you for a while

Jackie’s Strength

Lyrics, Music, and Commentary by Tori Amos

“I think the casting of this was key. This is where James Brown, the director, really crawled into every line of the song. And he wanted to bring the story of this song to life. The idea that this woman…let’s call her Tori…you see in this video is getting lost on her wedding day. Um, he wanted to bring all of it to life as well as the American Dream. The American Dream of a particular time, the 60’s, around the time JFK was shot.”

“So we’ve got Tori riding through town in a Taxi, seeing people she went to school with, like, um, you know teenager hot girl who always liked older men. Um, men who were gonna give them some bling. And, you know, I think she’s seeing people who had all these ideas about who there were gonna be. Even the guy she’s marrying, I mean she’s known him…that’s her high school sweetheart. Black magic girl–she went to school with her, there was a story there. There are things that’ve gone down. And she’s reliving this as she is trying to get to the church. But she’s taking a little bit of a detour, reliving her life and thats what we’re seeing. Being a teenager, being a young woman out of school. And its funny how you have all these plans of what your gonna do and who your gonna be…and then something happens, um, on your way to your life and I think she is, it’s really sobering for her as she’s riding around in this taxi.”

“The driver of the taxi…we brought him back from the Spark video. And we thought he was an important element. He’s the guy who has, um, not a complete finger, and you’ll see him in Spark…and we liked that tie. Because Tori’s past is, um, you know, something that I don’t even know sometimes. I think she gets up to all kinds of things. And I do think that she, she like the old woman in the story, they need to find an inner strength within themselves. Something Jackie had to find in herself when she had to deal with the murder of her husband.”

“So, as Tori goes through this neighborhood seeing different people she knows, she’s witnessing their battle. There are all kinds of battles people go through everyday. And Tori’s battle, she’s um, is she going to the church or not? I don’t think we know if she ever ends up at that church. And I think that’s okay. I think she’s gotta find and reclaim something herself before she can even make the decision.”

“Young Tori is, um, trying to remind her of an agreement they had made. Um, an agreement that was supposed to be, ‘hey, you know, what are you going to be when you grow up? You can’t not take me with you.’ And I think there is a promise that’s bigger than the wedding promise and that’s to yourself and she has to make that first.”

~ Tori Amos on Jackie’s Strength (from Fade to Red)