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During a hectic week in Japan, Tori created the storyboard for the US video for CORNFLAKE GIRL which she directed with Nancy Bennett. The version of the song used for the video is actually an edit featured on the Cornflake Girl US single.
Feeling that the abstract European video wasn't quite right for her American fans, she put together a gripping visual adaptation for the song. The video follows Tori as she drives a pick-up truck across the desert with what she calls "the girls of tomorrow" in the back. It sounds like a pretty picture, but, as should be expected, there are a few ugly twists including the lassoing of one girl's lovely neck by a rope attached to another girl's pinky finger. Tori witnesses the whole thing from the rear-view mirror, the observer of two parts of herself, the bully and the bullied. She finally steps on the brake for a lone cowboy who the girls then stick in a pot and cook for dinner. Of this twist she says, "You know if I'm going to have a boy in my video I'm going to be eating him." All in just over five minutes, the song, driven by the lyrics "this is not really happening you bet your life it is," is brought to life in full color.
The American version of Cornflake Girl happened after Karen and I were 'Running our Mouths.' Atlantic America thought the Black & White version was too ABSTRACT. I'm not really sure what the Black & White version is about - I think a kind of "Dorothy in Hell searching for a Pacific Rim Chef" -- A Journey to the center of the Universe with a Rope
tied around my furry galoshes. At any rate the Black & White was a 2 day shoot -- as was the God video which was happening the same week across town. Because Europe and America were going for 2 different singles it was a pretty busy week for this person. The American version was also shot in L.A. about 2 months later when the Americans finally decided they were going with Cornflake as the British decided on Pretty Good Year, which was shot in a studio in London. The American Cornflake was
choreographed by Bunty, a choice of Karen's -- She also plays one of the women in the back of the truck (the girl in Red confronting the evil Uma Thurman looking control bully). Nancy Bennet and I had a blast doing this with Karen, as always styling and conceptualizing with us. I can't lay claim to a lot if this but I do take credit for the lipstick weaponry and cooking the cowboy -- all in all a low pressure day.
--Tori, "Tori Stories, her take on the videos" promo booklet
Cornflake Girl was released in collectible form in the Tori Amos Video Compilation.
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