|
"As far as Space Dog goes, it was a drawing on a mud wall in New Mexico. It was a shape, and it really was, if I could take a picture and show it to you sometime, the whole record was recorded in mud, mud walls, adobe and wood ceilings, wood floors, because Eric really loved the sound, which is why it sounds like it has that warm womb thing. Well, in one of the rooms, there was this -- it's Space Dog. A feather on his head, and it's this sharp nose. It just really is. That's how so many of these songs came, in this Under the Pink world. If you rip all your skin off, we're all pink, and it's about what's underneath that. That's how I see it, anyway. Space Dog would come and visit me, just as my alternative deity, so to speak. The idea that everybody puts their faith in, I don't know, this yogi or this channel or this god or this saint or this whatever, well, Space Dog was like, hey, it's my deity. I was flying over Chicago. Before I got into the city, I was flying over, and I just felt this scene happening by this 7-11 I could see way in the distance. It was a very cold night. It was in March, and I was going in for a signing at Rose Records. I was flying in, and I felt this young boy, 13, 14 years old, with his family. He's eating peas. His family is like, some of those people that show up on Oprah Winfrey sometimes, that you just go, My God, if I had to go home with them, I would contemplate, like, eating Pledge. And I just felt his presence. I felt him just opening himself up to another possibility, because his world was just so closed. The best thing he had near him was the 7-11 goddess. I was just watching from the -- I was in the window seat, and I was just watching, like, way down. I felt Space Dog. I've been talking to him, and I felt Space Dog going, 'Lemon pie. Coming through, lemon pie.' It was very Agent 99. I kind of felt like Agent 99 going, "Oh, Max." And this young man responded. There is something out there. The idea, again, with Pretty Good Year, there's a lot of triads in this whole record, and Pretty Good Year and Space Dog kind of kiss each other, where -- let me focus my thought. In the bridge, Deck the halls, going back again, to, again, not having resolve. I'm young again. Somewhere, someone must know the ending. Where's Neil when you need him? You know, that's all in that. Is she still pissing in the river now? Patti Smith. Heard she'd gone, moved into a trailer park. Concept being, somebody that had all of these beliefs, and then just numbed themselves. And Space Dog's philosophy is, well, together, when I'm hanging out with him, it's, So sure we were on something. Your feet are finally on the ground, he said. That's Space Dog's philosophy. And in the counter vocal in the end goes, again, the betrayal stuff, mostly girls, and yet, if I'm in the present, and I'm on something, which is on the earth, on the ground, then I have total opportunity to decide what my reaction will be. I can't decide anything else, but I can decide if I'm going to let something totally take over my life, which it did in The Waitress. But by Space Dog, I'm going, I do have a choice. It's part of the growth."
-- Tori; The Baltimore Sun, 1994
"Flying over Chicago from New Mexico I heard him -- him who lives near the 7 eleven
fork in hand at a dead dinner table staring at the peas on his plate going 'come
in lemon pie do you read me do you read me beam me up get me out of this place
i can't have their genes in me come in lemon pie' -- i read you buddy read you buddy"
-- Tori; Under The Pink Songbook
"I wrote this record in Mexico and there was this drawing on the mud wall where we were staying. and it was of this.. I thought it was a dog anyway. And I would look at this dog all the time and I thought it was saying stuff to me. I got on a plane to go to Chicago..and you know, most people think that I'm nuts. But the truth is, these things just like happen to me, I don't like dream them up. I was busy reading a romance novel, I was way more interested in what was going on in my book. And all of a sudden I hear this voice. It's this dog talking to me. And it goes, "Tori, check out the guy in Chicago." I said, "What guy in Chicago?" "Listen to that kid down there." I'm like, huh? And I'm like listening, right. And I hear this guy thinking, I hear him going, "I am not sitting here with these people. They are not my parents. I'm not like totally grossed out by these people." And was like talking into his peas. And he's going, you know, "get me outta here. get me outta here. these people belong on Oprah Winfrey" and um, he's like "lemon pie, do you read me, do you read me" And I'm like, I read you, buddy."
-- Tori, in-concert; Maastricht, Holland 05/07/94
The To Venus And Back: Still Orbiting album contains a live version of Space Dog, recorded during the Plugged '98 Tour.
|
BACK