"'Precious Things' is the fourth song on Tori Amos' debut album Little Earthquakes, released on January 6, 1992. The song was written during the second phase of creating the album, a period that also yielded "Girl", "Tear in Your Hand", and "Little Earthquakes". This batch of songs was recorded in her then-boyfriend Eric Rosse's home studio.
After the initial version of Little Earthquakes was rejected by Atlantic Records, Tori and Eric went on a trip through the American West. Tori came up with the song's riff while sick in the Rocky Mountains, noting that the riff "started building in my head. I think I had been forming it before we left...but everything came together when I got really ill in the Rockies...and I think layers were coming off my life -- shields that I had built up in order to filter things".
At her VHS Storytellers concert in 1998, Tori recounted that Precious Things "came to me while I was living behind a church. I had a roommate that listened to really raucous music and it started to take me into flashbacks of my grandmother. So, behind this church with this music going on and on in my head, I started to really think that maybe just one day I could run faster." (VHI Storytellers)
The bridge of "Precious Things" references the band Nine Inch Nails by name. Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor provided backup vocals for "Past the Mission" on Tori's subsequent record Under the Pink." - Toripedia
Personally, I've been listening to this song a lot during the lockdown. The song is about a woman trying to letting go of her pain after being raped and bullied during her adolescence. There are traces of Buddhism in this song, particularly the concept of learning how to let go of your attachments. People can be just as attached to their pain as they are to the people they love, if not more so, and this song is a reminder that sometimes you must consciously release some of your pain, with intention. I think that a lot of people are releasing their attachments right now.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 20, 2020 7:52 PM |
