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."
Have you been to the desert?
Have you walked with the dead?
There's a hundred thousand children being killed for their bread
And the figures don't lie they speak of human disease
But we do what we want and we think what we please
Have you lived the experience?
Have you witnessed the plague?
People making babies sometimes just to escape
In this land of competition the compassion is gone
Yet we ignore the needy and we keep pushing on
Keep pushing on
This is just a punk rock song
Written for the people who can see something's wrong
Like ants in a colony we do our share
But there's so many other fuckin' insects out there
And this is just a punk rock song
Have you visited the quagmire?
Have you swam in the shit?
The party convention and the real politic
The faces always different, the rhetoric the same
But we swallow it all, and we see nothing change
Nothing has changed
This is just a punk rock song
Written for the people who can see something's wrong
Like workers in a factory we do our share
But there's so many other fuckin' robots out there
And this is just a punk rock song
Ten million dollars on a losing campaign
Twenty million starving and writhing in pain
Big strong people unwilling to give
Small in vision and perspective
One in five kids below the poverty line
One population runnin' out of time
Runnin' out of time
This is just a punk rock song
Written for the people who can see something's wrong
Like ants in a colony we do our share
But there's so many other fuckin' insects out there
And this is just a punk rock song
These figures don't lie they speak of human disease
But we do what we want and we think what we please
One in five kids below the poverty line
One population runnin' out of time
This is just a punk rock song
This is just a punk rock song
This is just a punk rock song
Have you walked with the dead?
There's a hundred thousand children being killed for their bread
And the figures don't lie they speak of human disease
But we do what we want and we think what we please
Have you lived the experience?
Have you witnessed the plague?
People making babies sometimes just to escape
In this land of competition the compassion is gone
Yet we ignore the needy and we keep pushing on
Keep pushing on
This is just a punk rock song
Written for the people who can see something's wrong
Like ants in a colony we do our share
But there's so many other fuckin' insects out there
And this is just a punk rock song
Have you visited the quagmire?
Have you swam in the shit?
The party convention and the real politic
The faces always different, the rhetoric the same
But we swallow it all, and we see nothing change
Nothing has changed
This is just a punk rock song
Written for the people who can see something's wrong
Like workers in a factory we do our share
But there's so many other fuckin' robots out there
And this is just a punk rock song
Ten million dollars on a losing campaign
Twenty million starving and writhing in pain
Big strong people unwilling to give
Small in vision and perspective
One in five kids below the poverty line
One population runnin' out of time
Runnin' out of time
This is just a punk rock song
Written for the people who can see something's wrong
Like ants in a colony we do our share
But there's so many other fuckin' insects out there
And this is just a punk rock song
These figures don't lie they speak of human disease
But we do what we want and we think what we please
One in five kids below the poverty line
One population runnin' out of time
This is just a punk rock song
This is just a punk rock song
This is just a punk rock song
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Ten million dollars on a losing campaign Twenty million starving and writhing in pain
i really like those two lines