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."
We're the boys jailed in a horse's skull.
We nailed our ears to a feral glittery drone.
The only thing that makes our blood feel like blood
Is stealing cars and watching lightning bolts fuck.
So don't look away, every day's the same,
Every song's the same in this sanitized exploding airplane.
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
We're the girls chewing styrofoam
Pulling our wigs under a monochrome glow.
The only line that's talking us into bed
Is the freeway's static hiss drilling holes in our heads, so
So don't look away from the clouds leaking rust
The kingdom of heaven reeks of burning witches and dust.
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
Seven items dripped out the back of my head:
One big war and one color red;
One vulgar leg and one designer tree;
Two stallions and a pound of confetti.
Oh, salvation!
Hollow lightning, so skeletal...
Shipwrecked freeways!
Concrete ribcage, so boring...
Oh, salvation!
Hollow lightning, so skeletal
Shipwrecked freeways!
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
We ride skeletal lightning, vacant as a womb that's miscarried
We nailed our ears to a feral glittery drone.
The only thing that makes our blood feel like blood
Is stealing cars and watching lightning bolts fuck.
So don't look away, every day's the same,
Every song's the same in this sanitized exploding airplane.
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
We're the girls chewing styrofoam
Pulling our wigs under a monochrome glow.
The only line that's talking us into bed
Is the freeway's static hiss drilling holes in our heads, so
So don't look away from the clouds leaking rust
The kingdom of heaven reeks of burning witches and dust.
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
Seven items dripped out the back of my head:
One big war and one color red;
One vulgar leg and one designer tree;
Two stallions and a pound of confetti.
Oh, salvation!
Hollow lightning, so skeletal...
Shipwrecked freeways!
Concrete ribcage, so boring...
Oh, salvation!
Hollow lightning, so skeletal
Shipwrecked freeways!
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
Well I got shot in the face, it's all on videotape
So come on, watch the blood, it's pouring commercial-free
We ride skeletal lightning, vacant as a womb that's miscarried
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i dont exactly know what the whole song means...
but i have an idea as to what the chorus means..
the part that goes "i got shot in the face its all on videotape so come on watch the blood its pouring commercial free"
it sounds like hes saying that anything that happens to someone will be on tv or the internet pretty much and that you can watch things that are even so bad as to getting shot in the face; commercial free. im not sure. but it sounds like stuff about the media like a lot of their songs.. i wanna know if anyone knows what the we ride skeletal lightning part means.