Reading some recent Chicago Tribunes, I came across Greg Kot's review of Tori Amos' concert in Chicago, which I gather is in support of her album "Strange Little Girls."
Greg Kot - by the way a noted Joni admirer - was enthralled by Tori Amos's performance - and he singled out her cover of Eminem's "97' Bonnie & Clyde" off the M boy's 1st album, "The Slim Shady LP." Advisory: to the consternation of almost all in my demographic groups, I am a major Eminem fan. 97' Bonnie & Clyde is not an easy listening song, being similar to "Kim" off of the "Marshall Mathers LP." And I look at Eminem's music as I look at opera - about cosmic, consuming passions, love, sex, death. According to Kot, without changing a word but by her own infusion of her own insights and talent, Tori Amos changed the whole song around; where Eminem's version emphasizes the perspective of the crazed violent passion of the male in this song-story, Tori Amos' version - without changing a word - changes it into the mother seeing the dangerous schizoid nature of the male violence run amok in her life which destroys her life as it is beginning to suck in her daughter, thus violence passed to a new generation. According to Kot, this changes the song from exposition into something that really sears the soul of the listener. People who were comfortable with the song experience the horror of the situation when they hear the Tori Amos version. And thus, this is a remarkable feat. I always thought Eminem's 97' Bonnie & Clyde was frightening - as it should be, dealing with the banality of violence in in culture - and I have to confess, I was totally unfamiliar with anything other than the name Tori Amos. Kot also remarked on Tori Amos' version of Heart of Gold by my all time favorite Neil Young, giving it a totally new perspective (and not that flattering to Neil Young's viewpoint in the song.) So I went to cdnow - http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=1444938244/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/artistid=AMOS*TORI/itemid=1420731 and I have to say, I am very impressed with the work, the artistry, of Tori Amos, and the concept that she has going in this album. Strange Little Girl is all covers (no Joni content) and I think her reworking of 97' Bonnie and Clyde is all that Kot said it was and more. Not sure about Heart of Gold with the excerpt that I heard, but her version of Happiness is a Warm Gun is chilling (as it should be). Her work on these songs is genius, very interpretative, making every song new as if we hadn't heard it before. Anyway, I am obviously a new convert to the work of Tori Amos and on a slow (for me) Saturday night, felt like sharing the experience. After all, this is the first artist that I have been this excited about hearing for the first time since ... Eminem. I also love it when an artist does not reproduce the song of another in doing a cover but makes it totally new - and outside of Janis Joplin's preternatural ability to do the same, I haven't ever heard it done this well. Not quite Janis level, but as close as any mortal can come to Janis's ability to rework a song and make it new. All you Tori Amos fans out there, you can say, you told me so. This artist is very impressive. How have I missed her up until now? (the Rev) Vince The Strange Little Girl song list is: 1. New Age - Originally Performed By The Velvet Underground 2. 97' Bonnie & Clyde - Originally Performed By Eminem 3. Strange Little Girl - Originally Performed By The Stanglers 4. Enjoy The Silence - Originally Performed By Depeche Mode 5. I'm Not In Love - Originally Performed By 10cc 6. Rattlesnakes - Originally Performed By Lloyd Cole And The Commotions 7. Time - Originally Performed By Tom Waits 8. Heart Of Gold - Originally Performed By Neil Young 9.I Don't Like Mondays - Originally Performed By The Boomtown Rats 10. Happiness Is A Warm Gun - Originally Performed By The Beatles 11. Raining Blood - Originally Performed By Slayer 12. Real Men - Originally Performed By Joe Jackson
