I have made no secret of being a huge Tori Amos fan.

In this Pitchfork Media short from 2017 she says she is almost 54, and yes she likes adult coloring books, and Frank Zappa. Say no more.

Of course I can’t say no more.

First a bit of history. I am pretty sure that Kris B. from Erdman turned me on to Tori Amos. I remember getting “Under The Pink” from him. That started me on a HUGE deep dive into the Tori Amos catalog, both CD’s and Bootlegs. I quote myself here from a previous post:

“I have a very large collection of Tori Amos bootlegs and spent a really alarming portion of my life finding and downloading these boots, most from a website that I found on accident one night that had literally hundreds. I only stopped when I ran out of space and had to start burning them all off to CD’s as backup and realized how much I had that I decided to take a break. I could always go back and get more I reasoned. I should probably stop for a while. That website disappeared eventually, so what I have is it, and all I will likely EVER need. Out of curiosity I just counted and I have over 145 Tori bootlegs. I am mildly ashamed.”

Let me just say that in prepping to write this post I discovered another site that has bootlegs, and tons of them. I may have to dip in again… I have plenty of storage now. However, this is not the subject of this post.

I have purchased the last few Tori albums on my phone, and I see there is another one recently that I need to get, but when I am out and about I do not look for Tori CD’s. The only actual CD’s I have purchased are weird singles or $1 St. Vinny’s or Library Book Sale CD’s.

Recently though, I found myself in Half Price Books and glancing at the CD’s while I was talking to Cindy who was calling from her travel to Mexico. As I was chatting I noticed an odd looking box set on the “look at these” shelf where they put the items that are quick movers or things they are showcasing. I almost didn’t pick it up, but I wanted to see what it was. It looked embossed and as though it was missing its cover.

When it was in my hand and I could see the price label, I was surprised to see it was Tori Amos. “Tori Amos – The Original Bootlegs”. This one I have not only never seen before, but knew I didn’t have, so… I brought it home with me.

Here is the Wiki on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Original_Bootlegs

I suspect that these were once available on Tori’s website, but couldn’t find them there anymore. So I checked Amazon.

Say what?!   $199.98   No. That is ridiculous. However, I can see from the picture that at least I am not missing the cover, it just doesn’t have one. I checked my other go to for pricing in the real world. Discogs.

That seems more reasonable.  Regardless, I paid a great price.

The box is a little dirty, but all 12 CD’s (2 per show) are there.

I listened to one disc of one of the shows on the way home and it was fantastic. In each show she does a 2 song covers bit. On this one “Paramount Theater, Denver Colorado 4/19/05” she does “I Ran” by Flock Of Seagulls, and “Suzanne” which was written by Leonard Cohen, but that I know by Neil Diamond. So cool.

I only have a limited amount of CD’s left in my collection, having given most of them away, but this is staying with me and will be at home alongside the Tori CD singles I still have squirreled away.

Listening to a YouTube mix of Tori as I write this.

Still love this music.

“Native Invader” is the new album. I just reserved it from my local library.

Booyah.