Tori Amos//Talula

Speaking of harpsichord, “Golden Brown,” seems like a perfect transition to my favorite song by the Queen of Harpsichord from my youth, Tori Amos.

Tori Amos was such a jam for me in high school and Boys for Pele remains one of my top ten of all time/desert island discs. Many of her songs have been a soundtrack to notable life incidents that probably deserve their own posts (“Cornflake Girl” was blaring from Annie’s car stereo, when we got into a truly horrifying/hilarious auto accident sophomore year of college; “Bells for Her” on headphones, while dozing off in a sleeping bag in the hay loft of the barn at my summer camp, provided me a cathartic personal moment; a Tori concert brought us to Toronto for one of the funniest roadtrips of my life).

That said, this song brings me to a few places. I remember listening to BFP on my Discman obsessively at that first summer of Ball State, when I met Maria and Nick. This song also brings me back to Kot yelling “heeee!” between the verses in our Freshman year dorm room in East Quad (we went to see her at The Fox almost the first week of school with, guess who?, Rufus). Finally, and perhaps most intensely associated with this particular song, I remember driving around with Liz a lot, to and from high school, volleyball games and, of course, Dunkin’ Doughnuts (oh, adolescence in New Jersey). Liz and I had a thing about naming her cars. Her first car, a beat old Volvo station wagon hand-me-down from her dad, was Walter (for boring reliability and his slightly stuffy “old professorial” air). Her second, a shiny new leased black Jeep Cherokee, was named Dante (because he kind of reminded us of the cocky, tough and sleazy Jersey Italian boys we went to school with). Finally, there was her mom’s brand new sleek silver Volvo. I think it was an S-something (sorry, my car knowledge is limited). We named it Talula, after this song. It had turbo. And a sunroof.



Talula (The Tornado Mix).mp3

Also, worth noting, there are two versions of this song. Some issues of BFP has the original version (like my CLEAR! double vinyl copy), and some have this “Tornado” mix, which I think is the far superior version of the two.

Ran into the henchman that severed Anne Boleyn--
He did it right quickly, a merciful man .
She said one plus one is two
But Henry said that it was three,
So it was.
Here I am.