(no subject)

[miko2]

Today's Song: The Beekeeper by Tori Amos

It's been a while since this cd by Tori Amos came out. kehf lent it to me when it first came out, and I fell in love with it. The actual chain of events goes something like this... A) I got into Tori Amos when her "first" cd Little Earthquakes came out (technically she had an earlier cd called "Y Kant Tori Read" or something like that, I remember seeing it in the bargain bins years ago and I wish I'd bought a copy. It's long out of print. It's nothing like her later material and she's probably embarassed by it and wants it to be forgotten).

Where was I? Oh yes. I bought Little Earthquakes and fell in love with Tori's music. I bought Under the Pink as well. Then I lent them to kehf, who also fell in love with Tori's music (her story "Pretty Good Year" takes its name from a Tori song). After that I think I bought the third cd and maybe the fourth, can't remember, but I stopped buying Tori cds for a good while, until kehf picked up The Beekeeper on a whim, and loved it, and lent it to me. And I loved it. And I've gone back to pick up other stuff of hers that I'd missed over the years, although frankly I think The Beekeeper is the best thing she's done since Little Earthquakes.

I like a lot of the songs on this cd but the title track is one of the most haunting. It tells the story of someone whose loved one is going to be taken away... who is apparently going to die (there's a reference to "in your gown with your breathing mask on" which makes me think she's lying in a hospital). The protagonist has come to see "The Beekeeper" to try and prevent this death. "I can not accept that she will be taken from me... I know that you want my, want my Queen... Anything but this! Can you use me instead?" The Beekeeper apparently is death, or something very similar... an otherworld entity with powers over life and death, anyway... it's not clear if the protagonist is "taken instead" but the plea is heard and the and the dying woman is apparently spared... for now:

I must see the Beekeeper
I must see if she'll keep her alive
Her alive
I have come with my mustard seed

Do you know who I am?
She said, I'm the one who taps you on the shoulder
When it's your time
Do not be afraid,
I promise that she'll awake tomorrow
Somewhere, tomorrow

Maybe I'm passing you by
Just passing you by girl
Just passing you by
On my way, on my way
But don't be confused
One day I'm coming for you

I found two videos of this song on you tube... one is a car commercial or something. The better one involves someone's home movies, but they're in slow motion and very haunting, like the song, and they involve someone's mother who was clearly very loved and is now apparently gone (which suits the song very well).

Anyway it's a very cool song. Tori has a new cd coming out this Spring, I'll have to remember to pick that up.



Today is a fairly nice day. Some sun in the morning anyway. I took a walk. My copy of Felicia and the Cult of the Rubber Nose arrived in the mail. ^_^