Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
(Coming on forty-five minute point in our countdown
Everything going smoothly
T-minus 45 minutes and counting
Coming up on t-minus 40 minutes
T-minus 40 minutes and counting
This is shuttle launch control)
Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline
Circling choppers slash the night
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams
(We had a AEO abort, go for test
Tester says they are go for launch
At the present time we know of no major problems
As we enter final hold)
Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapors, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon
Crackling speakers, voices tense
Resume the final count
All systems check, T-minus-nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount
The air is charged, a humid, motionless mass
The crowds and the cameras
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick, you could cut it with a knife
Technology high, on the leading edge of life
(T-minus twenty-seven seconds
We applaud for redundant sequencers start
T-minus twenty seconds and counting
T-minus fifteen, fourteen, thirteen
Minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four
We have locked the main engine start, we have)
The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding
Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
It tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by that awesome sound
(T-plus thirty seconds, plus thirty-five
Columbia, Houston you are go at forty)
Excitement so thick, you could cut it with a knife
Technology high, on the leading edge of life
Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers high in the air
In fascination with the eyes of the world we stare
(Columbia is now turning towards
Precise window in space for main engine cutoff
One, two minute and forty seconds
Columbia now thirty-nine nautical miles altitude
Forty-two nautical miles downrange
Columbia you're looking a little hot
And all your calls will be a little early
Young and Crippen really moving out now
Velocity now reading just sixty-two hundred feet per second
What a view, what a view
Glad you are enjoying it
G800 to LOS
Columbia Houston, ah we have forty seconds to LOS
You're looking good burning over the hill
We'll see you in Madrid
And we enjoyed the music Bob, thank you
Ah, we enjoyed, we just wanted to share some with you
Everything going smoothly
T-minus 45 minutes and counting
Coming up on t-minus 40 minutes
T-minus 40 minutes and counting
This is shuttle launch control)
Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline
Circling choppers slash the night
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams
(We had a AEO abort, go for test
Tester says they are go for launch
At the present time we know of no major problems
As we enter final hold)
Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapors, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon
Crackling speakers, voices tense
Resume the final count
All systems check, T-minus-nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount
The air is charged, a humid, motionless mass
The crowds and the cameras
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick, you could cut it with a knife
Technology high, on the leading edge of life
(T-minus twenty-seven seconds
We applaud for redundant sequencers start
T-minus twenty seconds and counting
T-minus fifteen, fourteen, thirteen
Minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four
We have locked the main engine start, we have)
The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding
Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
It tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by that awesome sound
(T-plus thirty seconds, plus thirty-five
Columbia, Houston you are go at forty)
Excitement so thick, you could cut it with a knife
Technology high, on the leading edge of life
Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers high in the air
In fascination with the eyes of the world we stare
(Columbia is now turning towards
Precise window in space for main engine cutoff
One, two minute and forty seconds
Columbia now thirty-nine nautical miles altitude
Forty-two nautical miles downrange
Columbia you're looking a little hot
And all your calls will be a little early
Young and Crippen really moving out now
Velocity now reading just sixty-two hundred feet per second
What a view, what a view
Glad you are enjoying it
G800 to LOS
Columbia Houston, ah we have forty seconds to LOS
You're looking good burning over the hill
We'll see you in Madrid
And we enjoyed the music Bob, thank you
Ah, we enjoyed, we just wanted to share some with you
Lyrics submitted by shed27, edited by TheGreatSkeeve
Countdown Lyrics as written by Gary Lee Weinrib Neil Elwood Peart
Lyrics © Anthem Entertainment
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Mountain Song
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
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I first heard this song as a young teenager and it gave me goosebumbs. it was so loud and energetic. It really painted a picture. twenty years later, when the Columbia re-entry disaster occured I must have listened to it five times straight at full volume in my living room singing it out loud with tears running down my face. Though the song is still conceptually hopeful and inspiring, it has for me become also a memorial to epic feats and their occassional consequence. It is difficult for me ever since to not listen to this song and not see the twenty years between those two moments in my life as the bookends of a transitive period. From the immortality and limitlessness of youth to the known boundaries and realities of adulthood. Both happy and sad.