Customer Reviews

Tori Amos: Piece by Piece

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This book records an ongoing dialog between musician/songwriter Tori Amos (Little Earthquakes) and rockumentarian Ann Powers (Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America, Women Write About Rock, Pop and Rap. Through a variety of conversations, Amos discusses her music, her personal life and the direction of her career.

With sensual and stunning lyrics, Amos is a presence to be reckoned with, a young woman on the cusp of a great musical career with seven successful albums already to her credit. It would be a mistake to misinterpret Tori's passion as an expression of sexuality: "for her it's claiming her sexuality and merging it with her spirituality." Every performance is transformative, an expression of the immediacy of her emotions linked to the keyboard beneath her dancing fingers.

Piece by Piece is an intriguing concept. Using a multi-part format, the authors draw from a number of sources, a collage of thoughts, past history and musical perceptions that give some idea of how involved the artist is with her work, her family, friends and life as a musician and songwriter. Every aspect of Amos' like is examined, the personal as well as the professional, because Amos uses all of her experience to inform her music, the passionate expression of a young woman with much to offer. Amos imbues her work with the spirit of her soulful journey, cherishing her hard-one relationships with husband and child and the source of her creativity.

Powers witnesses Amos' words, often expounding on the meanings in a broader context of artist in the world, adding another dimension to the musical achievement. Surprisingly complex, Piece by Piece brims with unexpected insights, musical interpretations and a view of the world through the eyes of an artist who is not intimidated by life. Archetypes loom large in the discussions between Amos and Powers, who frequently wax philosophical, drawing from the universality of human endeavors and the innate need for connections with the past.

This is a woman who has chosen Mary Magdalene as her erotic muse. Looking to her own Indian American roots, Amos dips into the gospels and oral tradition for inspiration, a deep respect for the earth and a love of books, thanks to the profound influence of her mother. Myths and archetypes abound and women are central: the Native American Corn Maiden, Demeter and Persephone, Aphrodite and Venus, an appropriate counter-balance for Mary Magdalene. Amos views the challenge this way: "to be able to traverse pop culture's addictions to imaging, all the while infusing your pencil not with lead but with estrogen."

Both conversational and thought-provoking, the dialog is enhanced by a series of photographs and "song canvases", each detailing the evolution of a particular song. Published to coincide with Amos' new album, The Beekeeper, Tori Amos, Piece by Piece is the perfect complement to a body of significant work from Amos. Whether read cover to cover or a few pages at a time, this inventive book speaks volumes on the nature of creativity and one woman's passion to speak her truth. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

Tori Amos Piece By Piece (2005), co-written with Ann Powers, is an examination of the manifold motivators that have allowed Amos, perhaps the hardest working woman in popular music, to successfully blaze a definitive and firmly etched trail across the face of Western culture.

As piercing, uncompromising, and deeply felt as the best of her musical compositions, the book is an outline of Amos' visionary philosophy as well as a testament of her personal and spiritual struggle. In no way a typical celebrity autobiography, Tori Amos Piece By Piece may very well become a standard popular text and survival guide for all those at odds with the dominant and increasingly narrow "consensus reality" of the West. Though the book, which acknowledges a debt to Carl Jung, lacks the harrowing originality and claustrophobic focus of the Swiss psychologist's Memories, Dreams, and Reflections (1961), it addresses some of the same ground in more brutally honest and plainly spoken language.

Like Jung and Scottish novelist Muriel Spark, Amos is unapologetic in her belief that the human race is profoundly rooted in, and a continuous reflection and manifestation of, the Divine. Like those writers, Amos is both a student of and vocal witness to the active presence of Grace in human experience.

Amos is a self-identified feminist, and the book consciously addresses women's spirituality and offers numerous practical examples of how Amos has applied her own female-centered belief system throughout her life.

However, in the broadest sense, Amos' application of the myths of Demeter, Persephone, and other female deities seems to imply that these apply exclusively to women, when, clearly, the opposite is true. The lesson of Icarus' flight is an archetypal fable that transcends gender, men as well as women experience both actual and symbolic invasions of their public, physical, spiritual, and private beings as Persephone did, and, as in the myth of Demeter, periods of spiritual sterility, inertia, and emptiness are common to both sexes.

Amos appears to believe that people are wholly defined, and hence limited to, their gender; proto-feminist Virginia Woolf and the other progressive Bloomsbury intellectuals calmly, confidently, and continuously argued against this for decades. As Amos is clearly well read in a variety of kinds of mysticism, it's unfortunate that she doesn't consider and address the transcendent individual in each person. Spirit, soul, personality, and character exist beyond mere biological gender assignment.

This is an important point, since the matter of gender, especially as it relates to aggression, continues to be one of Amos' blind spots. Like many of her musical compositions, from "Past the Mission," "The Waitress," and "Professional Widow" to "Little Amsterdam," Tori Amos Piece By Piece is charged throughout with aggression, a self-justifying defensive posture, and an open hostility of its own; as in the past, Amos doesn't seem to realize that most people, regardless of their gender or position within a specific hierarchy, feel equally self-justified when enacting overt or covert hostilities.

Thus, at least on the page, Amos frequently seems to lack a firm sense of the relativity of all things, and an understanding that all members of mankind rightly perceive themselves as vulnerable to the continuous waves of cause and effect that is human life. As the example of Amos' own puritanical grandmother should have taught her, any member of mankind, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, psychological mindset, or political ideology, is potentially capable of embodying and enacting tyrannical, fascistic, or oppressive attitudes.

A careful, inclusive study of the Greek and Roman myths clearly underscores this point (it was, after all, the female Athena who transformed Medusa from a "beautiful maiden" into a "terrible monster), which Ann Powers addresses when she writers, "Feminine power is not only a warm, nurturing thing. Furious goddesses have transformed the world since ancient times, laying waste to man's corruption, wreaking havoc until justice is served." But here Powers indulges in wishful thinking and makes the same mistake that Amos does by suggesting that women--and ancient goddesses and other female archetypes of all stripes and colors--are predominantly benign and nurturing in essence.

Jane Harrison, Carl Jung, Eric Neumann, and a host of others have written at length about negative aspect of the Female Imago or the terrifying Devouring Mother of biological fact, which eats or otherwise destroys some or all of its young when unable to care for them due to disease, famine, draught, or other natural catastrophe. It is simply incorrect to state that all or most female aggression is pure reactivity to oppressive male behavior and thus at least marginally justified; Freud's extensive work in infant and children psychology pointedly proves otherwise. Feminist scholars such as Margaret A. Murray and Camille Paglia have, to varying degrees, celebrated the fact that women have an intrinsic capacity for destruction and rapacity--just as men do. Paglia's interpretation of "Mother Nature" as indifferent at best to human life and suffering--a position underscored by the recent Tsunami disaster in Asia--is also instructive.

Even Kate Bush, who Amos has publically acknowledged as an early influence, released "Mother Stands For Comfort" on 1985's The Hounds Of Love, a song which depicts an archetypal "Smothering Mother" nurturing and protecting the human killing machine which has sprung from her womb.

Tori Amos Piece By Piece is occasionally marred when Powers objectifies Amos to too great a degree, which makes Amos sound as if she belongs alone on a very high pedestal; such language violates the otherwise genuinely human quality that dominates the text. Musicians may find Amos' advice about the music industry, which rounds out the last fourth of the book, refreshingly brisk, blunt, and helpful.

You'd think the life of a talented famous musician would be easy and full of luxury. While Tori enjoys her life, she works INCREDIBLY hard!! She describes constantly writing songs, even if it's just a few words, or a few bars of melody. She does this wherever she is. Plus she deals with the record labels, the lawyers, the touring, the book writing, raising a daughter....

She is an amazing woman; someone who sees the world and thinks about it differently than most. Every song has a deep meaning to her, and she views them as "Sonic Beings" that she, the instrument, brings to the world.

From the book, I can tell she is a good friend to everyone in her life. She treats her crew as best as she can, and she gives her musicians the liberty to play as they feel, not as she commands. She can also be tough as nails when there is something threatening her music or her tour.

While, as a Christian, I may not agree with her theology, I found it so interesting how she drew power from various archetypes and "gods and goddesses".

If you love Tori's music, and you want to know where it all comes from, and what circumstances in her life influenced it, you MUST read this book. I couldn't put it down. I finished it in 3 days. Some paragraphs I read 4 or 5 times.

Her last record label said she was getting "too old". I hope she's still up there on stage, or at least putting out music when she's 80!!!

As a fan of the music I really enjoyed Piece by Piece, but when I purchased it I did expect it to go a little deeper into her life than it did. Instead we got to understand her musical process, learn about how the music industry works and most interestingly, the story behind some of the songs.
While I would have liked to learn a little more about her life, this book gives a deeper appreciation of the music she writes and allows the reader to understand the musical genius she really is.

There did seem to be something off about this book. The myth part seemed stark and seperate from who Tori is and how these roles supply the undercurrent of her life. It almost seemed as though these parts were written to make them paletable to the public - like the best-selling how-to-Pagan manuels that seem to come out at least once a month and have no real depth. Their essence didn't seem woven into the story - instead they seemed to be more like a teaching lesson and not as a spiritual inspiration or guidance.

The first few chapters actually aren't bad. I really enjoyed her talking about her Cherokee roots - but that could be that I have them myself. When she talked about her grandfather hearing the 'hum' I knew right away what she meant - and how she hears it in music instead of the steady harmonics of the earth. My ancestors did walk the Trail of Tears and I am amazed at her great-great-grandmother's strength at surviving in the mountains and then as an indentured servant. An inner strength that seems apparent in Tori today.

It is a shame that her story is main-lined basically - to the point were it looses the vividness that makes up Ms. Amos' world. I have read some of the interviews that she's given to the press and some statments that she was written before - and nothing in this book matches her unique speech. It doesn't feel like her, only a watered down version of events assumed to be 'normal'. There is a good portion of the book that revolves around her daughter, which wouldn't be a problem except that it feels like she's trying to convince us she is the mother society expects her to be. We learn more about her daughter then we ever do about her.

For the record, Ms. Amos doesn't have a problem with Jesus or with followers. What she has a problem with is Christianity and the Church because of what it's become. If you listen to her music, especilly 'God' you can almost hear the inarticulate rage of a child trying to understand and express the constriction she feels. Her grandmother was a fundamentalist, her father left med school to please his mother and became a preacher and her mother suffocated who she truely was in order to live in a Christian world. So it's understandable why she would have this rage. She almost steps off the cliff and talks about it and how it's shaped her - and then Ann Powers seems to pull her back from this unacceptable behavior and we never really get to learn more about it.

I do think that part of the problem seems to be Ann Powers, that somehow the way this book was written seems to smother Tori instead of bring her to the forefront. We only get to learn little bites of her life without ever learning why. And if you don't want to answer the 'why' behind something even once, then there is no purpose in writting the book.

I would recommend buying this book used or finding it at the library to see how it grows on you first before buying it new. The first couple chapters aren't bad and I did find the poem/lyrics to her mother "The Kindest Eyes" touching and very revealing as to how she views her mother and her early life. Probably one of the most revealing things in the book - and unfortunately one of only a few treasures.

It is an exceptional empty masterpiece.

Quite a journey it was,reading Tori's new book. A great and powerfully enlightning one I must say. Wow. First let me say that I feel I know a lot about Tori, being that she is my absolute favorite artist.I like every Tori fan have my sacred collection of albums, feel natural euphoria at her concerts, and have a fervent devotion to her and her work. I also have the same sun sign, fertility issues, and way with truthful words that disturbs people sometimes. Also concerning the fertility issue I think this book would be great in a women's studies course. It is an exceptional profile of inner emotions of not only a physical self, but emotional one. It is powerfully feminine and brutally honest feminine. It is her masculine side acknowledged that makes the feminist side of it even that much more powerful. That's a whole other review though. So.--- She is a rarity in music. She is iconic without being ms. popular, she is visionary and superbly talented in a music world that doesn't value that. My god, that is a definite atrocity. People seem to connect to her energy, especially "strange little girls", girls like myself who are in touch with art, both sides of sexuality, and are quite literate. Why does that make us strange???!!! Anyways-so I felt I would be able to understand her every word like it was my own. As chapters flew I was shocked to find maybe I didn't really know as well I had previously thought. At first it felt weird, then it became refreshing, after that just thrilling. What I'm trying to get at, is it served it's purpose. Like Ann Powers states it is not an autobiography. It really is more a glimpse inside Tori's soul, her essence. That is one of the best gifts a fan could receive. It is deeper than a autobiography/bio. It is something to treasure. I wish more women were tapped into the creative undercurrent like Tori. Just becasue we can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there. She is too honest for modern day people. She confronts what many don't and she begins to look like an alien freak to even the freaks. That is unfortunate, but also telling, for she is a shaman of sorts, if only(unfortunately) to the wine drinking, myth-loving, knowlege-seeking, sexual, perversely great men and women who adore her. Every time she speaks, even a sentence holds more education, wisdom, and history than George Bush and all who voted for him could even conjure in a thesis. AND-you get 348 pages of this. Buy it and pass it on......

I couldn't have read this book at a better time. My work has brought me to the study of artist-musician as demigod, and Tori Amos dedicates a huge portion of this book to an explanation of the divisions she creates within her own life: public persona, private individual, and performer. I've always loved Tori Amos' music for my own reasons, and I knew she was a preacher's daughter and part Native American, but until I read this I had not realized just how much myth and archetype play central roles in the creation of her songs (and in her life.) She states that the songs come to her (as one's friends would come to tea) and that she can actually see the architecture of each song. The extensive research she has done on myths and archetypes serves as the inspiration and framework for each song. She researches other artists' works (poets, writers, painters, photographers) in order to get a clearer sense of her song babies much as a detective would examine a crime scene for evidence. She says (and I'm paraphrasing all of this) that there comes a point when she just steps back and lets the song in. As a fellow artist, her ideas have given me some of my own concerning the creative process. As a woman, her take on her past life experiences has helped me to take a more positive and less individualistic view of mine. And as an intellect and a mystic who is not at odds with these opposing aspects of herself, she has reaffirmed for me the need to be who I am without reference to any external measures of rightness or conformity.

I recognize in some other reviews a few valid criticisms: namely, that Ann Powers sometimes places Amos on an impossibly high pedestal (though, yes, she is quite the formidable individual) and that sometimes Amos gets a little too abstract even for me. Also, when dialogue was employed it sometimes didn't come across as legit. Maybe Amos was remembering the jist of conversations that she'd had and then putting them in her own words.

Some bits I loved: the autobiographical details of her early life, especially her description of her mother's family (her grandmother and grandfather, and their neat histories and personalities); the "song canvases", in which she explains in detail or succinctly many of the songs on The Beekeeper; the interviews with other people in her personal and professional life, which serve as snapshots of the different and various aspects of Tori and life with Tori; her anecdotes of motherhood (having a toddler myself;) and her indepth explanations of the creation of each album (their concepts and the place she was in personally that inspired them)--she cleared up a few question marks I still had concerning Strange Little Girls.

I recommend this book for those of us who are both Tori fans and philosophers (questioning, analytic, intuitive, not content to experience without understanding) by nature.

I also want to add that while this book is woman-centered (which is refreshing, because many books, regardless of the gender of the author, aren't), Tori Amos does include analyses of different male gods and how they still live in herself and in culture today. And while she never explicitly says that men can identify with goddesses, she implies it by stating that within herself and every woman is a man and a woman, and as I just mentioned, male gods influence her and her work as well.

I bought this book when it first came out and haven't had the occasion to re-read it since, but it contains great insight to both Tori's personal life and the music business. I love the way it is written (dialogue style because the interviewer and interviewee were communicating through email) and really enjoyed the anecdotes about certain songs.

You know, as many of us "toriphiles" out there, I too eagerly awaited and bought this book the minute it hit the shelves. Now, was I dissappointed with it? No, and maybe. . . There was a plethora of information regarding myths, legends, gods and goddesses; which I love, but I can really go and buy a book on that by someone other than my favorite singer/songwriter. Although, it is definately one of the major draws for me to Tori's music, I wanted more of "Tori" less of religion, et al.
But, I do understand that it is something that she works off of, pulls energy from.
Tori is a resounding voice in the music world(s), and ultimately this book was insightful for me, almost on a scholarly level! But for some of you out there that wanted to hear more on her rape, peabody, father. . . Do we really need to look that deep into her life? When all of it is already woven, magically I might add, into her music?
I guess, to me, Tori is more about wisdom, then she is about intelligence. And that is what has helped for me, for the process of falling in love with her!
So, I guess I am saying, read the book if you are a fan, but don't scrutinize it for what it lacks, but learn from what it speaks? And Ann, was just doing her job, as a fan, and as a writer!

Having read and seen numerous, although relatively brief, Tori Amos interviews, I always knew she was an intelligent woman- in a league of her own among other female musicians. However, I have an even higher respect for her after reading Piece By Piece. Tori really opens her heart and soul to her fans. She provides us with in in-depth look at her personal and musical background and how they, along with the world around her, have influenced her songwriting and overall musical style.

One of the few criticisms I have had of Tori over the years is that her songs are often too abstract for the average listener to understand or appreciate. I have greater understanding of her music after reading this book. She also provides background on specific songs in this book, providing the reader with insight on their meanings. I also realized that Tori wants the listeners to form their own interpretations of her music.

Surprisingly, this book can be a slow, difficult read at times- not what you would expect from an autobiography/memoir from a pop singer. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. As a fan, I have a new appreciation for Tori Amos, not only as a musician, but as a human being. I would definitely recommend this book for any Tori Amos fan.