"Winter" interpretations

[Julie14]

edit: {pics removed by daturaangel812, they were linked to hereinmyhead.com}






WINTER snow can wait I forgot my mittens wipe my nose <br>get my new boots on I get a little warm in my heart when
I think of winter I put my hand in my father's glove I run
off where the DRIFTS GET DEEPER sleeping beauty trips
me with a frown I hear a voice "you must learn to stand
up for yourself cause I can't always be around" he says
when you gonna make up your mind when you gonna love
you as much as I do when you gonna make up your mind
cause things are gonna CHANGE so fast all the white
horses are still in bed I tell you that I'll always want you
near you say that things change my dear boys get discovered
as winter MELTS flowers competing for the sun years go by
and I'm here still waiting withering where some snowman <br>was mirror mirror where's the crystal palace but I only can
see myself SKATING around the truth who I am but I
know dad the ice is getting thin hair is gray and the fires
are burning so many dreams on the shelf you say I wanted
you to be PROUD of me I always wanted that myself he
says when you gonna make up your mind when you gonna
love you as much as I do when you gonna make up your
mind cause things are gonna change so fast all the WHITE
HORSES have gone ahead you tell me that I'll always want
you near you say that things change my dear . . .

Tori's description of "Winter":
"Summoned to the piano, this Russian music box round played me over and over til I was wrapped in a blanket with the memory of cinnamon apples on my tongue and boys that didn't 'We.' Went back to where I felt no time - it was all happening again, presently."
...Tori Amos

My interpretation of "Winter":
"My interpretation of "Winter" is the comfort that a father can bring to his daughter without the disagreements and without the differences of opinions, just the warmness of togetherness between the two. Now, some fathers are not even capable of something like that, so this song has exceptions."
...Julie H.

[Foo]

I basically argee with your comments, i have a stormy relationship with my dad (same star sign) but the line when you gonna love you as much as i do, really hits hard, my dad lately being saying how much he's proud of me, and how much I've changed, I;m not his little girl anymore and how much he does love me

I guess i've gone through my winter, the snow has melted between us, no more snowwe've both grown up, (horses are now in bed)

Foo
xxx

[Satinworshiper]

This song reminds me of my father and I. My father passed away in 2002. I was not with him when he died. My mother was. He died in a hospital. I was 4 hours away. He was always asking me what Tori asks in Winter, "When you gonna make up your mind?" When you gonna love you as much as I do "....." You must learn to stand up because I won't always be around"..."They say that things change my dear." My father and I also had a "stormy" relationship as I grew older and even until the day of his death. Ironically he was born in November a winter month. I always felt that I could never live up to his standards you know who he wanted me or expected me to be. My dad wasn't a preacher like Tori's but he might as well have been because that's all he did was preach to me. He was always pulling quotes out of the bible and using them against me and making me cry. So I had to call up my Associate Pastor and talk to her and she made me feel better. At least I could do that. But that was something daddy wasn't to happy about either a woman Pastor but...I still love my dad and have made peace with him and this song is a tribute to my dad and I's relationship now.

[Luckita]

[glow=purple,2,300]oh, you guys made me cry...

i've always found that "you must learn to stand
up for yourself cause I can't always be around" and the "you say that things change my dear" in the end were so so so sad... n now all this things u r saying...

this was one of my first favs when i was 11... i couldnt believe a song with so many parts aimin directly to the deepest feelings in heart

uhm, well...[/glow]

[diego]

anyone has any idea of what the 'white horses' are/mean?

[♥Mary♥]

This is one of my most favorite Tori songs from the very beginning, and still is.

In response to the question about 'white horses'...
Tori has mentioned that this song is somewhat about her Dad, and it often makes me wonder if she was was using the 'White horse' mention from the bible (somewhere in the book of Revelation).
White has always signified purity or something clean or holy. The passage from the bible I think refers more to the actual RIDER on the white horse, who we infer to be Christ coming back as a warrior, along with his armies also on white horses, to judge and rule.
Maybe Tori's lyric about the white horses still in bed is saying they haven't come yet and even though things change so fast, there is still time for her....time to be ready before the white horses, time to love herself as much as her creator (her father and her Father) does.
And then maybe the following lyric about the white horses going on ahead is her saying that she feels like they passed her by....that things changed so fast and she felt like it was too late for her to 'get' whatever purity or promise of goodness the white horses signified. And it kind of makes sense to me because Tori has mentioned in interviews and what-not that she respects and understands her Dad's belief in a savior but that she herself doesn't completely agree with it, and it's ok now that she's older and her own person because they can agree to disagree and still have fried chicken together on Sundays and still love each other. (LOL, it was something along those lines, I remember reading)

I think of the white horses image from the bible everytime I hear the line "...hair is gray and the FIRES ARE BURNING", (my favorite part of the song) because the passage from Revelation mentions how the the rider on the white horse kills the 'beast' and throws him into a fiery pit to burn.....in effect, casting out evil. I know Tori could just be meaning that she's getting older and the fires of things she's wanted are burning, and her dreams are getting left on the shelf as time goes on.... but I can't help but think that it could also be interpreted as the fires being symbolic of a necessary 'burning' to rid her of whatever 'evil' is stopping her from loving herself as much as she should, as much as her father does.

Ok, it makes much more sense to me in my head than when I type it out. That always happens, and it's why I don't post in this forum often! lol


edit: Ok, so the fire I was remembering was a fiery lake of sulphur, not a pit. There are so many examples of burning/fire in the 'good book', it's hard to keep 'em straight, you know. Here's the prophecy I'm thinking of, compliments of google:


Revelation 19:11-21

The Rider on the White Horse....
11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:


KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.


17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great."


19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

[huginn]

I’ve translated a Tori interview back to English from a Swedish music magazine “la musik”. I’ve just send it to thedent. Below the part about “Winter”.

I’ve always seen Winter as a song about the relation to your father, his awareness of you growing up and how the lost innocence that this brings are going to change the dynamic between you. Was I projecting?

-No not at all. But when I wrote it there where moments when I saw my father, and his father my grandfather. As a child I used to go for walks with them both. However the song as a whole goes beyond my personal experience. In that sense they lives their own life. They are not out of flesh but they have a kind of consciousness. I tend to look at them as architecture: I’m able to move within them as I move through a building. And when I leave it, that doesn’t mean that they cease to exist. As for Winter, for example, I once got a letter that said “Tori I’ve lost two brothers during the last month. One was 16 the other was 17”. I remember how the surviving family members came backstage on one of my shows. They told me that Winter was played at both of the boy’s funerals. The sister wrote the original letter to me, but it was the father who wanted that song on their funerals. (Amos silence apparently touched). For him the line in the last chorus was about his sons leaving for the next world before him:
“all the white horses have gone ahead”. So Winter knocked me on my shoulder and said: “let me go, let people project what they want on me”. That’s what I’ve learned from the songs, and on this collection I’ve tried to choose material that cover different feelings.

[preciouscornflake]

I don't completely agree with your interpretation of "winter". I believe it's more of a metaphorically based poem. I think she is more or less talking about her connection with religion, and that she doesn't believe that she loves herself quite as much as her god does. It's about respect and inability to respect, not the literal form of a father. [glow=red,2,300]TEXT[/glow]TEXT

[Julie]

WINTER snow can wait I forgot my mittens wipe my nose
get my new boots on I get a little warm in my heart when
I think of winter I put my hand in my father's glove I run
off where the DRIFTS GET DEEPER
I think it's kind of suggesting that no matter how mature or old or different you are from your father, you still can have those warm moments that take you right back to childhood.

sleeping beauty trips
me with a frown I hear a voice "you must learn to stand
up for yourself cause I can't always be around" he says
when you gonna make up your mind when you gonna love
you as much as I do when you gonna make up your mind
cause things are gonna CHANGE so fast all the white
horses are still in bed I tell you that I'll always want you
near you say that things change my dear
I think this chorus is talking about the changes that happen in a relationship with your father. In her situation atleast. Breaking away from the authority and being more independent.

boys get discovered
as winter MELTS
I think it's always difficult for a father to see his daughter liking boys. It's always an akward situation.

flowers competing for the sun
I think this could either be a metaphor about sibling rivalry for their parents attention or girls rivalling to get the guy or a different "grown-up" task.

years go by
and I'm here still waiting withering where some snowman
was mirror mirror where's the crystal palace but I only can
see myself SKATING around the truth who I am but I
know dad the ice is getting thin
I think this may be a reference to the fantasies or stories that parents create for their children to have a broader imagination and more fun with their lives such as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, etc. When you're older you tend to think back on those days as the fun times in your life. I gathered that from the line, "mirror, mirror, where's the crystal palace. But I only can see myself." Saying how fantasies are only true until you know they're not and then you just see them for what they are.

hair is gray and the fires
are burning so many dreams on the shelf you say I wanted
you to be PROUD of me I always wanted that myself
I think Ed Amos has definitely had bad judgement of Tori because they have many different views...extremely different views and although they want each other to be proud of each other, and I think they are, it isn't fully to that extent.

he
says when you gonna make up your mind when you gonna
love you as much as I do when you gonna make up your
mind cause things are gonna change so fast all the WHITE
HORSES have gone ahead you tell me that I'll always want
you near you say that things change my dear . . .

Here's Tori's description of it:

"Summoned to the piano, this Russian music box round played me over and over til I was wrapped in a blanket with the memory of cinnamon apples on my tongue and boys that didn't 'We.' Went back to where I felt no time - it was all happening again, presently."
-- Tori; Little Earthquakes Songbook

“I wrote this song for my Dad when he was ill.” [Down Under the Pink, disc 2]

“I was leeching off the men in my life; don’t get me wrong, they were leeching off me, but I didn’t like who I was. So my Dad and I were walking out in the old farm, my grandmother’s farm, she really wasn’t a nice person. Now my Dad, he’s like James Dean or Billy Graham, though there’s no real difference there. I was telling him how bad I felt cause of the first album being so bad and Dad said to me (he’d never said it before), ‘Tori Ellen, When are you going to accept you are good enough for you?’” [VH1 Storytellers - October 24, 1998]

SONG CANVAS: "Winter"
It's always shifting. When I sing "Winter" now, I don't necessarily get the same pictures I did on the last tour or the tour before or the tour before or the tour before. When I was writing that song, I was considering a relationship between a girl and her father, or a grandfather. Or any male who held that space. Because as we know, some fathers don't hold that space. My perspective isn't always about a girl and her father. "When you gonna make up your mind? When you gonna love you as much as I do?" There was a moment for me when those lyrics were referencing Kevyn Aucoin. Especially when he died, that was my need. The song allows me the space to have my perception of it as I go through my changes, and yet I still hold the integreity of a girl and her father when that songs enters my body in live performance. But I, as Tori, will feel what I feel, and see the pictures I see, and the songs have always allowed me that as long as I retain their DNA integrity.
It can even come back to parenting. I will do something, say something to Natashya, and I'll just realize I have created a space that I did not want to create for her to walk into. Say she was very naughty and I said something like "and I am cringing as I write this), "Because you did this, this is why Mommy's going ot London this weekend." So then she thinsk that when Mommy leaves it's because she's naughty. I saw that happen once, and it was as if a thousand prisms were shattered--I began to see in my own being how the tape plays, what I hear when somebody makes a rhetorical move like that. I did something that I'm going to have to deal with and work with now a lot, whenever I leave her. So when I sing "Winter," sometiems now I see a girl walking over that hill with a mommy. Yet the pictures can still be of my Poppa, and my father. It's not always an either / or when I'm singing a song live. I can liken it much more to snapshots or Polaroids that I can flilp through ina book, that tug and pull on my emotions with every turn of a phrase. But now other experiences affect me when I sing, "When you gonna make up your mind? When you gonna love you as much as I do?"
...Tori Amos "Piece By Piece"

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: Winter - Tori Amos

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