Unrepentant Geraldines

Album: Unrepentant Geraldines (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The title track of Tori Amos' fourteenth studio album, this was inspired by an etching the singer owns by the 19th century Irish artist Daniel Maclise. She explained to Uncut magazine: "It's of this woman called Geraldine, looking all penitent, like Titian's paintings of Mary Magdalene. And it got me thinking about why wayward women in art have to be penitent. I'm sure Geraldine was one helluva gal! She would have been fun to hang out with. Why does the heart have a problem with female hedonism? Why can't we have unrepentant Geraldines?"
  • After working with the idea for a few days, the song started to shift away from the woman in the etching. "I began really seeing that it wasn't about just one person called Geraldine," Amos explained in a 2014 Spotify commentary. "It was that any, any woman can be this person who has to stand by what she believes in at a certain point."
  • Unrepentant Geraldines was Amos' first album to enter the Top 10 of the US albums chart since 2009's Abnormally Attracted To Sin.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Janet Jackson

Janet JacksonFact or Fiction

Was Janet secretly married at 18? Did she gain 60 pounds for a movie role that went to Mariah Carey? See what you know about Ms. Jackson.

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up Musicians

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up MusiciansSong Writing

Eddie (played by Johnny Depp in the video) found fame fleeting, but Chuck Berry's made-up musician fared better.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Emmylou Harris

Emmylou HarrisSongwriter Interviews

She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.

Alice Cooper

Alice CooperFact or Fiction

How well do you know this shock-rock harbinger who's been publicly executed hundreds of times?

Dwight Twilley

Dwight TwilleySongwriter Interviews

Since his debut single "I'm On Fire" in 1975, Dwight has been providing Spinal-Tap moments and misadventure.