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."
You told yourself something funny the other day
You said you can't make you laugh.
How can that be in your solid state?
How can that be in your solid state?
Don't say no, just say you don't know.
How can that be in your solid state?
As you make it unreal
I'm reeling around the fountain
I'm reeling around the fountain.
I still confide in you almost every day
Even though you're not around.
How can that be in your solid state?
How can that be in your solid state?
Don't say no, just say you don't know.
You said you can't make you laugh.
How can that be in your solid state?
How can that be in your solid state?
Don't say no, just say you don't know.
How can that be in your solid state?
As you make it unreal
I'm reeling around the fountain
I'm reeling around the fountain.
I still confide in you almost every day
Even though you're not around.
How can that be in your solid state?
How can that be in your solid state?
Don't say no, just say you don't know.
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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."
Gentle Hour
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,
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
This is actually a Halo Benders song. Halo Benders were a project with Doug from BTS and Calvin from Beat Happenning and half a dozen other cool bands. He's the founder of K Records, too.
This was the first HB song I ever heard. I was working the summer in Denali National Park in Alaska and I went to the employee cafeteria for lunch, while I was in line i heard this song playing and asked the remarkably cute girl behind the counter who it was. She said Halo Benders and I said it sounded like Doug Martsch from BTS. She said Halo Benders were from Idaho like her and was I from Idaho, I said no but BTS was from Idaho as well. So we introduced each other to new music and made eyes at each other the rest of the season. I never saw her after that summer.
Strangely all the lyrics Calvin sang are excluded in your lyrics here. I guess (probably wrongly) that this is from some live version of BTS doing it without Calvin so there aren't any lyrics from his side?
I always found the charm in Halo Benders to be Doug's yearning, high, plaintive, slow, emotional, almost whining lyrics that were this great canvas for Calvin's deep, more rapid sort of flippant nonsense lyrics.
In the original version Calvin keeps going off about predestination and laizzes-faire with lyrics like "Dance around on the kitchen table, Rub your tummy and show your navel". Brilliant. The self titled HB album isn't as stunning but The Rebel's Not In is great and God Don't Make No Junk is AMAZING. If you like BTS I DEFY you to dislike that album.
Alright let's get this straight geoffingeorgia. Calvin Johnson, of Beat Happening, sucks. It is a travesty that he would ever share the same stage with Doug Martsch. Watch how he dances while Doug leads the show: youtube.com/watch Yeah, this guy is truly laughable. He can't sing, he simply talks in the background, and dances like he's half retarded. And the Built to Spill version of the song is much better. There is nothing brilliant about the lyric "rub your tummy and show your navel." I could make any song Calvin has made in half an hour in garageband and have the same result.
This was from the "Live" album as far as BTS is concerned. I'll have to check out the Halo Benders version.
This is one of my favorite Built to Spill songs and is also my very favorite Halo Benders song (I generally prefer BTS over the Halo Benders, but both creative collaborations offer us some very fine music.
The song's title is intriguing. It's clearly a reference to the song by the Smiths "Reel Around the Fountain," a song that was in turn full of references to the play "A Taste of Honey" by Shelagh Delaney. The reference might have more to do with the inspiration some members of Built to Spill (at least Doug Martsch) took from the Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr (who, by the way, likes Built to Spill). But it's also a reference to the Virginia Reel, a very old popular folk dance widely enjoyed in the mid-to-late 19th century.
The lyrics (and the music) provide the listener a contrast between "reeling around the fountain" (being unstable, reacting emotionally, being ungrounded and unbalanced) and the "solid state" (being firm, unmoveable, fixed, stable, grounded, etc.). Yet, the aparant contrast is undermined by the questioning, "how can that be your solid state?" and the accusation that "you make it unreal". Clearly the "solid state" is not to be trusted or believed.
The ambiguity and mystery of the one verse that departs from this theme adds to the song: "I still confide in you almost every day / Even though you're not around." This invites some mediation on how we can confide in someone, or what it means to confide in someone. Why do we confide?
I understand that Built To Spill usually starts with their music and then the lyrics come afterward. As music is such and abstract and emotional form of expression, it makes sense that the lyrics are similarily impressionistic or abstract, evoking a mood or a state of mind. This (and many other Built To Spill songs) are like a Kandinsky or Van Gogh painting as compared to the more accessible and easily-understood explicit illustrations given to us by most popular music or ballads.