Yes, Anastasia?

[Hellfire]

i would love to hear any interpretation of this song, cuz no matter how many times I try, i simply can't understand it.

[Ame]

The whole song is more about Anna Anderson that Anastiasia Romanov.

"i know what you want the magpies have come
if you know me so well then tell me which hand i use"

Maybe the magpies are people who want to have prove that Anna Anderson is Anastiasia Romanov and start asking and tries bury as deep as posible to have no doubs anymore that she's Anastasia. And on the otherside there are people who don't want to hear about it. They don't want to rake the memories because it was so horrible what they have done. Anna was the person that pushed the "button" and bad memories poped out .

the surface of the song is that it's about Anna Anderson but (as allways) there is a lot under it. Tori explains a bit:
The feeling I got that Anna Anderson was Anastasia Romanov. She always tried to prove it and a lot of people believed her and some people didn't want to believe her, because of what that would have meant. And again, it's really working through being a victim'Counting the tears from ten thousand men, and gathered them all, but my feel are slipping.' You can't blame the men anymore; there's always you. It comes back to us; it comes back to me."
There're always some who don't belive the victim and some that does and Anna Anderson coud have felt torn-apart because of that. It was like being on a "clothes line" when under is an abbys and you're just swaying above it.

we'll see how brave you are
we'll see how fast you'll be running
we'll see how brave you are

the girl knows how it could end. She sees the dark side clearly. It have so many menings and Tori sing it so strong it like a calling "show me what you've got"

thought she deserved no less than she'd give
well happy birthday
her blood's on my hands

sometimes things get really knots and then you don't know whos the victim anymore in this situation. Is it Anna Anderson who was left alone with herserf beliving that shes Anastiasia? Is it the people who were fooled by her (because scientist proved that she wasn't Anastiasia)? And now the victim have the blood on her hands (because she hurted the people who belived her). And Anna was left with the feeling that shes guilty of trying to prove who she is (it bacame clear that reminding of the tragedy was a crime).
The song is really beutifull. It shows what bravery can bring. All the dark sides of trying to prove something and the knots that you can find yourself in while you're runnig to your aim.

I'll like listenig to it when it's rainig (like today) and the Romanov history is a common story here but it was suprising how Tori used it to hide all those feeling in it.

[greenidentity]

That was an exquisite interpretation, my friend Bill also explained it to me that way.

[huginn]

Ame said:

The whole song is more about Anna Anderson that Anastiasia Romanov.

Hey Ame! As you know I like your “talk walk”. I recalled the old interviews I read years ago when I checked your last post just now. I’m really not sure and I’m writing this very hasty (hasn’t rechecked) but maybe it was Tori talking about Anna Anderson coming to her in a sort of dream perhaps when Tori had a fever and was ill. Maybe I’m mixing things up here very possible, but it was something about her wanting Tori to tell her story. You made me recall the song that’s my No.1 on UTP. I intended to write one of my favourites but I actually think it is my No.1. For me the whole song is like about a person lost in time and space with a story untold. Sometimes I think what song do I want to have on my funeral and for many years I thought this was the one, but I’ve got some other favourites now. You obviously have read some interview that I think I have buried in some desk I’ll check. But you do your own interpretations that’s what I like with you, I really don’t dare to do that my self ‘cause I’m scared to be totally wrong, but when you dare to do your own interpretations and dare to feel inside your self that’s when you get it right. I’m also very familiar with the Anastasia story and how the whole family waited in Jekaterinburg thinking that they would stay alive, in fact I know exactly how they died all the stuff about the bullets not penetrating the corsets so the “soldiers” used the bayonets instead you can imagine. Now they say that Anna wasn’t Anastasia but it really doesn’t matter for me understanding the song and the message.

The magpie stuff helped me (and Jesus it’s so many years now!) but still I kind of like magpies ordinary birds that you don’t think of, but if you look at them they are so beautiful and intelligent.

The last part of the song (and I mean the whole song is like a classical piece) if I try to recall haven’t listen to it for a long time, feels full of a kind of hopeless defiance in the end.

Some day I’ll write something about STRONG fighter spirit women that I admire and the Polish woman weightlifting team would have a role in that I’m a newly big fan of Aleksandra Klejnowska. She’s got SISU that’s a Finnish word that I like. Now if you think about Polish cavalry attacking Tanks with their lances in-39 then you know what SISU means.
Well anyway remember the Olympics if you can find the time.
Thanks for your Anastasia post; I would have liked to give your masterpiece interpretation in particularly on this song a better reply kind of working on it for a week, I know I don’t bring any substance here, but stay on the forum and perhaps I can write something better in the future, in the autumn perhaps.

I feel a kind of sadness from many of Tori’s songs (but still empowering) I think she said during the Pele era that she liked the rain on the window, but she’s happy and secure with her self now, and her family, I’m really happy for her ‘cause for a number of years I was kind of worried for her so it’s like a relief in my heart with Mark and Natashya there.

And we’re both Datura now, as you probably know that’s intoxicating.

[Ame]

Thank, for that words. It's really wonderfull to meet such a person like you on such good ground to have conversations like this. I thought that my country isn't seen in good way by other countries. You showed my a bits of it that I can be proud of . And SISU seems a combination of passion and a good kind of madness (It helps beeing brave, I think).

Poles know a lot about Russia and some of its culture is a part of ours. Especially in the east part of Poland. I'm in the south part of Poland - Œl¹sk.<br>

[huginn]

You’ve got SISU right Ame and I know some Polish history way back you know, I know it’s a proud nation (and a sea nation too) and I know that Polish soldiers are good stuff although I don’t understand what the hell they’re doing in Iraq, your Country doesn’t need to lick Bush ass, but let’s not get in to that.
Now about the song:

I think what is important to understand is that Tori chose to believe Anna/Anastasia because of what she felt after the horror she her self went through. That makes me start thinking about a debate that has been going on in Sweden since –98, because the rape laws are like 19th century. I’ve read a lot about the terrible story’s told, and in particularly I remember a girl that was drunk and she was offered a lift home by a guy she had a crush for but he was a creep and he and his friends tortured her, and then she was made a victim a second time in court and a third time in school, there is a lot of pressure here now for a law change. So I can see how Tori saw it. And I don’t think the question mark means are you Anastasia? I think it means yes tell me Anastasia.
The last part is HOPE giving, not as I said hopeless that was more me than Tori.

come along now little darlin'
come along now with me
come along now little darlin'
we'll see how brave you are

The part below is a pathfinder and I think it kind of hooked me.

show me the things i've been missin
show me the ways i forgot to be speaking
show me the ways to get back to the garden
show me the ways to get around the get around
show me the ways to button up buttons
that have forgotten they're buttons
well we can't have that
forgetting that

I’m useless in doing puzzles my mum bought me this 5000 piece one when I was a little boy, and every ten year I try to make it become a port with beautiful mountains around, at Lofoten, Norway, but you know it’s hopeless. Still I like to puzzle around with lyrics perhaps combine three or four songs from different times.
Winter:
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 grey 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

Silent All These Years:
years go by will i still be waiting
for somebody else to understand
years go by if i'm stripped of my beauty
and the orange clouds raining in my head
years go by will i choke on my tears
till finally there is nothing left
one more casualty
you know we're to EASY easy easy

Liquid Diamonds, perhaps another kind of lost but still:

there's a sea secret in me
it's plain to see it is rising
but i must be flowing liquid diamonds
calling for my soul
at the corners of the world
i know she's playing poker
with the rest of the stragglers
calling for my soul
at the corners of the world
i know she's playing poker

So I kind of get similar vibes from this and Anastasia I think you can add Time from SLG not her lyrics still very personal but she’s very clever and there is nothing wrong with her antennas.

I get a feeling of defiance in many of her sadder songs even Jupiterboy, (and that guy was an idiot) but she’s a very STRONG woman you see. Well a little scattered perhaps my interpretation but it’s full moon so what the fuck…<br>

[Ame]

Well, it seems to me that Tori more "hides" her feeling in songs than "put" them. It's really like puzzles sometimes, but in them you can get many pictures. Every person can get it's own picture that's completly diffrent from other ones made others. To me it's most wonderfull thing about Tori's lirycs and that makes them more similar to poetry that lirycs of diffrent music artists

And...I must say that polish women are kicking buts on Olimpics!

[huginn]

I think that’s the whole idea that you get your own ideas out of it, and one thought leads to another, like I think your ideas do, with your angel’s stuff for instance. And Tori put it on so many levels, and I listen to her at the same time as I kind of connect it to other stories, and it’s not a boring fucking A-Z… (Well A-Ö in Swedish) like it is with other songwriters. Tell you that the Swedish commentator on Eurosport during the European championships considered Aleksandra the highlight (men included) and so did I.

Jesus I have to do something about my pc problem this connection was a fucking joke before now it is a nightmare.

[Julie]

Here's Tori's explaination:

"It's a journey. Anastasia Romanov... it's not like I've read loads of books on her. I was aware of the family and that's about it. So I'm in Virginia, and I had crabs...I keep saying that! I had crab sickness, I had eaten bad crabs in Maryland! But I couldn't cancel the show. I was at soundcheck, and needless to say, when you are very, very ill, it is easier to communicate with your source... you are fragile and vulnerable. Well, her presence came. Now I have only heard of her in history, I've got no point to make. She comes and goes 'you've got to write my tune.' I 'go ohhh, now's not really a good time.' She says 'no, you've got to understand something from this, there's something here that you've got to come to terms with.' And that night came," as she softly sings the line "'We'll see how brave you are,' and that was really about the whole record. That came just about before everything. And whenever I sing that chorus, 'we'll see how brave you are,' it means so many different things to me. It's part of my self, my spirit self saying to the rest of myself, 'if you really want a challenge, just deal with yourself. The funny thing is that Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Anastasia, died very close to where I was playing, an hour or so from there in the 80s. The feeling I got that Anna Anderson was Anastasia Romanov. She always tried to prove it and a lot of people believed her and some people didn't want to believe her, because of what that would have meant. And again, it's really working through being a victim. 'Counting the tears from ten thousand men, and gathered them all, but my feel are slipping.' You can't blame the men anymore; there's always you. It comes back to us; it comes back to me."
-- Tori; B Side, 04/94

"I hope I told your story correctly my friend so many codes it was hard for me to decipher but I believe Anastasia's story is everyone's in a way she tried to tell me that and I blew her off"
-- Tori; Under The Pink Songbook

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: Seaside - Tori Amos

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