This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
And through the life force and there goes her friend
On her Nishiki it's out of time
And through the portal they can make amends
Hey would you say whatever we're blanket friends
Can't stop what's coming
Can't stop what's on its way
And through the walls they made their mudpies
I've got your mind I said
She said I've your voice
I said you don't need my voice girl
You have your own
But you never thought it was enough of
So they went years and years
Like sisters blanket girls
Always there through that and this
There's nothing we cannot ever fix I said
Can't stop what's coming
Can't stop what's on its way
Can't stop what's coming
Can't stop what's on its way
Bells and footfalls and soldiers and dolls
Brothers and lovers she and I were
Now she seems to be sand under his shoes
There's nothing I can do
Can't stop what's coming
Can't stop what's on its way
Can't stop what's coming
Can't stop what's on its way
And now I speak to you are you in there
You have her face and her eyes
But you are not her
And we go at each other like blank ettes
Who can't find their thread and their bare
Can't stop loving you
Can't stop loving
Can't stop what is on its way
And I see it coming
And it's on its way
On her Nishiki it's out of time
And through the portal they can make amends
Hey would you say whatever we're blanket friends
Can't stop what's coming
Can't stop what's on its way
And through the walls they made their mudpies
I've got your mind I said
She said I've your voice
I said you don't need my voice girl
You have your own
But you never thought it was enough of
So they went years and years
Like sisters blanket girls
Always there through that and this
There's nothing we cannot ever fix I said
Can't stop what's coming
Can't stop what's on its way
Can't stop what's coming
Can't stop what's on its way
Bells and footfalls and soldiers and dolls
Brothers and lovers she and I were
Now she seems to be sand under his shoes
There's nothing I can do
Can't stop what's coming
Can't stop what's on its way
Can't stop what's coming
Can't stop what's on its way
And now I speak to you are you in there
You have her face and her eyes
But you are not her
And we go at each other like blank ettes
Who can't find their thread and their bare
Can't stop loving you
Can't stop loving
Can't stop what is on its way
And I see it coming
And it's on its way
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I'm reading a little more into this song than most folks seem to be... to me, it's not just a friendship that's been destroyed, but a life that's about to be.
It seems to me that the singer has grown up with this friend all through childhood and adolescence, and now the friend has gotten involved with someone who is abusive, and it just keeps getting worse.
Abused folks are often dependent, and the phrase "I said you don't need my voice girl you have your own but you never thought it was enough of" strikes me as that... someone who can't speak for themselves and so other perople speak for them, controlling them.
"Sand under his shoes" is a pretty low thing to be, and naturally, when she confronts her friend about it, they fight, "go at each other like blank ettes."
The lively friend she had is gone, so far gone that she appears dead inside... "and now I speak to you are you in there you have her face and her eyes but you are not her"
And the singer is afraid that it's going to end in tragedy. That her friend is either going to suicide or be killed by the abuse. She's like to be able to turn away, I think, but she loves the friend too much.
It's a terrible position to be in: "can't stop loving, can't stop what is on its way, and I see it coming, and it's on its way."
@Doom Shepherd This is also my interpretation of the song. I saw her perform this in Glasgow on the 'Under The Pink' tour. She played it on a toy piano at the front of the stage. Very, very haunting.
@Doom Shepherd Wow, I do believe you nailed it! For a time, I was thinking perhaps they were refugees—in a camp together or something (blanket friends, after all), and I can still imagine that being the case, BUT I find your interpretation more powerful/salient. As someone who was IN an abusive relationship (and I do believe I would have died if I didn’t get out when I did), I can verify this idea of “you have her face…but you are not her,” as I often try to explain to ppl that I was so far gone—the constant brainwashing plus the survival impulse to not make the abuser mad, to name a couple causes—that I was not the “me” I am now; it feels very much like I have had multiple personalities b/c of this! At any rate, I had a best friend trying to reach me—as long ago as all this was, if I played this for her with this interpretation, I’m sure she’d agree and probably cry! Finally, I’ve seen friends begin down similar roads, and the feeling of helplessness is just beyond. Abuse reduces ppl to nothing, to “dirt under his shoes,” (there were cardboard cutouts of the women who had been killed by their partners in our city that year, eight with their names tacked to their chest. They were made for an awareness event, but walking past them every day—I think that might be what saved me. I didn’t want to become a cardboard cutout, a statistic, dirt under his shoes. It snapped me out of it), and abuse always gets worse once a certain line is crossed. If for some reason someone is reading this who is in an abusive relationship, look up “safe homes rape crisis,” this organization will aid you and save your life if you need it!<br /> Well, didn’t intend on writing all that, but seemed called for. As always, Tori digs to the depths of the soul, finds where the love and pain are, and turns them into something beautiful.
I agree with everyone who's saying it's about two people who were once very close, but a void started to grow between them, something neither could stop. This is the process of losing someone who became a part of you, someone you once shared the same wavelength with. You could finish each other's thoughts, you could feel each other's pain... It's deeper than love. It's a unique connection. Then you are forced to watch as the thread you're connected with slowly tightens and you can't do anything, you're just waiting for it to snap... You make a reach for each other one last time, but the magic is already gone. This is not just losing a friend. A part of you dies with a relationship like that.
"...the main thing about Bells for Her is that there is no resolve, and that's what that whole song was saying. Can't stop what's coming, can't stop what is on its way. All I can do is respond truthfully, and the concept that we'll always be friends, or we can always work it out, I would have bet you that I could have worked anything out with this person. I would have bet my hand I could have worked anything out. I'd be missing a hand right now. It'd be the one-armed Tori tour. I couldn't have foreseen this. And I think, how many people, in marriages or families, and they're going, 'Wait a minute. I'm a rational being. This is a rational being, so we think.' Of course, I'm a little -- I'm partial, but I would have thought, yes, we could work it out. And when it got to in the end 'blankettes,' and the spelling changed, and when I was writing it down, I did it 'blankettes' as in -- well, what it means to me is just blank women, chicks. Yet they were making mudpies and creating and it's void now. And if you talk to people that know her, they think she's a together, great babe. And if you talk to people that know me, I'm a together, great babe. And yet we just couldn't do it. So there is a triangle on this record of the betrayal of women. It's not just that relationship. It's many other things in the other tunes. But Bells is the spirit speaking, not the ego speaking, but the part of me that still loves a friend that for whatever reason you can't make a resolve. You just can't do it. The big lesson in this whole year has been that there isn't a resolve for many things. Life isn't about, well, if I just get to this mountain peak, it's over. There are like 5,000 peaks in the distance." [Tori Amos, The Baltimore Sun, '94]
This song is so haunting. I love the deconstructed piano.
This song is CLEARLY about herself as two women...the strong woman, the weak woman...going at it LIKE SISTERS...BLANKETS (can't find their thread and their bare means one blanket made up of many threads which is one body made up of more than one self) both inner selves failing a man...this is why she wrote CAN'T STOP WHAT'S COMING-CAN'T STOP WHAT'S ON ITS WAY because even her stronger self can't seem to get this solider. Her stronger self is now "sand under his shoe" There is nothing that can be done. If you notice in her live recording, she mentions "Can't Stop Loving You." She sees it coming, that there is nothing she can do.
I've got your mind I said she said I've your voice I said you don't need my voice girl you have your own but you never thought it was enough of so they went years and years like sisters blanket girls always there through that and this there's nothing we cannot ever fix I said
I think all women can relate to this song: there's been a time in our lives where a really close friend suddenly only had time for her boy, and you can't understand how such a strong bond is suddenly weakened by the arrival of a man. It's heartbreaking, and you feel so hopeless because you wanted to be friends forever the way you planned as children, and yet there's this new guy in her life and he takes your place and all you can do is sit back and watch the inevitable.
just for the record, all men can relate to this for exactly the same reason.
The song is about friends and how they thought they'd be best friends forever, but now they hate each other because of some betrayal. At one point, the friend wanted to be just like her, hence the "I have your voice line", to which the narrator of the song responds that she is beautiful and individual, and doesn't need to be like her. It sounds like a relationship with a man tore the friends apart, but the narrator has accepted it. However, she's still worried, even though she says they act like "blankettes", I thought that was her way of saying they acted like a word she can't even bring herself to say.... But somehow, she can't stop loving her friend
@j-love <br /> As an aspiring poet and Singer myself, in my opinion there never has been and possibly never will be a talent comparable to Tori Amos. I have studied many of her songs/poetry for about 25rs. Your interpretation of Bells For Her is 100% Spot On! <br /> I'm not in any way a know it all, But when it comes to this Particular song, I not only can relate,.... I've lived most of it! Not the parts in relation to being friends as young children. But the lyrics(now she seems to be sand under his shoes) I felt it and lived it myself as I was sand under his shoes. As for the lyrics (I said you don't need my voice you have your own), it's impossibly hard for me to this day to hear those lyrics and so many others, as it brings me to tears.<br /> The man I loved and still do, as she still does too also (as I just recently found out) and all of my insecurities ripped mine & her friendship to threads. She was so confident, intelligent, and with all her natural delicate beauty.... How could I begin to compare??? I met Maria through my husband as the 2 of them were friends about 13yrs before I met her and from the 1st moment meeting her, we bonded immediately and deeply in a way that no words can begin to explain.... After about 4 yrs into hers & my friendship (so I'd thought), I began to see a deep connection between her and my husband. Looking back on it now, although it was about14 yrs back is tremendously painful. The song, the lyrics, & memories still haunt me. The 1st time that I have allowed myself to hear Bells for her in about a decade.
@Pilla ~ I tried to post a reply directly, but it was a no-go. Anyway, I also thought it could be a song to herself. I read in another forum that Under the Pink is thought of as a 'girls' album in that it deals with the different ways women hurt one another through betrayl and jealousy. I had this idea at one time that the 'two friends' were actually two [or more] opposing sides of herself and the bells signified having to face losing one part of herself for another part. And that the different selves mean so many little intimacies to each other "Bells and footfalls and soldiers and dolls/brothers and lovers she and I were" but that time is changing them. In this way, there is an inner war between these selves. Like one part doesn't think she has a voice, so she wants to use a braver, cover voice, but that the part that is telling the story is saying 'you don't need my voice, girl/ you have your own/but you never thought it was enough of.' And there also seems to be this fear that with the introduction of men some part of her will dissolve, like 'sand under his shoes.' And she 'can't stop what's coming' so she just has to face it and be resigned to it.
I'm with you and Pilla one this one. I don't think the song is about two friends, but it's about her relationship with her inner self.<br /> This has always been one of my favorite songs by Tori Amos. I use to listen to it a lot when I was going though a very difficult time in my life, a time that required growing into a much stronger woman. <br /> I always felt that the song was about the ever growing and changing sense of self. The struggle between love and dislike, strength and weakness within the self.
to answer a previous question - a nishiki is a type of bike.
i always took this song as a reflection on a friendship. they were always very close friends, but somehow grew apart. because of people and circumstances and just life in general. it has that haunting reflective tone, thinking back to when they were such good friends and now there's a distance.
''you have her face you have her eyes but you are not her" --they've both changed and have gone from being close friends to being strangers.
''can't stop what's coming can't stop what is on its way" --as much as you hate what's happening, you can't stop it. things just sometimes work out this way.
I can't help shake the feeling of childhood friendship ruined by romance and/or sexual experimentation.
It's pretty explicit that they've grown apart but "brothers and lovers she and I were," and "like sisters blanket girls," seem to imply that they were more than just close friends at some point, maybe this lead to them drifting apart. "but you never thought it was enough of" seems to be a half finished thought, letting trail off what the other party didn't think there was enough of.