Tori Amos - Hereinmyhead.com

little amsterdam
in a southern town
hominy get it on the plate girl
momma keep your head down
momma it wasn't my bullet

don't take me back to the range
i'm just comin out of the cell in my brain
girl you got to know there days
which side your own

momma got shit
she loved a brown man
then she built a bridge in the sheriff's bed
she'd do anything to save her man
you see her olives are cold pressed
and her best friend is a sun dress
but momma
it wasn't my bullet

round and a round and a round i go
round and a round this time for keeps
father only you can save my soul
and playing that organ must count
for something
girl you got to know these days
which side your on
little amsterdam
shut down today
they buried her with a
butter bean bouquet
and the sheriff now can't ride away
like he said into the sunset
and i won't say
he shouldna paid
but momma
it wasn't my bullet

© Sword & Stone

n/a

"Go further into the place of the South, the place of the hidden, with Little Amsterdam, which is all metaphorical, about wanting to kill people, being angry at people that you feel have done something... the whole domination thing, the whole hierarchy, patriarchy...and her way to fight back and they are blaming her but it wasn't her bullet but she still believes it would have been fine if..." She makes a soft gunshot noise. "They lost him".
-- Tori; B Side, 05/96

"The South represents so much that is hidden. This record is about the fragments that have been hidden. So naturally, I had to follow that ... and go after that frequency. There is a lot of domination in this song. The idea that you don't follow your heart because you're afraid that if you do that you can't have your family or you can't have your friends or that you'll be outcast. That's very much what the South has been about for me - speaking about that which was hidden could get you really ostracized."
-- Tori; Michael Jackson radio show, KABC, Feb 9, 1996