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."
And now as I would judge and say you're aloof
But you know the truth is a seed
You know what you need is a conflagration
Cause when I see the blood
And the bits of your broken tooth
It gives me the proof that I need
It's the proof that you bleed
It's a revelation
Yeah it's a revelation, it's a revelation
I thought you were a life-sized paper doll
Propped up in the hardware store
Propped up on the front lawn watching the parade
Of those legionnaires with two-by-four's
As they're marching off to war
Yeah they're marching off to war
I didn't know what you were made of
The colour of your blood, what you're afraid of
Are you made of calcium or are you carbon-based
And if you're made of calcium I'll have to take a taste
Cause, listen, calcium is deadly tender to the tooth
And it's one sure-fire way to know if you're
Mx-missile-proof, oh no, or if you're just aloof
You were in the ground in late November
When the leaves in earth are down
Did you, did you think they would remember
How you almost made stage-out
Cause when you're running for the game against alfonso
And you fell upon the ground and chipped a tooth
Oh no, listen, I really have surprised her
To learn that you are really MX-missile-proof
Oh, I thought you were a life-sized paper doll
And you're propped up in the hardware store
You were propped up on the front lawn watching the parade of those legionnaires with two-by-four's
As they're marching off to war
Yeah they're marching off to war
Oh they're marching
But you know the truth is a seed
You know what you need is a conflagration
Cause when I see the blood
And the bits of your broken tooth
It gives me the proof that I need
It's the proof that you bleed
It's a revelation
Yeah it's a revelation, it's a revelation
I thought you were a life-sized paper doll
Propped up in the hardware store
Propped up on the front lawn watching the parade
Of those legionnaires with two-by-four's
As they're marching off to war
Yeah they're marching off to war
I didn't know what you were made of
The colour of your blood, what you're afraid of
Are you made of calcium or are you carbon-based
And if you're made of calcium I'll have to take a taste
Cause, listen, calcium is deadly tender to the tooth
And it's one sure-fire way to know if you're
Mx-missile-proof, oh no, or if you're just aloof
You were in the ground in late November
When the leaves in earth are down
Did you, did you think they would remember
How you almost made stage-out
Cause when you're running for the game against alfonso
And you fell upon the ground and chipped a tooth
Oh no, listen, I really have surprised her
To learn that you are really MX-missile-proof
Oh, I thought you were a life-sized paper doll
And you're propped up in the hardware store
You were propped up on the front lawn watching the parade of those legionnaires with two-by-four's
As they're marching off to war
Yeah they're marching off to war
Oh they're marching
Lyrics submitted by progosk, edited by mattjcline, felineelliott
MX Missiles Lyrics as written by Andrew Wegman Bird
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
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The line about calcium being deadly tender to the tooth may refer to the "Baby Tooth Survey" undertaken in St. Louis in the early 1960's which measured the levels of radioactive isotropes found in the baby teeth of children - it found levels of Strontium-90, a radioactive isotrope chemically similar to calcium, that was five times higher than levels measured before large-scale atomic testing began. This study led to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the UK and USSR, which ultimately led to the SALT treaties and détente.
So...in short, I didn't really see you as a real person but I was wrong, I didn't know you were just as human as I am.
He is just too freaking cool. I analyze this stuff too much but it's just too much fun not to.
There is a very flirtatious version of this song on the Fingerlings 2 album, which sounds like it is addressed to a woman he is attracted to (changes to the lyrics are just to the first verse, but the music is much more light in tone):
"Now tell me again what it is that you do? I'm hard pressed to tell just by looking at you And Im looking at you I want to know what you're doing
And those that would judge or would say you're aloof It's because you know that the truth is a seed You know what you need is a conflagration..."
(& etc...)