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."
I was reminiscing just the other day
While having coffee all alone and Lord, it took me away
Back to a first-glance feeling on New York time
Back when you fit in my poems like a perfect rhyme
Took off faster than a the green light, go
Hey, you skip the conversation when you already know
I left a note on the door with a joke we'd made
And that was the first day
And darlin', it was good
Never lookin' down
And right there where we stood
Was holy ground
Spinnin' like a girl in a brand new dress
We had this big wide city all to ourselves
We blocked the noise with the sound of "I need you"
And for the first time I had something to lose
And I guess we fell apart in the usual way
And the story's got dust on every page
But sometimes I wonder how you think about it now
And I see your face in every crowd
'Cause darlin', it was good (uh-ey, uh-ey)
Never lookin' down (uh-ey, uh-ey)
And right there where we stood (uh-ey)
Was holy ground (uh-ey, uh-ey, uh-ey, oh-oh)
(Uh-ey, uh-ey, uh-ey, oh-oh)
Tonight I'm gonna dance
For all that we've been through
But I don't wanna dance
If I'm not dancing with you
Tonight I'm gonna dance
Like you were in this room
But I don't wanna dance
If I'm not dancing with you
It was good
Never lookin' down
And right there where we stood
Was holy ground (uh-ey, uh-ey, uh-ey, oh-oh)
(Uh-ey, uh-ey, uh-ey, oh-oh)
Tonight I'm gonna dance
For all that we've been through
But I don't wanna dance
If I'm not dancing with you
Tonight I'm gonna dance
Like you were in this room
But I don't wanna dance
If I'm not dancing with you
While having coffee all alone and Lord, it took me away
Back to a first-glance feeling on New York time
Back when you fit in my poems like a perfect rhyme
Took off faster than a the green light, go
Hey, you skip the conversation when you already know
I left a note on the door with a joke we'd made
And that was the first day
And darlin', it was good
Never lookin' down
And right there where we stood
Was holy ground
Spinnin' like a girl in a brand new dress
We had this big wide city all to ourselves
We blocked the noise with the sound of "I need you"
And for the first time I had something to lose
And I guess we fell apart in the usual way
And the story's got dust on every page
But sometimes I wonder how you think about it now
And I see your face in every crowd
'Cause darlin', it was good (uh-ey, uh-ey)
Never lookin' down (uh-ey, uh-ey)
And right there where we stood (uh-ey)
Was holy ground (uh-ey, uh-ey, uh-ey, oh-oh)
(Uh-ey, uh-ey, uh-ey, oh-oh)
Tonight I'm gonna dance
For all that we've been through
But I don't wanna dance
If I'm not dancing with you
Tonight I'm gonna dance
Like you were in this room
But I don't wanna dance
If I'm not dancing with you
It was good
Never lookin' down
And right there where we stood
Was holy ground (uh-ey, uh-ey, uh-ey, oh-oh)
(Uh-ey, uh-ey, uh-ey, oh-oh)
Tonight I'm gonna dance
For all that we've been through
But I don't wanna dance
If I'm not dancing with you
Tonight I'm gonna dance
Like you were in this room
But I don't wanna dance
If I'm not dancing with you
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by thrwmyhrtawy., jojoinpink54, jbrocks20
Holy Ground Lyrics as written by Taylor Alison Swift
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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More Featured Meanings
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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,
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.
This Country-Rock stomper finds Swift reminiscing about a relationship that ran on "New York time" where for a short period, "everywhere we stood is holy ground." Regarding whom she is singing about, as far as we're aware, two of Taylor's exes were based in New York - Joe Jonas whom she had a relationship with in 2008 and Brokeback Mountain star Jake Gyllenhaal whom the songstress dated for about three months in late 2010.
Jeff Bhasker, the man behind much of Kanye West's, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album, produced this song. It is one of several tracks on Red that finds Swift collaborating with a variety of different writers and producers. She told CMT News: "This album was such an amazing experience because, for my last album, I just wrote it by myself. And so this one, I wanted to approach it differently because I never want to make the same album twice. So I would just call my songwriting and producing heroes and say, 'Hey, you want to work together?' And I got to work with some of my heroes, and I feel like I learned so much about other people's processes and other people's ways of doing things. It's so healthy as an artist to consistently put yourself in a room with people who are so different, style-wise, and so different in the way that they approach music than you are because it teaches you things. It teaches you new tricks."