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."
One by one, they stand single file
To see the king of the hill atop his worthless pile
The king has no clothes
Throw stones, watch him implode
All for one or are we all alone
Brick by brick, it's a house built on lies
Because illusion is easy to young adoring eyes
It's not hard to see
Through deceit, make them believe
Fight the stampede, be the one to lead
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be
Do I belong
I find the strength to carry on)
Rung by rung, he's climbed up to the top
But once the engine is running, it's hard to make it stop
Ignore what you're told
Eyes closed, dig from below
Don't care where you're from, just where you go
Step by step, we're ignoring the signs
That cocky bastard is planting the seeds of his demise
There's nothing to gain, only shame
We fan the flames
Fight through the pain, live another day
Just one more day
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be)
Do I belong
Do I belong
Writing's on the wall
That Cheshire smile says you don't have the courage to take the fall
You're not fooling anyone
You're no one
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be)
Do I belong
Do I belong
To see the king of the hill atop his worthless pile
The king has no clothes
Throw stones, watch him implode
All for one or are we all alone
Brick by brick, it's a house built on lies
Because illusion is easy to young adoring eyes
It's not hard to see
Through deceit, make them believe
Fight the stampede, be the one to lead
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be
Do I belong
I find the strength to carry on)
Rung by rung, he's climbed up to the top
But once the engine is running, it's hard to make it stop
Ignore what you're told
Eyes closed, dig from below
Don't care where you're from, just where you go
Step by step, we're ignoring the signs
That cocky bastard is planting the seeds of his demise
There's nothing to gain, only shame
We fan the flames
Fight through the pain, live another day
Just one more day
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be)
Do I belong
Do I belong
Writing's on the wall
That Cheshire smile says you don't have the courage to take the fall
You're not fooling anyone
You're no one
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be)
Do I belong
Do I belong
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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,
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.
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.
I think this song is a sort of indirect dialogue between a ruler that failed to do his work properly and the angry people. The angry people speak during the verses, talking about the lies behind the failure and their ideals, while the ruler recognizes his faults and asks himself if he's sure of what to do now, as stated in the chorus.
Imo, this is what the song is SPECIFICALLY about.
The song can also be interpretated in a different, more generic way, and I like this enterpretation more because it can be applied to a lot more situations of life.
If you make a mistake, you probably won't be forgiven, even if you recognize your mistakes and want to repair what you broke. This isn't either good or bad, it's just how the world goes, because the same thing could be applied to the others that were directly hit by the mistake you made. It's something related to pride, imo, and it reminds me the first verse of "Take this Life" from In Flames: "It's not so much the pain, it's more the actual knife"; it doesn't matter if you didn't want to do something or if you regret it, you still did it and there's nothing that will change that. Sure, you can still try to fix what you did, but the wound won't disappear. But this song also shows off the hypocrisy of the people: "don't care where you're from, just where you go" is my favorite phrase from the song and it literally says that it doesn't matter what you did, it matters if you do something good to fix it. It's totally the contrary of what people think if someone else makes a mistake.