Lyrics Tori On "Oysters" - Tori Amos

'Oysters' was in development for quite some time
Mainly, I guess, because I had to travel, really travel with that one
And it originated itself first in Ireland again a few years ago, perhaps around right before 'The Night of Hunters' time but it was somewhat different then
So, it's really taken on a different character
And I'd say to you a different accompaniment language, which then
Pushed the melody into different places
Some things were retained from the original idea
But it needed to grow and I think it's because at the time,
I hadn't captured the sadness, the melancholy, that I needed to capture
I was hearing different stories from different women about the idea of
Not having accomplished certain things and that they were stuck
So they needed to go out and have some kind of communion with nature
Different women explained it to me in different ways
But I began to hear this one gal who just said,
And she'd had quite a life, quite a life, many experiences
I mean been in Hollywood, working there behind-the-scenes
I mean she's been around the world and she's British gal
But I ran into her in Ireland and she was going to set up a little tackle shop
Somewhere at the ends of the earth, at the ends of the earth in the third world
And I started thinking about turning oysters in the sand
An old Native American idea, the idea of chop wood carry water,
The idea of doing something with the land as part of the land whereby
You become out of your problem so you,
Some women (and) men will talk about gardening, I've run into them where they just had to get their hands in the dirt, really get their hands in the dirt
And to plant in order to stop thinking and reliving something over
And over and over again 'cause they can't push through it so in their own life they go back to the same patternthe same negative pattern
And I started thinking about the idea of turning oysters in the sand
And musically then it started to make a sound what that would sound like
Therefore, the piano melody that you begin to hear was the sonic oysters turning and then once I heard the oysters turning, then it all began to come together