Jennifer's Body

My immediate thoughts about this was about her partner being unfaithful. I don't have any doubts that I'm completely wrong, but here are my ideas anyhow

"I know it, I can't feel it Well, I know it enough to believe it And I know it, I can't see it But I know it enough to believe it"

She can tell she's lost him, even if he's acting like everythings back to normal. OR she can tell she's loosing him, and even though she can't see any proof, she knows that he's been with someone else

"bitter you, bitter me My better half has bitten me bitter you, bitter me"

Her boyfriend has thrown everything in her face by sleeping with someone else, and they're now both bitter

"Sleeping with my enemy Myself Myself"

She hates herself for staying with this man

"The pieces of Jennifer's body Found pieces of Jennifer's body Found pieces of Jennifer's body"

This could be about her finding out abuot the girl "Jennifer" he has cheated on her with, or finding clues

"Just relax, just relax, just go to sleep Just relax, just relax, just go to sleep"

Maybe they are trying to start over, but she can't stop thinking abuot what he did and is trying to stop thinking about it

"You're hungry, but I'm starving"

Their relationship may have been strained, and he might have gone to this Jennifer because he was lonely, but she was more lonely

"He cuts you down from the tree He keeps you in a box by the bed Alive, but just barely"

She feels used and alone and her partner keeps her "in a box by the bed" keeps her shut away and doesn't take pride in her

He said, "I'm your lover, I'm your friend I'm purity, hit me again"

He made her promises, he told her he would be her lover and her friend and be true to her, "pure" and yet when she is angry at him when she finds out about Jennifer he is either arrogant and says he is "pure, hit me again" because it won't matter to him, or that he still loves her, and that he doesn't care if she tries to hurt him

"With a bullet, number one, kill the family, save the son Himself Himself"

He has killed their relationship, but he only cares about himself

"Just relax, just relax, just go to sleep Now you're mine..."

She is again trying to relax and stop thinking about his betrayal, reminding herself he may have been with someone else but he's her's now, and trying to convince herself she shouldn't worry about it anymore

Taken from http://fuckyeahcourtneylove.com/post/3851103298/on-jennifers-body

On Jennifer’s Body.

There was a girl that worked at SubPop named Jenny Boddy - she thinks the song is about her but its not - it’s about how Kurt had a crush on Julianna Hatfield, and I was hanging around with him and this Blake Babies song called - I cant remember what - Oh yeah - “Girl in A Box” I think was playing and he said “That’s a really good song” and I said “well I can write a good captured girl song” and so I wrote a captured girl song.

I've always loved this song, too. Always meant to analyze it. Okay. Here goes.

My thoughts on this (and this is going to be a bit free-form, before I finally have an answer), is that it might be about infidelity, but maybe not the sexual kind. Maybe it's about emotional abandonment.

"You're hungry, but I'm starving" refering to emotional abandonment - he tells her he needs her intimacy, that he hungers for it, while deep-down she feels that her needs for it outweighs his.

"He cuts you down from the tree," could be representative of the last glimmer of their love - as she says, alive, but just barely. Perhaps the box contains love letters from their past.

"Kill the family, save the son," is similar to the old addage, "Spare the rod, spoil the child," which means that if you don't discipline your child, (s)he will grow up lacking respect for rules. Coupled with the line "hit me again," I wonder if this COULD be about spousal abuse, perhaps emotional abuse (not physical).

Let's back up a minute. In the opening lines, she talks about KNOWING something, though she doesn't FEEL it or SEE it. So, this issue is something that is happening, but that she refuses to believe. Maybe he hits her - she knows he's abusive, even though she doesn't feel like he's abusing her - doesn't feel abused. The so-called "pieces" that are kept in the box are empirical proof - she could see those, so this first part is obviously not related to Jennifer.

Somone mentioned Heroin, and my mind keeps drifting back to that - maybe "Jennifer's Body," is code for heroin. The "pieces" might be the items needed to cook and inject the substance. He's gotten to the level where he uses heroin to just remain normal - she never SEES him take it. He doesn't FEEL different to her. Maybe the part where he says, "I'm your lover, I'm your friend, I'm purity, Hit me again," is not the lover's words at all. Maybe there IS no lover? Maybe this "other person," is heroin. Or better yet, maybe she's an addict in a relationship with another addict - it's bettering me. It's bettering you. She's her own worst enemy - she's an addict. She OD's, but he "cuts her down from the tree." --- in other words, she's hanging, and he saves her life. "Hit me again," is not physical abuse, but the act of injecting the drugs (give me a "hit"). This fits in with the "just relax, just relax, just go to sleep," lines - about heroin use. ANd maybe the opening lines don't refer to HIM, but to herself - she doesn't feel different when she takes it, but she KNOWS it is working.

Okay, so after all that, I'm going to say that I'm fairly certain this is about Heroin use, that she (and possibly her lover) are addicts, and this is a way of expressing her feelings about the substance.

I've always suspected that this song was at least partially inspired by the infamous "Girl in a Box" case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Colleen_Stan)--the Blake Babies song certainly is.

Generation X women are haunted by this story--I know I am.

i think that 'he keeps you in a box by the bed' refers more to the fact that jennifer is there at 'his' disposal whenever he wants - he is in a position to control jennifer - ''he cuts you down from the tree''. dont hink this is about jennifer finch, and i dont think it necessary refers to rape/sexual abuse... but who knows with courtney's lyrics???

i always thought it said "i'll kill him if he hits me again".

my god...why can't anyone put lyrics on the cd jackets?

also...i don't ever hear a "ing" during the "better you, better me". and then i always thought it said "my bitter half has bitten me". which seems like courtney-ish lyrics, as opposed to "better"...rather predictable, don't ya think?

courtney love is not a woman i idolize...but her lyrics are always very interesting.

as for "jennifer finch" both kurt and courtney liked bringing the names of other people into their lives. haha, that sounded weird. "frances" is named after frances farmer...but some oppose that with frances from the vaselines. who knows...maybe both.

"polly" is about an actual incident.

"hungry but i'm starving" is one of those things that seems like the constant maternal referral throughout the entire record.

"keeps you in a box by the bed"...hm...heroin? addiction? because quite literally...kurt cobain kept his heroin kit in a box.

and i don't know..."cuts you down from the tree" seems like a possession reference...a new addition....pet....baby perhaps?

ah phonecall.

I've always gotten the meaning that this song is about an incestous family. It's talking about a brother and sister who somewhere in their life, their family was either killer or they were abandoned and along the way, the son goes insane over the girl and doesn't believe her to be his sister, or develops a lust for her. Some of it is from her point of view, and some from another, which I believe is an FBI investigation.

" I know it, I can't feel it Well, I know it enough to believe it And I know it, I can't see it But I know it enough to believe it"

Here, I get the feeling it's Jennifer talking about the anxiety built up in her. She can't feel her brother near her physically, but she's been abused so many times in the past that she mentally knows he'll be back to hurt her more.

"It's bettering you, it's bettering me My better half has bitten me It's bettering you, it's bettering me Sleeping with my enemy Myself Myself"

Here, she's torn. 'It's bettering you', it's making him better. At times, he seems normal to her (Which I will explain later) and like a brother. 'It's bettering me'. This sounds like a symptom of Stockholm Syndrome. She's been abused so much that she finds it's making her stronger, though she's actually weaking. The 'Sleeping with my enemy; myself' can be possibly two things. Her sane half, the moral half, knows it's wrong what he's doing but she can't break herself away from him, so her enemy is her insane half. I also find that vice versa. Her insane half finds the moral half an enemy because it's going towards what he's told her.

"The pieces of Jennifer's body Found pieces of Jennifer's body Found pieces of Jennifer's body"

Here is where it helps me believe she killed her brother. It's the FBI work looking all over for the evidence and what happened to this woman, and he's finding different things of her. She's lost her mentality. Finding it in a journal, finding it on photos, pictures, things like that. It's finding pieces of her that she's lost.

"Just relax, just relax, just go to sleep Just relax, just relax, just go to sleep"

This part, her brother is normal and cooing her to go to sleep, to relax, that whatever has happened that night is over with.

"You're hungry, but I'm starving"

She's describing his lust for her body. Basically saying that you're hungry for my body, I'm starving to get out of this. I take it that way, or that she's starving herself to either kill herself.

"He cuts you down from the tree"

He decides that he's tired of her, and decides to cut her from the tree - the family tree.

"He keeps you in a box by the bed Alive, but just barely"

These two lines have a lot of different meaning for me. One could be that by 'box', when you're insane, you're in a padded 'box' room. She's insane and he's keeping her that way. Another way that I see it is that he sees her as a pet, because pets sleep in boxes at time. 'Alive, but just barely' could mean he's resorted to starving her as well, which might refer back to the line 'You're hungry, but I'm starving', or that every other part of her has been killed by him, and she's only alive physically.

"He said, "I'm your lover, I'm your friend I'm purity, hit me again"

Stockholm Syndrome. She's tried going against him. He in turn brainwashes her and says "What are you doing? I'm your purity, your lover, your friend." The last part "Hit me again" is more of a taunt. He's basically putting the message that since he's purity, he won't hurt her if she hurts him.

"With a bullet, number one, kill the family, save the son Himself Himself"

All other family is dead but them. 'Kill the family' means killing her with a bullet, and saving himself from the police.

"The pieces of Jennifer's body Found pieces of Jennifer's body Found pieces of Jennifer's body Just relax, just relax, just go to sleep Just relax, just relax, just go to sleep Now you're mine..."

I have two theories about this verse.

I believe that he shot her and she was wounded, but she didn't get up or he thought she was dead. He coos himself to sleep and she gets the gun, with the final words 'Now you're mine' and kills him.

Another is that he tells her to go to sleep again and shoots her in her sleep, killing her.

That's just my thoughts on the song.

I always interpreted it to be that a girl's friend (Jennifer) was murdered, brutally, and her fear is being murdered herself and the trauma. The "just relax, just go to sleep" struck me as a boyfriend/husband/significant other trying to calm her down and failing. Maybe the event happened a long time ago, and she's been very scared because there've been more murders since then. The murder is maybe a serial killer?

Uh, kristy72, this is SongMeanings, not ghost story night at school camp. That's fucking stupid.

I think some of you are taking the lyrics too literally - I don't think it's a song about murder. Like Have2mints said - I think it's about spousal abuse, especially with the line, 'my better half has bitten me'.

'I'm sleeping with the enemy, myself' shows that she (the subject of the song, Courtney Love or some other girl) blames herself in a way for what's happening to her.

I love the drumming in this song. My fave hole song, so violent. eeee