The lyric, "Where's Neil when you need him?" refers to Tori's friend Neil Gaiman, an English fantasy author at the time known for his comic series The Sandman. Later a tribute album for Gaiman came out with the lyric as the album's title.
The line, "Is she still pissin' in a river," is a nod to Patti Smith's 1976 tune "Pissin' In A River." Amos explained the references to Gaiman and Smith, and how they tie in with the meaning of the song: "When I make the reference to Neil Gaiman and Patti Smith, or when I say 'deck the halls,' this is going into the past where I had visions of how I thought things would turn out. Always coming back to you the people that haunt you. 'It's you again, it's you again' or 'Is she still pissin' in a river, heard she'd moved into a trailer park,' meaning didn't carry the torch as far as she could. The song is about giving your power to someone else - passing the torch."
Under The Pink, Amos' sophomore solo album, debuted at #1 in the UK, where the singer also made a big impression with her first release, Little Earthquakes.
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.