Crucify - 2015 Remaster

This was the fifth single from American singer-songwriter Tori Amos' solo debut album, Little Earthquakes. It was released as an EP in the US and as a single in Europe and Australia. The song was Amos' first Top 20 single in the UK.

In 1986, Amos co-founded the synthpop band Y Kant Tori Read, and was signed to Atlantic Records. The group released a self-titled debut album in 1988, which was a spectacular failure and the band dissolved. Amos explained to Rolling Stone how in this song she dug deep inside herself to reveal the discouragement of expectations never met, utilizing various religious symbolisms to expose her hurting psyche. Said Amos: "I was living in L.A. when I wrote that. Times were changing. I had just recently come out of the Y Kant Tori Read experience, which catapulted me - drove me - to begin making this music. Unknowingly, I just had to write. Because I wasn't used to failure. I'd been a child prodigy. From child prodigy to 'vapid bimbo,' I think, was one of the quotes - it was a galaxy apart. Signs were happening around me. Across town, somebody called Tracy Chapman was in the studio recording her first record. There was another gal that was coming out at that time called Melissa Etheridge. Those two other women were being supported to be true to their art. I kind of got put in a category. There were categories of more artistic, more commercial, and in my mind, commercial wasn't a dirty word. Because at the time, there were all kinds of artists that I liked that were doing it. When Y Kant Tori Read was decimated, the image wasn't a good choice. I learned a lot by not really picking the photographer myself, not working with a proper stylist who understood what you were trying to do and can help you show that. I had to put the pieces back together, because I hadn't been used to being a failure. So I had to then look at my part in the misrepresentation of my soul, and how I pulled the trigger."

The song grew out of Amos' inner frustration with not being able to express herself. She recalled in the Little Earthquakes songbook: "Bells started going off every time I wouldn't stick up for myself. I accepted Quasimodo was a squatter in my cerebral area. A rhythmic pattern kept chasing me around. I dug out the drum machine and put the pattern down. I would leave that pattern on for hours while I just sat and argued with myself about stuff. The first music to get put to the pattern was the 'B' section, 'I've been looking for a savior'... a door opened and the demons started to show up."