"Datura" by Tori Amos came to me at a very difficult time. Odd thing is, four years prior, one of my best friends in New York City had often pontificated on how important this song was to him - but I neither took note of why nor really showed any interest in why. At the time I heard "Datura", I was sitting outside of a church waiting for my mother, very down and out, having just returned from a rather dark and scary four-month period in San Francisco: my boyfriend had left me and moved back to our hometown Hollywood in Florida; I had gotten raped twice; I had become highly addicted to Crystal Meth; and was quite persecuted and beaten down by a lot of people in San Fran. When "Datura" hit my ears, the first thing that struck me was the riff just before or after the one minute mark on the song: it was...hm...transcendent: I looked around me, stared at the sifting cars, the people walking by, the sky blue, vast and omniscient and it felt like I saw myself, life and God all at once (and no, I wasn't high). Music does that to you: regardless of the lyrics or the varying meanings that can be read in a song, it's the music...where it takes you...what it evokes from you...that's important. And of course, when I heard the lyrics:
Is there room in my heart
For you to follow your heart
And not need more blood
From the tip of your star
I realized this song was not talking about the drug Datura, or just about Tori's garden - no, it was talking about me, my love for myself, my love for others, and my love for that thing that I and all of creation (as a whole) creates: joy, truth, love and GOD.
"Datura" by Tori Amos came to me at a very difficult time. Odd thing is, four years prior, one of my best friends in New York City had often pontificated on how important this song was to him - but I neither took note of why nor really showed any interest in why. At the time I heard "Datura", I was sitting outside of a church waiting for my mother, very down and out, having just returned from a rather dark and scary four-month period in San Francisco: my boyfriend had left me and moved back to our hometown Hollywood in Florida; I had gotten raped twice; I had become highly addicted to Crystal Meth; and was quite persecuted and beaten down by a lot of people in San Fran. When "Datura" hit my ears, the first thing that struck me was the riff just before or after the one minute mark on the song: it was...hm...transcendent: I looked around me, stared at the sifting cars, the people walking by, the sky blue, vast and omniscient and it felt like I saw myself, life and God all at once (and no, I wasn't high). Music does that to you: regardless of the lyrics or the varying meanings that can be read in a song, it's the music...where it takes you...what it evokes from you...that's important. And of course, when I heard the lyrics:
Is there room in my heart For you to follow your heart And not need more blood From the tip of your star
I realized this song was not talking about the drug Datura, or just about Tori's garden - no, it was talking about me, my love for myself, my love for others, and my love for that thing that I and all of creation (as a whole) creates: joy, truth, love and GOD.