From Tori's Maze website, Monday 8 August 2011, by Cécile Desbrun:
Tori explained the song was about a personal experience she had with a man but never gave really clear details on the matter. What she told over the years was that during the Little Earthquakes World Tour, a very hot man came to see her backstage and asked her to take her away for four days to go to Borneo in the tropics, a place he claimed he was coming from. Tori was with Eric Rosse at the time and he was there that day, so she apparently had to decline, but felt seduced to the point “the word ’cloning’ really did come into mind," as she witfully said before singing the song at a show (Atlanta) in 1999. What kept fans talking, however, was that the lyrics of the song and Tori’s anecdote matched almost perfectly what she had told about her meeting with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ leader Anthony Kiedis, that occured around the same time.
During an audio interview (available on the Summertime bootleg), she recounted the way they met in the following terms:
"The funniest - the most embarrassing thing was Anthony Kiedis from the Chili Peppers came up to me and said ’Hi, I really like your music’ and...oh I can’t tell you what he said next! But I said, ’What’s your name?’ (laughs) And I felt so - it wasn’t because I’m not a fan of the music it’s just that he had the most interesting get up. I didn’t know it was a human being. He had this aviator cap on and this whole get up and I didn’t realize who it was. And when I found out...I had read an article he had written in Details on the plane a month before I met him and it said - now I’m telling you something you can’t like tell him because it’d be very embarrassing - but he said what he would do — how much he loved women and how he would, um, romance a woman. And with so many men in the business being god knows what. You don’t know if they’re into dinosaurs or what they’re into these days. It was just a real - all the - all the, uh, women I was with were completely just blushing, and we’re, you know...so when I met him and I found out who it was, all I could think about was ’I feel like I’m 13 years old. I have to leave because...’ Um, I should just shut my mouth! I’m sorry, but it was an interesting embarrassing moment because, you know, it’s hard not to like Anthony. Anthony is just somebody that — let’s be honest about it — he’s just somebody that you could run away with. He’s that kind of person. But, you know, he’d run away with 10 million women, and I’m not a habit. I’m a lifestyle. I will not be a habit for a man ever so...it can never happen."
Something that Tori didn’t say but that is very well know however, was that Anthony spent a long time in Borneo around 1994 and often talked about it. He has also long hair (“hard to hide a hundred girls in your hair”) and many tattoos (“You’re already in there/I’ll be wearing your tattoo”) so fans were very fast to suspect that Kiedis was the famous man that came to see Tori backstage and inspired her “Cloud On My Tongue ” and even argued that the cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ album One Hot minute (1995) was a nod to Tori since we can see a drawing representing a redhead playing the piano, where is sat... a fairy, Tori’s beloved magical creatures she talked a lot about at the time. Tori never identified the rock-star as the inspiration behind the song and often made a point of saying “It’s not who you think” when she told the anecdote of the man in Borneo in concert.
Cloud On My Tongue
Tori Amos Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Leave the wood outside what
All the girls here are freezing cold
Leave me with your Borneo
I said I don't need much to keep me warm
Don't stop now what you're doing
What you're doing my ugly one
Hard to hide a hundred girls in your hair
It won't be fair if I hate her
If I hate her
You can go now
You can go now
You're already in there
I'll be wearing your tattoo
You're already in there
Got a cloud sleeping on my tongue
He goes then it goes and
Kiss the violets as they're waking up
Leave me with your Borneo
I said leave me the way I was before, but
You're already in there
I'll be wearing your tattoo
I'm already in circles and circles and circles again
The girl's in circles and circles and circles again
The girl's in circles and circles and circles again
The girl's in circles and circles and circles again, well
Someone's knockin' on my kitchen door
Leave the wood outside what
All the girls here are freezing cold
You can go now
You can go now
You can go now
You can go now
You're already in there
I'll be wearing your tattoo
You're already in there
Thought I was over the bridge now
Over the bridge now
I'm already in
Circles and circles and circles again
The girl's in circles and circles
Got to stop spinning
Circles and circles and circles again
The girl's in circles and circles and circles again, well
Circles and circles, circles again
The girl's in circles and circles
Got to stop spinning
Circles and circles and circles again
The girl's in circles and circles and circles again, well
The lyrics of Tori Amos's "Cloud On My Tongue" are riddled with enigmatic and metaphorical phrases that can be interpreted in different ways, but the song generally deals with the themes of longing, desire, and self-actualization. The song opens with someone knocking on the kitchen door, and the singer's request to leave the wood outside can imply an attempt to dissuade the visitor from entering her private sphere, or a metaphor for keeping the coldness of the outside world at bay. The reference to Borneo, a tropical island and a former British protectorate known for its wildlife and biodiversity, suggest a yearning for escape or adventure, or an invitation to the visitor to share the singer's imagination.
Line by Line Meaning
Someone's knockin' on my kitchen door
There is someone at the door and I need to answer it.
Leave the wood outside what
I don't need any wood, so leave it outside.
All the girls here are freezing cold
All the women where I am are very cold and uncomfortable.
Leave me with your Borneo
I want to keep your Borneo, which is likely a reference to an exotic place or thing.
I said I don't need much to keep me warm
I don't require much to feel warm and comfortable.
Don't stop now what you're doing
Continue doing what you're doing right now.
What you're doing my ugly one
I'm addressing the person doing the thing as 'my ugly one,' which could be a term of endearment or an insult.
Bring them all here
Requesting that all of the people present come to a particular location.
Hard to hide a hundred girls in your hair
It would be impossible to conceal one hundred girls in one's hair, which is probably a metaphor for something else.
It won't be fair if I hate her
It would be unjust of me to hate her.
You can go now
You are free to leave now.
You're already in there
You are already inside, which could refer to a location, a relationship, or something else entirely.
I'll be wearing your tattoo
I will have your mark or symbol on my body, likely as a sign of affection or ownership.
Got a cloud sleeping on my tongue
I have a feeling of heaviness or weight on my tongue, like a cloud that is resting there.
He goes then it goes and
Something is going away or leaving, possibly the cloud on my tongue.
Kiss the violets as they're waking up
I will give attention to something delicate or vulnerable, like a violet that is beginning to bloom.
Leave me with your Borneo
Again, I want to keep the exotic Borneo, which could symbolize something I prize and want to hold onto.
I said leave me the way I was before, but
I want to be left alone and not changed, but there is something that makes that difficult or impossible.
Thought I was over the bridge now
I believed that I had overcome a difficult challenge or obstacle, but I was wrong.
I'm already in
I am already committed to something or someone, and it's too late to change that.
Circles and circles and circles again
I feel like I am stuck in a cycle of repetition or routine that I cannot escape.
The girl's in circles and circles
I, or whoever the girl represents, am caught in a pattern of behavior that keeps repeating itself.
Got to stop spinning
I need to put an end to the cycle of repeating patterns and behaviors.
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing
Written by: TORI ELLEN AMOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind