Well he lit you up
like Amber Waves in his movie show
He fixed you up real good
till I don't know you anymore
from Ballet Class to a Lap Dance
Straight to video
And the pool side news
was that he would be
launching you
Into every young man's
Bedroom - you gave it up
on DVD and magazine -
you gave it up
a private rite of passage
you gave it up
to every boy's sweet dream
with their paper cuts
You said "he's got a
Healing Machine
it glows in the dark
glows in the dark"
You say "there's not a lot
of me
left anymore -
just leave it alone.
But if you're by and you have
the time, tell the Northern
Lights to keep shining - Lately it
seems like they're drowning"
He could light you up
and summon every swan
to the Lakeside
Off to Cabo San Lucas
for some optical stimulus
Then you started to guess
there was someone else
though His flint glass
seeing all of you
immersed in his sepia
Into every young man's
Bedroom - you gave it up
on DVD and magazine -
you gave it up
a private rite of passage
you gave it up
to every boy's sweet dream
with their paper cuts
You said "he's got a
Healing Machine
it glows in the dark
glows in the dark"
You say "there's not a lot
of me
left anymore -
just leave it alone.
But if you're by and you have
the time, tell the Northern
Lights to keep shining - Lately it
seems like they're drowning"
So I went by -
cause I had the time
and told the Northern Lights
to keep shining
they told me to tell you -
they're waving
Tori Quotes
My character, Scarlet, gets a call from Amber -- "Amber Waves" -- and it's clear that there's something going on with her that um, makes me wanna go to be with her. I think there's certainly people in your life that when they call, you go. They don't call often and they don't ask a lot. I don't even know if she asked um, for very much, but there was something in her voice that said to me that it was time to put everything aside and go be with her. Once I started spending time with her, I started to let things happen, maybe spur of the moment, maybe watching her, keeping my eye on her, and realizing that I had to get her out of the places and get her away from the people that were making her see herself in a certain way, where she wasn't a person anymore, she was an object. And this is compounded by the fact that we're going to the porn awards. Amber is so in over her head at this point because, you know, her spirit's not in her anymore, she can't convince herself that there isn't a piece of her soul being taken away now." [Scarlet Stories]
Scarlet's Walk begins on the West Coast, where she visits "Amber Waves," a phrase found in "America the Beautiful" and also the name of a porn star in the movie Boogie Nights. Amber's in trouble.
She had arrived in the city of angels with a dream of being someone. But "from ballet class to lap dance and straight to video," her soul has been slowly eroded. She's still a young woman, perhaps in her late 20s. But the porn baron who made her a star has moved on to the next ingenue. The public has eaten her and spat her out and she has nobody who cares.
So Scarlet and Amber undertake a journey, which eventually leads Scarlet to Alaska to see the Northern Lights.
There she's given the message to tell Amber they're not drowning, but waving. [Scarlet's Walk bio]
"Amber Waves" is about a woman's tragedy whose dreams fail in L.A. A true story?
You find so many stories in Los Angeles. You see especially where all the movies come from -- and how the game of chess works. "Amber Waves" is part of it -- if she represents America or if she's a woman, everybody decides for his- or herself. There's this anthem with "amber waves of grain" in it -- and then there is this porn star in Boogie Nights. She notices at a certain point that she has to learn to appreciate herself. L.A. doesn't appreciate unconventional personalities. Too many [there] are standardized. [Rolling Stone (Germany) - October 2002]
Live Versions
"Amber Waves"
November 6, 2015 - Basel, Switzerland Baloise Session
t o r i p h o r i a tori amos digital archive yessaid.com
