Tori Amos - Marianne and Caught a Lite Sneeze |REACTION| Boys For Pele First Listen 

two of my favorite songs on boys for pele. both are gorgeous. the fact that marianne is an improv (the vocals, lyrics, and piano you hear are the first recording of the song, strings were added later) is simply amazing. caught a lite sneeze is a masterpiece - how many other radio songs rock a harpsichord like that?! and those backing vocals are otherworldly...

So, one of the lines in "Caught a Lite Sneeze" is "made my own Pretty Hate Machine." Pretty Hate Machine is Nine Inch Nails' first album. You may recall that Trent Reznor sang on an earlier Tori song, "Past the Mission." They were fans of each other's work and became good friends (and possibly dated but that's not confirmed) for a time. The details aren't publicly known but there was some kind of falling out between the two of them. There are several videos available on youtube where Tori riffs on some of the lyrics from NIN's "Hurt" often paired with "Caught a Lite Sneeze."

Marianne is my favourite on this album ❤

Marianne is a song from/about a childhood friend who died, but also "about the death of girlhood." Tori has said a lot about this song in particular, including that it was channeled or delivered by the muses since, as others here have noted, it was improvised and recorded in one take. (Tori has a unique relationship with music; she says that she physically sees the muses-nine of them-and that music appears to her as filaments of living light, and she interprets the light-music through piano.) About Marianne: "Maryanne came to visit me. The spirit of Maryanne. And Maryanne Curtis was a girl that I went to school with. And some say she killed herself, some say she died over an OD. I choose to believe that Maryanne just um... to me she was kinda like a young Mary Magdalene. She, it just wasn't, the world couldn't hold her anymore. They couldn't um, understand her energy. I think anybody who knew Maryanne would tell you that she reflected the best parts of you back. So when you'd look into Maryanne's eyes -- yes, of course she was beautiful, but you felt beautiful because Maryanne never hated anything, anybody. And so when she died, you felt like this thing that reflected the best part of you had died. So for Maryanne to come back again was... it was like the second coming, for me, really." In Caught a Lite Sneeze, you mentioned that you thought the music would change after the pause but it didn't...it's a lot more obvious during live performances, but during the brief pause, she shifts from playing harpsichord to playing piano. So the music itself-the notes and tempo-doesn't change, but the instrumentation does. It's really something to watch her perform the song live. There are many great versions on the harpsichord you can find online, but you also *must* watch this mostly capella version: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_2Ldt2b-SC8.html She only had the piano in the studio there, and so during the harpsichord parts, she slaps the side of the piano for percussion instead of playing the harpsichord part on the keyboard and sings a capella. Her vocal ability and the way she uses it are really phenomenal here.

Marianne is definitely my favorite song on that album!! That and Hey Jupiter!! 💚💚💚 This is my favorite album though.. can listen start to finish. ♥️♥️♥️

Marianne is my favorite song. Of anyone ever. In this lifetime. My aunt graduated high school with her, so I know this is a true story. A schoolmate was thought to have killed herself, but everyone that knew her couldn't imagine it. It also speaks to the bias and misconceptions that we (as a society) unfairly make about certain people. My favorite line has always been "Marianne, She couldn't outrun the fastest slug because she couldn't. Just having thoughts of Marianne- the quickest girl in the frying pan..." because it speaks to that... She maybe did or maybe didn't- but the public perception wrote the story. And Tori wasn't cool with that dynamic, especially before the facts were in. EXCELLENT song

love your Tori reactions!!

indeed both are of quality, though my favorite leans toward "Caught A Lite Sneeze" whose video is definitely fascinating.. thanks for the reaction!

Marianne is about a friend of hers. It hits home when she says “NOT A CHANCE.”

Nice finally another Tori Amos reaction for her album 😊

Caught a Lite Sneeze Live from New York 1997 (harpsichord & piano, with Caton on guitar): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DgKcCsN052M.html Live Session 1998 (with full band): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SIsXdEw1hIU.html Oxygen Concert 2003 (yet another arrangement with the full band): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ziwGrjlfJGI.html All different versions - just one example of how her songs evolve. Her version of Hurt at the beginning of the 97 performance is heart wrenching. Super strong vocals toward the end that ALWAYS make me hold my breath. Her taunt at the end of the 98 performance makes me laugh.

Caught a Little Sneeze has one of my favourite intros

Marianne is like Icicle in that it wasn't written before she sat down at the piano. Mark (her engineer husband, although I don't think they had started dating yet) hit Record, & as Tori says, she channeled the song into being through the Muses. Her improvs are some of my favorite songs. Caught a Lite Sneeze was the first song ever to be released on the internet as a free download. Tori was always a step ahead, although rarely recognized as such. It's a great song to listen to live. I'm pretty sure it was a professionally filmed performance of this song where she ends with "you say you hurt yourself today...you never could, you never did, you're full of shit!" OMG, was she ever mad at Trent. I feel like this is yet another song from BfP that's partially about their relationship. Tori did say that a "light sneeze" was code for a mediocre relationship. I think you're ready now for the Making of Boys for Pele documentary. It shows her in the church recording the vocals for the song, as well as her just being adorable as hell. But her singing "Inanna" over and over again in a church is incredible. It's transcendent.

Thanks!