Tori Amos - Tales of a Librarian (1 Viewer)

[Chris]

I cannot speak with enough ferver on how important Tori has been in my own personal life (and it's so odd that it's hard to put into words) but we snapped up the CD as soon as it came out, and I ended up picking up two, one for the wife, one for myself. I wished they had picked other B-Sides, but as it sits, it's a good release

 

[Mark_TS]

Seems like it would BENEFIT WEA to release the VIDEOS on DVD-it would help move more of her back catalog which they own: which would equal $$$

If you recall, at about the same tiime, ENYA, another WEA artist had an announced, then cancelled at the last moment, DVD Video collection due..

John, any details of WHY things "went south"? declining sales-etc?

all I know is that many a fine band/singer have all but disappeared after theyve gone over to Columbia-

KATE BUSH being an example.
Pink Floyd to me went downhill after they went to Columbia.

Tori just SEEMS like a 'Warner Girl'

 

[John Berggren]

Tori just SEEMS like a 'Warner Girl'

It may be that the more prominent part of her career will be her Atlantic years, but if Scarlet's Walk is any example, I think the best is yet to come. If Mona Lisa Smile provides her with a good amount of exposure, we may see that Sony was the better studio for her. I've always felt that all she lacks is exposure. She certainly has talent to go around.

 

[John Berggren]

PS is anyone going to go out an support Tori by seeing Mona Lisa Smile this weekend? I'm almost as excited by her premiere as I am by Return of the King on Wednesday.

 

[Luis Esp]

I remember Tori saying in performance during the Pele tour on how the success of the cd was due to the fans and not Warner.

From the start, Warner never pushed or promoted her, though at times her music was too different for mainstreet radio, but she still generated good and steady sales of her library.

If I recall correctly, Pele sold over 1 million units, not bad, but not good enough for some execs I guess.

When Strange Little Girls was release, there was a scheduled dvd audio release, but due to lackluster sales, it was canned.

Hopefully Epic will have bigger plans for her.

 

[John Berggren]

This is what Billboard is tracking for her US album sales:

"Little Earthquakes" (1992, 1.9 million)
"Crucify" EP (1992, 413,000)
"Under the Pink" (1994, 1.4 million)
"Boys for Pele" (1996, 1 million)
"Hey Jupiter" EP (1996, 168,000)
"From the Choirgirl Hotel" (1998, 753,000)
"To Venus and Back" (1999, 446,000)
"Strange Little Girls" (2001, 381,000)
"Scarlet's Walk" (2002, 549,000)
"Tales of a Librarian" (2003, 69,000)

Sales definitely declined after Choirgirl, but they are still solid. You can see they've picked up again for Scarlet's Walk. Since everything remains in print, every new fan is a potential sale for any prior album.

 

[Mark_TS]

forgive me for the interogating, John-
what is the story behind Y TORI KANT READ?

ive heard strange things about it
is it any good?

 

[TheLongshot]

is it any good?

Not really. With the exception of Etienne (Which sounds more like what we expect Tori to sound), it is pretty much crap.

Boots can be found of it, if you look for them.

Jason

 

[John Berggren]

Y KANT TORI READ

Y KANT TORI READ is the name of Tori's first album, and also of her band. I know the band included Steve Caton, but I couldn't tell you who else. Tori was the driving force behind the band, and it was very big-hair 80's.

I don't know if it was what SHE wanted to do at the time or if Atlantic directed her, but she does not currently like the project and will not allow it to be repressed. There are many bootleg CDs available.

I have a copy of Y KANT TORI READ, and it's not BAD. It's fairly 80's oriented, and there are perhaps 3 or 4 standout tracks. She plays three of these in concert at times.

My favorite track on Y KANT is "The Etienne Trilogy". It's probably closest in lyric and tone to Tori's later work. Etienne is one of my favorite Tori songs ever made. To me, it was worth the effort it took me to find and buy the CD.

She also plays "Cool on Your Island" in concert and "Fire on the Side". I've only heard Etienne and Cool on Your Island in concert, both twice. Her reworkings of these songs make me wish she'd put out an EP with re-recordings of her favorite Y KANT tracks. She may or may not be able to do this though, since I don't know if Sword and Stone own the Y KANT material or if Warners does.

I do not listen to Y KANT all that frequently. It's certainly my least favorite Tori album, which is likely why she won't have it re-released. However the three great tracks make it worth any effort you might put into finding it.

I also don't have any sales data on the CD. To my knowledge, the extent of their promotion for Tori at the time included a video for "The Big Picture" and popping Phil Collins on the B-side to her single... according to an amusing story she tells about German police.

EDIT The YKTR songs are copyrighted to Sword and Stone. Perhaps someday she will do a re-recorded EP, unless that would invalidate her contract with Atlantic to keep YKTR off the shelves

 

[John Garcia]

These are not just subtle retouches, these things sound AMAZING. I bought this a while ago, but had not gotten around to listening to it until tonight. DOH! I was missing out. WOW is all I can say.

 

[Mark_TS]

I remember picking it up in the record store when it came out, thinking: Kute Girl, probably crappy music...little did we know where she would go...

 

[MikeDeVincenzo]

Rumor Alert, as posted to The Dent, the best Tori fansite out there on December 18th

The Little Blue World fanzine has recently learned that there are definite plans to release an official DVD compiling Tori's videos. They have very few details right now, but it looks like it will include all of Tori's videos with Atlantic (with the possible exception of "The Big Picture,") and will be released sometime in 2004. (I am not sure if this would also include her a sorta fairytale video from her first Epic album.) LBW hopes to have more information for Toriphiles about the contents and release date of this highly-anticipated DVD in time for their Winter issue, which will be published in February 2004.

Pleeeeeeeeease cmon!!! We've waited so long for this one