Are you an Elvis man or a Beatles man? I don't remember the first time I heard this question (some might call it a cliche). I like the idea of the question itself. It's a quick and easy way to gauge someone's musical tastes. Even better it's a litmus of sorts, because the answer is really an assessment of the personality of the person being asked the question. It seems that while an Elvis fan might appreciate and respect the Beatles, like the opera they might never love the Beatles. And vice versa it appears that the same can be said for those that consider themselves Beatles fans through and through.


Of course in life and in the case of music, things are never really this simple. However at the very least, this question is a great conversation starter. Everyone has their own personal music messiah, and their own personal "white album", "Thriller" or "Jagged Little Pill". The year, decade, and the artist might all be different, but there is one thing that everyone at some point will share regardless. It is the album that made an enormous impact on your taste in music and maybe even changed your life.

My entry to the Chicks Rock Write-Off is all about a woman that had an enormous impact on my musical tastes. She opened my eyes to the fact that many big name females in the business couldn't play an instrument if their lives depended on it. She is also the reason that I no longer pay much attention to women in music that make use of professional writers. Many of the biggest female names, with the best pipes, couldn't write their way out of a wet paper bag. Although my taste for mainstream rock, pop and rap are still present, she is the reason I now explore works by Miles Davis, Led Zeppelin, Everything But the Girl, Sarah Harmer, Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco and many, many more.

My turning point came in 1996, the album Tidal crafted by Fiona Apple was my epiphany, the spark that lit my thirst for poetry and my savior. Fiona saved me from the music doldrums and slowly pulled me away from MTV and pop radio. All of those Top 40 albums that seemed like jewels post Tidal felt like man made stones.

I was so primed for Miss Apple that when Fiona's Shadow Boxer poured from my car radio for the first time, I was in awe. So many writers, and fans that consider music an essential part of their lives, most likely have had a similar moment. And I'm sure many have faced the futility of trying to share, describe, and impart such a life altering moment. And I feel that I might be following in the footsteps of others as I attempt to make the same mistake.

Do you know how you naturally want to close your eyes when someone you love touches you on the face? For some reason it seems that by closing your eyes, you could fall deeper into whatever it is that you are feeling at that exact moment. That is the only quick and easy way I have at my disposal to describe my feelings after taking in Tidal for the very first time. Fiona's debut has always felt like these soft hands reaching out, ready to soothe and caress a stressed out mind and soul.


Putting the brush to canvas

Fiona named her debut Tidal because the songs and emotion found on the album rose and fell like the tide. "Ebb and Flow" is one of many terms I believe Fiona has used over the years. From the very opening track Sleep to Dream, it is readily apparent that Tidal simply sounds different. Absent are the drum machine sounds, perfectly timed cymbals and shrill sounding keyboards. Tidal sounds like a clean break from the status quo of the mid nineties. It's not drum machine R&B and you would never confuse it with the grunge sound that encompassed it at the time. In 1996, Tidal was definitely a poetic oasis.

As Sleep to Dream opens with a low rumble accompanied by the sounds of a vibraphone and a chamberlain, Sleep to Dream takes on a wonderfully eerie quality. Fiona is confident and forceful when she sings "This mind, this body, and this voice cannot be stifled by your deviant ways. . " But like the tide, the mood cannot remain high all of the time. Fiona falls immediately with Sullen Girl, a soft yet surprisingly sparkling song that gains most of its mood through the use of the dulcitone and marimba. Along with Fiona's gentle contribution on the piano and optigan, Fiona moves from feisty girl to wounded poet.

On the surface, Fiona sounds dreamy and soft when she sings "I used to sail the deep and tranquil sea.." However Miss Apple displays her ability to quickly turn a phrase on its side. The mood only seems serious when it becomes apparent to the listener that Fiona is in fact singing about losing her innocence when she was raped at the age of twelve. When Fiona softly recounts "But he washed me ashore. . . and he took my pearl. . .and left an empty shell of me. ." it becomes quite clear why she sounds like a woman singing with a bruised heart.

Fiona picks herself up off the ground with Shadow Boxer. With a sassy piano intro and Fiona's thick vocals, Fiona and company create a piano classic. Criminal must be the song that vaulted Apple from obscurity and into the mainstream. With a haunting piano and chamberlain, Fiona becomes the owner of a chilling canvas created by Jon Brion and Andy Slater. She uses this backdrop to showcase some of her most creative and piercing word play; throw in her husky and defiant vocals "It's a sad, sad world when a girl will break a boy just because she can" and Criminal becomes the killer app of the Tidal operating system.

It's a shame when Tidal is mentioned, only the radio singles get a nod, when Fiona's debut was bristling with so much poetry unrecognized. One such instance, Slow Like Honey is a Sade killer. With Fiona's vocals that are husky, silky and velvet all at the same time, Slow Like Honey manages to crush every shallow, unimaginative R&B song for miles around. The following track The First Taste sounds very much like an extension of Slow Like Honey and it makes perfect sense that these two cousins were placed side by side.

With a rich yet mellow sound, The First Taste is almost the complete opposite of opening tracks Sleep to Dream and Criminal. When Fiona sings of a man having complete control over her, she skips the lazy writer's favorite "baby baby" phrases. Instead she paints pictures with "I do not struggle in your web because it was my aim to get caught". Yes Fiona covers the same topics as most any female artist, but thankfully she tries (and succeeds) in saying it in a new way.

Fiona continues her confessions with The child is gone as she comes to grips with the fact that earlier emotional trauma has forced her adulthood. Moving on to Pale September from a writing standpoint, it's is a song that should be studied lyrically by any fan of poetry or creative writing in general. Never forcefully grabbing your attention in a Criminal fashion, Pale September slowly settles on the mind like a gentle fog. As Fiona allows thoughts like "all my armour falling down, in a pile at my feet" to pour from her pipes, the effects of her words are incredibly satisfying to some gentle yet mysterious part of my mind.

Carrion is yet another song that never had a chance to see the light of day. Carrion is such a dark and morbid song that I'm not surprised by its elusiveness on the radio. On the surface, Carrion has the usual love sick sound. But Fiona uses the gentle sounds of a guitar, chamberlain and harp as a cloak. When it finally dawns on the listener that she is in fact singing "My feel for you boy, is decaying in front of me, like the carrion of a murdered prey" a double take is usually the result the first go around. Carrion is lyrically black, cold and vengeful. Fiona's soft and velvet black widow delivery manages to tickle the murderous persona dormant within us all.


Tidal and its place in the musical universe

Love it or hate it, one will never confuse Tidal with anything else musically. Most modern female singer song-writers have either an acoustic guitar or piano front and center, Tidal for the most part, broke away from that. Jon Brion and Andy Slater created such a wonderful quilt of sonics to keep Fiona's powerful vocals warm and snug. The patches forming this blanket read like a laundry list of instruments: optigan, vibraphone, dulcitone, marimba, steel guitar, chamberlain, tack piano, cello, violin, viola, harp along with the more common piano and guitar.

Lyrically Fiona created an album not only to be enjoyed but studied as well. There is so much to garner from subsequent plays, so much to uncover and learn. The way Fiona handles words and phrases is nothing short of amazing. With Tidal Fiona has forever ruined me. She is the reason I look at every artist and their often cheap and lazy creations with such a critical eye.

It's also unfortunate that at times, Fiona receives more attention for her temper tantrums than her skills as a songstress and wordsmith. If I had to describe Tidal with only one sentence it would be this. A finely layered instrumental surrounding a woman's descriptions of past sorrow and a woman still licking her wounds in the present.


Why all the fuss over lyrics? Or why Fiona is a chick that rocks

During the course of the last 19 months or so, I have received a lot of e-mail on various subjects. One question that turned up time and time again, the subject of lyrics. Some of you understand what I'm trying to convey. And yet others seem puzzled and ask me what exactly I'm rambling on about when I use terms like "deep lyrics" and "clever writing". So I feel the need to take advantage of this opportunity. I've attempted to describe my views and feelings on the subject a thousand times, and I've failed every time.

If you were sitting at a table, speaking with a friend and that person asked you to look behind you, would you look? My guess is that you would, why wouldn't you? However if there was nothing new to see and your friend asked you to look again a short time later, would you look again? I'm betting that at some point, you will stop looking no matter how insistent your "friend" was. That is in a nutshell how I view most plastic pop music.

Fiona would never tell me to look at something in such a direct and crude way. Miss Apple (and artists like her) are a friend at the table of a different kind. Sensing my impending boredom, Fiona would merely glance over my shoulder as if something interesting had caught her eye. My natural reaction would be to turn around and look.

My second natural reaction would be to smile because I was coerced in a very clever way. And the best part of it all, I will continue to look because a true artist always gives me something new to look at and a reason to turn around again. It's the search for those lyrics and feelings that find me smiling to myself, that keep me searching. If that makes sense to you, nothing more needs to be said. If you don't get it, there is a good chance you never will.


So where do you fit in?

So I opened this opinion with the question "Are you an Elvis man or a Beatles man?" Maybe it's not really the answer that's important, but rather the idea of it. The idea of giving a quick impression of who and what you are by answering a simple query. So how would I answer this question? I would simply reply "Neither, I'm a Fiona Apple man myself". I would say it without hesitation, in spite of the odd look I might receive.

So what does that really say about me? I guess underneath it all, my search for poetry, harmony and dreamy landscapes, it makes me a Beatles man. What do you think?

Nearly six years ago, Apple showed me where I fit in and where I was headed. A 90 pound waif with a voice that belies her tiny frame and vocally moves from honey to oak-smoked, turned me around. So what's the bottom line here? What's the real reason for my addiction to Tidal and a poet named Apple? I have to confess it's because on occasion when Fiona sings; she gives me this strange feeling that something very interesting is going on right behind me, and I never can resist the urge to turn around and look.


© Tony Flores 2001






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"...If Jennifer Lopez could write songs like Fiona Apple's, she wouldn't have to spend so many hours in the gym ...."

-Shirley Manson- of the rock group Garbage speaking about pop music in the special music edition of Gear Magazine April 2001

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This is my entry to the Chicks Rock Write-off, a little party that just so happens to mark the second birthday (in epinions years) for dustygold and kristinafh. Please read all of the entries. The following writers are participating.


adjensen, Afterglow34, arielssong, brothermansoul, Charles_Tatum, chezon, chrisceb, churst, cletta1201, cynicalone, Daniel_Rf, Darkmistress, DavidK93, DavidMac, deaser26, Debbie26, divad23, dolphin4a, dragonfire88, educatedphool, eplovejoy, FraggleMom, frazzledspice, GinaHill, Greatpilgrim, gungian, HawgWyld, JediKermit, jeff_wilder78, Joubert, jphalt, kcfoxy, kevlog, KingpinLJC, kuuleimomi, lambchops, LEDOMAINE, madtheory, MattA75, mauriced, melissasrn, MiDoyle, mnehr, movielover123, ObiWanJabroni, Officer, pageclot, paulyoungotti, pogomom, Psychovant, repulsemonkey, sarah_knipper, saulsbury, Saxguy, scmrak, seric26, shadow_dream, sleestakk, sslabs, sumo_rhino, SurgRN911, theciscokid, 3BCoach, tigger500, 29th_Candidate, Wokelstein, xiphoid

And of course my girlfriend dustygold and my girlfriend on the side, kristinafh.














Recommended: Yes