Tori Amos’ “Speaking with Trees” Lyrics Meaning
There have been various explanations given concerning the meaning of Tori Amos’ “Speaking with Trees”. They range from it being nature-based to being centered on parting ways with a loved one to apparently Tori herself claiming that it is about the anxiety musicians like herself faced as the result of being denied the opportunity to perform live during the COVID pandemic. And by the looks of things, all of the above may be potentially true.
It is clear that the vocalist finds some type of relief via communicating with, i.e. being around, nature. But of course she doesn’t literally, or let’s at least say logically ‘speak to trees’. Rather what such a statement represents, as alluded, is Amos retreating into nature when she is in her feelings.
And the reason she is under such a disposition at the moment is because the actual addressee of the song, who does read like a fellow human being, “left” her. Also it would appear that the addressee is somehow more directly related to the tree metaphor, though said connection is not abundantly clear.
This piece is a lot more complicated than it may appear on the surface. Owing to this, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to speculate that perhaps it is based on a specific relationship in the singer’s life. Also, as implied above, the addressee may well be a concept, i.e. live music, as opposed to a person.
In the End
Indeed, the ultimate goal of the overall project “Speaking with Trees” is featured on is to be about ‘coping with losses’. And accordingly, as relayed by the bridge, the conclusive sentiment of this track seems to be that one never quite knows how he or she will deal with the loss of a loved one – or perhaps we can say something they truly love – until such actually transpires.
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is a singer and pianist who has been professionally since the early-1980s. She has a personal discography dating back to 1992. The peak of her chart success, as far as the songstress’s homeland of the United States goes, came from the turn of the century into the late-aughts. During that time, all but 1 of the eight studio album she dropped between 1996 and early-2009 made it onto the top 10 of the Billboard 200.
But the height of Tori’s commercial success came earlier on, with her first two albums:
- 1992’s “Little Earthquakes”
- 1994’s “Under the Pink
And the latter of those projects also was a UK Albums Chart topper, being her only album thus far to top said list.
“Speaking with Trees”
Meanwhile “Speaking with Trees” came out on 29 October 2021. It holds the distinction of being the lead single from Tori’s 16th studio album, “Ocean to Ocean”. The entire project is a product of long-standing British label Decca Records.
“Speaking with Trees”, as with the entirety of “Ocean to Ocean”, was written and produced by Tori Amos.
Tori Amos has described “Ocean to Ocean” as being an album “about your losses and how you cope with them”, further expounding that the related wisdom came with age. She also referred to the song as very personal one to her.
And to note, she is 58 years old as of the dropping of this track, meaning that she became professionally active, as documented earlier, in her teens.
