Recording
Following the dissolution of her synth-pop band Y Kant Tori Read, Amos came back to Atlantic Records in 1990 with a 10-track demo tape. The track listing consisted of "Russia" (later to become "Take to the Sky") / "Mary" / "Crucify" / "Happy Phantom" / "Leather" / "Winter" / "Sweet Dreams" / "Song for Eric" / "Learn to Fly"" / Flying Dutchman".
The album was then recorded in three phases. The first batch of tracks ("Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "Winter", "Happy Phantom", "Leather", "Mother", "Sweet Dreams", "Russia/Take To The Sky", "Upside Down" and "Flying Dutchman") were recorded at Capitol Records in Los Angeles with Davitt Sigerson producing. After hearing the first group of songs, the record company was unhappy. Tori and her then boyfriend Eric Rosse recorded the second group of songs ("Girl", "Precious Things", "Tear In Your Hand" and "Little Earthquakes", plus "Take Me with You", which would not be completed until 2006 and finally released on A Piano: The Collection). This phase was recorded on a limited budget in Eric's home studio, using his old 3M 24-track analog machine and a Yamaha CP-80 piano. They also went outside to Stag Studios to use a Yamaha grand piano. During these sessions, Amos recalled the origins of the B-side "Thoughts":
" Girl was being recorded and I couldn't get a take. I was freaking out. Eric was in the booth playing air ball encouraging me to take a ten minute. Glued on the bench, I started this thing coming from nowhere singing nonsense into the mic. When I finished, Eric said, 'It's a take.' I said, 'What?' - he had left the machine running."
These two phases resulted in the original "final" 13-track version of the album, submitted in January 1991, as revealed in the liner notes for the A Piano: The Collection box set. The tracklist is very similar to the released version: "Crucify" / "Girl" / "Silent All These Years" / "Precious Things" / "Winter" / "Sweet Dreams" / "Little Earthquakes" / "Leather" / "Russia" / "Mother" / "Tear In Your Hand" / "Upside Down" / "Flying Dutchman". Of all 14 tracks recorded, only "Happy Phantom" was omitted at this point, but it would later appear on the released tracklist.
For phase three, Amos traveled to England to work with Ian Stanley. Here she recorded what would become two of her early singles. "Me And A Gun" was the last song written for the album, while "China" was an early track, originally titled "Distance", that she wrote in 1987 along with some of the songs that appeared on Y Kant Tori Read. During those sessions, she also recorded several B-sides.
The second final version of the album was accepted by the record company. However, this was still revised before the final release; a 13-track promo cassette shows that "Little Earthquakes" was to appear after "Happy Phantom" on side one, with side two closing with "Flying Dutchman". The latter track was presumably dropped due to the physical restraints of the vinyl LP format. The four songs recorded with Davitt Sigerson that did not make it to the final version of the album were included as B-sides on the singles released from Little Earthquakes: "Upside Down on "Silent All These Years" in the UK and on "Winter" in the US, "Flying Dutchman" on "China", and "Sweet Dreams" and "Take to the Sky" on "Winter".
The record label relocated Amos to London, where they thought she would have an easier time of breaking into success, due to the country's renown for eccentric performers. Atlantic's European counterpart, East West, promoted the record extensively. Amos spent much of 1991 performing in small bars and clubs in London and playing for music executives and journalists, often in her own apartment. The "Me and a Gun" EP containing four tracks was released in October 1991, receiving considerable critical attention. The single was re-issued the following month with "Silent All These Years" as the lead composition, and it became her first chart entry at UK #51 following Single of the Week support from BBC Radio 1 and a TV debut on the high-rated chat show of Jonathan Ross on the BBC. The back cover of the album contains pictures of phallus mushrooms, also known as stinkhorns.
Read more about this topic: Little Earthquakes
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“Self-expression is not enough; experiment is not enough; the recording of special moments or cases is not enough. All of the arts have broken faith or lost connection with their origin and function. They have ceased to be concerned with the legitimate and permanent material of art.”
—Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)
“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)