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."
My name is Calypso
and I have lived alone
I live on an island
and I waken to the dawn
A long time ago
I watched him struggle with the sea
I knew that he was drowning
and I brought him into me
Now today
come morning light
He sails away
after one last night
I let him go.
My name is Calypso
My garden overflows
Thick and wild and hidden
Is the sweetness there that grows
My hair it blows long
as I sing into the wind
I tell of nights
where I could taste the salt on his skin
Salt of the waves
and of tears
And though he,pulled away
I kept him here for years
Now, I let him go.
My name is Calypso
I have let him go
In the dawn he sails away
to be gone forever more
And the waves will take him in again
but he'll know their ways now
I will stand upon the shore
with a clean heart
and my song in the wind
The sand will sting my feet
and the sky will burn
It's a lonely time ahead
I do not ask him to return
I let him go
I let him go
and I have lived alone
I live on an island
and I waken to the dawn
A long time ago
I watched him struggle with the sea
I knew that he was drowning
and I brought him into me
Now today
come morning light
He sails away
after one last night
I let him go.
My name is Calypso
My garden overflows
Thick and wild and hidden
Is the sweetness there that grows
My hair it blows long
as I sing into the wind
I tell of nights
where I could taste the salt on his skin
Salt of the waves
and of tears
And though he,pulled away
I kept him here for years
Now, I let him go.
My name is Calypso
I have let him go
In the dawn he sails away
to be gone forever more
And the waves will take him in again
but he'll know their ways now
I will stand upon the shore
with a clean heart
and my song in the wind
The sand will sting my feet
and the sky will burn
It's a lonely time ahead
I do not ask him to return
I let him go
I let him go
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction

Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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."

Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.

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.

Somewhere Only We Know
Keane
Keane
Per the FAQ on Keane's website, Keane's drummer Richard Hughes, stated the following:
"We've been asked whether "Somewhere Only We Know" is about a specific place, and Tim has been saying that, for him, or us as individuals, it might be about a geographical space, or a feeling; it can mean something individual to each person, and they can interpret it to a memory of theirs... It's perhaps more of a theme rather than a specific message... Feelings that may be universal, without necessarily being totally specific to us, or a place, or a time..."
With the nostalgic sentiment and the overall tone of the song, I think Keane is attempting to express a Portuguese term known as 'saudade', which does not have a direct English translation but roughly means "that which we remember because it is gone."
I was visiting Rome the year "solitude standing" was first releasead, "Luka" was the hit, and Vega began touring. While walking through the Sistine Chapel with some friends, a group of guys approached us and we struck up a conversation. They were a mix of bandmates and soundguys touring with Suzanne, and they invited us to her show that night with guest passes. I was able to sit beside one of the soundguys for the duration of the show. All this background to share this: I had not heard Calypso until this concert. When she began playing the song, the soundguy volunteered, "this song was written from the perspective of Calypso" because Suzanne felt that the poems in the Odyssey always reflected the male point of view, and not the women, and she wanted to represent how the woman, in this case Calypso, might have felt. There you have it from the horse's mouth. This song-that night- sparked in me a subsequent passion for mythology. While we can interpret it for our own needs, in this case I know the intent of Vega matches up exactly with "kezz's" input. I'll add that while studying the Odyssey in college, my mythology professor added that while keeping Odysseus captive all those years, her last desperate attempt to keep him on the island was by changing herself into the image of Penelope, the beloved wife Odysseus pined for. Yet, this too failed, and that is when in her heart Calypso knew she had to "let him go."
I don't think it's exactly "from the persepective of Calypso". I think it's more the writer comparing herself to Calypso. Comparing a relationship she had with the myth of Calypso and Odysseus that kezz so wonderfully told. It's about someone who you love that doesn't love you back anymore, she lets him go and "it's a lonely time ahead". But does anyone else get the feeling that she's not so much doing it for herself, but she's doing it for him. She knows she won't be happy without him, because she lives alone and the one chance she had of love is now gone.
This is an epic song. So well written it's like you're actually there. It's like poetry only better
This song is obviously from the persepective of Calypso, the goddess who rescued Odysseus from drowning in Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Calypso falls in love with Odysseus, and offers him immortality if he stays with her, but he pines for his home and his wife, and eventually Hermes convinces her to let Odysseus sail home.
naughteragain, yes, I later found out that kezz was absolutely right and Suzanne really did mean this as a retelling of the story from the female perspective. And still while I think it's an interesting fact and I admire Suzanne for her approaching such subjects and shining a different light on them. I think that still the importance and brilliance of this song lie in the emotion and the way people can relate to it. In the end it kind of seems that the myth is yet another creative means for her. My opinion is to focus more on the lyrics of her song, but still recognise and give credit to what exactly she was inspired by. Afterall, she is a true artist, one that does not get tangled up in her influences, but instead she uses them to create her own art.
I have my eyes filled with tears when I listen to this song. Calypso's love to Odysseus was so strong that "she let him go". She was a goddess. She could easily force him to stay. This is really true love.