Songfacts®:

• This was the title track of American singer-songwriter Tori Amos' seventh studio set. It was a concept album concerning the cross-country travels of Scarlet, a character loosely based on Amos.
  In her Scarlet Stories compilation, Amos writes of this song: "I think she's ready, now. I think that she's been preparing for this, and breaking herself down, letting herself sore, and shedding ideas and ways of being, to be able to take this in. You know, this is a climax for her."
• In an interview with the Sunday Times June 14th 2009, Amos described this album as her most important work. She explained: "The work was supported by months and months of research. I studied where the Native American nations held land before the European invasion. Scarlet's Walk is a metaphor for walking the walk of the Good Red Road, which was sacred to our Native ancestors. After I released the album, the Native community opened its arms to me and have been trying to teach me about the meanings of their spiritual ways. You can't seek them out, they have to find you."