@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
I'm not knocking your want
To carry that home
Took it with you
When you moved and got it broke
Found the pieces
We counted them all alone
Didn't add up
Forgot to carry a zero
I can't be your
Apologist very long
I'm surprised that
You'd want to carry that on
Count your blemishes
You can't
They're all gone
I can't see your response
Putting them back on
Like they're waiting for your guard to fall
So they can see it all and you're so
Occupied with what other persons are
Occupied with
And vice versa
And you've become
What you thought was done
A fraction of the sum
Yeah, you've become
Yeah, you have become
A fraction of the sum
The middle and the front
And now it's coming back
Hasn't it come too far?
I was trying to help but I guess
I pushed too hard
Now we can't even touch it
Afraid it'll fall apart
To carry that home
Took it with you
When you moved and got it broke
Found the pieces
We counted them all alone
Didn't add up
Forgot to carry a zero
I can't be your
Apologist very long
I'm surprised that
You'd want to carry that on
Count your blemishes
You can't
They're all gone
I can't see your response
Putting them back on
Like they're waiting for your guard to fall
So they can see it all and you're so
Occupied with what other persons are
Occupied with
And vice versa
And you've become
What you thought was done
A fraction of the sum
Yeah, you've become
Yeah, you have become
A fraction of the sum
The middle and the front
And now it's coming back
Hasn't it come too far?
I was trying to help but I guess
I pushed too hard
Now we can't even touch it
Afraid it'll fall apart
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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."
Gentle Hour
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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,
I Can't Go To Sleep
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Wu-Tang Clan
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.
No Surprises
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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.
I think the first verse and closing line of the song uses the metaphor of a broken thin (which for simplicity's sake I will refer to as a vase from here on out) for a relationship that's suddenly fallen apart, and in spite of what the singer (from this point forward referred to as "he" or "him") see's as the best interest of the song's subject (from this point forward referred to as "she" or "her"), it has been shoddily repaired, but no longer retains any value.
"I'm not knocking your want to carry that home" seems to refer to her remaining attached to a broken piece. The vase will never be repaired to it's original form, and the relationship is not salvageable.
"Took it with you when you moved and got it broke," I think in this line he's talking strictly about the literal meaning rather than the metaphorical meaning. How often when you box things up to move a fragile item, regardless of how much newspaper you throw in there, do you open the box at the new place to find that it's broke?
"Found the pieces, we counted them all alone. Didn't add up, forgot to carry a zero" She opens the box to find the broken vase, and even though theoretically every piece should be in the box, since it was intact the last time she saw it, she can't recreate it using the pieces in the box. It doesn't make sense why. Carrying a zero is absurd math. Saying that your forgot to carry a zero is not an explanation for why a math problem is wrong. It doesn't make sense why the relationship can't go back to the way it was. They're still the same people, but somehow there are pieces missing.
At this point the metaphor is dropped, and he responds to her clinging to the broken relationship, and he's not happy about it. He can't keep making excuses for (I can't be your apologist very long), he's surprised that she is being so irrational (I'm surprised you'd want to carry that on), and he remembers a time when she would ridicule others for doing what she's doing now (You have become what you thought was dumb).
And at the end he finally returns to the metaphor.
"And now we can't even touch it. Afraid it'll fall apart." Apparently, she has decided to go back to trying to make the failed relationship work, and like a vase that's been glued together with parts missing, it's so fragile you can't touch it.
I think you nailed it. People seem to be focused on the "blemishes" part and assuming this is somehow a song about "faking" or pretending to be someone one isn't. But that part of the song isn't really central to the theme, in my opinion. It's a minor digression compared to the fragile object metaphor. And becoming "a fraction of the sum" relates to "occupied with what other persons are occupied with and vice versa." She has stopped caring about putting the relationship back together (which they originally did "all alone") and become more concerned with the general concerns of society. He is disillusioned with her and sees her as just another piece of the big picture instead of the small, fragile one that was their relationship. <br /> <br /> By the way, this song just kicks ass. It's definitely one of my go-to jams when I'm frustrated and just need to blast something loud.