Tori Amos - Hey Jupiter

Hey Jupiter

Lyrics by Tori Amos

no one's picking up the phone
guess it's me and me
and this little masochist
she's ready to confess
all the things that I never thought
that she could feel

hey Jupiter
nothing's been the same
so are you gay
are you blue
thought we both could use a friend to run to
and I thought I wouldn't have to be
with you
something new

sometimes I breathe you in
and I know you know
and sometimes you take a swim
found your writing on my wall
if my heart's soaking wet
Boy your boots can leave a mess

hey Jupiter
nothing's been the same
so are you gay
are you blue
thought we both could use a friend to run to
and I thought you wouldn't have to keep
with me
hiding

thought I knew myself so well
all the dolls I had
took my leather off the shelf
your apocalypse was fab
for a girl who couldn't choose between
the shower or the bath

and I thought I wouldn't have to be
with you
a magazine

no one's picking up the phone
guess it's clear he's gone
and this little masochist
is lifting up her dress
guess I thought I could never feel
the things I feel

hey Jupiter
nothing's been the same
so are you gay
are you blue
thought we both could use a friend to run to

hey Jupiter
nothing's been the same
so are you safe
now we're through
thought we both could use a friend to run to
hey Jupiter

Tori Quotes

"Hey Jupiter" was especially hard. I'd made 13 calls from all over the world. I was getting ready to catch a plane from Phoenix to do the Vegas show, and I rang his [Eric Rosse's] number again, but no one was picking up. And in that moment, after all the... you know, the fiery red head behaviour, drawing my lines, making my threats...I was lying there alone, feeling incredibly weak. Feeling like there are not enough sold-out shows, like it doesn't matter that every American show is sold out, because I'm only alive when I'm on a stage with a piano. The rest of the time I'm just this shell. So, when I wrote "Hey Jupiter," it was like, how could we have been so cruel? Because when we started out, there was so much love. Real caring. And I sit here hating someone who I had been head over heels in love with. Taking jets to meet up for four hours and then flying back to do a show the next night. [Time Out - Dec 20, 1995]

Although "Hey Jupiter" finds Amos singing "and I thought I wouldn't have to be/With you as something new," the lyric sheet renders the couplet as "and I thought you'd see with me/You wouldn't have to be something new." What happened?
It kept coming back that way [on the lyric sheet]. I kept correcting it. Seventeen times, revision after revision, it kept coming back. I looked at it, and said, "It needs to hold both of them." The girl needs to be saying it while the other voice is saying it differently, because they can't communicate anymore." [The Baltimore Sun - Jan 21, 1996]

One of the girls on Boys for Pele is "Hey Jupiter," a song about the pain of separation that Amos says is very much about a real man.
I was at my lowest. I was at a hotel in Phoenix, and I realized that for once there wasn't a man I could turn to. [Spin - March 1996]

The album going into "Hey Jupiter" is the point where she knows it's over with this particular relationship, or ships, and it's not ever gonna be what it was again. It is never going back. That's where the whole record turns on its axis. [B-Side - May/June 1996]

"Hey Jupiter" The Dakota Version, named after the place where our favorite person went away. The Dakota represents loss to me and "Hey Jupiter" is really about that true moment of loss, when you know it's over, and yet your heart isn't over. You haven't moved on yet. And I've re-recorded the whole thing because two years later, I wrote it almost two years ago to the date, two years ago in August. And so much has changed for me, just the way I see um... when I recorded "Hey Jupiter," that was the girl part in me. It's piano/vocal on the album, and really that version, it's a special version to me. It's the girl in me that didn't want to let go of her dream, her prince, her fantasy. And this version is definitely the woman who looks back and says, "You're still beautiful and I can still honestly say that I love you, and yet I'm dancing in the sand by myself and I need to do that. And you need to do what you need to do." But it's a real... I needed to do it. So, it's a re-recording and it's coming out as an EP with four live tracks from this tour that haven't been on any of the B-sides before, any of the EPs of live stuff. [KTBZ, Houston - June 17, 1996]

On "Hey Jupiter" she knows the way she has looked at relationships with men and put them on a pedestal is over. There's a sense of incredible loss because I knew that I would never be able to see the same way again. It's freeing, and yet there's a sense of grieving with that. [?]

Where did you get the inspiration for the song "Hey Jupiter"?
I was going through something in my life, and I felt the presence at the end of my bed of a ghost of someone I recognized. I was in a hotel room in Arizona during the Under the Pink tour. I followed this ghost into the bathroom. I turned on all the water... the shower... I let the room steam up... the water became part of the sound, almost like an orchestra... and this ghost drew a picture for me in the mirror in the steam. The way I interpreted the picture was that earth and Jupiter were in love billions of years ago, then they were separated, and now they are billions of miles apart, and this is earth's love song to Jupiter. [?]

I was really in a bind because um, I was doing some bad things and I was in a love triangle with these... I don't even know if they were real now, I'm confused about the whole thing. So let's see I was lying in bed. Strange things happen to you on tour, like strange Englishmen start sitting at the end of your bed, apparitions of dead guys. And they start singing songs to you. And this guy was definitely dead. And he was definitely singing to me. So I'm confused about the copyright laws. I'm not sure if I need to call his ex-wife and give her part of the song or not. But why should I do that? She's rich. She's not nice. So anyway, I kept the copyright. And the guys forgot who I was and the song is mine. [VH1 Storytellers - 1998]

That was a song that came to me in Arizona, almost like it was being sung to me from a male voice. I was in a hotel room, in the shower. You can imagine: running for the tape recorder, wet, trying not to electrocute myself. [She knew exactly what the song was about:] Trying to step into womanhood from girlhood. [Boys for Pele Deluxe Edition liner notes - 2016]

Live Versions

"Hey Jupiter"
June 27, 1996 - New York, New York
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

"Hey Jupiter"
October 12, 2001 - Strange Little Webcast

"Hey Jupiter"
September 4, 2003 - West Palm Beach, Florida
Welcome to Sunny Florida

"Hey Jupiter"
October 29, 2011 - Brussels, Belgium

"Hey Jupiter"
October 5, 2012 - New York, New York

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