Little Earthquakes

Little Earthquakes
Studio album by Tori Amos
Released	January 13, 1992 (UK) February 25, 1992 (US)
Recorded	1990–1991
Genre	Alternative rock, piano rock
Length	56:54
Label	Atlantic (US), East West (Europe)
Producer	Tori Amos, Eric Rosse, Davitt Sigerson, Ian Stanley
Tori Amos chronology
Little Earthquakes (1992) Under the Pink (1994)
Singles from Little Earthquakes
"Me and a Gun" Released: October 21, 1991 "Silent All These Years" Released: April 1992 (US), November 18, 1991 (UK) "China" Released: January 20, 1992 "Winter" Released: November 24, 1992 (US), March 9, 1992 (UK) "Crucify" Released: May 12, 1992 (US), June 8, 1992 (UK)

Little Earthquakes is the debut solo album of singer/songwriter Tori Amos, featuring the singles "Silent All These Years", "China", "Winter" and "Crucify".

Recording

Following the dissolution of her synth-pop band Y Kant Tori Read, Amos came back to Atlantic Records in 1990 with a 10-track demo tape. The track listing consisted of "Russia" (later to become "Take to the Sky") / "Mary" / "Crucify" / "Happy Phantom" / "Leather" / "Winter" / "Sweet Dreams" / "Song for Eric" / "Learn to Fly"" / Flying Dutchman".

The album was then recorded in three phases. The first batch of tracks ("Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "Winter", "Happy Phantom", "Leather", "Mother", "Sweet Dreams", "Russia/Take To The Sky", "Upside Down" and "Flying Dutchman") were recorded at Capitol Records in Los Angeles with Davitt Sigerson producing. After hearing the first group of songs, the record company was unhappy. Tori and her then boyfriend Eric Rosse recorded the second group of songs ("Girl", "Precious Things", "Tear In Your Hand" and "Little Earthquakes", plus "Take Me with You", which would not be completed until 2006 and finally released on A Piano: The Collection). This phase was recorded on a limited budget in Eric's home studio, using his old 3M 24-track analog machine and a Yamaha CP-80 piano. They also went outside to Stag Studios to use a Yamaha grand piano. During these sessions, Amos recalled the origins of the B-side "Thoughts":

"[The song] Girl was being recorded and I couldn't get a take. I was freaking out. Eric was in the booth playing air ball encouraging me to take a ten minute. Glued on the bench, I started this thing coming from nowhere singing nonsense into the mic. When I finished, Eric said, 'It's a take.' I said, 'What?' - he had left the machine running."

These two phases resulted in the original "final" 13-track version of the album, submitted in January 1991, as revealed in the liner notes for the A Piano: The Collection box set. The tracklist is very similar to the released version: "Crucify" / "Girl" / "Silent All These Years" / "Precious Things" / "Winter" / "Sweet Dreams" / "Little Earthquakes" / "Leather" / "Russia" / "Mother" / "Tear In Your Hand" / "Upside Down" / "Flying Dutchman". Of all 14 tracks recorded, only "Happy Phantom" was omitted at this point, but it would later appear on the released tracklist.

For phase three, Amos traveled to England to work with Ian Stanley. Here she recorded what would become two of her early singles. "Me And A Gun" was the last song written for the album, while "China" was an early track, originally titled "Distance", that she wrote in 1987 along with some of the songs that appeared on Y Kant Tori Read. During those sessions, she also recorded several B-sides.

The second final version of the album was accepted by the record company. However, this was still revised before the final release; a 13-track promo cassette shows that "Little Earthquakes" was to appear after "Happy Phantom" on side one, with side two closing with "Flying Dutchman". The latter track was presumably dropped due to the physical restraints of the vinyl LP format. The four songs recorded with Davitt Sigerson that did not make it to the final version of the album were included as B-sides on the singles released from Little Earthquakes: "Upside Down on "Silent All These Years" in the UK and on "Winter" in the US, "Flying Dutchman" on "China", and "Sweet Dreams" and "Take to the Sky" on "Winter".

The record label relocated Amos to London, where they thought she would have an easier time of breaking into success, due to the country's renown for eccentric performers. Atlantic's European counterpart, East West, promoted the record extensively. Amos spent much of 1991 performing in small bars and clubs in London and playing for music executives and journalists, often in her own apartment. The "Me and a Gun" EP containing four tracks was released in October 1991, receiving considerable critical attention. The single was re-issued the following month with "Silent All These Years" as the lead composition, and it became her first chart entry at UK #51 following Single of the Week support from BBC Radio 1 and a TV debut on the high-rated chat show of Jonathan Ross on the BBC. The back cover of the album contains pictures of phallus mushrooms, also known as stinkhorns.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AbsolutePunk	90%
AllMusic
Q
PopMatters	(positive)
Robert Christgau	C+
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine
Paul Roland

When the album was finally released in the UK in January 1992, it reached #14 and remained on the Top 75 charts (UK Albums Chart) for 23 weeks. A month later, it was released in the USA to breakthrough critical success and also announced itself as a chart mainstay, despite peaking outside the Top 50 on the Billboard 200. The accompanying singles (along with "Me and a Gun" and "Silent All These Years") were "China" (January 1992 UK), "Winter" (March 1992 UK/November 1992 US) and "Crucify" (May 1992 US/June 1992 UK), the US EP version of which featured covers of songs by artists including The Rolling Stones and Nirvana.

In 1998, the UK's Q magazine readers voted Little Earthquakes the 66th greatest album of all time, and in 2002 the same magazine named it the fourth Greatest Album of All-Time by a Female Artist.

The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It is her only album to do so.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Tori Amos. 

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Crucify"	4:58
2.	"Girl"	4:06
3.	"Silent All These Years"	4:10
4.	"Precious Things"	4:26
5.	"Winter"	5:40
6.	"Happy Phantom"	3:12
7.	"China"	4:58
8.	"Leather"	3:12
9.	"Mother"	6:59
10.	"Tear in Your Hand"	4:38
11.	"Me and a Gun"	3:44
12.	"Little Earthquakes"	6:51

Personnel

• Tori Amos - acoustic & electric pianos and lead vocals on all tracks, background vocals on tracks 2, 3, 4, 6, 10 & 12, sampled strings on tracks 2 & 8
• Steve Caton - guitar on tracks 2, 4, 10 & 12, bass on track 2, background vocals on tracks 4 & 12
• John Chamberlain - mandolin on track 1
• Paulinho da Costa - percussion on tracks 1 & 6
• Jake Freeze - rat pedal on track 4, saw on track 12
• Stuart Gordon - violin on track 7
• Ed Green - drums on track 1
• Will Gregory - oboe on track 7
• Tina Gullickson - background vocals on track 1
• Chris Hughes - drums on track 7
• David Lord - string arrangement on track 7
• Will McGregor - bass on tracks 4, 10 & 12
• Carlo Nuccio - drums on tracks 4 & 10
• Philly - finger cymbal on track 3
• David Rhodes - guitar on track 7
• Eric Rosse - drum and keyboard programming on tracks 2, 4 & 12, background vocals on tracks 4 & 12, Irish war drum on track 5
• Jef Scott - bass on track 1, 8
• Mathew Seligman - bass on track 7
• Nancy Shanks - background vocals on tracks 1 & 12
• Phil Shenale - keyboard programming on track 6
• Eric Williams - ukulele on track 1, dulcimer on track 6
• Orchestra arranged and conducted by Nick Caro on tracks 3 & 5

Charts

Chart (1992)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200	54
U.S. Top Heatseekers	1
UK Album Chart	14
Australia ARIA Album Chart	14
Canadian Album Chart	49
Dutch Album Chart	85

Single	US Billboard Hot 100 Chart	US Hot 100 Airplay	US Hot Modern Rock Tracks	US Hot Adult Top 40	Canadian Hot 100 Chart	UK Singles Chart	UK Airplay Chart	Irish Singles Chart	French Singles Chart	German Singles Chart	Dutch Singles Chart	Swedish Singles Chart	Australian Singles Chart	New Zealand Singles Chart
"Silent All These Years" (1991)	-	-	27	-	-	51	35	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
"Silent All These Years" (re-release, 1992)	-	-	-	-	-	26	50	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
"China" (1992)	-	-	-	-	-	51	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
"Winter" (1992)	-	-	-	-	-	25	-	-	-	-	-	-	49	-
"Crucify" (1992)	-	-	22	-	73	15	23	25	17	84	79	16	83	17
"Silent All These Years" (US only re-release, 1997)	65	66	-	26	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Cover versions by other artists

• Chinese pop icon Faye Wong has twice covered "Silent All These Years" under the title "Cold War", firstly in Cantonese on her 1993 album 100,000 Whys and then in Mandarin the following year on the album Mystery.
• Michael Stipe of R.E.M. has included lines from "Winter" in live performances, most notably in 1995.
• Dream Theater have covered "Winter" on at least one occasion, as can be heard on the bootleg of their "Uncovered" gig at Ronnie Scott's in January 1995.
• Singaporean singer Stefanie Sun recorded "Silent All These Years" on her 2002 album of cover versions Start.
• French singer Nolwenn Leroy released a version of "Crucify" (in English) on her 2004 single "Inévitablement".
• Sharon den Adel, vocalist of Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation, performed "Crucify" live on Belgian TV show De laatste show in 2006.
• Amanda Palmer has covered both "Winter" and "Me and a Gun" live.
• BD Wong, playing Father Ray Mukada on HBO's prison drama Oz, performed a campy cover of the first stanza and chorus of "Leather" in the musical episode, Variety (Season 5, Episode 3).

External links

• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics