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."
With your teeth, your lips, you hit the ground
You hear the fish make this sound
"We just want to go walk around
And feel what it's like to fall down"
With your teeth, your lips, you hit the ground
You hear the fish make this sound
"We just want to go walk around
And feel what it's like to fall down"
With your teeth, your lips, you hit the ground
You hear the fish make this sound
"We just want to go walk around"
Do you blame yourself?
Do you blame yourself?
Do you blame yourself?
Hey you, do you blame yourself?
Do you blame yourself?!
Do you blame yourself?!
Well, hey you! Yeah you! Will you blame yourself?!
Well you! Yeah, will you blame yourself?!
Hey you, do you blame yourself?
Oh yeah, do you blame yourself?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you blame yourself!
Do you blame someone else?
Do you blame someone else?
Mother, father, preacher, God
Do you blame yourself?
Blame yourself!
Mothers got a daughter, son's a preacher, son drinks water
Take yourself down to the roller skating rink
Say what you know is what you had
And what you had was something better
So now you blame yourself!
Do you blame yourself!?
You knew there was something wrong
There was something right
There was something better than that
Someday you didn't know something you wanted to forget
Blame yourself for that
(..)
Do you blame yourself?
Do you blame yourself?
Did you fuck yourself up?
Oh shit, I would cut myself
Well, can you blame yourself?!
With your teeth, your lips, you hit the ground
You hear the fish make this sound
"We just want to go walk around
And feel what it's like to fall down"
You got a knife?
You got a knife?
You got a knife?!
You got a knife!
You got a knife!
(Aww, shit)
(..)
With the choice of lying from the first day
Things you had that you would have said
That you said before you even got through the door
You didn't know they made up some more
So much more you had to say
"I got nothing left today
But no thoughts, I got nothing to believe
I can't believe what you're saying
And you can think what I'm thinking, what I would
And kudos to you, I do not know what I have in my head
And I cannot, will not do
And I cannot belong to you
You cannot belong to me, too
I cannot blame you for you
And you cannot blame me for the shit I do"
(..)
Well habit, habit, habit's dead
The dad tried to kill himself
Other dad tried to kill himself
And they never made it out on time
And they never made it out with their mental health
But then one day you walk through the door
Just outside you know some more
I don't love you, you don't love you
And you know what you got left
What the fuck you got left?
I don't love you, I don't love you
You can't say what's left
Love yourself and love your friends
Well, love your family near the end
Don't know what is going on
Well, things cannot end up this way
Things cannot end up this way!
You're walking to the TV, listening to the shows
Reading the paper and no one knows
What the fuck is going on, how much how, how much how?
How much longer have we got to go on?
Old age as time grew, you did too and you didn't say what you wanted to
Okay! (Static shit)
Patriotic bullshit, George Bush, the government
The other side, genocide, what the fuck?
You can't deny that things are going up
And are not going to be so nice
Take a breath or take twenty (..)
You get no more and you can see what you can see
You hear the fish make this sound
"We just want to go walk around
And feel what it's like to fall down"
With your teeth, your lips, you hit the ground
You hear the fish make this sound
"We just want to go walk around
And feel what it's like to fall down"
With your teeth, your lips, you hit the ground
You hear the fish make this sound
"We just want to go walk around"
Do you blame yourself?
Do you blame yourself?
Do you blame yourself?
Hey you, do you blame yourself?
Do you blame yourself?!
Do you blame yourself?!
Well, hey you! Yeah you! Will you blame yourself?!
Well you! Yeah, will you blame yourself?!
Hey you, do you blame yourself?
Oh yeah, do you blame yourself?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you blame yourself!
Do you blame someone else?
Do you blame someone else?
Mother, father, preacher, God
Do you blame yourself?
Blame yourself!
Mothers got a daughter, son's a preacher, son drinks water
Take yourself down to the roller skating rink
Say what you know is what you had
And what you had was something better
So now you blame yourself!
Do you blame yourself!?
You knew there was something wrong
There was something right
There was something better than that
Someday you didn't know something you wanted to forget
Blame yourself for that
(..)
Do you blame yourself?
Do you blame yourself?
Did you fuck yourself up?
Oh shit, I would cut myself
Well, can you blame yourself?!
With your teeth, your lips, you hit the ground
You hear the fish make this sound
"We just want to go walk around
And feel what it's like to fall down"
You got a knife?
You got a knife?
You got a knife?!
You got a knife!
You got a knife!
(Aww, shit)
(..)
With the choice of lying from the first day
Things you had that you would have said
That you said before you even got through the door
You didn't know they made up some more
So much more you had to say
"I got nothing left today
But no thoughts, I got nothing to believe
I can't believe what you're saying
And you can think what I'm thinking, what I would
And kudos to you, I do not know what I have in my head
And I cannot, will not do
And I cannot belong to you
You cannot belong to me, too
I cannot blame you for you
And you cannot blame me for the shit I do"
(..)
Well habit, habit, habit's dead
The dad tried to kill himself
Other dad tried to kill himself
And they never made it out on time
And they never made it out with their mental health
But then one day you walk through the door
Just outside you know some more
I don't love you, you don't love you
And you know what you got left
What the fuck you got left?
I don't love you, I don't love you
You can't say what's left
Love yourself and love your friends
Well, love your family near the end
Don't know what is going on
Well, things cannot end up this way
Things cannot end up this way!
You're walking to the TV, listening to the shows
Reading the paper and no one knows
What the fuck is going on, how much how, how much how?
How much longer have we got to go on?
Old age as time grew, you did too and you didn't say what you wanted to
Okay! (Static shit)
Patriotic bullshit, George Bush, the government
The other side, genocide, what the fuck?
You can't deny that things are going up
And are not going to be so nice
Take a breath or take twenty (..)
You get no more and you can see what you can see
Lyrics submitted by Manicsquirrel
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More Featured Meanings
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Apparently it's a ridiculously long and awesome improv jam from 2002. I did the best I could with the lyrics, but the mumbling and screaming made it pretty tough. If anyone knows the missing parts or has any corrections, I'll change it.
For those that don't have it, the song can be found here archive.arcticsounds.org/index.php
The site is down right now it seems... Until it's back up you can email me if you want it. manicsquirrel1188@gmail.com
thanks for the website! that's really great.
This was the jam isaac cut himself to. You can find the video on youtube. Isaac was obviously wasted during this, just a bunch of crazy thoughts coming out of his head.
this is modest mouse.
Isaac DIDNOT CUT HIMSELF. he saw the kid with the camera in the crowd and said to Judy that this was going to be fake
and you know this how?
thats what i'm guessing its hard to tell because of all the lights going on at the show.
I doubt that the cutting incident is fake. A lady in the crowd actually screams "NO ISAAC!" when he pulls the knife out, and the mood changes entirely. Everyone gets serious until he picks his guitar back up and starts playing.
great song, the incident with the knife happened before Isaac got clean and im still not sure if it was a stunt or not but if it wasn't he was shit-faced
I'm pretty certain that he did not really cut himself. I've heard a handful of people from the show itself claim that he didn't do it, but at the time people thought it was all a legit act. I guess that's why some of the people in the audience shouted out and why there was a mood change. But yeah, after a while it was clear that he didn't really do it.
It's about really wanting to help someone in a moment of need and not being able to. If only things were different. Our personal feelings of guilt are petty.