So you heard
I crossed over the line
Do I have regrets
Well, not yet
there are some,
some who give Blood
I give love
I give
Soon before the sun
before the sun
begins to rise
I know that I
I must give
so that I
I can live
There are some,
some whose give
twists itself to take
they mis-take
who, what made up the line
some say it was pain
or was it shame
Soon before the sun
before the sun
begins to rise
I know that I
I must give
so that I
I can live
Some
Some who give Blood
I give love
I give
Tori Quotes
When you spend time with the music and delve into it, it is very much a record set in our new world. Our old world is gone -- it's a world
now where the meaning of success has to be redefined. A lot of people -- men in particular -- have lost their jobs so if you define your
success by being a provider, and then you lose your job and are therefore unsuccessful, where are you left? Our stock definition of
power -- that was the bankers. What does that equal now? Integrity in stealing? In creating the problem and being rewarded for it?
That's powerful? As a songwriter it is my job to tackle these concepts and put them into the feeling space, not just the head space, and
look at the knock-on effect. "Maybe California" comes out of that kind of crisis, when the husband comes home after being fired... and
then what happens in the bedroom? It's over.
And it's often the women who are keeping their jobs, because they are cheaper -- and a lot of the higher paid men are losing their jobs
to inexperienced 20 year olds. They leave saying what do I do, what have I become? And so how do you remake the world after that?
Talk about divide and conquer of a people! This is how the system works, this is its destructiveness; and I think the record investigates
this. The idea of power might be redefined too -- now, maybe, you can only find your power by giving of yourself, and not by taking.
That's what [opening track] Give is all about." [MusicOMH - May 9, 2009]
Instead of taking from people, [the narrator of the story] needed to understand the need that she, to survive, had to give of herself... But
that can be very "Welcoming the vampires" as well. There's a double-edged sword to that story... Once I saw that, it became much more
of a technology experiment in order to make the song sound like it does, with the piano being there but in this strange world... this idea
of experimenting with sound. [Polari - May 9,
2009]
On "Give," a recently deceased narrator matter-of-factly sings: "There are some/ Some who give blood/ I give love." Asked whether
the blood refers to the Eucharist, menstruation, violence, bloodlines, or ordinary vampires, Amos responds:
All of those things. And the power of blood, the secrets that are in blood. People are very attracted to the idea of drinking blood, but how
do you do it where no one gets hurt? Why do we always have to take it to a place of violence? [Venuszine - May 26, 2009]
That was one of the first songs that came for the record. I was on tour and that sort of laid down the beginnings of the project. I guess
when I heard it, to me, it's kind of skeletal and so things had to work around it in order to make the complete picture. [Arizona Republic - July 14, 2009]
Live Versions
"Give"
August 11, 2009 - Montreal, Canada
"Give"
September 25, 2009 - Vienna, Austria
"Give"
April 3, 2023 - London, England
t o r i p h o r i a tori amos digital archive yessaid.com
