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'll sing love songs about heartbreak and grief
Sing it's not just music but the pains not brief
We sing, how your love is like a knife to the back
Well I was stabbed and bleeding
But still begging for attack
But I was looking through slow, slow glass
Looking through slow
Slow glass
Well I heard you been singing
Well I was, what I am
Well I never tried to change you, honey I'm your biggest fan
And I loved you back then
But I don't recognize you now
Yeah in fact we're almost strangers and I don't know how,
But I've been looking through slow, slow glass
Yeah I've been looking though slow, slow glass
Sing it's not just music but the pains not brief
We sing, how your love is like a knife to the back
Well I was stabbed and bleeding
But still begging for attack
But I was looking through slow, slow glass
Looking through slow
Slow glass
Well I heard you been singing
Well I was, what I am
Well I never tried to change you, honey I'm your biggest fan
And I loved you back then
But I don't recognize you now
Yeah in fact we're almost strangers and I don't know how,
But I've been looking through slow, slow glass
Yeah I've been looking though slow, slow glass
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More Featured Meanings
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
First days of Spring is a masterpiece! The first few times I listened to it, I was mesmerized. The whole flow from the recently broken heart to the emotional processing of the relationship, that finally comes to terms with the last 3 songs. "Slow Glass" is about a a new perspective. Suddenly the writer sees the relationship with different eyes. He views his former self as a blind man, walking in an obscure reality, that is managed and manipulated by the negative dynamic between him and his special lady friend. He wakes up to find a different self, the veil has been lifted and his view is clear now. How many of us have had this same experience. Thinking that reality is one thing, only to find at a later point in life that we were totally wrong in interpreting it.
This song went from awesome to seriously awesome when I found out what slow glass actually is (or at least, would be, since apparently it only exists in sci-fi).
From newscientist.com/article/mg16922797.300-slow-glass.html
"You need a sheet of "material" which doesn't actually stop light but slows it down to travelling only in a few centimetres a year. Now imagine placing a plate of the material two centimetres thick out in the mountains for, say, two years and then bringing it back for your city window. Over the next two years, the mountain view would slowly emerge from the other side."
Presumably slow glass would be initially opaque at first and then gradually you'd start to be able to see whatever was on the other side. So although the singer saw nothing wrong with his relationship at first, wanted it back, thought he'd be better off with her, it was always an inevitability that with time he would start to see what was actually there, and realise he could be happier without her, as certainly as the laws of physics (or at least fictional physics). He just needed time.
WOW dude you just blew my mind thank you!
This song is so about Laura.
I love them both, though...even if they now hate each other.
Definitely about Laura Marling, with the reference to her song Rambling Man.
Yeah, the references are pretty obvious here, though I think it's about the song 'Blackberry Stone' more specifically, not 'Rambling Man,' since it's the one that was also released before the actual album (which came out more than a year after The First Days). <br /> <br /> Also, it just makes so much more sense in my opinion, since Blackberry Stone is very obviously the bitter end-of-relationship song with lines such as "You never did learn to let me be," to which the reply is, of course, "I never tried to change you, Honey I'm your biggest fan." <br /> <br /> Which is funny because as much as I love Laura (I have been a fan way before I even knew who NATW were), now I can't help but feel more sympathy for Charlie than for her. Maybe it's just that I've listened to the First Days of Spring way too many times.
Bit of a reference to Blackberry Stone, where Laura Marling responds to one of Noah and the Whales earlier songs, Hold My Hand as its Lowered. She changes the words to Hold My Hand to say that while she will be sad that she won't hold his hand, 'the world does what it does'- The world referring to they NatW lyric "Well, I fell in love with the world in you".. Kind of like saying, you fell in love with who I am, so you should respect my right to act as I do- if that be breaking up with you for the following reasons..
She sings: And you never did learn to let the little things go And you never did learn to let me be And you never did learn to let little people grow And you never did learn how to see
So its kind of hard not to see-
Well I heard you been singing Well I was, what I am Well I never tried to change you, honey I'm your biggest fan and I loved you back then but I don't recognize you now
As a bit of a reference. The 'I don't recognise you now' is interesting as Charlie Fink had produced her debut album, then they broke up and she released Blackberry stone as a B side (only for it to get onto the next album). I Speak is so different to Alas that I suppose you could see as it as her moving away from Fink's style and closer to her own (or Mumford's) style?
Thanks to all these comments I finally see where this song fits into the album. I always felt it was kind of a last minute add on but now it fits perfectly, thank you!