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."
Reach the city steps tonight
Following the power lines
Met a man barside
With eclipses for eyes
And you tell yourself you wont let them touch
Did I say too much did I say enough
I don't know Sylvia
I don't know Sylvia
Circle round the room still
Breaking my will
Know I can't have you here
Someone else on your skin
And it's all my fault for not getting off
And you made it start, can you make it stop?
You don't know Sylvia
You don't know Sylvia
Damn
Damn
Reach the city steps tonight
Following the power lines
And your skin is so white
Underneath the black night
And your voice calls out for the Coup de grace
When the lights go out will there be a trace?
I don't know Silvia
That I loved, Silvia
That I loved, Silvia
Following the power lines
Met a man barside
With eclipses for eyes
And you tell yourself you wont let them touch
Did I say too much did I say enough
I don't know Sylvia
I don't know Sylvia
Circle round the room still
Breaking my will
Know I can't have you here
Someone else on your skin
And it's all my fault for not getting off
And you made it start, can you make it stop?
You don't know Sylvia
You don't know Sylvia
Damn
Damn
Reach the city steps tonight
Following the power lines
And your skin is so white
Underneath the black night
And your voice calls out for the Coup de grace
When the lights go out will there be a trace?
I don't know Silvia
That I loved, Silvia
That I loved, Silvia
Lyrics submitted by heathereve, edited by adamguy17, Maharajamd, StillWaiting, aaronsc, benjaminikuta
Silvia Lyrics as written by Christian Karlsson Andrew Wyatt Blakemore
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Downtown Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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.
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.
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.
I don't understand why people always seek to find a mundane narrative about love affairs and drug abuse in wonderfully written songs like this. I was fortunate enough to see Miike Snow at Coachella, 2010. They came out with Phantom of the Opera masks on and it was obvious to me that mystery is a huge part of their show, lyrics, and videos. One look at the video for "Black and Blue" and "Sylvia" shows they are going the Tarriantino briefcase motif and I love the hell out of it. Here is the simple answer for me.
The person in this song has killed Sylvia. The conclusion is of the song is "...and your voice calls out for the coup de grace and the lights go out will there be a trace?" A coup de grace is defined as "a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to the killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, and with or without the consent of the sufferer." It certainly can be a figurative, metaphorical, or analogy "killing" but the song seems to suggest a literal killing from my perspective. Consider this "and your skin is so [white] underneath the black night" suggesting she is already dead along with the lyrics "I dont know silvia / that I loved, silvia / that I loved, silvia." Motive? Simple, "I know I can't have you here/ someone else on you skin." What makes this all so delicious is that like a character drawn from Edgar Allan Poe, the speaker seems to be deranged, holding a conversation with a dead lover: "Did I say too much / did I say enough / I don't know Silvia / I don't know Silvia." I think he followed the "powerlines" out of the city to bury her, and used them to return to the city. Amazing songwriting, thank you Miike Snow!
This is my favorite take on this song. Whether it's what the writer intended or not, it's a creative point of view.
Love your take on the song, you seem like an intelligent person. So here is my addition, I'm not sure exactly what the song is about but I have a valuable insight; Silvia comes from the Latin root for forest. Silvia actually means spirit of the woods. So he could be not talking about a woman at all but something far greater seeing as how woods fit in with the animal jackalope that the men burn in the woods during the video. Forests are associated with darkness, perhaps a moral wilderness he has lost himself in or killed forever?
@Alwaysinterested These interpretations are on point. I want to add that a nymph is “a mythological spirit of nature imagined as a beautiful maiden inhabiting rivers, woods, or other locations.” I think this song is about a man that has fallen for a nymphomaniac. The song starts in 3rd person and ends in 1st person. Throughout she is described as being emotionally unavailable. In the end the man that loved her possibly accepted her nature “And your voice calls out for the Coup de grace” somewhat indicating that she may have continued on her path of Nymphomania with another or she may possibly be struggling to stop continuing the life path she’s on. In the end the lover has accepted that he may possibly be forgotten at night “When the lights go out will their be a trace?” as she continues on her life path of Nymphomania.
Nymphomania is not so much a life path but a way to cope and numb oneself from pain. I think the song makes it clear that she’s already “dead” emotionally dead/emotionally unavailable for a monogamous relationship, a stable life.
The journey your story took me on was awesome then reading all the other comments on here had me following the powerlines to the forest of nymps and I saw fire in my head at nite .<br /> Mental orgasam of a journey lol
I think this is about someone who is obviously in (still) love with a girl called Silvia. I know he says "that I loved" also, so maybe they aren't together anymore. He feels jealous when he goes out, remembering she could be with someone else (i can't have you here, someone else on your skin). He feels that they aren't together because of him and his clinginess. ("and its all my fault for not getting off, so you made it stop cant you make it stop") So she broke up but he still wants her. The way he repeats her name so many times is a sign that he is constantly thinking of her. He couldn't go out with her and enjoy her because he was always thinking of other people looking at her and wanting her, and now he is in that same position because he forced her away with how close he tried to be..
So many guys do this. Why won't you learn? If you love something, set it free. If it doesn't return, it never was and wants to be.
i totally agree...and i felt the same way when i listened to this song for the very first time...<br /> i guess that is because i experienced the same position and am still experiencing it...it's never easy to set it free...
i disagree with your last statement. just because someone doesn't want to get back together doesn't mean the never loved the person or did still love them.
In context: "If it doesn't return, it never was [free] and wants to be." It's not real love if you don't have a choice in the matter.<br /> <br /> But enough with that red herring... back to the song!
Are we talking about REAL men who have people in their actual physical lives or men who dream up people and want to play house online? Yeah, there's a difference. And one of those men need to say gone (100% gone) forever...
It's pretty obvious, I think, that this song is about a man (the singer) who's in love with a girl (they're not necessarily in a relationship) , but she probably doesn't feel quite the same way and sleeps with another man.
Perhaps she's a beautiful girl, because I think the man who sleeps with her is the man he meets by the bar: "met a man barside" and "with eclipses for eyes" because when someone is attracted to something/one, it's known their pupils dilate. "Eclipses for eyes" suggests his pupils were so wide and dilated because he lusted for this girl, Silvia.
Other lines which suggest it's about Silvia sleeping with someone are: "When the lights go out" and "someone else on your skin"
I don't think drugs have anything to do with it. All the lyrics fit perfectly with the narrative that:
Silvia is a very desirable yet unattainable woman who has left a trail of broken hearts, the singer among them.
The video affirms this because all the men in the video are the sad heartbroken lovers she has left in her wake, and they burn an effigy of a heart at the end.
I had an experience exactly like this and the song evokes it perfectly; I have since grown and realized that I was too needy at that time and had to figure out how to fill the emptiness within myself rather than looking to a woman to do it.
sIIiiiIIIiiiIIiiIILLLvvveeEEeeeEEeeeEEeeeuhhuuuhhhuhooow-uhhhuuuuhhhhowEEEAAAAUUUH
IMO
3rd line is "met a man barside"
in addition to a few corrections:
"and you made it start, can you make it stop?" "and your skin is so white" "WHEN the lights go out..."
I'm pulling these lyrics from the digital booklet.
thought I'd like to add this..
the part during the breakdown, before the last verse where it now says
"damn damn"
is most certainly just "silvia" said through a billion different pieces of software.
siiiiillllll(4 measures) viiiiiiiiii(4) ahhhhhhhhh(8)
It's 4 beats, not 4 measures.
Spiritualfish was on the right lines as I also think its about drugs. Many songwriters write about substances, comparing or singing about them under the false pretence of a woman. The most famous example is obviously Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. This song however, I believe is about salvia. The name 'Silvia' is the most obvious giveaway, however: "Met a man barside with eclipses for eyes" could be hinting at dilated pupils, another effects of substance abuse.
"and its all my fault for not getting off so you made it stop cant you make it stop" This verse clearly hints at his addiction problems.
"circle round the room still breaking my will know I cant have you here someone else on your skin" These few lines are about Salvia's effects on the writer, line three specifically is about how the writer knows what he is doing is wrong and wants to stop this habit. Line 4 is about how when you are under the influence of salvia, it's not you but the effects that are taking control.
excellent thought, right or wrong its still excellent.
lucy in the sky with diamonds was actually based off a drawing by lennons son
This is a really amazing song and the meaning of the lyrics are pretty straight forward:
-He and Silvia go to a bar and meet a drunk guy
-They went there to find someone for her to have sex with for money and eventhough he doesnt want her to do it they really need money for drugs
-He blames himself because he cant get off drugs and he's asking her if she knows how to get clean
-The last verse isnt so clear but it sounds like they are just outside the bar and the power lines are her veins and he is trying to find a good one to shoot up
-Is her telling him to inject it, the term coup de grace also means to end ones suffering and as any addict knows when you are withdrawing it is the worst pain you can ever experience and you either want to get high or die. Also silvia or salvia is a hallucinagenic but its not the kind of drug you get strung out on so its probably a coincidence.
I agree with your interpretation, but I was thinking that she was close to death when Andrew sang 'Reach the city steps tonight/following the power lines/and your skin is so white/underneath the black night.' And since they are addicts, she probably thought 'What better way to die than to have one last injection?'
It's always interesting to see people's own interpretation of a song but, according to the band, this song is about a stripper who straightens herself out and quits.