"Cooling" is a beautiful composition highlighting Tori's ethereal and beautiful voice, immense talent on the piano, and poetic way with lyrics. Though it was written for Tori's third solo album, Boys for Pele, the studio version of the song has never been included on any Tori album and it wasn't until April 20, 1998 that it first became a bee side. This elegant girl was first brought to the attention of Ears with Feet when she showed up at an extremely emotional and sad ocassion on October 23, 1996 during the second concert she played at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami, Florida. That night, during the fourth song, "Space Dog," Tori stopped the song, visibly crying, and said " Guys, I'm so sorry, but I just can't play. I am so sick, guys. [crys] I'm sorry. I'm am just so sick," and ran off stage with her face in her hands, her guitarist, Steve Caton following soon after. After roughly twelve minutes, Tori came back out and said, "Guys, I've just had a really bad day. They tell me that I can go home, go to the hospital, or play. So I don't know what's going to happen. This has never happened before but we're just going to pretend we're in my living room. I'm just gonna play like we're old friends. O.K." She then played six songs (including one that's been described as "Girl" with other lyrics about healing herself). Then, she introduced the next song as one that didn't make it onto Pele, but it would probably be on the next album, and she went into "Cooling," obviously in its first stages (much of the lyrics in the studio version were not performed, most likely because they didn't exist at the time), but amazing as ever. The next night, at a meet and greet, when an Ear with Feet asked what the song was called, Tori said it was "Cooling," and so the Toriphile community had another reason to be excited for her next album. However, when the tracklisting for her next album was announced, her fourth solo effort from the choirgirl hotel, released in May of 1998, "Cooling" was not among the list of new songs. But, on Monday, April 20, 1998, in the U.K, the song was included as a bee side for second part of the album's first single, "Spark." The song appeared different from the original performance, with signifcantly more lyrics, including a whole new verse. It appeared "Cooling" had grown, and she definitely had. It has been performed many times since (without the extra verse, oddly enough), during concerts on her many world tours. A live version of the song, from the December 3, 1998 show from East Lansing, Michigan, was included on the second CD, the live disc, of her two CD set to venus and back, released in 1999. As she explains on the track, the song was originally written for Pele, told her too "fuck off," said "no" to choirgirl, and decided she'd like to be played live. Whichever version of "Cooling" you happen to hear, however, one thing is true about all of them, the experience is stunning. It takes you to the core of who Tori Amos is, and afterward all you can think about is travelling through it again. It may go in through your ears, but it goes straight to your heart, never letting its relentless beauty escape from its new found home.

soundclip taken from the debut
of "Cooling" on October 23, 1996