Muhammad My Friend/Just Leave Everything To Me

I'm getting tired of all the emails*/texts*/phone calls* of people complaining about my not blogging regularly on Sundays as I used to do.

*I am not getting any emails texts or phone calls

So, to appease your hungry appetite for blog posts about songs stuck in my head on Sunday mornings, here are the last few songs.

The first one comes from my girlfriend, Tori Amos- and I think this song is a pure example of what the lady does so well.  It's called "Muhammad my Friend" and it's from Amos' ambitious 1996 album "Boys For Pele."

Don't try to understand too much if you're going to delve into Amos' lyrics, but this song sort of illustrates her idea that Christ could have been a woman.  It's a bold, daring statement, whether Amos takes it literally or not doesn't matter to me, perhaps it's just a feminist statement- whatever it is, I find it interesting and different and totally and utterly Tori Amos, always pushing barriers. 

Here's the song, even if the lyrics trouble you, I hope you'll listen to the feeling of the music, which is lovely and brilliant. 

Alrighty then, on to the next song, which also features a strong female.

(Side note, women are rad, you should get to know one if you have some free time)

This one comes from the beloved 1964 musical "Hello Dolly!"  If you've seen the show, you'll know that Dolly Levi is a sort of adored busy-body/wheeler-and-dealer kind of character.  The song stuck in my head features the very song that sets up her character, which is in the opening number of the show.  The song is called "Just Leave Everything To Me" and here's what it sounds like:

I hope you enjoyed these songs and this blog post, which I have to believe is literally the only blog post on the planet about Tori Amos and Dolly Levi.  Maybe not.  If you can find another post about both of these lovely ladies, I'll give you a dollar next time I see you.

HUGS. BRADY

Precious Things

Post from 10-26-16

The following is an incomplete blog post that was never finished because my wife is super busy and waayy too cool for this blog.  



Hi friends.  This is Megan, Brady's wife.  I'll be doing his blog post today since the song stuck in his head was introduced to him by myself and I happen to be a huge fan of this artist.  It's Tori Amos singing "Precious Things."  A really dark song with a ton of emotion that she expertly shows through rhythm, dynamics and text.

I became obsessed with Tori at the age of 16 because I was the typical self absorbed, insecure, fat kid who oh so desperately needed to emote. Fun huh?  Tori and I sang together, cried together and I released all those crazy hormones while her piano keys became my own personal sound track of life.

Luckily I made it through teen-hood and am now a fairly well adjusted adult...but I still love Tori and always will.  Another reason for this is the piano.  

Ok, this is the complete opposite of Tori, but I had to share that song because Judy Garland rocks and the song, by Irving Berlin, is a classic.

Back to Tori....the song "Precious Things" is about


Brady here again, Megan stopped at this point.  Going forward the rest will be by me..... sorry....

Obviously Tori Amos got stuck in my head.  The song is good and it's hard, dangerous, edgy and what made Tori Amos the queen of 90's piano rock.  I find it mostly about a dangerous and insecure girl finding herself not fitting and wanting to belong while resenting everything around her.

Be forewarned that this song has some strong language.

Here's "Precious Things" by Tori Amos, from her 1992 debut album LITTLE EARTHQUAKES.

I've amassed enough songs to make another compilation disc- I'll be doing something about that soon, like a contest or something.  

Little Earthquakes

Back in 2001, I took a course at the community college about songwriting.  I really enjoyed the class and learned a lot.  I finished with an "A" and learned that if songwriting doesn't come to you naturally that it's extremely laborious. 

During the course, we would spend a lot of time analyzing pop songs and the way in which they're structured- we would bring in a song we like and play it in front of the class while breaking down the way its structured. 

From the beginning as we practiced this exercise, our teacher made a rule that nobody was allowed to bring in any songs by Tori Amos, that her music didn't follow any "traditional" pop song blueprint and would therefore be difficult to analyze. 

At the time I remember thinking, "psssh! Tori Amos, who could ever like her!"  Little did I know that 15 years later I would have become an enormous fan of her work.  She's perfectly capable of writing a traditional pop song, and often does it, but since she's so tremendously talented she often times steps outside of what tradition would expect of her.

Today's song comes from Amos and it's the title track of her 1992 debut album "Little Earthquakes."  The song is about instability and how little things (earthquakes) can often set someone off, or make them lose his/her footing.  I would dare to say that this song steps right out of the barriers of what's expected in "normal songwriting."  I'm also quite surprised that of all her songs this is the one I would be writing about, but it was the one stuck in my head- so here it is...

Did you survive all seven minutes of that song?  Are you ok? 
Like her or not, I think few can deny that the woman is streaming with talent. 

Roosterspur Bridge

Hey friends. 

Quite randomly a song with an even more random name bounced into my head this morning. 

It's from master songstress, Tori Amos.  The song is called "Roosterspur Bridge." 

Like this:

So, have you ever heard of a bridge used as a metaphor in a relationship?  You know, like, a bridge represents the road between two souls?  That kind of metaphor?

Yeah, I've heard it too.  And Amos uses it in this song too! 

But what's unique, I suppose is the name Roosterspur.  It's  not a real bridge as far as I know.  I think Amos just made up the name.  Or the song is about Bruce Spur and Maxine Rooster and their tumultuous relationship.  She's a rascal, that Tori Amos.

The song itself, is from Tori Amos' 2007 album, AMERICAN DOLL POSSE. 

It's the 16th of 23 tracks on the album.  Man, it can be exhausting to be a fan of her music.  Here's what the song sounds like:

I sure hope that Bruce Spur and Maxine Rooster worked out their differences, don't you? 

OK, I'll shut up now. 

i i e e e

Either you "get" Tori Amos, or you don't.

And I'm gonna stop apologizing for liking her music.  She's incredible.  Period.

Today's song is no exception.  I love this song, despite it being dark and full of difficult subject matter.  This is what's cool about Tori Amos, and perhaps what repulses people about her.

In the late 90's Tori Amos had 3 miscarriages.  Like any mother, she struggled with the loss.  She had planned to take a break from writing music to be a mother, but the loss spawned what would become her album "From the Choirgirl Hotel."  Many of the album's songs are about this particular kind of loss.

I woke up early this morning (5:00 A.M.) with a song called "i i e e e" playing in my head.  Immediately, I went to YouTube to see if I could find any sort of interview, or performance that would explain this song, and especially its bizarre title.  I found her explanation to be that after her second miscarriage she kept having a recurring dream.  I'll tell a condensed version, but in the dream a young Native American boy and her were travelling by car to a small town.  Upon arrival they would find that everybody had died.  As she struggled in the dream knowing so many people had died, the young boy (who she felt was her child) would say to her, "it will be all right.  We can travel to another town and save the people."  And then he would sing to her, just as you hear it in the introduction of the song "i i e e e"

I probably have lost many of you, but if you appreciate what I'm writing about, I hope you'll appreciate this song.  What I find particularly moving is her sadness as she questions why God could allow something like this to happen.

I know we're dying
and there's no sign of a parachute
we scream in cathedrals
why can't it be beautiful
why does there
gotta be a sacrifice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVb7xk4srkU

So.... uh.... Happy Mothers Day to those moms out there!  

The only control I have over what I blog about depends on the music to which I listen.  I didn't intend for my Mothers Day post be a sadder side of motherhood.  Really I didn't.  But does anybody, besides me, find beauty in sadness?  I suppose I'm allowed to find vicarious sadness beautiful when truly I am such a happy person, not only because of a happy childhood (thanks mom!) but because of a happy adulthood (thanks mother of my children!)  

As an added bonus, I'm putting a clip of Tori Amos performing this song live.  I can't get past her passion as she sings, it's intense and sincere.  Also, I love her inhibition, her fearlessness to express herself with such intensity.  Plus, playing the keyboard with one hand and piano with the other is particularly cool and effective to me.  Have I converted any of you to Tori Amos?  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLmi7vw1mTU

Strong Black Vine

Today's is extremely random.  This is a Tori Amos song.  I am a Tori Amos fan, but there are some songs of hers that I just don't care for all that much.  One problem with some Tori Amos albums, in my opinion, is a lack of editing.  She is an insanely talented writer- so much so that she is hearing new music all the time.  As such an artist, she is able to submit hundreds of songs for new albums.

What I'm getting at, is that she has too many tracks on her albums.  A normal album has 10-12 tracks.  Most of Tori Amos' albums are close to twenty tracks or more.  To some hard-core fans, I'm sure this is something appreciated.  I'm afraid that for me, it's too much of a good thing.

Something else you may not know about Tori Amos... before she was the piano playing songstress that we know her to be, she was in a failed rock band called Y Kant Tori Read.

This band didn't get any attention.  But as a talented writer, Amos was able to secure a recording contract which included 6 albums, I believe.  She traded in her big hair and leather pants for a piano and was able to have the much deserved success she's had.  

At heart, I think Amos is a rocker, or wishes she were.  Today's song is one of those songs where she rocks a little more than casual listeners may have heard.  I don't hate it, but I don't love it.  

As far as what this song's about.... I didn't dig too much into it.  My interpretation is the "Strong Black Vine" is a whip which is forcing others to believe in something like religion or politics by force.  I don't claim to know much, but this interpretation is good enough for me, since I'm pretty much over the song to begin with.  

Welcome To England

My brother introduced me to Tori Amos 20 years ago.  She had red hair and was one of the strangest singers I had ever seen.  My wife got me really listening to her music 7 years ago and I've been hooked ever since.  She still has red hair and is still one of the strangest singers I've ever seen. 

Today's song is called "Welcome to England" which she wrote as homage to the country where she relocated after marrying an Englishman.  Take a listen:

I've been to England once.  My ancestors are English so it was exciting to visit.  It is an interesting place.  It has lots of gift shops and overpriced restaurants.  There are thousands of tourists from all different countries.  There are lots of chairs with people sitting and waiting.  There are loads of tarmacs and runways. 

OK, so I've only had a layover at the London Heathrow airport and I have to admit it was an awful experience.  For some reason (I can't understand how) they lost my luggage during my layover.  Making matters worse, this was the spring of 2002, not long after 9/11 and while I was trying to sort out the luggage thing, I missed my flight.  They had this silly rule that you had to be seated in front of your gate 2 hours before the flight leaves or they (unapologetically) would not seat you on your flight.

Further adding drama, I had the worst cold I've ever had in my life.  When I finally got on a plane, I took some "Night Nurse" (England's equivalent to Ny-Quil) and slept the entire duration of a 10 hour flight from London to San Francisco.

A month passed and one day I came home from work to find my luggage sitting on the front porch.  I wondered where it had been for a month, probably to Djibouti and some other exotic places.  I was happy to see it, regardless.  After this experience, I don't know how anyone could be inspired to write a song about England.  And I understand even more now why my people escaped from that wretched island to come to America so many years ago.

Of course, this is a joke.  I'm sure England is a lovely place and I hope to really see it some day.  In the mean time, I'll enjoy crazy red-headed Tori Amos' song about it.  I hope you do too.