crystal core
your mind has been divided from your soul
now you say you are that stranger on your shore
grief it brings need
the naked freeze
caught in the frost
numb unbearable thoughts
your inner need-fire
not lost
no way
not lost
I've just come from the Reindeer King
he says, "your purity of soul, crystalline"
gotta get you back to you
get you back to you
you gotta get you back to you
get you back to you
crystal core
you are at the still point of the turning world
the divide
fearing death desiring life
Ice you were the one most tender with the rivers
you the roof of the waves layer after layer
after layer
I've just come from the Reindeer King
he says, "your purity of soul, crystalline"
gotta get you back to you
get you back to you
you gotta get you back to you
get you back to you
you know that I would skate
skate all the way
just to hold your hand
to take away your pain
you know that I would skate
from Scandinavia
all the way to the moons
of Jupiter with you
I've just come from the Reindeer King
"Reindeer King" t-shirt front/back
Tori Quotes
I had to go into the wilderness for that one ["Reindeer King"]. I was learning about the [Alberto] Behar probes, and hearing about the ice sheet in Greenland and what was happening there. That influenced the song's imagery. It's a record that's very much about bringing elements into balance, about creation with opposing forces, whether that's at a macro, environmental level or on a more personal one, as on "Chocolate Song." [PopMatters - August 23, 2017]
For years, people had told me about the magical atmosphere that happens when bodies of water freeze over and hundreds of people ice skate for miles and miles and miles. [W Magazine - August 24, 2017]
I feel like you've been talking about the concept of a native invader for a while now. . . . like this is something that may have been brewing for a while.
Well, I like brewing. A nod to the witch community out there. I like a brew, whether it's chocolate on the stove or a good cup of tea, there's something about simmering on the stove. Sauces. And I can see, that, yeah. I agree with you. Things that are able to seep into what should be a protected space and then is not a safe space. Whether this is ideas that are able to seep through, whether that's a mirror image of the CO2 in the ice that's being stored. I can't even begin to understand what the scientists understand, but with "Reindeer King," not only are we talking about that a teenage girl's mind has been invaded and she can't get those thoughts out of her mind and those thoughts are taking over -- she just hasn't found a way to process them yet. Or we're talking about an element on earth that is changing form. It's changing form before its own eyes.
You talk often about bloodlines. Do any of the songs on this album share bloodlines with your earlier work.
Probably a lot of them do and I might not know it yet. I would say "Reindeer King" has a bloodline to "Winter." And, yet, it might be connected to other things as well. I'm just discovering them, so if you find any, you'll have to let me know. [Drowned in Sound - September 6, 2017]
It's about losing things. It could be losing something from someone or a physical thing, like the loss of the permafrost in the Artic for example, which is something that didn't have to happen. Losing something not because of natural erosion but because of our actions or a person losing something because of an outside force like social media. The downside of the internet is the real brutality that can be there. We humans can decimate another person digitally down to the blood and the bone just as easily as we can decimate something natural such as the Artic environment. [Boyz - September 13, 2017]
"Reindeer King" was many, many years in the making. It started as tiny fragments in 2006 for the Doll Posse rebellion (laughs) in a song called "Crystalline" and then it morphed and moved and was kind of just dormant. Dormant until it wasn't anymore. And there was a moment of Tash evolving and finding her voice, and Mary losing hers. And it was that paradox, that tension of the opposites that just shot me from either side, like an arrow made of light. So it didn't wound me, but it kind of took me to the reindeer king. [GayCalgary - April 2020]
Live Versions
"Reindeer King"
September 10, 2017 - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
"Reindeer King"
official lyric video
t o r i p h o r i a tori amos digital archive yessaid.com
