Jack The Boneless Boy

Still from the 1994 Music Video

***Jack The Boneless Boy*** is a song by The Residents, written & recorded for their 1990 album '*Freak Show*'

## Background

The song tells the story of Jello Jack, who's lack of bones causes him to slide around like sludge, as those at the *Freak Show* watch him.

But Jack dreams being a bird, that can soar into the sky, and watch all of mankind from above and laugh, as they are reduced to his previous sludge form.

The song was released in 1990 on the *Freak Show* album and was adapted into comic form in the 1992 *Freak Show comic*. The character, as well as his theme and music video, then appeared in the 1994 Freak Show Game.

The first live performance of the track would come in 1995, at Freak Show Live in Prague. This performance would in fact be an instrumental of the song, largely based on the outro.

The next performance of the track would be at the *Disfigured Night show at the Fillmore,* featuring *Molly Harvey* on lead vocals. Following this, it was re-recorded in 2001 for the *Icky Flix* film,

The song would be performed again on *The* *Way We Were* tour of 2005, in a shorter arrangement. In 2006 an RMX of the 1997 performance was produced and released on the RMX album in 2009.

It then appeared as part of *the* *Wonder Of Weird* tour in 2013, though most recently it was performed as the opening track for the 2017 - 2019 *In Between Dreams* tour.

## Lyrics

```
Ho ho ho I'm Jello Jack the jolly boneless boy.
I live inside a jar
beside the rooster boy named Roy.
They pour me out upon a platform
and the people stare
At eyeballs in a pool of flesh
surrounded by some hair.

```

```
I wish I was a cowboy or maybe just a bird
Singing simple melodies that no one every heard
Soaring with the winter winds and bringing in the spring
Sharing air with orioles and bumblebee that sting
And making babies proud of all the bugs that I would bring.

```

```
I'd sit up high above the ground and laugh as I looked down
at all the silly humans as they slowly trudged around.
But as I see the end of evening turn into the night
The bird inside my brain becomes a light that is too bright.

```

```
In his dreams at night he hears a white hot light
And he knows that God is singing in his dreams at night.
Hot heat smolders smoking embers
Vibrate deep, vibrate deep
Cause teeth clinch, cause vibrate deep
Inside the sucking sound of suction,
Suction, sucking sections of my soul,
Sucking section of the only thoughts
My mind will salivate and drool
And press against itself and press
Against itself and feel the cursing
Flow of fever, driven, biting, grinding, clinching,
Ream the center of the Sun
With shaft of Solid Steel
Know that there is nothing like the feeling
Of those steel fingers up inside
Of something sticky, sweet and wet
Feel the lips of licking licky wet liquid;
feel the tongue that touches the tips of sharp pointed things.

```

## Liner Notes

> Jelly Jack is the most helpless freak in the show. Without a bone in his body, he is not only unable to move, he can't even speak. Jelly's act consists of being poured out of his glass box onto a platform where he quickly becomes a motionless puddle, much to the shock, amazement, and eventually, boredom of his audience. Jack, and his box, resides in a corner of Tex's trailer where he patiently enjoys the free-flowing fantasies of those who personally converse with God.
>
>

## Titles

The song, due to unknown reasons, is constantly re-titled by the group.. some of the names have been...

* ***Jack The Boneless Boy*** (Freak Show, Kettles Of Fish On The Outskirts Of Town, Icky Flix)
* ***Jelly Jack The Boneless Boy*** (Freak Show *[1994 Re-issue]*, Live At The Fillmore, The Wonder Of Weird, RMX *[2018 re-issue]*, In Between Dreams)
* ***Boneless Boy (Jelly Jack)*** (Radio Thoreau)
* ***Jello Jack The Boneless Boy*** (Freak Show *[2006 Re-Issue]*, 80 Aching Orphans)
* ***Jelly Jack*** (The Way We Were, RMX, Loss Of The Lizard Lady)
* ***Jello Jack** (*Petting Zoo*)*
* ***Jack*** (Prague & Beyond)
* ***Boneless Boy*** (*The 12 Days Of Brumalia* / *Prelude To "The Teds"*)

## Appearances

* Freak Show (1990)
* In Memoriam Torso (1994)
* Live At The Fillmore (1998)
* Icky Flix (DVD) (2001)
* Petting Zoo (2002)
* Kettles Of Fish On The Outskirts Of Town (2003)
* Prague & Beyond (2003)
* The Way We Were (2005)
* The Fillmore Dress Rehearsal (Act One) (2009)
* RMX (2009)
* The Wonder Of Weird (2014)
* Boneless Boy (Jelly Jack) (2014)
* The 12 Days Of Brumalia / Prelude To "The Teds" (2014)
* 80 Aching Orphans (2017)
* Loss Of The Lizard Lady (2018)
* In Between Dreams Live (2019)
* Icky Flix (The Original Soundtrack Recording) (2020)
* WOW Demos 1 (2021)

## Versions

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1990 Studio Version (5:56)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 1997 Live Version (5:57)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 2001 Studio Version (4:22)
4. ↑ 1990 Studio Version Edit (2:41)
5. ↑ 1995 Live Version (3:39)
6. ↑ 2005 Live Version (3:25)
7. ↑ 1997 Rehearsal Version (5:53)
8. ↑ 2006 RMX Version (3:38)
9. ↑ 2013 Live Version (7:24)
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 1997 Live Version Remix, (3:35)
11. ↑ 2018 Live Version (7:41)
12. ↑ 2012 demo version (5:48)