Mann attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes; the band released the EP Bark Along with the Young Snakes in 1982, and a compilation album was issued in 2004. In 1983, seeking a return to "sweetness and melody", she co-founded with Berklee classmate and boyfriend Michael Hausman the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, which achieved minor success in 1985 with its first album, Voices Carry. The title song is said to be inspired by Hausman and Mann's breakup; the video became an MTV staple, winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, though Mann's signature spiky hair would lead some to dismiss the group. Mann performed with the rock band Rush on the song "Time Stand Still" (from Hold Your Fire, 1987), singing backup vocals and appearing in the music video. With Mann playing an increasingly important role in songwriting, 'Til Tuesday released two more albums, Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now. On the final album and tour, musician Jon Brion joined the band, which broke up in 1990 when Mann left to start her solo career.
Around the time of the first album's release, Mann began a romantic relationship with Jules Shear; they broke up before the final 'Til Tuesday album, which contained the song "J For Jules". Professional relationships from the band would continue: Hausman later became Mann's manager, and Brion produced her first two solo albums.
Solo career
In 1993, Mann released Whatever, her first solo album. Promotion suffered due to the collapse of her label, Imago. While only a small hit, the album was critically praised, and paved the way for her next release, 1995's I'm with Stupid, through Geffen Records. Again, reviews were positive, but sales were weak.
Mann had met musician Michael Penn in the 1980s and with comparable songwriting styles and record-industry woes to share, they struck up a friendship during the recording of Stupid, which blossomed into romance and their 1997 marriage. Around this time Brion produced her album Bachelor No. 2, but Geffen saw no hit singles in the material and ordered her back to the studio. The album languished while Mann and the label fought.
Meanwhile, iconoclastic film auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, for whom Penn and Brion had composed a soundtrack, became a close friend. Mann gained greater public recognition in 1999 — indeed, more than anything else since "Voices Carry" — when she contributed eight songs to the soundtrack of Anderson's Magnolia, including the Academy Award-nominated song, "Save Me". Anderson deliberately worked from Mann's lyrics to create the film's characters and situations. Due to this exposure, Mann became sought after to contribute to soundtracks, a success made ironic by the music industry's indifference.
Independence
Fed up with both ineffectual promotion and artistic meddling by her record label, an experience documented in her song "Calling It Quits", she struck out on her own and founded SuperEgo Records in 1999. Mann self-released Bachelor No. 2 in 2000 (see 2000 in music), having negotiated a contract release from Geffen, and though initially only sold at concerts and via her website, the album became successful, allowing her to secure retail distribution through SuperEgo. The album, which included some songs from Magnolia and new material, was widely admired and Mann's "more indie than indie" success was carefully noted by other musicians.
Mann, Penn, Brion, Fiona Apple, and other musicians had by this time developed a subculture around the Largo nightclub in L.A. Penn and Mann formed a concept called Acoustic Vaudeville to recreate it on tour in California and eventually on an irregular, ongoing national tour. The Acoustic Vaudeville shows intermix music and stand-up comedy; among the comedians joining them for individual shows were Janeane Garofalo, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross.
Aimee continued her solo career with Lost in Space (2002), a somewhat more sombre album in the same vein as Bachelor No. 2. In 2004 her website released the Lost in Space Special Edition, which featured a second disc containing six live recordings, as well two B-sides and two previously unreleased songs. In November of that year Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, a live album and DVD recorded at a series of July 2004 shows in Brooklyn, came out; the two discs were sold packaged together in either a CD jewel case or a DVD case.
Mann described her next album, The Forgotten Arm (2005) as a concept album set in the '70s about two lovers who meet at the Virginia state fair and are now on the run. The Joe Henry-produced album, which was recorded mostly live and has few overdubs, was released May 3, 2005. The album reflects Mann's interest in boxing in its illustrations as well as its title, derived from a boxing move in which one arm is used to hit the opponent, causing him to "forget" about the other arm, which is then used to deliver a harsher blow. The album received weaker reviews overall, with critics impressed at the totality but unimpressed with any individual songs.
In October 2006 Aimee released 'One More Drifter in The Snow', an album of Christmas songs. All bar one of the songs, 'Calling on Mary' were covers of holiday classics.
Mann's independence from the industry led her to more explicit political stances. She joined Artists Against Piracy, a group formed to act against the illegal downloading and file sharing of copyrighted music from the Internet. Mann, Penn and Hausman took their experience with SuperEgo to found the independent music collective United Musicians, which is based on the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created, in contrast to normal music industry contracts.
June 2008 brought the release of '@#%&*! Smilers,' a collection of songs featuring greater use of keyboards. Aimee's set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in the same month featured a number of selections from the new album as well as a number of her concert standards. Aimee and her band covered Elton John's 'My Father's Gun' as part of the set.
Little Tornado
Aimee Mann Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Bane of the trailer park
Lifting houses to leave your mark
Little tornado
Noah can build his ark
But he will never disembark
Baby go faster
Make it go twice the speed of you and me
Little tornado
You and the hurricane
Close your eyes and go campaign
Make it go faster
Baby, go faster
Make it go twice the speed of you and me
Oh, no, no we don't
No we don't know
Little tornado blew out the window pane
Left the inside to the rain
The song Little Tornado by Aimee Mann speaks about the destructive nature of a tornado and the devastation it can cause in the lives of people living in trailer parks. The lyrics describe the tornado as a force of nature that lifts and moves everything in its path, leaving behind destruction and chaos. The phrase "Bane of the trailer park" suggests that these events are common in such neighborhoods, making them vulnerable to such natural disasters. The lyrics also compare the tornado to Noah's Ark, implying that people are helpless in the face of such destructive force.
The lyrics imply a sense of urgency, as if the singer is urging the tornado to move faster with lines like "Make it go faster, baby go faster." The repetitions of this line show that the singer is either in awe of or frightened by the raw power of the tornado. The singer also compares the tornado to a hurricane, suggesting that these are two major natural disasters that people do not have any control over. The line "Close your eyes and go campaign" suggests that these disasters often occur without warning, leaving people with no time to prepare or evacuate.
Overall, Aimee Mann's Little Tornado is a powerful song that blends poetic lyrics with haunting melodies, capturing the devastation of a tornado and the emotional impact it has on those affected.
Line by Line Meaning
Little tornado
The subject of the song, a powerful and destructive phenomenon
Bane of the trailer park
Bringing chaos and destruction to vulnerable communities
Lifting houses to leave your mark
Raising structures and leaving a visible path of wreckage and destruction
Noah can build his ark
Even an ancient hero and master builder could not withstand the power of the tornado
But he will never disembark
The destruction would leave no survivors, regardless of their preparedness or skill
Make it go faster
The singer urging on the tornado in a moment of intense emotion
Baby go faster
Addressing the tornado with a term of endearment, almost in awe of its power
Make it go twice the speed of you and me
Desiring it to move at an impossibly fast pace, beyond normal human comprehension
You and the hurricane
Acknowledging another powerful weather phenomenon and grouping it with the tornado
Close your eyes and go campaign
Urging the tornado to move faster and harder, adopting a political metaphor of 'campaigning'
Oh, no, no we don't
Suggesting a regretful tone, acknowledging the helplessness of humans against the power of the tornado
No we don't know
Truly understanding the chaos and destruction that the tornado can bring
Little tornado blew out the window pane
A specific example of the destruction the tornado can bring to homes and belongings
Left the inside to the rain
The aftermath of the tornado, leaving destruction and rainfall behind it
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Aimee Mann
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind