She was wise beyond her years when she wrote "I'm OK when everything is not OK."

SOTW: Upside Down
 

The very first b-side:





Me and a Gun 12" single (21-Oct-91):

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7243/6...2cd8fd88_o.jpg

USA Winter Ltd Edition (24-Nov-92):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...r_(Single).png god i love to turn my little blue world upside down
god i love to turn my little blue world upside down
inside my head the noise
chatter, chatter, CHATTER, chatter, chatter
you see i’m afraid i’ll always be
still coming out of my mother upside down


don’t you love to turn this little blue girl upside down
oh i know you love to turn this little blue girl baby upside down
but my heart it says
you’ve been shatter, shatter, shatter, SHATTER, shattered
and i know you’re still a boy
still coming out of your mother


but when you gonna stand on your own
i say the world is sick
you say tell me what that makes us darlin’
you see you always find my faults
faster than you find your own
you say the world is getting rid of her DEMONS
i say baby, what have you been smokin’

well i dreamed, i dreamed, i dreamed i loved a black boy
my daddy would scream oh yeah

don’t you love to turn this little blue girl upside down
any kind of touch i think is better than none even upside down
but you see i’m tangled up
got a kitten, kitten, kitten, KITTEN in my hair
cincinnati, i like the word
it’s the only thing we can’t seem to turn upside down


well i found the secret to life
i found the secret to life
i’m okay when everything is not okay
i said i found the secret to life
i found the secret to life
i’m okay when everything is not okay
is not okay


oh, we turn and we turn our
little blue world upside down
i said, don’t we love to turn our
little blue world baby upside down
inside my head a voice
chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter
and it says girl you’re all the same
still coming out of your mothers
still coming out of your mothers upside down


I think it set the template for a perfect Tori b-side beautifully. A song whose lyrical and musical themes swoop around each other, where each bridge could bring you back to the last one or suddenly dart up to another level.

The lyrics have naivity and wisdom in balance, exactly capturing the ingenue part of the spirit of the LE period songs I think - more reflective and less firey that most of the album tracks. The low-fi production suits it perfectly, demo-ish synth strings and church bell tolling. I think grandiose Flying Dutchman style orchestration would miss the point of this quietly determined little song. And the backing vocals at "I found the secret to life, I'm OK when everything is not OK" are sublime, as is everything about that bridge.

It's one of those songs that always leaves me thinking "oh, is it over already?" as it breezes right through and off into the distance after what seems like just a couple of minutes.

BRB, got a kitten kitten kitten kitten in my hair.


(All The Girls Hate Her) / Upside Down - live in Boston, 1994

I remember when I bought the Winter single and was listening to Upside Down for the first time in my car driving through malfunction junction here in Birmingham. It was a gray and cold winter day, and I just felt so at peace with this song. It's one of her best b-sides!

Such a great song. Not only are the backing vocals to "I'm ok when everything is not ok" great, but I love the lyrics so much. It's something I think about a lot. My life is usually messy in a lot of ways, but one consistent element is that through all the crap, I'm usually ok. It's all kind of Upside Down. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.gif

one of my all time favorite songs.

I can't even explain how much this song means to me. I'm going to be a total fangirl and say it's just one of those songs that IS me. I didn't get into Tori until Pele came out and didn't really get into b-sides until sometime around Choirgirl. This was the first one I heard and it was the version on the Live from NY VHS. The world just stopped for me in that moment and I've been a collector ever since. I've not heard it live in the 8 times I've seen her but I cross my fingers every time. I even requested it in 2007 when I went to my first Meet and Greet.

http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/a...ark/upside.jpg

This would have made a great opening track to LE. It's definitely one of her best moments. I hope it will make the anniversary record, though I'm sure it will be replaced by Maybe California or some other such abortion.

This is a song you give to someone new to Tori to impress them.

One of my favorite b-sides. Here are a couple of beautiful solo versions. No amount of crap she subsequently released or artifice she exhibited can ever diminish my love for the artistry, passion, and sincerity evident in these performances.

It's such a raw and simple song, but also so very intense at the same time. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo.../loveicon2.gif
I love the live b-side version from 1994 that you posted. It's my favourite.
I alway giggle when she says how she doesn't perform it that often anymore on the Bliss single version.
"What do you mean, not often? She performs it all the time. - No she doesn't, idiot. You just listen to it all the time"
Also: Live at Montreux - the song sounds even great pre-Bösendorfer

I always forget about this song somehow. But I'm glad I do, because it never gets overplayed and when I go back to it, it's like seeing an old friend.

The "I'm ok when everything is not ok" line is SO good.
The song could have only that line and it would be awesome anyway.

My favorite B-side.
The little touches like the church bell, the voice, constant shifts in melody that never strays too far from the overall lines.
And the lyrics... Back then Tori was the master of saying big things using small words.

I never quote that part, although, It is the best line in the song. I have always found that the minute I think "I got it like that" everything crumbles. I can't say I'm ok when everything isn't because watch something horrible happen and I lose my mind. Murphy's Law.

THIS

And THIS

Love!

This song has been a very good friend as of late. I have related very much to feeling my world has been turned upside down. I have always loved this one. I think Wout touched on all the ways in which this song literally sings to me.

added...I too have always love the, "I'm ok when everything is not ok" part. It use to be that life was always in chaos for me and it was my comfort zone, now it has changed from me. You do what you have to do in the moment. You're in survival mode, you don't think you just react. You get through it and realize that you are usually stronger than you give yourself credit for when it gets rough. It's all the nit-noid things that get in the way when you have time to stress and over think.