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."
Where did the bastard run
Is he still around
Now you gotta tell me everything you did baby
I'm gonna get a gun
Shoot the lover down
Are you gonna tell me everything you did baby
Traces are everywhere
In our happy home
Now you better tell me everything you did baby
I jumped out of my easy chair
It was not my own
Now I want to hear about everything you did baby
I never knew you
You were a roller skater
You gonna show me later
Turn up the Eagles the neighbors are listening
You know how people talk
I wonder what they say
I think you better tell me everything you did baby
I never knew you
You were a roller skater
You gonna show me later
You never came to me
When you were so inclined
Yes you could have told me everything you did baby
I know where baby's at
I know your filthy mind
Now you're gonna do me everything you did baby
Is he still around
Now you gotta tell me everything you did baby
I'm gonna get a gun
Shoot the lover down
Are you gonna tell me everything you did baby
Traces are everywhere
In our happy home
Now you better tell me everything you did baby
I jumped out of my easy chair
It was not my own
Now I want to hear about everything you did baby
I never knew you
You were a roller skater
You gonna show me later
Turn up the Eagles the neighbors are listening
You know how people talk
I wonder what they say
I think you better tell me everything you did baby
I never knew you
You were a roller skater
You gonna show me later
You never came to me
When you were so inclined
Yes you could have told me everything you did baby
I know where baby's at
I know your filthy mind
Now you're gonna do me everything you did baby
Lyrics submitted by Father O Blivion
Everything You Did Lyrics as written by Walter Carl Becker Donald Jay Fagen
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The shot at the Eagles (of which, except for a few tunes of theirs, I agree with Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski's attitude towards them) led the Eagles to write in "Hotel California,":
"They stab it with their STEELY knives but they just can't kill the beast..."
In keeping with the "scurvy brother" concept of a lot of Dan songs, I get the feeling our subject of "Everything You Did" in a VERY creepy way wants his cheating lover to show him how she pleased the other lover. Especially with the last line, "Now you're gonna do me everything you did, baby."
@ChiTownHustler I’m sure that’s a shot at The Eagles — who deserve shots — but I kind of don’t get it. Can someone explain how this is an insult to them? Is it just that The Eagles were mainstream and everywhere at the time, so your boring neighbors probably like them? Is that it?
You missed my favorite part of the song. "I know where baby's at / I know your filthy mind" means "the bastard" in still hiding in the house somewhere. Under the bed, the closet... the narrator is familiar enough with his lover to guess the hiding place.
After the song ends the narrator will get his gun, drag the bastard out of hiding, and make the two of them replay their lovemaking until he's satisfied that the lover has been humiliated.
Or worse. A dark (but good) song on a dark album.
Sources say that in the mid-70's Walter Becker's then girlfriend was a huge Eagles fan and apparently she had been cheating on him which he discovered via "traces in their happy home". This song was a way for Becker to work out his anger towards her similar to John Cale's "Guts" which tells the tale of infidelity, that time between Cale's wife and fellow musician Kevin Ayers.
I love the lines: "traces are everywhere in our happy home....I jumped out of my easy chair, it was not my own!" It seems to be referring to "traces"(condoms, semen, etc.) left behind from her earlier sexual infidelities.
I love the line, "Turn up the Eagles the neighbors are listening" :-)
The last line I only recently paid attention to - it sounds on the verge of rape retribution.
I can say this song has the single funniest opening line Fagen and Becker have ever written.
Its retribution sex with a cheating wife...forced to tell hubby every last detail....shouting and screaming...and then he finally fucks her, demanding that she explain every single thing she did with the other guy.
Steely Dan at their absolute best.
First of all this is not ironical. They're kind of doing what rappers do.
Like mentioned before this guy catches his girlfriend cheating on him pretends to be mad then is turned on by it.
I was takin a class about how contraceptive laws were put into place by the some states. You know if all drugs are illegal no people buy them...if all contraception is illegal no bastards will be born to misfortunate husbands.
The song is also written 60s/70s something. Free sex no love. Watch mad men - the open relationships.
So in a nutshell It's Donald and Fagen being brilliantly ironic. Well Donald Watler is the "cool" one in that he cracks jokes. Cool relatively.
Saw these guys in Tuscaloosa. Donald said y'all and not a word about the tornado. Made my day he said y'all. I have it on tape. Fuck I'm baked.
Comment below i mean it is ironical
very much
irony - see mad men don and megan swingers other referenyces to culture at the time
guy is asking for details but not in a nonsexual way.
so ironic it bothers me