Amanda Palmer - Me And A Gun (Tori Amos cover)

[srzent]

Amanda has stated that she was also raped when she was younger so I'm sure she totally feels this song. I am a fan of both Tori and Amanda and arguing why or who's better seems like a fucking waste of time for me. They are pretty different and thank fuck for that. Like Tori said AND Amanda seconded YEARS AGO ON HER BLOG WHEN SHE HADN'T MET NEIL GAIMAN, "how sad it is that female musicians and singers feel the need to compete so fiercely with each other, as if there were only room for so many."

[lathspellvash]

Gorgeous.

[Devotchka24]

I'm not a fan of Tori Amos, so maybe that's the reason I don't get the bunch of comments here but I think most of us, Amanda Fucking Palmer's fans, embrace art and expression in all of its forms.This gave me chills and I think it was coming from an honest place.Isn't that what matters about art? transmitting/ evoking/provoking emotion?

[GregoriousGregori9]

So go after everyone who sings Strange Fruit.. After all that was Billie's vocalizing about seeing people hanging from trees when she was a child... Go after every other person on youtube for singing this as well...Songs are meant to be sung..

[SirFrancesLavey]

..she is going to care that someone is singing it in a respectful undiluted way.

[SirFrancesLavey]

How is it wrong to cover a song? I understand both arguments at least to some extent but music is a tool that everyone is allowed to use. I don't know Amanda Palmer's view of Tori but if you forget about every petty thing it really seems like her reasons are pure in covering this song. She is respectful and isn't mocking the experience of rape she seems to be expressing it thru her voice and that's what matters. Tori freely shared this song she didn't keep it to herself and I don't think...

[JasmyneTea]

I much prefer Amanda Palmer's version - Amos has a sort of tremulous, weedy thing going on with her voice that irritates me sometimes, and Amanda Palmer's voice is so strong, it conveys a strength gained after making it through such an experience.

[Tarnov]

I, for one, can't wait for the inevitable Tori Amos fans vs Amanda Palmer fans war coming.

[SapphireJesse08]

@Tarnov What about those poor souls who are fans of both? :( WHERE WILL WE BE? It will be brother against brother, like the Civil War... xD

[danno700]

@SapphireJesse08 Same. I love them both. I can understand how Tori fans may thing covering this is insensitive, but at the same time, I can understand how the song can apply to Amanda's life to. Can't we all just get along? :D

[san0afk]

I think sharing an experience, ESPECIALLY something this personal, is an important part of saying we are not alone, even though everyone experiences life differently. Some people get into different music at different times for different reasons. All this hate, just needs to get over itself and grown.

[Mikyevanescence]

Is she a singer? AWFUL voice.

[dimitrismentes]

@Mikyevanescence as opposed to Amy Lee? lol

[suzannejackson91]

I really struggle to feel the experience behind this. closing your eyes doesn't make it believable, i think this is as much about the performance as the voice. which is possibly why so many find this cover a tad mundane.

[SheIsRisen13]

this is shocking seeing as how she bashed Tori previously....and also both her Tori covers I have heard are very boring. No emotion in the delivery. I respect Amanda and what she does and she does what she does well. Covering a Tori song would not have been a career move I would have made considering her previous comments.

[ConstantCrisis]

I think what makes this okay to me is 1) She does a damn good job and 2) She looks so damn respectful while she's doing it, like she's connecting to something deep inside herself that this song speaks to. This is one of the reasons people make songs like these, I think, so that people can connect to them and just...yeah. It's like she's having a freakin religious experience up there. Not disrespectful at all.

[FaceHapp]

There is one song you do NOT cover, and that is Me and a gun. This is Tori's song, no one, I don't care who the f you are, is entitled to cover this. I'ts just wrong.

[ourlovegotlost]

Wow, I never know she did this!

[Mikyevanescence]

awful voice

[crinsoncranes]

@Mikyevanescence dear evanescence fan: that's the lead singer for Dresden Dolls, who blew evanescence out of the water with Girl Anachronism and Coin-Operated Boy. Go listen to some good music.

[itsallinyourmind]

so its been a few months since i've heard this. i wasn't a fan then because of the politics which have already been discussed.

but now, hearing it with "fresh" ears, i can honestly say that this song isn't so bad because of the circumstances so much as it just sucks balls as a cover. period.

to those uncomfortable with people's negative comments...how else do you derive what is good and bad but through criticism?

however "special" this song may be to AP...this cover is a train wreck.

[thelizardqueenrules]

why are we criticizing her? I know there are a huge amount of women who hold this song dear to them for different reasons and if this song is special to amanda palmer for whatever reason it is a personal relationship she holds with it and if she choses to sing it she choses to sing it. She brings something new to it by it being her expression of the song even if it was a perfect copy. I don't like this version either but I respect her for singing it with such feeling!

[jessicabakescupcakes]

i still don't know how i feel about this. i like amanda palmer a lot, but tori amos is a god. i like when awesome people cover tori's songs, but this one? i can't even listen to the whole tori version. and i couldn't listen to this completely either.

does it surprise me afp covered this? -absolutely not. it's typical.

[missclareremembers]

Oh Amanda, what have you done ...

[riotpooffairy]

this song should be sung by every woman, we are objectified creatures.

it is music and I am sure she thought it was "ok" before doing it!

DO NOT EVER REGRET DOING THIS AMANDA!!

[damienxxxpele]

i believe amanda palmer was also raped, if i remember correctly it was a date rape... i could be wrong but i swear i read it somewhere, and so i look at her singing this as empowering ...

[Devilwoman85uk]

I have to agree with amjkotch20. I read Amanda's blog when she said she couldn't get into Tori work, which I guess is fair enough opinion. But now that she's with Neil Gaiman it seems she can't get enough of Tori. She's even done a cover of Winter which for me just didn't work. I'm not bias against Amanda as I have seen her and Tori perform but with a song like this it's way too personal to cover.

[itsallinyourmind]

ugh. ok. i can't even get all the way to the end. i tried. this is just gross.

what is she trying to prove by doing this? this is not her experience, her song, and she didn't bring anything new to it other than half-assed singing. bad form amanda.

[Sweetforthesoul]

Oh, bad taste. This is freaking disgusting IMO

[Tinkboxer]

Good attempt, but it just doesn't seem right to cover this song....I have to agree with the others........it's too personal.

Just shouldn't be done....

[TIGBEE1]

This is sick... seriously... how disrespectful to "cover" another artist's personal experience like this. She makes me feel ill.

[yellowbirdflying1]

I'm all for covers - if you can bring something new to it...

But this is Tori's song to sing, her own experience.. noone has any right in singing this song.

That's just my view.. it makes me feel a little uneasy watching this.

I wonder what Tori thinks.

[charryhair]

Amanda,as Tori would say "eat my pussy" and make your own songs.

[waitressboy]

Amanda, you're a joke of yourself. Shut up and write your own songs.

[IGGY1110]

you realize tori covers songs too, right?

[ScarletsBeautifulLie]

IGGY1110- Tori Amos does do covers. However, she has never covered someone else's account of his/her rape.

If you think about it, this cover is in very poor taste. I'm sure Amanda doesn't even get all of the references in this song, but she's singing it anyway with this disgusting resigned air, like, "Look at me and how vulnerable I'm making myself to you."

It's not her story. This is the one song no one should touch.

[IGGY1110]

i like how you seem to know for sure that amanda has never been raped or related to this song. how do you know that she didn't feel every word she sang? you were predisposed against liking this because you already had the idea that it was the "one no one should touch." i'm sorry you feel that way; if it was that sacred, though, tori wouldn't put it on an album and she wouldn't perform it live.

[ScarletsBeautifulLie]

I didn't say Amanda has never been raped. I am well aware that Amanda was raped and it inspired her song "Oasis."

I also didn't say Amanda can't possibly relate to the song. All I said was I think it's in poor taste to cover this song because it's so autobiographical, thosewords coming out of someone's mouth just doesn't quite work for me.

[amjkotch20]

i've haven't been sure how i feel about amanda's music since she posted a dresden dolls blog about how she couldn't get into Tori (to be fair it was just an opinion, also around the time of The Beekeeper, but the tone of the blog was somewhat disrespectful towards Tori). now that she's dating Neil Gaiman, she warms to her...and covers this song? i don't like it. i don't think amanda's voice is suited to it either. she belts things, and tori's soft voice created half of this song.

[ourlovegotlost]

@amjkotch20 I asked Amanda personally about that in Portland and she said she is actually a fan of Tori and really loves her previous albums but just hasn't been able to get into the later stuff.

[crinsoncranes]

@ourlovegotlost yeah sure

[faceofjesusinmysoup]

I like Amanda Palmer alot but it's kind of awkward when you take someone else's song about their personal account of being raped

[xx902]

not sure how i feel about this.

[dml4a]

I can't understand why she would be so disrespectful....it's disgusting that she gave herself the right to sing this

[vpittsley]

Trust me when I say I am a huge Tori fan from way back. toured with her in my late teens and was one of those crazies at the show 6 hours early and all that. I don't think this is meant to be disrespectful in any way. I'm sure Tori would never feel slighted by this. She's done her share of covers, so I bet she's of the belief that "imitation is the purest for of flattery." lighten up k?

[ScarletsBeautifulLie]

vpittsley- actually Tori herself has said that she won't cover a song unless she can bring something new to it, or put a different spin on it. This is Amanda's attempt at a carbon copy. It doesn't make sense for Amanda to sing the story of Tori's rape.

[ScarletsBeautifulLie]

I don't know why you got so many thumbs down; it's a valid point.

[sleepypoodle]

I think that what makes the hairs stand up on my neck when Tori sings this is that it was her experience.

This version leaves me cold.

This is not a song for karaoke.

[ZeroPointLibra]

Idk. I used to get that when tori sung it but lately shes been kinda robotic about it. yeah but this cover isnt one of her best but im still soooo excited that she covered another tori song lol

[NickMB]

If you're gonna cover "Me and a Gun," you're gonna have to do something to make it your own. Adding some instrumentation, maybe, a little piano. You can't cover Tori's most personal song the exact same way she sang it. Even Tori changes up the songs she covers to make them her own.

[Bmehr0775]

EXACTLY what I was thinking.

[ProgressivePiano]

it's too tricky to cover that song. it's tori's most personal and intimate one and it's like she would copy tori's diary. she should have chosen another one by tori. anyway it is a good interpretation, very bare and pure too but nothing ever reaches the purity and meaning of the original and nobody should try to cover or interpret it. sorry amanda.

[bigblonde26]

Is Amanda a victim?

[AshDaMash]

I have the same question.

[ScarletsBeautifulLie]

BigBlonde26- Amanda has said that she was date raped (I think at 19 or 20 or something.)

I don't think that being a rape survivor gives her a free pass to cover such a personal song. It's kind of a ridiculous criterion. Like I said earlier, no one should be covering this song. It's Tori's story, Amanda doesn't need to tell it.

[vpittsley]

yes. she was a victim. there's a running theme in her own songs.

[setsunacutey]

I'm not sure what I think about her covering this. She's doing a fabulous job and it really hits the spot, but I would've prefered a different song. Then again, artists should have the right to cover everything even if it's a more 'personal' song. Anyway, it's a beautiful interpretation.

[robertschrader]

God, yet another reason to dislike Fatmanda Palmer. It's funny to me that fools like Kollins from atforumz will shit on Tori's amazing last record (Abnormally Attracted to Sin) and then rant and rave about this tuneless, music retarded sh*t like this.

[ScarletsBeautifulLie]

I don't think anyone has a right to cover this song. It's Tori's most personal song. Amanda put her own spin on the subject of rape (see: oasis) and then stood up for herself when faced with criticism. Now she's trying to step on Tori's side of the fence? Absolutely tasteless.

[BoxRobot]

Fat?! You're silly.

[GDGspire]

No. Just...no. I'm a fan of Amanda and the Dolls, but no one should sing this song except for Tori, unless you do it in an entirely different way, ie. not a capella. And especially not Amanda, who already gets compared unjustly to Tori so much.

[LooDC]

I was sat directly in front of Amanda when she sang this, it was absolutely incredible. x

[strongblackwine]

Thank you! I had just come off a week of following Tori when she sang this, and totally wasn't expecting this.

[CharlieWaters]

Heh, I was at the 2 london shows - to hear this the day after 2 nights of Tori was an unexpected treat!

[tamlynleigh]

WOW I never thought that anyone but Tori could sing this song... goosebumps..

[xKatChemical]

this is beautiful.

amanda's cover is just perfect.

i'm still crying now.

[LecariUK]

This was amazing, I was overwhelmed. Very moving and gave me goosebumps.

[chemxaddict]

Thank you so much for taping this. I was so overwhelmed when she sung this, as a big fan of Tori and Amanda. SO beautiful.

[breathingmethane]

this leaves painful goosebumps and teary eyes.

[chaynicole8908]

i love this song. every time i hear it, i cry. thank you so much for sharing this with me. i love amanda's cover of it so much... made me cry like usual. still sobbing, lol.

thank you!!

[chaynicole8908]

meant "thanks for sharing this with US" - not me specifically, lol