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JACKIE'S STRENGTH was directed by James Brown and photographed by Greg Copeland. The piano introduction to the album version of Jackie's Strength was cut from the video.
"Jackie's Strength is in black and white and it's me on my wedding day getting lost. So it's kind of a parallel to my life, if that makes any sense. I am in the back of a taxi in my wedding dress, not able to quite go through with it. I pass the boy I'm supposed to marry at the church and I hide in the back of a cab like a wimp. But you can see I'm torn because my whole life is flashing in front of me. And I run into myself as a 13 year old girl, which took lots of hair and makeup. And that 13 year old girl is reminding me that we had a dream... and the characters, the bride in the taxi, forgot. Even though I think she loves that boy, she didn't follow her heart. You know, she never took that trip to australia, she never took that art class, she never followed up on her dreams. And so she can't get married and close the blinds. So it's a very emotional this video, because she does love him, I believe that."
-- Tori; online TVGEN chat, Aug 5, 1998
Sometimes I fall into the videos like a Laven, a welcome escape from my real life character and the dynamics that surround "her". Jackie was one of these times where I could put "Whatever" somewhere. I would ride around in this taxi for hours as a pick-up truck with a camera
on the back of it followed and followed and followed me as a truant bride. The Mythic References for Brides are endless . . . This video was tricky because it was close to the bone, having only Been married for 2 1/2 months. Karen and I would talk about how "she" - the girl in Jackie, the bride in Jackie, was a parallel on some plane somewhere who had made different choices in her life. A Medicine Woman told me once that alternate dimensions existed where a different you, a different
me play out choices we could've made.
The girl in Jackie is an artist of some kind but "it ain't neva gonna happen" to quote Miss Karen as She and I went back and forth over this alternate 2x2x2x
reality we re-built my life, with the help of LL (fondly called Double L) who was referenced in that Book -- The Top 100 Psychics. We knew what she ate. I knew she drew with pastels I knew she was
never going to make it to the church that day. It's not that she didn't love him -- they'd been
together since they were kids. It's just about a promise she had make to herself a long time ago.
When James called me for the 17th time that day and said -- I've got it as you go through your old
neighborhood, interspersed with present and past, you finally run into young Tori. We started to talk about casting and Karen convinced us with the help of Lesley (make-up), of course, that we could pull of young Tori. Having to face my younger SELF was pretty wild -- her position being
very clear -- "we had a vision you've become numb, we may never succeed, but you never even tried." So the answer is NO, I don't know if "she" ever eventually marries her childhood love -- but she doesn't that day.
--Tori, "Tori Stories, her take on the videos" promo booklet
Jackie's Strength was released in collectible form on the Jackie's Strength enhanced CD single and the Tori Amos Video Compilation.
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