Moody Blue:"Nights In White Satin"
(4:41, 1,61Mb)
Tori Amos : Live Song (On Scarlet's Walk Tour, Paris, France, 2003)
Tori Amos
Myra Ellen Amos (Tori Amos) was born in North Carolina in 1963, the daughter of a Methodist minister and a homemaker. Amos' musical talent was evident from the beginning; she began playing piano at two-and-a-half, at four she was singing and performing in the church choir and by five she received an invitation to study piano at the prestigious Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.
"I was a freak child who had really good rhythm," Amos remembers. "I'd be invited to parties simply because I played the piano. I quickly realized that I had some kind of calling. But, just as quickly, I realized that what was most important to me was following my own path -- and not the one that was laid down by others."
Unwilling to follow the regimented "path" of classical piano study at Peabody, Amos was expelled from the conservatory at age 11. It was at this time that Amos discovered freeform rock music. She began writing her own songs and performing in local clubs and, by the time she was in her late teens, Amos (now calling herself Tori) moved to Los Angeles to follow her pop-star muse.
Atlantic Records took notice and signed the then 24-year-old singer in 1987. She released an eponymous album with her hard-rock band, Y Kan't Tori Read, the following year. The album, however, was a commercial and critical disappointment and its failure sent Amos back to the musical drawing board.
In 1992 she rebounded with her debut solo album, Little Earthquakes. The acclaimed CD contained 12 haunting, ultra-personal tracks; including the cut "Me and a Gun," on which Amos recounts the details of her own rape. The album was an international success, selling more than two million copies worldwide and establishing Amos as one of the most compelling female vocalists to emerge from the '90s.
Amos followed up with Crucify, an EP of covers that included a remake of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
In 1994 Amos released her second full-length, Under the Pink, on Atlantic. The CD, which contained the hits "God" and "Cornflake Girl," debuted at No. 2 on the British album charts and went on to sell several million copies.
Amos' ambitious third album, Boys for Pele, came out in 1996 and further solidified her extremely loyal, if somewhat frighteningly obsessive, fan base.
In early 1998 Amos contributed a couple tracks to the Great Expectations soundtrack, returning later in the spring with her fourth full-length album, Songs From the Choirgirl Hotel.
Christina Cramer
Source:
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/default.asp?oid=268
