Tori Amos “Me and a Gun” released

Me and a Gun Tori Amos

Writer(s): Tori Amos (see lyrics here) Released: October 21, 1991 First Charted: -- Peak: 1 DF Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.64 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Tori Amos’ first effort at an album was rejected by a label president unimpressed with “a female Elton John.” HL She relocated to London in 1991 and started over. That autumn, the record label hosted a lunch for British music journalists. An “inoffensive-looking girl sitting cross-legged on her piano stool” HL was the center of attention. She quickly caused “disquiet to the assembled critics” HL with a song in which she re-lived a rape. The stark and harrowing “Me and a Gun” was a powerful choice for winning over critics> it was an equally daring choice as the lead track of her debut EP. Singer/songwriter Billy Bragg said, “It’s a great song, and she delivers it perfectly…If you do it right you can silence an audience.” HL Of the a capella recording, Amos said, “When I started writing it…I knew exactly what I wanted to say…I was almost in a trance writing that song.” SF The rape she sings about in the song happened when she was 21 in the early 1980s and living in Los Angeles. After she finished a performance at a bar, one of the patrons asked her for a ride home. She said yes and he raped her. Years later, memories of the event were stirred up when she saw the film Thelma and Louise while in London. WK She addresses the myth that women somehow are responsible for rape if they wear revealing clothing. She discussed the attack in an interview in 1994, saying that the man raped her at knifepoint and not gunpoint. She said, however, that she did, as she says in the song, actually sing hymns during the incident because he told her to. She said the night was “about mutilation more than violation through sex…I was psychologically mutilated that night and…now I’m trying to put the pieces back together again.” WK Radio stations gravitated toward “Silent All These Years” instead of “Me and a Gun.” Both songs were on her debut solo album, Little Earthquakes, as well as that first single, which also included the non-album cuts “Upside Down” and “Thoughts.” Resources: HL Michael Heatley and Spencer Leigh (1998). Behind the Song: The Stories of 100 Great Pop & Rock Classics. Blandford Books: London, UK. Pages 78-9. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 12/29/2021; last updated 4/12/2023.