MTV2 Links - November 24, 2001

Tori was the guest on a show called MTV2 Links, which was broadcast on the U.S. cable TV channel MTV2 at various times on November 24, 25, & 26, 2001. I recorded the show, but my VCR malfunctioned and I had no audio! Luckily, another Toriphile sent me a complete transcript from Tori's interview clips, and you can read them below. There were several interview segments during the show, in which Tori played a kind of VJ and talked to the host of the show, Chris Booker. They played Tori's Crucify and Strange Little Girl videos, and they also played many of the videos of artists Tori covered on the Strange Little Girls album. They played Depeche Mode's Enjoy The Silence, Slayer's Raining Blood, Joe Jackson's Real Men, 10cc's I'm Not In Love, and the Boomtown Rats video for I Don't Like Mondays.

Look below for several screen shots from the program!

Complete Transcript

Special thanks to Kate (ktlynn319) for writing this and sending it to me!

Booker: Why strange little girls? what was the whole concept behind this album?

Tori: I wanted to call it "Suck Cock" but they wouldn't let me..

Booker laughs: "I like that"

[Note From Mikewhy: The "Suck Cock" part was bleeped out and many people did not realize what she said. Angie (Toritones) was the one who told me what it actually was!]

Tori: My girls are my songs i always call em girls.

Booker: Do ya really?

Tori: Yeah of course, and these are strange ones, so it just was handy that i was doing a song called Strange Little Girl, kinda worked into the plan.

Booker: How did you choose these songs?

Tori: I had this little laboratory of men.. We fondly called them that. and they were my control group and you know they would throw things and say things and it's how we really trIEd to flush out ideas. And uh they were very challenging, but i think we did our research.

Booker: You are so pretty! hahaha i can't help it looking at you you're so adorable.. ::whispers:: "I'm with Tori Amos isn't that cool?" Uh this is the first video from her album. Tell me about this video.

Tori: Uh video was really fun to make mainly because when you work with children on the set, umm... being a mom now, you just, you have this appreciation for what children bring to a movie set. and this little girl in this video Ellie, she just inspired everybody to try and remember what it was like to be little and the things you were afraid of and the things that you know, you keep secret that you don't tell anybody, but, that may chase you till you're thirty years old because of those things that happened. and this is really what the video is, things that you've been afraid of that chase you and then when you look at them, then they get smaller. yeah.

Booker: Check it out, Strange Little Girl from Tori Amos

They played Real Men...
Then 10ccs I'm not in love
Then I don't like Mondays

Tori: Best song by a female artist? Very difficult. I think we should go back in time umm, this is something that a lot of us can agree on and it's not the best, i don't think that's fair but it's potent and it's still potent. umm. Joni Mitchell Blue has resonated with a lot of us and umm Kate Bush Hounds of Love. These were really ground-breaking records of there time.

Tori talks about the most memorable line of a song or something, i missed the very beginning... she said:

Tori: It would have to be Chrissy, umm I shot my mouth off and you showed me what my hole was for..

commercial

Booker: Welcome to Links, Tori Amos

Tori: Booker

Booker: Thank You. We're talking about her cover album Strange Little Girls uh 10ccs comin up also Joe Jackson uh both artists covered on uh this cd right here. You also covered Eminem's Bonnie and Clyde which I always thought was the most disturbing song in the world. Why did you choose this song to cover it? Where'd your motivation come from the performance you put on the record for this?

Tori: Umm. When I heard it, it was really clear that She didn't have a voice. Umm you know that wasn't his intention to give her one. He aligned with his character and his version's very strong. Umm but, she reached outta that trunk and grabbed my hand and said "I'm hearing this slightly differently than he is, maybe you should come take a listen.

Booker: Ugh. It's scary, the song actually scares me, your version, like I said, I always thought his was disturbing, but yours is just it just, I remember vividly the first time listening to it I'm like woah. It like gets in your skin and you're like eiww it's creepy.

Tori: Well, it is scary

Booker: Yeah that creepy side. It's hard for me to hear it come out of you and it's like you're kinda transformed into.. ie: the album different characters n stuff. I guess that was probably your plan. I guess it worked Tori.

Tori: Well you know I think that She's the one person who isn't dancing and you're sitting there with your throat slit and you're hearing your umm ex husband or whatever he is, telling your daughter umm all sorts of stuff and making her an accomplice, which umm this woman thought that that was occurring. Then maybe it just cuts you in a place here (touches her own and Booker's stomach) where you know your daughter will grow up to be a very strange girl and divided and you can't protect her. So yeah, it's very scary.

Booker: well thanks for the story. uh another artist she covered on her cd, Boomtown Rats, this is I Don't Like Mondays..

Strange Little Girl is played and then eminem's Stan.

The Really Deep Thoughts Fanzine web site reports the following about the program:

Tori's appearance on MTV2 Links debuted today in strange fashion. Video segments were shown out of order from the host segments and Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" wasn't played at all in spite of being introduced. It will be interesting to see if the re-airs repeat these production glitches.

During Tori's segments with a somewhat overawed Chris Booker, Tori talked about the concept behind Strange Little Girls, how some of the songs were chosen and claimed that her original title for the album was "Stunk." That may have been an inside joke or dig at her former record company.

The video segments shown were:

"Crucify" with Tori
"Enjoy the Silence" with Depeche Mode
"Raining Blood" with Slayer

"Real Men" with Joe Jackson
"I'm Not in Love" with 10cc
"I Don't Like Mondays" with The Boomtown Rats

"Strange Little Girl" with Tori
"Always the Sun" with The Stranglers
"Stan" with Eminem and Dido