’97 Bonnie and Clyde

’97 Bonnie and Clyde

Tori Amos

This song is Amos' cover of the Eminem song of the same name. In the original, the singer tells the story of murdering his wife, while explaining to their small daughter that her mother is only taking “a little nap” even as he forces her to assist in the disposal of the body. For her own recording, Amos speaks from the perspective of the dead mother’s ghost, who attempts to keep her daughter safe from her murderous father as they go on their terrible journey. To record the major verses, Amos crawled inside a small box and imagined she was in the trunk of a car while whispering into a microphone. For the following song on the album, itself a cover of the Stranglers' “Strange Little Girl,” Amos took the persona of the daughter, now an adult haunted by her mother’s murder.