Lyrics for Half Jack as interpreted by okokayok

Half Jack Lyrics
half underwater
i'm half my mother's daughter
a fraction's left up to dispute
the whole collection
half off the price they're asking
in the halfway house of ill repute

half accidental
half pain full instrumental
i have a lot to think about
you think they're joking?
you have to go provoke him...
i guess it's high time you found out

it's half biology and half corrective surgery gone wrong
you'll notice something funny if you hang around here for too
long ago in some black hole before they had these pills to take it back
i'm half jill
and half jack

two halves are equal
a cross between two evils
it's not an enviable lot
but if you listen
you'll learn to hear the difference
between the halfs and the half nots

and when i let him in i feel my stitches getting sicker
i try to wash him out but like she said:the blood is thicker
i see my mother in my face
but only when i travel
i run as fast as i can run
but
jack comes tumbling after....

and when i'm brave enough and find a clever way to kick him out
and i'm so high not even you and all your love could bring me down
on 83rd he never found the magic words to change this fact:
i'm half jill
and half jack

i'm halfway home now
half hoping
for a showdown
cause i'm not big enough to house this crowd
it might destroy me
but i'd sacrifice my body
if it meant i'd get the jack part OUT

see

jack

run.....

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  • 108 Comments
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imadRESDEnDoLl
10-10-2004

Rated 0 
I love this song ecspecially how in the end Amanda is just screaming RUN JACK RUN.

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Amatory
11-17-2004

Rated 0 
Yes, great song, very good.
This is about her father, hense: Jack- Father; Jill-Mother.

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smashing_me
12-02-2004

Rated 0 
I reckon its about a hermaphrodite... and they tried to have an operation to turn her into a girl and not a boy, but it didnt work so shes trying to get rid of the boy herself!

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starkinsanity
12-16-2004

Rated 0 
upon my first hearing of it, i didn't really pay much attention to the lyrics, then the first time i thought about them i figured it was about a hermaphrodite. But then the part where she says "I'm not big enough to house this crowd..." i started thinking if perhaps it is more like some sort of multiple personality disorder or a clashing of opinions about life. but whatever. this song is great times 98237526 and i listen to it constantly as it is fantastic ^_^

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anatomy
12-22-2004

Rated 0 
this song confuses me.

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gravity_is_not
12-23-2004

Rated 0 
best song on the album, hands down.

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errky39
12-23-2004

Rated 0 
confusing indeed. when i first heard it, i thought it was about a personality disorder, then about being a hermaphrodite, but then got all confused when i found out it was about her mom and dad... whatever, still like it.

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Rhibecka
01-04-2005

Rated 0 
i dont think this has anything to do with hermaphroites..i think it clearly has to do with her father..her father is half of her..and she can't get away from it.."before they had these pills to take it back "...she's tlaking about birth control pills..she was born from her parents..if u look on thier website and read her bio..she syas that her ftaher wasn't at all in her life physically...i agreee with Amatory...also.. "try to wash him out but like she said:the blood is thicker "..is a metaphor that she can't get him out of her becuase he is in her blood..have her dna is from him..she can't just wash it away..and when it refers to 'stiches' those can be the scars left from when he hurt her by leaving her and her mother..and with the whole show down..it's like she just wants to end the misery of his existence with one shot and have it all be over...cuz she can't "house this crowd" she can.t go on by herslf..well thats my 2 cents..or more like 200

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1 Reply
numbskull
01-07-2005

Rated 0 
are you sure it's about her father? did they say so somewhere? what about the "it's half biology and half corrective surgery gone wrong" bit?

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tameron_
01-07-2005

Rated 0 
It says on their website, in the lyric section, under Half Jack: "for my father".
She's talking about the father, and how she hates that he's a part of her -- but she can't just erase him.
As for the "half biology and half corrective surgery gone wrong" bit, I'm not sure but the biology would be her father's DNA. Corrective surgery could be a metaphore for her trying to find any way she can to get rid of him and remove him from her life, but failing.

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Kakesu
01-22-2005

Rated 0 
This is so, so beautiful. I've been listening to it pretty much constantly for a few days now. Lyrically, my favourite part is "and i'm so high not even you and all your love could bring me down ", but the way the last few lines are sung is unbelievably moving..

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psyne
01-26-2005

Rated 0 
I also thought it was about a hermaphrodite the first time I heard it ("half biology and half corrective surgery gone wrong," and my initial thought that Jack and Jill were boy side and girl side of her.)
After a few more listens, I also thought of mother/father and multiple personalities, but I knocked out MPD because of the obvious stress on male/female. The "For my father" on the site verified the second idea for me.
This is one of my favorite songs on the album, it's beautifully written, played, and sung. And I love songs with lyrics that make you think, it was fun trying to decide what it meant when I first heard it.

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yousmellfunny7
01-29-2005

Rated 0 
I thought it was obvious the first time I heard this that it was a about her father. Does anyone know what happened with her dad, did he just abandon them? I know it's a far stretch, but maybe her mother was raped? Because the pills to take it back could be alluding to ECP. But I don't know, it's just a guess.

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TheVinchenzo
03-11-2005

Rated 0 
If you check out the fan art on the website, they have half jack dolls that look like conjoined man and woman so i don't know if that helps at all. And a few of you have said that this is the best song on their album "hands down". I must disagree as "Bad Habit" and "Girl Anachronism" are both much better. as is coin-operated boy.

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xian-thir
03-15-2005

Rated 0 
As soon as I heard this song, I was sure it was about her father, so I'm glad I guessed correctly. I can really relate to this. It's disturbing to despise a parent, then look in the mirror and see that you have the same eye colour as them, or that you're doing something that you've always hated watching them do.
You want to be rid of their genes completely, but it's impossible, and it's really hard to deal with.

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americanmusic
04-14-2005

Rated 0 
I never read the lyrics to the song, but when I did I realized, this IS the best song on the album. It's saying like, "God, why am I related to him, why can't I get him out?"

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StasisInDarkness
04-16-2005

Rated 0 
If this song really speaks to you, check out Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy" - also about trying to get away from your father.

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SideshowJill
04-16-2005

Rated 0 
Im pretty sure she wasnt a child of rape. She's in her late twenties and I think the morning after pill wasnt around back then.

Amanda and Brian are very receptive of their fans and their artwork. The encouragement they give their fans is amazing. The drawings and creations posted on their site arent necessarily because they agree with what their fans interpreted, but because they seem to appreciate the work that people put into their own art and respect their what they see and create.

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holyshazam
04-17-2005

Rated 0 
Come on. Hermaphrodite?! I'm sure that this song is about being related to both her mother and her father, but she doesn't want to be related to her father. She "tries to wash him out but like they say, the blood is thicker" than water. She tries to run away from the relation to her father, but she can't get away no matter how hard she tries.

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orangepopcandy
05-11-2005

Rated 0 
i know its really not about this, but this song could be related to molestation (or rape in a differnt way then to her mom).

like always trying to clean herself of how spoiled she has become and finding it futile. the jack part being that part... and everytime she runs from it it comes back...

iunno i can relate to that... and i do understand that the "i'm half my mother's daughter" part wouldnt make since unless it was the father doing the molestation which obviously isnt the case if he wasnt even there.

but even interpretations that never where intended to be applied to the song can be right?

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F_Ret89
05-12-2005

Rated 0 
i think that this song means that part of her is from her dad and half from her mom then her dad leaves her and her mom and she wants to forget him because he left them when she was young thats what i think

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candycanechild88
06-14-2005

Rated 0 
this song is excellent, it's about just the traits that she gets from her father and mother and the ones she doesn't like that she inherited. she wished she could get rid of the bad ones. it could physical traits or mental or personality. whtever it is- she hates it and she knows that both her parents and her have them but she wants them gone because she hates that about herself, personally.

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im_not_jane
07-16-2005

Rated 0 
ok. heres what i think
'half underwater'shes drowing, she can't find it. the water symbolizes her dad.

'im half my mother's daughter/ the fractions left up to dispute' being her mother's daughter isn't that big of a deal, but the other half of her dad she could argue about.

'half accidental' she was an accidental child that her dad hates.

'pills to take it back' im not really sure about this one, maybe she took drugs to get rid of the horrible idea of being his daughter.

'a cross between two evils' im guessing that eventually her mom and dad began to get in more and more fights or something.

' i try to wash him out but like she said; the blood is thicker' Her mom kept reminder her that they should stick together because they're family.

' i run as fast as i can run, but Jack comes tumbling after' She gets sick of it all and runs away, but her dad is always trying to stop her.

'and when im brave enough and find a clever way to kick him out, and im so high, not even you and all your love could bring me down' She thought that running away was kind of cowardly so she tried to get another way to seperate herself from him. and when she does find that way, no matter what her dad says she'll never come back.

"down on 83'rd he never found the magic words to change this fact. im half jill, and half jack" i think that once when she ran away, her dad found her and tried to coax her back, but he could never change the fact that she's still related to her from blood.

"im halfway home now, half hoping for a showdown" I think that one day she decided to visit her mom, and was almost wishing for a big arguement with her parents about her running away

' it might destroy me, but i'd sacrifice my body, if it meant i'd get the Jack part OUT' when she goes to visit her family (for the last time maybe) she was thinking that it doesn't matter what happens between her and her dad, because she'd do anything to just get rid of him.

'see jack run' maybe the arguement was in her favor. and it was his turn to be cowardly.

I have no idea if that made any sense to any of you, but its as clear as day in my brain.

'half biology and half corrective surgery gone wrong' She can't help being her dads daughter, and theres nothing that could stop it.

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im_not_jane
07-26-2005

Rated -1 
so sorry for the annoyingly long post.

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crammerjam
09-15-2005

Rated 0 
I really see the correlation to the mother/father thing here. I'll put in my two cents for random lines throughout the song.

[i'm half my mother's daughter
a fraction's left up to dispute]
To me this is her showing that she is proud to have her mother's blood and she is not ashamed to say she was raised by her. As for the fraction segment, it seems like whatever could be applied to be it could just as easily be cast off to nothing.

[two halves are equal
a cross between two evils]
i think this reflects her parents having arguements and fighting each other constantly. as much as she loves her mother, she feels that together her mother feeds off of the evil projected by her father and puts it back out just as well.

[but if you listen
you'll learn to hear the difference
between the halfs and the half nots]
here i think she is addressing the evil that her mother reflects and is saying that as much as her mother engaging in the arguements, her sentiments are there for her daughter.

[i try to wash him out but like she said:the blood is thicker]
this imagery here is pretty obvious to me but maybe something she did when they fought was take a shower so she could hear them fighting?

[i see my mother in my face
but only when i travel
i run as fast as i can run
but
jack comes tumbling after....]
i think here she really sees her mother in herself especially when she's away from her obviously. but in that same sense, as she's separated from her mother, she tries not to think of how much she is like her father and just tries to keep going and moving to keep herself from realizing it.

[i'm halfway home now
half hoping
for a showdown
cause i'm not big enough to house this crowd]
i think she means here that if her parents are fighting, that they're probably fighting about her or over her and her dad will more than likely get her involved into it.

[it might destroy me
but i'd sacrifice my body
if it meant i'd get the jack part OUT]
if she does get involved she is willing to do all that she can to just get her father out of her life regardless of the cost. maybe even if her parents separate she would be willing to go with him because she would always have her mother in herself?

[see

jack

run.....]
for some reason here i thought of her just walking into her house and her parents were fighting and her first instinct when she saw her father was just to run. maybe he was about to hit her mother or something? just the way in which the runs and the jacks fit together i think could be interpreted differently.

[longest post evar.]
here i think i'm just adding to the post to make it lengthier.

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