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."
The lynch mob they hide from the infinite hole
As judge genocide's executioner goes
To crucify venus in cinemascope
The narcotic preachers are happy
High priest the mesmorous, the soul auctioneer
Sells scorpion tight-ropes, while surfing on fear
His necropolis users, The scourge of the queer
He is married to the truth-incinerator
There are hands in my pockets
Pulling at my spine
Eggs bearing insects
Hatching in my mind
The stones in my shoes get
Sharper all the time
In the soft sick underbelly
In the carcass of these times
I fly in my head, leave terminal narcosis
A poisoned mind will make you blind
Beware of trojan horses
A dead head, a blunt needle
You've broken your wings
You've lost your demon
Drop the bomb, spread the virus
Marxist priests teach defiance
Change through violence
There are hands in my pockets
Pulling at my spine
Eggs bearing insects
Hatching in my mind
The stones in my shoes get
Sharper all the time
In the soft sick underbelly
In the carcass of these times
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
Demon, demon, demon, demon
Demoooon
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
Demon, demon, demon, demon
Demoooooon-yeah
As judge genocide's executioner goes
To crucify venus in cinemascope
The narcotic preachers are happy
High priest the mesmorous, the soul auctioneer
Sells scorpion tight-ropes, while surfing on fear
His necropolis users, The scourge of the queer
He is married to the truth-incinerator
There are hands in my pockets
Pulling at my spine
Eggs bearing insects
Hatching in my mind
The stones in my shoes get
Sharper all the time
In the soft sick underbelly
In the carcass of these times
I fly in my head, leave terminal narcosis
A poisoned mind will make you blind
Beware of trojan horses
A dead head, a blunt needle
You've broken your wings
You've lost your demon
Drop the bomb, spread the virus
Marxist priests teach defiance
Change through violence
There are hands in my pockets
Pulling at my spine
Eggs bearing insects
Hatching in my mind
The stones in my shoes get
Sharper all the time
In the soft sick underbelly
In the carcass of these times
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
Demon, demon, demon, demon
Demoooon
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
You've broken your wings, you've lost your demon
Demon, demon, demon, demon
Demoooooon-yeah
Lyrics submitted by random_monkey
Soul Auctioneer Lyrics as written by Richard Maguire Tim Holmes
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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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.
Great version of a great song,
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Page
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how has no one sommented on this song its a fantastic song any idea on what the hells going on would be apreciated
how has no one sommented on this song its a fantastic song any idea on what the hells going on would be apreciated
I posted these lyrics way over a year ago, but I've only recently properly /listened/ to the song, taking in the lyrics...
I originally thought it would be about drugs (The chorus especially strikes me as some of the hallucination type effects of LSD) However, these lines:
A dead head, a blunt needle You've broken your wings You've lost your demon
make me think of not /having/ drugs (When you need them)... blunt needle so you can't insert the drugs broken wings, can't get high. lost your demon - in the 'drugs are my demon' sense.
(Also, I love "The narcotic preachers are happy" line ;))
I don't think that it has anything to do with drugs. The song has two parts. In the first part describes modern society and the fearmonging clergy. It says that they are the same as the lynch mobs of the past and the crucify Venus (the goddess of lust) making a spectacle out of it. The high priest is the soul auctioneer who surfs on fear and the followers are the necropolis users. Then the journey becomes constantly more difficult because of hands pulling back, ideas that poison the mind and the way that becomes sharper.
In the next part of the song is the awakening. He leaves the terminal narcosis realizing that he was blind and there were undetected dangers. But the head (the head of the faith?) is dead, and it is just a blunt needle now, with broken wings and missing its demon (a word play with dear, probably an other reference to fear). Now for him there are marxist "priests" teaching defiance and change through violence (revolution?).
This is what I'm getting from the song. Correct me if I'm wrong. <br /> <br /> Basically, there's a bunch of dumb people trying to hide from some dark "thing" while some one below someone else in power is working to destroy anything "good" from distubing it, which is deemed as good because anyone trying to change that "thing" could end up making it worse.<br /> As that's going on, a person misusing his spiritual power is using the fear of these people to get what he wants because he knows no one will stand up to it so he says what the hell i'll just use all these people cause they're too dumb to understand anyway.<br /> <br /> The writer of the song is observing the situation saying to himself what the hell, i've got all these ideas about how to change things but everytime i try and do that i always run into obstacles cause this crappy situation is so bad in the first place, and i should have known better, and now that most of us have just lost everything completely there's no sense in trying to change a damn thing.<br /> <br /> Something like that. Something along the lines of.....someone's in control of all this crap and someone else is working to prevent anyone from changing it and I'm just trying to make my own way and if you feel the same the best advice I can give you is not to lose your head. But chances are you already have, and now that you've been exposed to all this garbage, try and do something to change it.<br /> <br /> I'd love to know the actual meaning behind the song, but you'd have to ask the band to explain, which they may not have time to do.