After a protracted struggle with the label that launched her career, Atlantic Records, at the turn of the century, Tori Amos managed to come out on the other side of a particularly nasty industry dust-up relatively unscathed. The vocalist/pianist’s fresh start commenced the genesis cycle of Scarlet's Walk—her seventh studio album and first for Epic Records—on a positive note, but the album also had some of its origins linked to tragedy. Like others, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 touched Amos. But it would be wrong to assume that Amos' overall approach to or study of human behavior was drastically altered by 9/11. What 9/11 became was the conceptual umbrella for which all the material of Scarlet's Walk resided under.
 
The source of the songs is the fictional protagonist Scarlet, based loosely on Amos herself. Scarlet engages in a “walkabout” of America after 9/11 and the album logs her journey and the people, places and things she encounters along the way. By adjusting the frequency of her conceptual style to a more plainspoken lyrical approach with just a bit of an allegorical twist, it makes the album personal, but universal. “I Can't See New York” embodies the best of this spirit, criss-crossing between romantic conflict, Native American lore, and hints of the 9/11 crisis from a victim's perspective. On the latter songwriting tip of “I Can't See New York,” Amos has stated that the song had been created prior to the attacks. But that's the beauty of an Amos composition—it leaves itself open to interpretation. This song also makes it evident that Amos isn't just Scarlet, she's play acting as the entire cast of characters throughout the record too.