It’s no secret to people who have read my diaries over the years that I am, and have been from the beginning, a huge Tori Amos fan. It seems like only yesterday that Little Earthquakes was the album I hung onto in my skip-protection Sony Discman while I jogged through my neighborhood. Ok, I may be dated, but reading Tori Amos’ new book “Resistance” reminded me of good times, bad times and the journey ahead.
Some of the stories she tells are familiar to many of her fans. Some are knowledge only she has, and when shared, they tell a story about the kind of America we should be, that we want to be. I’ve had a lot of time during COVID to read quite a few books, and there are a few stories in this one — I won’t share them all — that make “Resistance” worth a click at your favorite online retailer or local book store.
The book begins with a great story, telling of Tori’s performance in the local bar scene in the late 1970s. As the Iran hostage crisis took over the daily discussion, she found herself playing for audiences built out of the capital.
Tip O’Neil, the speaker of the House of Representatives, had publicly expressed outrage at the lack of support for the Special Operations Forces.
And then there he was before me at the piano. It seemed like a lifetime ago that I was fourteen and playing for a congressional party. I had asked him what his job was and he told me speaker. I little green at the time, I asked “Speaker of what?” He laughed and I played some Irish songs while he danced a gig. He then requested “Bye, Bye Blackbird” and we sang it together.
Like most Americans who were alive at the time, I remember exactly where I was on 9/11. The recovery from it has a lot of moments that I remember, as well. One of the first is discussed in this book. David Letterman became the first late night show to come back on. Tori Amos would be his first musical guest post 9/11. Singing Tom Wait’s time, she didn’t take the typical “let’s go get ‘em” stance.
In the book, she tells a story I was not aware of but so well describes the moment. She was preparing for interviews post Bush’s speech on his goals:
Someone at a radio station showed me a list of banned records, that is, songs that could not be played in light of the tragedy. It didn’t surprise me that songs with the words “airplane”, and “fire”, and “crash” in the titles were on the list. But then I saw one word.
Imagine.
”Imagine” had been banned.
The book features many similar stories, some moving, some prodfound, but all of them offering a reminder that it is often art and determination that can lead us through darkness. She talks of stops in Russia and talking to Russian citizens as to how they get away from propaganda. Women who responded to Kavanaugh.
These stories are woven together in a way that goes back and forth, into the past, to the present, and back into the past again. I have thoroughly enjoyed Denise’s tales of music on Daily Kos. Digested books and watched through classic films while inside.
The Trump brigade offers their own dark view of the world. I think I’ll take just a bit of beauty instead.
