As my blog title would suggest, I am a Tori Amos fan. So you can imagine how beside myself I am to discover this:
A PIANO: THE COLLECTION, will be a five-disc, career-spanning box set consisting of classics, rarities, demos, B-sides and unreleased tracks. And yes, indeed, very exciting news for Toriphiles … Tori will finally introduce us to five very special songs: “Not David Bowie,” “Zero Point,” “Peeping Tommi,” “Ode To My Clothes” and “Dolphin Song.”
Presented in deluxe packaging that resembles a piano’s keyboard, this set will be released by Rhino Records on September 26, 2006, at will be available at regular retail outlets and at the Rhino Records website for a suggested price of $74.98.
Produced by Tori, the career-spanning collection highlights selections from her studio albums as well as b-sides and songs that debuted on Tales of a Librarian. Featuring numerous unreleased songs, the box set contains a total of 86 tracks that combine well-known studio versions with rare alternative mixes, including several songs Tori remixed for this project. A PIANO: THE COLLECTION also offers a revealing and extensive track-by-track commentary penned by Tori, who discusses the inspiration behind the songs and albums and explains why they were chosen for this box set.
The compilation’s first disc includes an extended version of Tori’s 1992 debut, Little Earthquakes. The classic album has been augmented not only with a different song sequence and alternate mixes but it also features it’s four original b-sides “Upside Down,” “Take To The Sky (Russia),” “Sweet Dreams” and an alternate mix of “Flying Dutchman,” as well as the previously unreleased, unedited single version of “Crucify.”
Spotlighting music recorded between 1994 and 1996, the second disc includes songs from Under the Pink and Boys for Pele. The 18 tracks blend original and remixed versions of albums cuts with the b-side “Honey” and “Professional Widow” performed live. Also included is “Take Me With You,” an unreleased song intended for Little Earthquakes. “At the time I just couldn’t finish it,” Tori writes in the liner notes. “When we found it, there were no lyrics to speak of, just music. So you’ll have something partly recorded in 1990 but with a vocal recorded in 2006…”
The third disc also includes songs associated with Boys for Pele plus 1999’s To Venus and Back and Tales of a Librarian: A Tori Amos Collection. The 15 songs feature original and remixed versions of album tracks as well as “Hey Jupiter” (Dakota Version) and “Professional Widow” (Armand’s Star Trunk Funkin’ Mix). Also featured is “Walk To Dublin (Sucker Reprise),” an unreleased track from the Pele sessions.
From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998), Scarlet’s Walk (2002) and The Beekeeper (2005) are the focus of the fourth disc, which contains 15 songs including original and remixed versions of album tracks. Also featured is the unheard intro for “Marys Of The Sea” from The Beekeeper as well as four previously unreleased songs “Not David Bowie,” “Zero Point,” “Ode To My Clothes” and “Dolphin Song.” In the liner notes, Tori writes: “Some songs seem to have a timeline for when they want to be finished and put out to the world. At the time when we were working on ‘Dolphin Song,’ I had all kinds of ideas for her development after the basic tracking had been done. Instead she got set aside for a while. But once we started to go through the tape library we put ‘Dolphin’ up on the faders again, and I realized we didn’t need to record anything else; it was finished.”
The final disc features 22 tracks spotlighting Tori’s impressive list of renowned b-sides and includes the exclusive digital release “Merman” from 1999. For what could be the most intriguing addition to the collection, Tori invites listeners into her artistic process with a medley of demos for the songs, “Fire-Eater’s Wife/Beauty Queen,” “Playboy Mommy” and “A Sorta Fairytale.” Amos explains in the liner notes: “I’m usually pretty reticent to expose the musical development process…The demo medley was a choice I made so that other songwriters can feel an affinity with the idea that songwriters have to push themselves and not just accept the first incarnation that you are presented with. Each of these three songs are presented here in their completed form somewhere within the box set so you can see conception to development.”
The track listing for A PIANO: THE COLLECTION is as follows:
* = previously unreleased
Disc 1
1. “Leather” (Alternate Mix)
2. “Precious Things” (Alternate Mix)
3. “Silent All These Years”
4. “Upside Down”
5. “Crucify” (Unedited Single Version)*
6. “Happy Phantom”
7. “Me And A Gun”
8. “Flying Dutchman” (Alternate Mix)
9. “Girl”
10. “Winter”
11. “Take To The Sky (Russia)”
12. “Tear In Your Hand”
13. “China”
14. “Sweet Dreams”
15. “Mother” (Alternate Mix)
16. “Little Earthquakes”
Disc 2
1. “Cornflake Girl”
2. “Honey”
3. “Take Me With You”*
4. “Baker Baker” (Alternate Mix)
5. “The Waitress” (Alternate Mix)
6. “Pretty Good Year”
7. “God”
8. “Cloud On My Tongue”
9. “Past The Mission” (Alternate Mix)
10. “Bells For Her”
11. “Yes, Anastasia” (Alternate Mix)
12. “Blood Roses”
13. “Mr. Zebra”
14. “Caught A Lite Sneeze” (Alternate Mix)
15. “Professional Widow” (Merry Widow Version – Live)
16. “Beauty Queen/Horses”
17. “Father Lucifer”
18. “Marianne”
Disc 3
1. “Walk To Dublin” (Sucker Reprise)*
2. “Hey Jupiter” (Dakota Version)
3. “Professional Widow” (Armand’s Star Trunk Funkin’ Mix)
4. “Putting The Damage On”
5. “Bliss” (Remixed Version)
6. “Suede”
7. “Glory Of The 80’s”
8. “1000 Oceans”
9. “Concertina” (Single Remix Version)
10. “Lust”
11. “Datura”
12. “Sugar” (Live from sound check)
13. “The Waitress” (Live)
14. “Snow Cherries From France”
15. “Doughnut Song” (Remixed Version)
Disc 4
1. “A Sorta Fairytale”
2. “Not David Bowie”*
3. “Amber Waves”
4. “Iieee” (Remixed Version)
5. “Playboy Mommy” (Remixed Version)
6. “The Beekeeper”
7. “Jackie’s Strength”
8. “Zero Point”*
9. “Sweet The Sting”
10. “Ode To My Clothes”*
11. “Spark”
12. “Intro Jam”* and “Marys Of The Sea”
13. “Cruel” (Remixed Version)
14. “Dolphin Song”*
15. “Gold Dust”
Disc 5
1. “The Pool”
2. “Never Seen Blue”
3. “Daisy Dead Petals”
4. “Beulah Land”
5. “Sugar”
6. “Cooling”
7. “Bachelorette”
8. “Black Swan”
9. “Mary” (Tales Version)
10. “Peeping Tommi”*
11. “Toodles Mr. Jim”
Demo Medley:
12. “Fire-Eater’s Wife/Beauty Queen” (Demo)*
13. “Playboy Mommy” (Demo)*
14. “A Sorta Fairytale” (Demo)*
15. “This Old Man”
16. “Purple People”
17. “Here. In My Head”
18. “Hungarian Wedding Song”
19. “Merman”
20. “Sister Janet”
21. “Home On The Range” (Cherokee Edition)
22. “Frog On My Toe”
