Post by Julie on Apr 7, 2005 17:13:20 GMT -5
Doughnut Song
hand me a trick and a kick and your message
well you'll never gain weight from a doughnut hole
then thought that I could decipher your message
there's no one here dear
no one at all
and if I'm wasting all your time
this time
maybe you never learned to take
and if I'm hanging on to your shade
I guess I'm way beyond the pale
and southern men can grow old
can grow perty
blood can be perty
like a delicate man
copper to steel to a hinge that is faltered
that let's you in let's you in let's you in
something's just keeping you numb
you told me last night
you were a sun now with your very own
devoted satelite
happy for you
and I am sure that I hate you
two sons too many too many able fires
and if I'm wasting all your time
this time
I think you never learned to take
and if I'm hanging on to your shade
I guess I'm way beyond the pale
I think this song is about understanding the true meaning of you to this person. You both thinking that you love each other so completely that you could never be without each other when the truth is, you've been without each other forever. It was the idea of having someone that grabbed you, not the actual relationship. You haven't connected in the sense that you thought. Obviously there was a strong connection or else the song would have no cry, but they weren't fulfilling each others lives the way the wanted and as a result it ended. And after it's over, he finds someone new to please his every needs who admires him a little to much "you told me last night you were a sun now, with your very own devoted satelite" and she is "happy for you and I am sure that I hate you" because she hasn't gotten to the point of moving on yet because she is "hanging onto your shade" which I think means that she is still pining for him even though she knows it isn't right and again, she hates him for this.
Here's Tori's description of it:
"Doughnut, that's so much to me the ache of... I think one of the most important lines in the entire record for me was you told me last night you were a sun now with your very own devoted satellite, happy for you and I am sure that I hate you, too sons too many too many able fires... there's the Cain and Abel reference, there's the idea that you can't have two whole beings together. And I couldn't live like that, and it made me really sad, that whether it's a female relationship or a male relationship, we're not supporting each other to make a whole. When I am not happy when you are taking you as far as you can. I can't support that or I withhold from you because the truth is I am afraid you aren't going to need me anymore."
-- Tori; B Side, 05/96
"With Caton, we talked about Doughnut Song and the swirling, the idea of girls on hands of men and underneath them on the backs of cattle and above the girls that are on top of the hands of men there's something pouring into their water jugs. Those are the pictures I get when we're trying to find a sounds, and it's funny because the guys go, 'here we go again - Tori-speak.'"
-- Tori; SPIN magazine, Mar 1996
I: How did you get the effect referred to in Boys for Pele’s liner notes as “HA HA guitar” on Doughnut Song?
Steve Caton: I used an Ernie Ball volume pedal and some delay. The song was originally a B-side. Tori wanted me to start with Beyond the Pale, the original Doughnut Song title, to ease my way into the Pele project. She was happy enough with the end result that she put the song on the record. I tend to use a volume pedal quite a lot in my playing to achieve different things. I have been using one for so long, I cannot imagine playing without one. It is central to so many things that I do. Anyway, I coined the name “HA HA guitar” because I thought it sounded a bit like laughing, but it is really a throw back to Eno records. He has all kinds of funny names for his sounds, “Insect Menace” from the song “African Nights” on Bowie’s Lodger recording being my favorite Eno sound label.
-- Steve Caton; Virtual Guitar, Oct 1999
"There were so many things that I didn’t allow myself to do when I was in this relationship, and I think Eric would tell you the same. All sorts of things you see which you can be finally honest about. Like Doughnut Song, the last I worked on. There’s a bittersweet quality about it... there’s a sweetness to becoming a woman that the virgins don’t have. They have a physical sweetness, but once you claim the woman... Yes, I want to wring their [men’s] necks sometimes - those I fall in love with - yet there’s much more of an understanding.”<br>-- Tori; Making Music, Jan 1996
: Doughnut Song (live) - Tori Amos
hand me a trick and a kick and your message
well you'll never gain weight from a doughnut hole
then thought that I could decipher your message
there's no one here dear
no one at all
and if I'm wasting all your time
this time
maybe you never learned to take
and if I'm hanging on to your shade
I guess I'm way beyond the pale
and southern men can grow old
can grow perty
blood can be perty
like a delicate man
copper to steel to a hinge that is faltered
that let's you in let's you in let's you in
something's just keeping you numb
you told me last night
you were a sun now with your very own
devoted satelite
happy for you
and I am sure that I hate you
two sons too many too many able fires
and if I'm wasting all your time
this time
I think you never learned to take
and if I'm hanging on to your shade
I guess I'm way beyond the pale
I think this song is about understanding the true meaning of you to this person. You both thinking that you love each other so completely that you could never be without each other when the truth is, you've been without each other forever. It was the idea of having someone that grabbed you, not the actual relationship. You haven't connected in the sense that you thought. Obviously there was a strong connection or else the song would have no cry, but they weren't fulfilling each others lives the way the wanted and as a result it ended. And after it's over, he finds someone new to please his every needs who admires him a little to much "you told me last night you were a sun now, with your very own devoted satelite" and she is "happy for you and I am sure that I hate you" because she hasn't gotten to the point of moving on yet because she is "hanging onto your shade" which I think means that she is still pining for him even though she knows it isn't right and again, she hates him for this.
Here's Tori's description of it:
"Doughnut, that's so much to me the ache of... I think one of the most important lines in the entire record for me was you told me last night you were a sun now with your very own devoted satellite, happy for you and I am sure that I hate you, too sons too many too many able fires... there's the Cain and Abel reference, there's the idea that you can't have two whole beings together. And I couldn't live like that, and it made me really sad, that whether it's a female relationship or a male relationship, we're not supporting each other to make a whole. When I am not happy when you are taking you as far as you can. I can't support that or I withhold from you because the truth is I am afraid you aren't going to need me anymore."
-- Tori; B Side, 05/96
"With Caton, we talked about Doughnut Song and the swirling, the idea of girls on hands of men and underneath them on the backs of cattle and above the girls that are on top of the hands of men there's something pouring into their water jugs. Those are the pictures I get when we're trying to find a sounds, and it's funny because the guys go, 'here we go again - Tori-speak.'"
-- Tori; SPIN magazine, Mar 1996
I: How did you get the effect referred to in Boys for Pele’s liner notes as “HA HA guitar” on Doughnut Song?
Steve Caton: I used an Ernie Ball volume pedal and some delay. The song was originally a B-side. Tori wanted me to start with Beyond the Pale, the original Doughnut Song title, to ease my way into the Pele project. She was happy enough with the end result that she put the song on the record. I tend to use a volume pedal quite a lot in my playing to achieve different things. I have been using one for so long, I cannot imagine playing without one. It is central to so many things that I do. Anyway, I coined the name “HA HA guitar” because I thought it sounded a bit like laughing, but it is really a throw back to Eno records. He has all kinds of funny names for his sounds, “Insect Menace” from the song “African Nights” on Bowie’s Lodger recording being my favorite Eno sound label.
-- Steve Caton; Virtual Guitar, Oct 1999
"There were so many things that I didn’t allow myself to do when I was in this relationship, and I think Eric would tell you the same. All sorts of things you see which you can be finally honest about. Like Doughnut Song, the last I worked on. There’s a bittersweet quality about it... there’s a sweetness to becoming a woman that the virgins don’t have. They have a physical sweetness, but once you claim the woman... Yes, I want to wring their [men’s] necks sometimes - those I fall in love with - yet there’s much more of an understanding.”<br>-- Tori; Making Music, Jan 1996
: Doughnut Song (live) - Tori Amos
