Update: I just want to remind you about the book Tori Amos: Piece By Piece, which was written by Tori Amos and Ann Powers. This book comes out on February 8, 2005 and has the cover you see here. (Click the cover to see it larger.) You can find a really nice and detailed description of this 368 page hardcover book posted at randomhouse.com which includes quotes from Tori. The book will explain the specifics of Tori's creative process--how her songs go from ideas and melodies to recordings and passionately performed concert pieces. This book is also related to Tori's new album The Beekeeper and includes material about it as well.

You can check out other details about the book Tori Amos: Piece By Piece and pre-order it NOW at Amazon.com in the U.S. (where they are selling it at a 32% discount for only $16.29!), as well as Amazon.co.uk in the U.K and Amazon.ca in Canada.

If you pre-order this book from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk using any links from the Dent, you will also be helping to financially support The Dent. Since Amazon always has such incredible discounts on books, you will also save money! (I always find it cheaper to order books online than to get them at the book store.) Thank you for all your support!

More Details

As mentioned above, the new book is called Tori Amos: Piece By Piece by Tori Amos and Ann Powers. It will be released by Broadway Books, which is an imprint of Random House. All sources give the release date for the book as February 8, 2004. The cover of the book also has the words, "A Portrait of the Artist: Her Thoughts, Her Conversations", which clues you in as to its content.

Here is what the description of the book at randomhouse.com says:

I choose to fight my battles through my music . . . I was born a feminist. And then at age five, when my strict Christian grandmother punished me, I realized, I'm not penetrating here. I'm just pissing people off. So I had to find another way to penetrate. I had to redefine what that word means. That word now is really about an opening, an entering into a separate space. And after the first phase of my life, I realized that it was okay to enter that space without having to be invaded . . . I like the idea of just being able to be inside. Not using penetration as a violent word. The idea of being able to find keys . . . music, using keys to get into a space that we couldn't before . . .

Now, backstage at an undisclosed arena where the sweat of athletes is still perfuming my makeshift dressing room, my many conversations with Ann Powers have begun . . .

"You come from the journalist side. I come from the artist side. It can become offensive. I'm sure from your side as well as from mine."

"Well, it's true everyone expects us to be enemies. And in some ways we are. My job is interpretation. Yours is art, which often benefits from mystery . . ."

Ann and I decided to strip our roles back to basics. We are both women born feminists in the 1960s. We are both married. We are both mothers. We are both in the music industry. Traditionally we are enemies. But for this project to be effective, I had to allow Ann to expose Tori Amos. And Tori Amos's inner circle. And me."- from the Introduction

An intimate, eye-opening look inside the life of one of the most unique and adored performers of contemporary rock music. From her critically acclaimed 1992 debut, Little Earthquakes, to the recent hit, Scarlet's Walk, Tori Amos has been a formidable force in contemporary music, with one of the most dedicated fan bases in the industry. In Tori Amos: Piece by Piece, the singer herself takes readers beyond the mere facts, explaining the specifics of her creative process--how her songs go from ideas and melodies to recordings and passionately performed concert pieces.

Written with acclaimed music journalist Ann Powers, Tori Amos: Piece by Piece is a firsthand account of the most intricate and intimate details of Amos's life as both a private individual and a very public performing musician. In passionate and informative prose, Amos explains how her songs come to her and how she records and then performs them for audiences everywhere, all the while connecting with listeners across the world and maintaining her own family life (which includes raising a young daughter). But it is also much more, a verbal collage made by two strong female voices - and the voices of those closest to Amos--that calls upon genealogy, myth, and folklore to express Amos's unique and fascinating personal history. In short, we see the pieces that make up - as Amos herself puts it--"the woman we call Tori."

With photos taken especially for this book by the photographer Loren Haynes, Tori Amos: Piece by Piece is a rare treat for both Tori listeners and newcomers alike, a look into the heart and mind of an extraordinary musician.

Thanks to Alana, Alisha Parker, Nicole Basurto, Jeremy and George for their help in gathering details about the book.

NOTE: An advanced and possibly unfinished copy of Tori's book Piece by Piece is out there and there are reports about it floating around the Internet. These reports all come from a single source who has an early copy of this book. Since this is an advanced copy of the book, it is quite possible that the final release will be different. Since I know that Tori does not care for unfinished versions of her work circulating about, I do not yet feel comfortable placing most of this information on the Dent...