Tori Amos has always been known for her deep lyrics and abstract song meanings. Interestingly, these are kind of both true for her 1994 hit, “Cornflake Girl”, which was partly inspired by reggae music and harrowing stories about genital mutilation.
In a throwback interview about the song, Amos confessed that “Cornflake Girl” had a “wild beginning in reggae.” The singer explained that she had been “listening to reggae music” with one of her “dearest friends”, Karen Binns, a Brooklyn native and stylist who has been working with Amos for decades.
“She was exposing me to some kind of music, and we were talking about female genitalia circumcision of that in Africa,” Amos recalled. She noted that Binns “is African-American” and the pair were talking “about the idea that the women are betrayed by a grandmother or a mother or an older sister” who allows the young girls to be mutilated.
“The women you trust the most are taking you into this butchery, and we had a term for those people,” she continued, then went on to say that these were girls who “would turn on you, wouldn’t be there for you.” These were women who “would maybe expose something that you trusted them with and really let you down.” The women leaving “complete wreckage” in their wake, “those girls were called cornflake girls,” Amos revealed.
Discussing the song further, Amos also shared some insight into the Rabbit and Fox verse. “Rabbit is someone that I knew… a fantastic, magical creature that would live in the woods.” The Rabbit, as Amos remembered, “would work maybe six months of the year with her partner, who was Fox. They were Rabbit and Fox, and…they would live in the woods of Oregon.”
‘Cornflake Girl’ was the first single from Tori Amos’ sophomore album, ‘Under the Pink’ (1994)
She clarified, “I’m talking about the Great Woods, I don’t mean just a park. They would live out in the wilds. So Rabbit living in the wild with Fox,” Amos added, ” I always sort of thought that was romantic.”
Finally, elsewhere in the interview, Amos explained why “Cornflake Girl” had two music videos. “There was the British version, black and white mostly, and there was an American version,” she said. “It just seemed as if I wanted there to be different visual expressions of the song.” Amos concluded, “They’re different in some ways, but there is that sense of betrayal as well in both videos.”
The post How Harrowing Stories of Genital Mutilation (And a Bit of Reggae) Helped Inspire This 1994 Hit Song appeared first on VICE.
