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Rolling Stone (US)
May 2007

Listen to Tori Amos' Exclusive Song Picks: Hendrix, Bowie, Blondie and More

Jimi Hendrix: "Hey Joe"

"It's good to have this song close by before you do bad," says Amos, who, like Joe, has apparently been tempted to shoot somebody down. "It makes me think before I do something stupid, before I have a Phil Spector moment."

David Bowie: "Lady Grinning Soul"

"As a piano player, this is special," she says of the ballad from the Thin White Duke's 1973 classic Aladdin Sane. "You think you're in a Fellini movie — it could have been an old vaudeville piece, something Lizzie Borden might have wanted to play."

Pretenders: "Tattooed Love Boys"

Chrissie Hynde's angsty voice on the band's 1980 debut spoke to an adolescent Tori. "When this song came out, there was no woman with this kind of attitude, with this kind of testosterone," she says.

Blondie: "Rapture"

"My six-year-old is into Blondie, which I'm happy about," says Amos. "If she's going to mimic anybody, I'm glad it's Debbie Harry."

Portishead: "Glory Box"

The singer thinks this bass-heavy burner from the British trip-hop duo's 1994 classic Dummy is "one of the sexiest songs ever."

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