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."
Take off, little winged creature
It's nothing but teens in ravines
And antics on concrete down here
And are you really as free as all the great songs would have me believe?
Let me tell you why some day, Birdie, you're gonna envy me
Some dream of a world written in lines of code
I hope they engineer out politics, romance, and edifice
Two outta three ain't bad
Some envision a state governed by laws of business
Merger and acquisition instead of violence or nations
Where do I sign up?
Take off, little winged creature
It's nothing but falling debris, strollers, and babies down here
And you may be up in the sky but our paradigms are just as deep and just as wide
What with all our best attempts at transcendence
Something's bound to take
Soon, we'll live in a global culture devoid of gender or race
There's just one tiny line
You're either born behind
Or you're free to peek inside
Life as just narrative, metadata in aggregate
Where the enigma of humanity's wrapped up finally
That as they say is that
Oh, that day can't come soon enough
It'll be so glorious
When they finally find out what's bugging us
It's nothing but teens in ravines
And antics on concrete down here
And are you really as free as all the great songs would have me believe?
Let me tell you why some day, Birdie, you're gonna envy me
Some dream of a world written in lines of code
I hope they engineer out politics, romance, and edifice
Two outta three ain't bad
Some envision a state governed by laws of business
Merger and acquisition instead of violence or nations
Where do I sign up?
Take off, little winged creature
It's nothing but falling debris, strollers, and babies down here
And you may be up in the sky but our paradigms are just as deep and just as wide
What with all our best attempts at transcendence
Something's bound to take
Soon, we'll live in a global culture devoid of gender or race
There's just one tiny line
You're either born behind
Or you're free to peek inside
Life as just narrative, metadata in aggregate
Where the enigma of humanity's wrapped up finally
That as they say is that
Oh, that day can't come soon enough
It'll be so glorious
When they finally find out what's bugging us
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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Wu-Tang Clan
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This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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.
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.
"Some dream of a world written in lines of code" ... "And are you really as free as all the great songs would have me believe? Let me tell you why some day, Birdie, you're gonna envy me" ... silicon valley's dreams of electric sheep? maybe suggests this desire man has had to own all aspects of nature, industrializing it... and eventually build a societal matrix that supersedes nature with Prometheus' fire
... "Some envision a state governed by laws of business; Merger and acquisition..." project for a new american century... scorching earth outside of the grid, assimilating what's left into a u.n.ified dream. [... "you have to be asleep to believe" - George Carlin]
"Life as just narrative, metadata in aggregate... Where the enigma of humanity's wrapped up, finally. That, as they say, is that!"
[What does the search for knowledge do? We want to know everything... we want to know how rocks are made, how trees are growing, how old they are... so we cut down a tree and measure it's rings. then we don't have the tree anymore (what's the purpose of that?) Why can't we just enjoy the tree? why do we want all of this knowledge? what's it for? how does it relate to the human experience? why do we need to know all this stuff? where does it lead to? - author unknown]
"It's nothing but falling debris, strollers, and babies down here" and even if mental health and morale within our current model of living have hit the fan... "And you may be up in the sky but our paradigms are just as deep and just as wide What with all our best attempts at transcendence" ... we assume our insanity vital enough to upload into immortal machine like the Johnny Depp film
...another thought... the first thing I thought when I saw the title, was the meme from Bernie Sanders 2016 election where a song bird landed on Sanders podium, giving him the short lived nickname "Birdy" Sanders... and of how the old guard ensured the failure of his grassroots campaign
@li8htwav5 I have a tendency of proofreading after I post and now I can't find an edit button...