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A review by wombatjenni
Resistance: A Songwriter's Story of Hope, Change, and Courage by Tori Amos
5.0
Wow. This book... I did not expect to love it so much. Which is a weird thing to say as I've been a Tori Amos fan since the mid-90s.
Throughout my fandom, the one thing I would always raise my eyebrows at was her talk of faeries and her songs as Girls who come to her, and back then I didn't quite get it--it all felt a bit too woo-woo for my comfort. So despite loving her lyrics and her music, I felt hesitant about grabbing this book.
But y'all. It's amazing. I'm glad to have proven myself wrong. The book is punchy with its approach to politics and creativity, and working as a creative person in a part of the world that wants to harness such forces to make money or for hustling or to be "productive" - and how falling into that trap can lead to your well drying up. This should've been obvious to me, but it's now obvious-er after reading this book: Tori Amos is able to keep on trucking, year after year, doing her own thing, because... she does her own thing. She is herself in her creativity, and either you like it or not. And if you're in the latter group, I mean, too bad, but we all have our likes and dislikes, don't we?
There is much to love about this book, but I specifically want to go back to check her setlist in her post-9/11 tour that I saw her in, and the one much later in Seattle, after learning that not only does she determine the set list a mere hour before going on stage (or even changing it on the fly if it feels right), but she also determines it based on what kind of a dialogue she feels the audience that night might be in need of. Are people feeling jubilant? Anxious about the state of the world? Do people need catharsis or distraction? What's going on in the city? (She always does a meet and greet before the show to hear from locals).
Tori Amos is - pardon the pun - in tune. With everything. That's the overwhelming feeling I got from reading Resistance.
Throughout my fandom, the one thing I would always raise my eyebrows at was her talk of faeries and her songs as Girls who come to her, and back then I didn't quite get it--it all felt a bit too woo-woo for my comfort. So despite loving her lyrics and her music, I felt hesitant about grabbing this book.
But y'all. It's amazing. I'm glad to have proven myself wrong. The book is punchy with its approach to politics and creativity, and working as a creative person in a part of the world that wants to harness such forces to make money or for hustling or to be "productive" - and how falling into that trap can lead to your well drying up. This should've been obvious to me, but it's now obvious-er after reading this book: Tori Amos is able to keep on trucking, year after year, doing her own thing, because... she does her own thing. She is herself in her creativity, and either you like it or not. And if you're in the latter group, I mean, too bad, but we all have our likes and dislikes, don't we?
There is much to love about this book, but I specifically want to go back to check her setlist in her post-9/11 tour that I saw her in, and the one much later in Seattle, after learning that not only does she determine the set list a mere hour before going on stage (or even changing it on the fly if it feels right), but she also determines it based on what kind of a dialogue she feels the audience that night might be in need of. Are people feeling jubilant? Anxious about the state of the world? Do people need catharsis or distraction? What's going on in the city? (She always does a meet and greet before the show to hear from locals).
Tori Amos is - pardon the pun - in tune. With everything. That's the overwhelming feeling I got from reading Resistance.