of that just collapsing for a very Southern "is that right," like this allie brosh panel in song form http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bXZ63Z8QvYw/Uga5jQOSCCI/AAAAAAAAKQE/Cy53GLJD7Os/s1600/DEPRESSIONTWO45.png

you're just an empty cage girl if u kill the bird

ugh i could pick so many actually. every lyric from "talula" means a lot to me for some reason

oh wait it's still "so you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts / what's so amazing about really deep thoughts"

Talula! To me is Tori at her most impenetrable, love to hear your further thoughts, Brad! (Great mentions so far)

its impenetrability is part of the appeal, i enjoy the fun it has with language

she said one plus one was two
but henry said
that it was three
so it was
here i am

The opening lines of "Pretty Good Year" never fail to destroy me:

Tears on the sleeve of a man
Don't want to be a boy today
Heard the eternal footman
Bought himself a bike to race
And Greg he writes letters and burns his CDs
They say you were something in those formative years

I think you’re a queer Said I think you’re a queer,
I think you’re a queer And I shaved every place where you’ve been boy
I said I shaved every place where you been, yeah

Pretty tough to beat for sheer shock value.

lol i first heard those lines when i was 12 and i was like "i am not ready for this music"

fell in love with it regardless

It's such a light-sounding song but "Taxi Ride" is actually super deep and dark, and totally spot on about the weird energy at wakes, the strange accomodations we make with people as part of engaging in communal grief:

Just another dead fag
To you that's all
Just another light missing
On a long taxi ride
Taxi ride
And I'm down to
Your last cigarette and
This "we are one" crap
As you're invading
This thing you call
Love - she smiles
Way too much but
I'm glad you're
On my side, sure
I'm glad you're on
My side still

@ Brad

There is etched in my memory at age 15/16 a moment when my 12/13-year old younger brother started crying (completely uncharacteristically) in the car when I was about to put on my Tori CD. He was legitimately bawling. "She sings about wanting to kill waitresses and about everybody being gay and about shaving her legs and raping people". Poor adolescent younger brother with his masculinity at its most embryonic and fragile!

“In The Springtime of his Voodoo” has both Tori’s best opening line and her best single lyric.

And southern men can grow gold
Can grow pertty
Blood can be pertty
Like a delicate man
Copper to steel to a hinge that is faltered
That let's you in let's you in let's you in
Something's just keeping you numb

wow bad lyric link translation sorry

tbf this is actually my favourite of all time

And last time I knew
She worked at an Abbey in Iona
She said "I killed a man T
I've gotta stay hidden in this Abbey"
But I can see that star
When she twinkles
And she twinkles
And I sure can
That means
I sure can

a mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido
yeah

All my favourite lyrical moments of hers are coupled with some musical feature-- the way the harmony suddenly sours and becomes major/minor at "and when my hand touches myself, I can finally rest my heart" in "Icicle"

this is p otm in a way, a lot of her best lyrics ride on some congruent wave in the music. i was also about to suggest: nearly every lyric in "icicle"

tuna rubber, a little blubber in my igloo

So maybe Thomas Jefferson wasn't born in your backyard
Like you have said

give me peace love and a hard cock

^^ that was a serious suggestion but this is a way more serious suggestion

I guess you heard he’s gone to LA
He says that behind my eyes I’m hiding
And he tells me I pushed him away
That my heart's been hard to find

She was a January girl
She never let on how insane it was
In that tiny kinda scary house
By the woods
By the woods
By the woods

so then i thought i'd make some plans
but fire thought she'd really rather be water instead

Omg yes what a massive line

I was in my deep Tori fandom, reading The Dent every day, when she had that onstage meltdown in Florida or something, and reports came in that she brought a supportive friend out onstage and debuted “Cooling” and it was a very emotional time

This was around the time she started calling fans “ears with feet”

90s were wild

omg reading the dent every day that was me

My social media long game is to slowly work my way up to posting an IG photo that would merit the caption “what’s so amazing about really deep thots”.

tim, i was on the dent for many many years

and atforumz

anyone post on the tori forum or fiona forums there

i know the truth is in between
the first and the fortieth drink

Yeah!!!