Monday, October 12, 2009

TSSnSF: '97 Bonnie & Clyde



Cover songs aren't usually freaky. They tend to be more straight-forward, for better or for worse (see my list of best and worst cover songs). Tori Amos, however, is not straight-forward. By which I mean she's fucking crazy.

Case in point, the album Strange Little Girls. It's a concept album revolving around covers of songs about women written by men. Covering artists like The Boomtown Rats, Depeche Mode, and Neil Young (even interpreting Slayer's Raining Blood to be about the menstrual cycle. Seriously), it's entirely a big bag of insanity. But the cake-topper of this whole fucking thing is the god damn cover of Eminem's '97 Bonnie & Clyde.

What was originally a violent diatribe against his ex-wife Kim, Eminem's song transforms into a cooing slow piano song. Hushing his daughter (since she's playing Eminem) as he drives the corpse of his wife to the dock to throw it away and then flee with daughter in tow, Tori moves through the tune almost dreamily.

Don't get me wrong when I talk about this, by the way. I love Tori Amos and I knew about this song before I did research for this month. But still...jesus fuck.

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