Mrs. Jones

Abstract, surrealistic song about a back alley abortion/ a woman dying during the operation

It's not often you find a tune that good, a song that makes you genuinely cringe with uneasiness and brings you on the verge of nausea because the arrangements, the vocals and the lyrics all perfectly convey the horror of what the song is about. This is art. This is what bloody contractions and gynaecological torture sound like. According to Courtney at the time, Mrs Jones is a song about a botched abortion. The vocals are oppressed, panting in places, howling in agony in others. The lyrics are full of references to the sickness and distress of the mother, culminating with her speaking to the foetus as she waits for it to come out her ("Come, slide... I will, I will follow you down the sick drain/ When I lean on…on the sink.../ Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, baby/You will, you will never stink so bad again"). Feverish apologies to a male partner about the anguish caused by the operation (I'm sorry man, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have looked at it, I'm sorry man/ You night blooming sickle cell, you're a night blooming sickle cell/ Carry it away, get it away) alternate with pleas to "Mrs Jones" (possibly the nurse ?) to come and relieve her discomfort. The bridge is a disturbing interlude filled with groans of pain and loud outbursts of desperate swearing. Brrr... As the outro gradually brings the chaos to a still, a stern female voice is heard admonishing the main character, still panting from anxiety and shock : "Breathe… Don't ask me again. Don't ever talk to me like that again."

Masterpiece, ladies and gentlemen. Masterpiece.

i love this song, it's so insane!

maybe it's about a girl who was raped and she gets pregnant and has an abortion. maybe an at home abortion. and she kills herself right after.

i dunno who the fuck mrs. jones is though.

This song is definetly about abortion.

this is such an awesome song! it's very abstract and a little hard to listen to if you aren't prepared for it. i don't think it's just about any one thing, there are seedy back alley abortionists in it, and women who don't care and sleep with people because they just figure they should and don't get anything about it, and people with cancer and women with cancer in their souls. the woman, mrs. jones, (possible reference to something like "me and mrs. jones?) is a really tough woman and merciless, but at the same time she's not really all there. i don't know... it's a paranoid song, and i get a kind of vibe off it like there's some kind of voodoo going on in it.

Holy shit, does no one else hear the uncanny resemblance between the first main riff of this song and the main riff on 'Dark Entries' by Bauhaus? I'm a big fan of Hole, but I almost have to say that this song rips off that riff. Could be unintentional though, 'cause it's pretty fucking simple riff, just descending power chords.

This song is perfection. How dare people say Courtney Love doesn't have talent! She's a poet and a damn good one! Anyone who can produce songs like this is brilliant in a slightly fucked up way and that's the best way. She paints a horrific picture of woman who after been raped is getting an abortion and the evil abortionist takes pleasure in his job. The line - 'Look into the bloodtroot you suicide bitch, it takes an hour like you to make me want to live' The poor woman watching her dead child slip down the drain. The line- 'Die, survive, I will, I will follow you down the sick drain.' The woman somehow picks herself up and takes control of the situation with Courtney telling the story towards the end of the song, the line- "Sister ectoplasma, she's incredulous Just like a pro she takes off her dress and she Kicks you down in her snow white pumps.' Snow white pumps?? That small detail. The song ends with the woman saying 'I really, don't ask me again Don't ever talk to me like that again' Courtney changing between her as the narrator, the woman and the abortionist throughout the song. This song breaks my heart, it really does. The way the music jumps between the fast riff and the slower uneasy part and Courtney's voice that makes you become a part of the song because she makes you believe it. This is just my opinion and how I see the song. Everyone is different. I have no idea what was going through Courtney's head when she wrote these lyrics but they are what they are and everyone interprets things differently and thats okay.

I think I might know "who" Mrs. Jones is. OK, let's look at everything she says when she's acknowledging Mrs. Jones:

"The sky's a narcotic with blackjack bones, Mrs. Jones aww Mrs. Jones aww Cry me a river but just take me home Oh, Mrs. Jones aww Mrs. Jones My virus is raging, It's breaking my bones oh Mrs. Jones please Mrs. Jones Your cute little doggy won't leave me alone, Mrs. Jones please Mrs. Jones"

"Mrs. Jones" is not the nurse, not the abortionist, not the fetus, not the spectator or narrator. I believe the abortion procedure was an operation without any anesthesia or pain-killer medication. "Jones-ing" often refers to an intense craving for drugs to alleviate the pain of withdrawal sickness, or in this case, to lessen the misery of a surgical operation without anesthetic relief and being able to feel every little detail and the gruesome torture that seems like an eternity in Hell, and the pain is causing the girl to kind of go out of her mind, and "Mrs. Jones" is all over her (the personification of the intense pain) making the situation even more hopeless and miserable.

So the female patient is very desperately begging, pleading, and praying for Mrs. Jones to leave her alone and have mercy and pity upon her. But Mrs. Jones is there to enjoy practicing the cruel sadistic torture upon the patient. And the patient can't even get her own mind and body to "shut down" and faint so that her trauma wouldn't be as unbearable and vivid in memory.

Mrs Jones is the pain experienced by the patient that has been personified into maybe an "imaginary enemy", or maybe even worse, a demonic entity, specifically assigned to make the patient's life as miserable as possible. She's even brought along a little puppy, which would usually make some patients feel better. But no, this little puppy was never intended to comfort, but instead to cause severe frustration, confusion and misery added.

some of these lyrics are wrong. but anyway it really hard to tell what the song means. but i do know that she really doesnt like this mrs jones lady

I think it's about really dodgey back-alley abortions.