It is my opinion that Tori Amos coats every melody she makes with golden dust. Appropriately, Gold dust is the eighteenth and last track of Scarlet's Walk, preceded by Virginia.
Everything is beautiful about Gold Dust. The music, the words, and the imagery. Opening with a battery of strings, it sounds like the ending credits of a film. In a way, it is. Gold Dust is the finale of Scarlet's Walk, the conclusion of Scarlet's quest. It's a song about endings, and about nostalgia. It seems to emanate a feeling of sad contentment.
Although it sounds and feels like an ending song, Gold Dust also deals with beginnings. Once more, Scarlet's life parallels Tori's own: They both have a daughter. While the last song on To Venus and Back was dedicated to her husband, this is a song for Tori's baby Natashya. The song basically tells us how precious life, and in particular childhood, is.
How did it go so fast
you'll say
as we are looking
back
and then we'll
understand
We held
gold dust
in our
hands