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."
Of course a social relation can’t be changed with a bomb
It takes more than dynamite to get folks to respond
Of course tomorrow morning if our whole system collapsed
We’d divide ourselves again on lines of gender, race, and class
But tonight I don’t care if we win a million hearts
Unless we rip them out their chests and start throwing them at cars
Because tonight it’s not enough to sympathize and wear pins
They count everyone who doesn’t rise up as a win
Lying in bed we dream a thousand revolutionary plots
We’re fucking petrified to use the bit of power we got
It’s not to say it’s not important to build and organize
But all talk and no act is just reaction in disguise
So some of us aren’t gonna wait another thousand years
For the world to loose their crutches and to swallow their fear
Because complacency is guilt and response is overdue
Johnny, the Movement needs your heart but it needs your body, too
We’ll build castles in the sky from the ruins of a hell on earth
And find a rage to live inside so full it’s about to burst
Johnny, we’ll shout our songs in the wreckage tonight
And smuggle our stories out through the gauntlets and bring them back to life
As bombs and beating hearts
A little piece of each of us inside is a cop
We try to fuck each other over just to rise to the top
And the dog mimics the master but he only eats the scraps
We whip the ones below but get cracked on our own back
There’s a banker and a fascist deep in all of our bones
And it comes as no surprise because that’s all that we’ve known
But a week ago I saw a garden in a vacant lot
I saw an empty building become a living, breathing squat
I saw partiers take over city rush-hour roads
I saw a little bit of beach underneath the paving stone
If we can manifest these situations in the street
And subvert our daily lives that we’re walking through asleep
Maybe there’s hope for us, too, beyond the products on sale
Beyond myths of human nature and a hundred thousand jails
Imagine tearing down the borders our society defines
Imagine what we could become given a little work and time
We’ll build castles in the sky from the ruins of a hell on earth
And find a rage to live inside so full it’s about to burst
Johnny, we’ll shout our songs in the wreckage tonight
And smuggle our stories out through the gauntlets and bring them back to life
As bombs and beating hearts
It takes more than dynamite to get folks to respond
Of course tomorrow morning if our whole system collapsed
We’d divide ourselves again on lines of gender, race, and class
But tonight I don’t care if we win a million hearts
Unless we rip them out their chests and start throwing them at cars
Because tonight it’s not enough to sympathize and wear pins
They count everyone who doesn’t rise up as a win
Lying in bed we dream a thousand revolutionary plots
We’re fucking petrified to use the bit of power we got
It’s not to say it’s not important to build and organize
But all talk and no act is just reaction in disguise
So some of us aren’t gonna wait another thousand years
For the world to loose their crutches and to swallow their fear
Because complacency is guilt and response is overdue
Johnny, the Movement needs your heart but it needs your body, too
We’ll build castles in the sky from the ruins of a hell on earth
And find a rage to live inside so full it’s about to burst
Johnny, we’ll shout our songs in the wreckage tonight
And smuggle our stories out through the gauntlets and bring them back to life
As bombs and beating hearts
A little piece of each of us inside is a cop
We try to fuck each other over just to rise to the top
And the dog mimics the master but he only eats the scraps
We whip the ones below but get cracked on our own back
There’s a banker and a fascist deep in all of our bones
And it comes as no surprise because that’s all that we’ve known
But a week ago I saw a garden in a vacant lot
I saw an empty building become a living, breathing squat
I saw partiers take over city rush-hour roads
I saw a little bit of beach underneath the paving stone
If we can manifest these situations in the street
And subvert our daily lives that we’re walking through asleep
Maybe there’s hope for us, too, beyond the products on sale
Beyond myths of human nature and a hundred thousand jails
Imagine tearing down the borders our society defines
Imagine what we could become given a little work and time
We’ll build castles in the sky from the ruins of a hell on earth
And find a rage to live inside so full it’s about to burst
Johnny, we’ll shout our songs in the wreckage tonight
And smuggle our stories out through the gauntlets and bring them back to life
As bombs and beating hearts
Lyrics submitted by negatyve
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this is a call to arms. I'm tired of people not taking ideas like this seriously.
this song makes me feel something between chills down my spine and a punch in the stomach