Tori Amos: Under The Pink [Paperback]

Tori Amos (Author)

Book Description

Series: Tori Amos | Publication Date: December 31, 1994

Deluxe folio, with color photos, notes from Tori, and her renditions of each song. Includes: Pretty Good Year, God, Cornflake Girl, Icicle, Cloud On My Tongue, Space Dog, Yes Anastasia, and two bonus songs not on the album: All The Girls Hate Her and Over It.

Product Details

• Paperback: 124 pages
• Publisher: Amsco Publications (December 31, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0825614058
• ISBN-13: 978-0825614057
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #437,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Under Stands (slightly) Above (most of) the Rest, March 15, 2003

By 

Peter Marinari (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tori Amos: Under The Pink (Paperback)

Given the nature of Tori Amos's music (and slightly obsessive fans) one would think that Amsco would be interested in releasing the most accurate possible piano score to each of her recordings ... complete with vocal notation and extensive editor's notes! However, this is not always the case. Her sheet music books often provide over-simplified piano parts reduced to melody and the bass-line. Harmony vocals are nearly unheard of, and comments from the editor are virtually non-existant.

The biggest problem with many of her books is their follow-the-vocal approach to right hand notation, which typically ignores Tori's expressive playing in favor of a cut-n-paste job from the melody line along with sparse chords on the down-beats. This issue is somewhat avoided in Pink, on which Tori follows her own vocals much of the time already.

Some sections are slightly "dumbed down" from Tori's playing ("Yes, Anastasia" specifically), but the changes blend better and are much subtler here than in other books. Even the repetitive left hand parts of "Pretty Good Year" and "Icicle" are preserved nearly verbatim from the record. Bonus piano compositions "All The Girls Hate Her" and "Over It" are stunningly well-done.

However, off-setting the faithful transcriptions in this book are a few key transgressions. Foremost is the neutering of "Cornflake Girl," presented here without any of its awe-inspiring solos and with too much right-hand-play-a-long. Luckily, a brief internet search will lead you to several quality transcriptions of this gem. Equally as offensive is the trimming of the classical-style openings of both "Icicle" and "Yes, Anastasia," but the rest of each song is faithful.

Pink is a challenging album to play, and includes a few remarkable passages ("Cloud On My Tongue"), key signatures (Cb on most of "Icicle"), and ever-shifting time-signatures ("God" ... yikes). Vocals are noted with precision -- this album is largely lacking in backing vocals. The exception is "Space Dog," which *does* include backgrounds in its bridge/outro.

For the guitarists among you (of which I am one), Under The Pink offers sensible chord translations, and it includs the use of capos where chords would otherwise be painful to play. The book only ever suggests capoing up to the first fret, but you may find better options for some tunes on your own (try 6th for "Pretty Good Year").

Aside from "Cornflake Girl" every song in this book is presented in a playable *and* mostly accurate fashion. Not for the beginning pianist, but unless it comes back into print it will soon be hard to find!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book for those of you who want to play the basic notes, October 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tori Amos: Under The Pink (Paperback)

This is a great and fun book for those of you who desire to play the basic notes; however, since Tori is so talented, it is somewhat toned down (at no fault of the editors). Its a fun book - I love the beginning with the pictures of Tori and the ones she drew, as well as the discography of even the hard to find singles. Aspiring serious Tori collectors will find this useful. Songs like Cornflake Girl and Yes, Anastasia are toned down a lot, but thats b/c she is just too good to transcribe efectively. Pretty Good Year is fun to play - it's pretty easy. Great book for those who want to play the basic notes, and a lot of fun :)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars PRETTY GOOD, September 22, 1999

By 

Jason Koenig (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tori Amos: Under The Pink (Paperback)

While I must agree that certain songs are lacking the best parts of them,overall,this book is my favorite of all the sheet music books. The beginning of the book contains things Tori says about each song,and a little picture that she drew corresponding with the "girl". As mentioned before,certain parts of the songs are left out. For instance,the best part of Cornflake Girl isn't there,and the beautiful Icicle beginning is missing also. But for the most part everything sounds great,and this book is a MUST HAVE for any fan,simply because of the beginning of the book.