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'm the bastard the total package like Lex Luger
Pull a sting like a yellow jacket makin maneuvers
Through the slums nigga iron lung ladies and gentlemen
Welcome to my torture chamber pen and pendulum
Foul play T two thousand be judgment day
Face millennium hell to pay
My knuckles soft from the star wars of han solo
South paw ring your bell like its quasimodo what is the law?
Stay hardcore my clan logo move to quick to catch a photo
Jettin' on land like jet motto now we lord on the conduit?
These niggaz actin like they beactinen' through it
As if the hardcore to the truest, I can't lose like Parker Lewis
Set in my ways
Got you corny niggaz askin' who is Johnny Blaze
Get a late pass stinkin' ass sucker ass
Now you sufferin' like succotash
While johnny cash is makin moves on your moneybags
I'm strict love stickin' hundreds in your honeys ass
My verbal bucket in the background
Holdin me down watching these clowns
As they eyeballin all day eyeballin in the mind
Gettin' high y'all, put it on the sky fold the night trol night
Rap infected get the Lysol to disinfect it
You don't know me or my fuckin method
That's the shit that made me tip
When I wrote a pitch how many leech it
Stapleton, the wild west park hill
Now borne jungle nils one more game hit me with
That shit they be smokin'
Got cali niggaz loc'in new york niggaz open
John hay phenomenon the megabomb
Transformed in a firearm like megatron
You get stepped on and shit upon, I'm a stay calm
Knowin' brothers wanna do me harm
Shaolin Whylen what punks
We got love for those who got love for us
Now go to your home
Pull a sting like a yellow jacket makin maneuvers
Through the slums nigga iron lung ladies and gentlemen
Welcome to my torture chamber pen and pendulum
Foul play T two thousand be judgment day
Face millennium hell to pay
My knuckles soft from the star wars of han solo
South paw ring your bell like its quasimodo what is the law?
Stay hardcore my clan logo move to quick to catch a photo
Jettin' on land like jet motto now we lord on the conduit?
These niggaz actin like they beactinen' through it
As if the hardcore to the truest, I can't lose like Parker Lewis
Set in my ways
Got you corny niggaz askin' who is Johnny Blaze
Get a late pass stinkin' ass sucker ass
Now you sufferin' like succotash
While johnny cash is makin moves on your moneybags
I'm strict love stickin' hundreds in your honeys ass
My verbal bucket in the background
Holdin me down watching these clowns
As they eyeballin all day eyeballin in the mind
Gettin' high y'all, put it on the sky fold the night trol night
Rap infected get the Lysol to disinfect it
You don't know me or my fuckin method
That's the shit that made me tip
When I wrote a pitch how many leech it
Stapleton, the wild west park hill
Now borne jungle nils one more game hit me with
That shit they be smokin'
Got cali niggaz loc'in new york niggaz open
John hay phenomenon the megabomb
Transformed in a firearm like megatron
You get stepped on and shit upon, I'm a stay calm
Knowin' brothers wanna do me harm
Shaolin Whylen what punks
We got love for those who got love for us
Now go to your home
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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,
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
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.