There are only three types of people in the world:

• Those who love Tori Amos
• Those who hate her
• Those who only know “that cornflake song”

Personally I love her. Really love her, whereas my partner calls her “that wailing bag of cats”. As I’m writing this I’m listening to my favourite Tori album, Boys for Pele, and hoping the rain holds off for the concert in The Iveagh Gardens this evening.

Like all Tori fans, I just can’t understand how anyone with ears and a brain could think she’s shite and I feel the need to wax on and on and on (and on) about how great she is. I know her music is a certain taste, and let’s be honest she’s as kookey as Lady GaGa on LSD, but she is a genius in a world of pretenders.

She is first and foremost a poet, a piano maestro and a wonderful singer. That she can put all of those talents together is a joy and that she is  so queer is just our luck.

When I say queer I mean it in its absolute sense. She defies definition; sexually, musically, politically. Her lyrics mean completely different things to different people and yet so much to everyone.

She is open to the point of naked in her work. She had a tough religious childhood, has been raped, has had a miscarriage and it’s all there in her work. She bravely expresses all of it in most of her work, Me and A Gun, Playboy Mommy respectively. She’s not fearless, that’s the key. Without fear you can’t be brave. She’s vulnerable but opens up to us saying “Look I’ve been through crap too, I understand.”

When I was in my teens, I was a Catholic lesbian battling hard with accepting that I went so suddenly from Jesus’s loved to the Pope’s hated. Enter Tori who had just released Silence All These Years, an album which is all about the power of a person’s sexuality. Not the power you hold over someone else, but the power it enflames within yourself. Alanis Morissette felt her power and screamed frustrated at a world that didn’t understand. Tori whispered in our ears that she understood, but don’t be angry at those on the outside, love yourself and no one else’s opinion will matter.

Her early struggle, and later celebration, of female sexuality in all of its forms is why women of all sexualities love her. She evokes Angie Dickinson when she needs strength, she realises that Lucifer may have a point, she is unashamed to talk about masterbation or menstruation.

Her outsider status, her love of men (apparently “it better be big”) and the heartbreaking beauty of her songs is why gay men love her. Gay men and women both love how spiritual she is without being religious. Her songs are drenched in biblical references used to articulate the queer experience; talk about reappropriation.

I was going to quote some of her gay lyrics but there are actually so many that I’ll choose half a dozen to whet your appetite.

1.  The easiest one first “You think I’m a queer/I think you’re a queer” from Blood Roses. She takes back the insult and makes it a shout for joy.

2. Silent All These Years - to me sounds like a person sitting at home waiting thinking about herself and deciding to come out; sexually or socially it doesn’t matter.

I’ve got the anti-christ in the kitchen yelling at me again

and

My scream got lost in a paper cup
You think there’s a heaven
Where some screams have gone

Why queer? Again it’s a personal interpretation. “The kitchen” was used in literature and poetry as a word for female sexuality. So if you have the anti-christ in the kitchen, chances are you’re a bit on the quare side.

2. Leather - pride at being a sexual deviant. Go Tori!

Look I’m standing naked before you
Don’t you want more then my sex
I can scream as loud as your last one
But I can’t claim innocence

4. Hey Jupiter – for me it’s a letter to God when I was 18. I’m lost, I realise you’re lost, maybe we can find eachother.

If my hearts soaking wet; Boy your boots can leave a mess
Hey Jupiter; Nothings been the same
So are you gay; Are you blue
Thought we both could use a friend; To run to
And I thought I wouldn’t have to keep; With you
Hiding

5. Rattlesnakes - The Smiths’ song (correction from single_syllables below, this was actually Lloyd Cole & The Commotions) sounds as if it was written for her; a sad love song to a fading beauty.

6. Icicle – One of those that fans adore, Icicle is all about exploring yourself while trying not to let anyone notice. Who am I? Is it ok to try to find out? What do I like?

Father says bow your head
Like the Good Book says
Well I think the Good Book is missing some pages

and

And when my hand touches myself; I can finally rest my head
And when they say take of his body; I think I’ll take from mine instead
Getting off, getting off; While they’re all downstairs
Singing prayers, sing away

I have to stop as I could be writing for hours. What are your favourites?

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