BEAUTY QUEEN~ HORSES~ BLOOD ROSES~ FATHER LUCIFER~ PROFESSIONAL WIDOW~ MR. ZEBRA~ MARIANNE~ CAUGHT A LITE SNEEZE~ MUHAMMED MY FRIEND~ HEY JUPITER~ WAY DOWN~ LITTLE AMSTERDAM~ TALULA~ NOT THE RED BARON~ AGENT ORANGE~ DOUGHNUT SONG~ IN THE SPRINGTIME OF HIS VOODOO~ PUTTING THE DAMAGE ON~ TWINKLE~ GRAVEYARD~ TOODLES MR JIM~ SAMURAI~ FROG ON MY TOE~ SISTER NAMED DESIRE~ ALAMO~ HUNGARIAN WEDDING SONG~
This album marked the appearance of Tori's "mini-songs"; there are 4 on this disc, beginning with Beauty Queen. To me, this song speaks of someone who is confused about their outer appearance, and how it conflicts with what's inside. The beauty queen is Tori, who is perceived as sexy and gorgeous out in public, in the "laundry scene" (which represents mass media to me because they air people's dirty laundry). She can't understand what people see in her, what beauty they see, but she lies and pretends it makes perfect sense to her. Inside, she feels anything but pretty. This is my guess anyway; anyone else want to take a shot? :)
Horses, to me, speaks of someone who is battling demons from relationships past and gone. It speaks of a need to escape through the imagery of the horse and riding away. Tori has commented that the horses from winter are back to take us on a journey, and they do; they take us on a journey through love lost, and the pain women must face. "As long as your army keeps perfectly still" says to me that Tori can get away, as long as the memories stop attacking, stop advancing and remain still, back in the past. She speaks of ways to heal herself ("maybe I'll find me a sailor, a tailor").
At the same time, Tori doesn't want to escape from this person; rather she wants to track him down and make him stay. She describes the relationship as her chasing, only to find she has gained nothing in the search ("opened my hands and they were empty"). She is trying to maintain a brave facade, one of "I don't need you", yet she knows that "if there is a way to find you, I will find you". What she wants to know is if this person knows her, or would care to have her at his side ("will you find me if Neil makes me a tree"). The last part ("Threads that are golden don't break easily") suggests to me that this person left in pursuit of his own fame, and told her she couldn't be part of this life he sought. Perhaps, now she's famous, this song is a way of saying, "I'm famous too now, can we be together now?" A beautiful song...
This song is about obedience, to the point of sacrificing oneself for a man. It speaks of a man who takes and takes all that he can from a woman, expecting complete co-operation in return, expecting his woman to be "nothing but meat". The imagery of chickens tasting meat conjures up an image of someone who is being pecked at, pecked away piece by piece by other people.
"He likes killing you after you're dead" is the most memorable line from this song, next to "I think you're a queer". The first refers to someone who destroys your soul after abusing the body, using it for one thing then throwing it away. My opinion of the latter is that any woman who resists this man is told she must be "queer" not to want to be with someone. Tori counters with "you must be queer to have to be with so many woman, using them for sex and crowing about it to prove you're straight". Another line which sticks out from this song is "I shaved every place where you've been boy"; this line is about cleansing.
The song ends on a very negative note, with the woman still sacrificing herself, quietly crying, knowing she is nothing but meat. A vicious, powerful song.
Inspired by a trip Tori went on (and I don't mean on a plane :) ), Father Lucifer refers to Tori having visions of Lucifer as being an ice cream man, or so the story goes. The meaning of the song can be summed up with "Father Lucifer you never looked so sane". Sometimes, when one is not rational, one can see the method in anyone's madness. The song is filled with images of sins or wrongs that occur all around us in a kaleidoscope ("girls that eat pizza and never gain weight") and the idea of how sometimes we seek the bad ("don't go yet"). The bridge is noted by many Tori fans to be one of the most amazing pieces of Tori's work.
This song is rumoured to be written about Courtney Love, and when I think of this song in that light, I laugh a hell of a lot because I see why people think that. Just look at the line "Don't blow those brains yet"
This song, to me, is about a woman who has been hardened because of how she has been treated by men, namely her father. She speaks of Starfuckers, which I interpret to be people who sleep their way to where they wish to be, and worship those who can take them farther. She has watched how her dad "sold" his daughter to get what he wanted, and how she is using her boyfriend/husband to be "big". She insists that he must keep it up, keep going, make more money, do more. It's "proportion boy". The last verse speaks of drugs, and how "she" will supply. Who is she: Mother Mary? Our dear Professional Widow? You decide. :)
A nursery rhyme-like quality permeates this second "mini-song" of BFP, but I don't imagine you'll hear it being sung to newborns. A delightful tale from someone who has held witness to much backstabbing in her "hole hole hole". She tells us of Mrs. Crocodile, who wields great power because she believes she is powerful. She also has a tendency to bury people alive, thought not literally I'm sure. Keep your friends close, but your Crocodiles closer, is the moral of this story *L*
This song was written for Marianne, a girl who was said to have committed suicide while Tori was in high school. It speaks of the grief one feels, and what is said around you when someone has died. " She was so pretty/Why why why did she crawl down in the old deep ravine" is a shot at those who think looks determine one's happiness and cannot imagine a "pretty girl" committing suicide, nor can they understand the pain one feels when one is suicidal. Tori also mentions her imaginary friends from childhood (purple monkey, the weasel), coming to visit her in her time of grief and loss, as she struggles to understand and let go. A poignant song.
This song is about breaking up, and the pain that comes with it. The imagery of the video captures the essence of this song: Tori is pushing herself back and forth between giving up and ending her life or fighting to move on, a struggle between allowing the past pain to consume her or moving forward. It speaks of the pain of realizing that a loved one could throw away something she valued, but he obviously didn't, and the loneliness of being without someone. Although she tries to hide her pain, she knows she needs a "big loan from the girl zone".
Muhammad My Friend is a very pointed jab at religion, and something that Tori has noted she brought up to her father, Reverend Amos, at a young age: what if Joseph had emerged from the stables and said "It's a girl"? Throughout the song, references are made to various religious figures including the Pope, Moses, Muhammad. It's a comment on the state of religion and the loss of its true meaning underneath the patriarchy and control it has come to mean. The fact that the baby is described as a girl, and that it has been kept secret, is Tori's way of saying that from its inception, the organized form of Christianity has been crucifying women.
Tori herself has commented that this song began in a time where her love life was a complete mess, and nobody would answer her calls (particularly Eric who, we know, split up with Tori sortly after UTP. There are mumblings that Tori has miscarried a baby with Eric but that's beside the point. Tori was sitting alone and, according to her on Storytellers, John Lennon came and sang HJ to her. The song itself is a heart-wrenching recognition that a relationship is over, and coming to terms with one's mistakes in that relationship, and having to let it go. "This little masochist is lifting up her dress" is probably one of the most gut wrenching lyrics Tori has ever written, and it always strikes a chord with me. Devastation abounds. There is a throwback to Tori's song Leather in this song: "Took my leather off the shelf". To me, that line signifies that Tori has sort of given up on finding love, and will return to the attitude of Leather e.g. "oh well if love isn't forever, screw it I'll just do this for the sex".
Short and wonderful, this song is a personal favourite of mine. It marks the midpoint, and a turn musically on the album, as Tori begins to find more inner strength and power. To me, it's a resolution to expore the lowest place one may be in willingly, to go there and learn and explore.
The flavour that comes with recording in the South emerges on this song, as Tori tells the tale of a woman in love with the wrong man, and the division of race. This song's always been a bit of a puzzler for me, maybe because I've never been too fond of it. But from what I gather, to keep her coloured lover safe, the woman in this story screws around with the sheriff. Things take a twist and the woman ends up dead, in my opinion from the sheriff's hand. Perhaps she was married to the sheriff and he discovered her elicit affair? Eiether way, this song sort of reminds me of the movie Rosewood. In that movie, a white woman is having an affair with a coloured man in 1920's Florida. Based on true events, when the affair is discovered, the woman claims the black man raped her, leading to the slaughter of most of the black residents in town. Disturbing and sad.... like Little Amsterdam.
Talula, to me, is about abortion. I look at lines like "Wrapped in your papoose, your little fig newton" and see images of a woman carrying a child, and choosing whwther or not to abort it, knowing it "must be worth losing if it is worth something". The song allused to a Russian skater who died of a heart attack *blanking on his name here, but he skated with his wife. Sergei something*. There's also a jab at Sesame Street prostuting Christian values and being used to garner cash from parents ("he's my favourite hooker of the whole bunch"). The other line that strikes me as making this song about abortion is "And it's in God's hands but I don't know who the Father is". I get this sense of a woman being pressured into abortion yet wanting to somehow keep the child.
Tori has described this as a song to the men she was burned up in her life, the image that they are crashing in little planes and while she has been seeking fire in them, she has been consuming them. This is sort of, from that sense, an apology for things gone wrong. The song takes on a more general view of men crashing down, and Tori singing them a little comforting tune as they pass on. The end line "The prettiest red ribbons" is often taken by fans, including myself, to be an allusion to AIDS and the gay men who have died from it. Tori, being very gay friendly, would be likely to make this allusion, which is why I believe it.
Agent Orange is a silly little song about Tori's long time bodyguard, Joel. She often plays it if doing a concert on his birthday. If you've never met Joel, he's rather tan, very muscular and blonde. He really looks like one of those guys who you would see working out on some beach in Florida. With that image in mind, take the song as you will
Continuing with the theme of break-ups and relationships, this song has a different edge to it when compared to CALS or HJ. Instead of pure devastation and feeling weak, Tori is beginning to see that maybe it isn't completely her fault. That perhaps, the love of her life isn't as perfect as she is painting him in her mind. And the fact she is still hung up on him makes her realize she is definitely a bit crazy, for lack of better terms (I'f I'm hanging on to your shade, I guess I'm way beyond the pale"). There is also the sense that maybe he has never learned to appreciate Tori, as opposed to Tori being some burden ("And if I'm wasting all your time, this time/I guess you never learned to take"). This song is a very good friend of mine.