Sweet the Sting
From Toripedia
"Sweet the Sting" | ||||
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Single by Tori Amos | ||||
from the album The Beekeeper | ||||
Released | 2005 | |||
Genre | Piano | |||
Length | 4:16 | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Songwriter(s) | Tori Amos | |||
Producer(s) | Tori Amos | |||
Tori Amos singles chronology | ||||
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Sweet the Sting (US) | ||||
"Sweet the Sting" is a song by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos. It serves as the second track on her eighth studio album The Beekeeper, released on February 22, 2005, by Epic Records in both the United States and Canada.
Following the trend of her several previous singles, "Sweet the Sting" was released as a promotional single only, with physical CDs produced for radio stations.
"Sweet the Sting" appeared on radio stations throughout the summer of 2005.
Background[edit | edit source]
On the limited edition of The Beekeeper, Amos explains the inspiration and correlation with one of the album's themes:
Elixirs and Herbs is a place that the passion that this woman has for her beliefs or the man that she loves, for the direction that humanity is going, is very much where she is exploring and allowing herself not only to heal what are wounds, but to allow her wounds to express themselves and this doesn't always have to be a place of victimization this sometimes is a place of being able to confront something that is out of balance and it is an ancient practice that the Bee shaman have been working with for thousands of years they work with a tradition that forces you to look at those places that may need to be stung and there's a song on this record in the Herbs and Elixirs garden called "Sweet the Sting" and in order for you or I to gain the sweetness, wisdom does not come without the sting.
You can find additional song meanings here.
Lyrics[edit | edit source]
with a strut into the room
with his hat cocked sure defiantly
he said "I. I have heard.
that you can play the way I like it to be played."
I said, I can play. anyway that you want.
But first I want. I want to know
Baby is it Sweet Sweet
Sweet the Sting
is it real this infusion-
can it heal where others before have failed?
If so then somebody
Shake Shake Shake
me sane
'cause I am inching ever closer
to the tip of this scorpion's tail.
He said "I laid my weapons
down with my pistol
fully loaded, a hunted man
to my root, will it end
or begin in your cinnabar juice?"
is it Sweet Sweet
Sweet your Sting
is it real your infusion
can it heal where others before have failed?
If so then somebody
Shake Shake Shake
me sane
'cause I am inching ever closer
to the tip of this scorpion's tail.
Love let me breathe
breathe you in
melt the confusion
until there is
there is you - union
Baby is it Sweet Sweet
Sweet your sting
is it real your infusion
can it heal where others before have failed?
If so then somebody
Shake Shake Shake
me sane
'cause I am inching ever closer
to the tip of this scorpion's tail.
Baby is it sweet, now now
Baby is it sweet, boy
Baby is it sweet
Video[edit | edit source]
Music Video[edit | edit source]
The music video for "Sweet the Sting" was recorded in 2005 and directed by Alex Smith. The sequence of the video takes place during a rehearsal with Amos's gospel choir, with whom she worked to record certain tracks on The Beekeeper, as well as at another location, showing Amos interacting with her crew, playing the piano alone in a small room, and singing without the gospel choir. Most of the video focuses on Amos playing the B3 Hammond organ and singing, making the "Sweet the Sting" a simpler, documentary-type video, compared to her other videos which often include a narrative story with elaborate props and technical camera work.
The music video for "Sweet the Sting" has been released on iTunes and subsequently on Amos's video compilation, Fade to Red (2006).
Promotional Performances[edit | edit source]
You can find the rest of the promotional performances here.
Text Interviews[edit | edit source]
This can be a place of being able to confront something that's out of balance. And it's an ancient practice that the bee shamans have been working with for thousands of years. They work with a tradition that forces you to look at those places that may need to be stung. And in order for you or for I to gain the sweetness... wisdom does not come without the sting. [toriamos.com - January 31, 2005]
Yesterday I spent hours on "Sweet the Sting"; from playing the piano riff over and over to listening to it on my crap tape recorder, to masking changes and incorporating them. The story started evolving soon after the B3 Hammond organ, whom I have named "Big Momma," was delivered. Everytime I entered the room in the morning to begin my practice time, Big Momma would be humming. Yes, of course her power had been left on, but I'm talking about the kind of humming you detect in a girlfriend after she's had a romantic evening. Turns out Big Momma has a boyfriend. Another organ, specifically another B3 organ. This romance led me to the story of two B3 players, one female, the other male, whose erotic dance revolves around each impressing the other by how well they play their own organ. [Tori Amos: Piece by Piece - 2005]
The Beekeeper, in one word, was about "Sinsuality." Really trying to marry the Biblical female archetype with the pagan archetype. So you go back to Mesopotamia, and you read about the Great Mothers that come from the line of Inanna and Lilith, and then Biblically you have the Great Mother, Eve. The Beekeeper was really about looking at religious mythology as well as classical mythology that isn't included in the Bible. The one song that I think really embodies the sovereignty of Woman in her flesh -- the physical body, her mental body, her emotional body, and her spiritual body -- for me on this record was "Sweet the Sting." I desired Afro-Cuban rhythms, the Hammond organ, as well as the gospel choir as a triad, as a pyramid shape.
It was really inspired by Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise." As a young girl I would listen to that record, naked feet reaching deep down into rich, red earth. It made a lot of sense to me to plug in through this raw essence that Stevie was able to channel when he played and composed, to really be able to harness the vortex of sexuality and spirituality. I always thought that he was very close to a raw spirituality when I would hear his music. I wanted to bring that into our assimilation of the modern woman as well as the ancient mythological undertone before it was subjugated by the patriarchy and demeaned.
It was really a marriage. I'm talking about on this record, the marriage of the Magdalene and of the Mother Mary, what I call marrying the Marys. That's what it is within a Christian context. In the Judaic or a wider sense, it would be the marrying of the Lilith and Eve, so that they're not competitive or severed, but they each become sovereign, whole. All women can embody all of these female archetypes, maybe to different degrees because of what you're drawn to. That's what The Beekeeper was really about, the secrets of the hive that have been with us but suppressed for thousands of years. "Sweet the Sting" was really an exercise in growing, learning, and becoming whole; sometimes you have to first be disembodied before you can transform these disjointed parts of the self so that they come together as a mosaic and not left eternally dismembered. [A Piano liner notes - 2006][1]
Live Performances[edit | edit source]
The song has been played 37 times live.[2]
You can listen to more live performance of the song here.
Sheet Music[edit | edit source]
You can find sheet music at the following links.
Piano[edit | edit source]
Figure Tori Out[edit | edit source]
YANTA[edit | edit source]
Music Notes[edit | edit source]
These transcriptions come from official releases.
Guitar[edit | edit source]
Music Notes[edit | edit source]
These transcriptions come from official releases.
Covers[edit | edit source]
You can find a list of covers here.
Releases[edit | edit source]
Promo CD[edit | edit source]
Promotional CDs for "Sweet the Sting" were produced for radio stations, but dispersed sparsely, making it difficult to locate a copy of the single. Since the song was not re-mixed or edited for single release, a separate digital download of the single was not made available because the same version appeared on the previously released album.
The promotional CDs released contain only the album version of the song, with no accompanying B-sides or bonus material.
Sweet the Sting has been released both studio and live on different formats. These include the following:
Official[edit | edit source]
- A Piano: The Collection
- Fade to Red
- Legs and Boots
- News01
- November 2005 Part 3
- The Original Bootlegs
- Radioplay - Euro Express - 622U - June 17, 2005
- XM Artist Confidential Vol. 1
Unofficial[edit | edit source]
There have been no unofficial bootlegs released as of yet.
Personnel[edit | edit source]
- Tori Amos – acoustic piano, B3 Hammond organ, vocals, producer
- Matt Chamberlain – drums
- Jon Evans – bass guitar
- Mac Aladdin – acoustic and electric guitar
- London Community Gospel Choir – background vocals
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ "Sweet the Sting." yessaid, 26 Apr. 2022, http://www.yessaid.com/lyrics/2005thebeekeeper/02sweetthesting.html
- ↑ "Tours - All Tours." Tori Amos Setlist Database, 26 Apr. 2022, https://www.toriset.org/index.php?t=0
The Beekeeper | |
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Songs | "Parasol" • "Sweet the Sting" • "The Power of Orange Knickers" • "Jamaica Inn" • "Barons of Suburbia" • "Sleeps With Butterflies" • "General Joy" • "Mother Revolution" • "Ribbons Undone" • "Cars and Guitars" • "Witness" • "Original Sinsuality" • "Ireland" • "The Beekeeper" • "Martha's Foolish Ginger" • "Hoochie Woman" • "Goodbye Pisces" • "Marys of the Sea" • "Toast" |
B-sides | "Dolphin Song" • "Garlands" • "Not David Bowie" |
Live | "The Original Bootlegs" |
Related | "Original Sinsuality Tour" • "Summer of Sin Tour" |