For those of you that are new to my MidNight Gems series. Welcome to this nightly trip on which we will uncover & recover some amazing songs & covers.
So I admit I have a couple of darlings in the music verse, Suede, Killers, Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave to name a few. If I think about why they made that shortlist I can probably come up with several reasons.
But none of them will have this next reason, and this one comes with a warning. Don´t try this at home kids. Keep in mind that what I am now going to tell you happened during a different time and I was a very different baby.
It was the night of my first trip, I never went outside my mind till then. That night a more experienced friend and I made a bet with our minds, and we guess we won the bet.
Because when we ended in a bed after a long and very interesting night he played this record:
Not sure if it contains any subliminal messages, but I fell in love with Tori ever since that somewhere in time. And this album in particular.
I´ve only seen this gorgeous redhead live once, but her albums have been part of my life ever since. Hence tonight, without the help of chemistry (at least on my side) let me take you on another Tori Trip.
This is why I should not do sessions on All-Time favorites like Tori, what song to play first. I guess first album, but then? Best song...or first video I saw of her? I love every freaking song on that Album so much...it´s like they are printed in my synapses...how the hell did that happen? So I guess the first video to keep it easy and not have to kill any of my darlings.
1. Tori Amos - Silent All These Years
Let´s take a massive leap in time to the 2005 Album the Beekeeper and this little pearl of a song. It´s clearly a mix of her older style from the Boy´s for Pele album but I hear also a more modern side of Tori. That´s why this is one of my fav songs form her later albums.
2. Tori Amos - Parasol
Just saw that cover and it reminded me that I actually owned that one on Vinyl, where did it go... where did time go...probably to Jupiter. Hey Jupiter where did that life go? This for me is Tori at her Best, she is keeping it small and it sounds so great.
3. Tori Amos - Hey Jupiter
To put some contrast in the mix tonight this song is taken from the same album and remixed in such a way that I could play Tori in the club I played frequently. Now, this is not one of my darlings, still, it needed to make the cut.... Don´t ask me why, ask Tori.
4. Tori Amos - Professional Widow (Armand Van Helden Remix)
By now you must know I like it darker, these sessions are not inspired by Midnight for no reason. From the 2009 Album with the same title, this is the darker psychedelic version of herself. I can just get lost in this song. Set it on repeat and forget all about time, an impeccable song.
5. Tori Amos - Abnormally Attracted To Sin
This next one I picked because she sounds like early Tori. And this lady has bewitched me ...a spell that lasts a lifetime. The video is a nice piece of Fan Art that I can definitely appreciate. Forever under her Secret Spell!
6. Tori Amos - Secret Spell
I love Covers and Tori loves covers, we are a match made by chemistry. From the Strange little girl cover album, this dark Leonard Cohen-style song stands out. You see I like it lots darker, can it get even darker tonight?
7. Tori Amos- Bonnie & Clyde 97
I still hear a little Bonnie in this next song, but not Bonnie from Clyde...it´s a different Bonnie. A Bonnie that was very popular in the year this record was released, 1988 was that year. The Year Kant Tori Read saw the light, and Tori probably still wishes it never did.
If I am correctly informed she asked Atlantic records to destroy most of the copies and for a long time, it was the heardest Tori Album to obtain. So you can imagine how happy I was when finding a bootleg and honestly I get Tori. But truly it´s not as bad as she thinks.
8. Tori Amos - Fire on the Side
1988 + 29 years would take us into 2017 so I guess that is close enough to say and now we jump 29 years to Tor´s latest album Ocean to Ocean, which was released last month.
That was a nice segway, or at least I think so but there is another more important reason why this song. First of all, it makes me think a bit of another favorite band of mine (Suede), but mainly the feeling I get from the part:
For 29 years I have been searching for you
For 29 years you´ve been my most elusive truth.....and that is again a reference to the one that got away. How did that happen?
9. Tori Amos - 29 Years
I want More
This is my encore, and it was damn hard to select just one song. I took it from the single I bought once.
And these were the songs on there.
No, I will not crucify myself for ending this Special Midnight Gems session, and it´s a hard choice between Angie and Nirvana.
Two of the most influential bands from the previous century. But the video drove the decision. Look at Tori, she is like a Ginger Cat in Heat behind that piano....you have no choice but to love this lady, at least that goes for me.
10. Tori Amos - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Youtube Playlist
Of course, all songs are once again captured in the YouTube playlist.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXQdG71WNB5W4VQRajEvv424ZY5j29qFH
All Midnight Gems Playlist published on youtube can be found here
What the fluff are midnight gems?
Somewhere lost in time, trying to escape out of the rabbit hole back into the rat race there is a vacuum..... that´s the place where midnight gems are found.
My Midnight Gems will try to uncover & recover those beautiful songs that nobody ever noticed or might have been forgotten.
Who the fluff am I?
Being a former DJ playing about everything and having an uncompleted study of radio journalism. I have been wanting to do this for years....Thought about it many nights and guess now it´s time to finally take it to the streets.
Hope you enjoyed this slightly confronting wave of amazing music and you still feel like joining me on the next special edition trip as vol.78 of Midnight Gems is coming soon.
