Album Essentials: Tori Amos - "Little Earthquakes"
By Dave Swanson - Summit FM Contributor
"Who wants some sniveling female all the time?" asked Tori Amos, in a 1991 interview to promote her debut album, 'Little Earthquakes.’ "After all, just because something happened to me, and it was traumatic, doesn't make it interesting. I have to get my scissors out and make sure I'm telling a story that works. It may be your own experience, but you can't be too precious." Amos was sharp enough to know herself, and the often precarious standing women in music have long dealt with.
By 1992, Tori had already been through several hoops in the music business. She had formed a very 80s modeled synth based band back in 1984 called Y Kant Tori Read. The band (which included drummer Matt Sorum, who would go onto work with the Cult, Guns-N-Roses, and Velvet Revolver, among others) made one album for Atlantic Records, in 1988, before falling apart.
Still under contract to Atlantic, she started anew as a solo artist. The label sent her off to England with the idea she would have a better chance of making it there first. A few singles were issued, and the gamble proved correct as 'Little Earthquakes' entered the UK charts a month before it was ever released in the states. The album found an audience straight away, and truly connected with people, while covering such topics as religion, rape, identity crisis, and sexuality. Amos was even seen as the woman at the forefront of a new women's movement in music, something that continued to grow throughout the 1990s.
The album took on a life of its own and a total of five singles were released from the album including 'Silent All These Years,' 'Me And A Gun,' and 'Crucify,' which really helped her breakthrough in no small part due to her unique cover version of Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' done up in such a way that it took audiences by surprise. She also covered Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. Amos was right in the thick of things, alongside other notable releases by women that year like Sinead O'Connor, PJ Harvey, and Madonna.
Things may have turned out very different if an Atlantic executive had gotten his way with the album, which was to erase the piano from the recordings and replace it with guitars. “There were artists who came before me who were legends; Billy [Joel] and Elton were allowed to play the piano and wear leggings, but I had a battle, and that was my battle,” Amos told the Washington Post in a recent interview. “The piano players who came after me didn’t have to fight that particular battle, because I fought that battle.”
In speaking with Billboard magazine on the album's 20th anniversary a decade ago, Amos said, "In some ways I know I’m very different, especially since I became a mom. Being a mom didn’t change me in a small way. It really ticked out a lot of negative self-destructive sides and focused those volatile minister’s daughter feelings into creative expressions. I had them when I wrote ‘Little Earthquakes,’ but unfortunately I didn’t keep it to my creative expressions."
Critical praise ran high and has maintained over time. Rolling Stone included 'Little Earthquakes' on its list of '500 Greatest Albums Of All Time, ranking at #239. A Summit Essential, you ask? Easily!