Tori Amos: American Doll Posse

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Gillian G. Gaar wrote in She's a Rebel: "Tori Amos presented a sensual image not only in her music but also in the provocative way she played the piano. 'Through Tori, the piano has become the weapon of power and passion that the electric guitar was for a previous generation, said Kalen Rogers in Amos's authorized biography. Amos herself said playing the piano was one of few ways she could express 'passion without guilt.' Amos was born Myra Ellen Amos in North Carolina in 1963 and was raised in Maryland, the daughter of a Methodist minister. Her musical development was extremely precocious: she began playing piano at two and a half, was composing her own pieces by four, and at five won a scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory, part of Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University. But she also had an independent streak. … Amos's U.S. breakthrough would not come until the release of Under the Pink in 1994. … Boys for Pele, released in 1996, stripped away much of the orchestral backing on her previous records, with Amos playing harpsichord on a number of tracks; it became her highest charting album. …" (pp. 403-406).