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."
Drag this neurotic to hysterics
Leave him balked and unfulfilled
Holding inside outwardly patient
'Till the time he'll call it
Alluring exotic twisted hero
Leaving him more lonely still
He waits around, he's spun around and left without the power to stop it
Peers don't know what they can't see
They can't see inside of me
It's sickening how comforting the privacy of the mind can be
How much longer will I try before I realize I'm desperate in the situation
that I'm in again
I'm exhausting yet another topic
I've exhausted frequently with no regrets
Abstruse and lacking rational but making so much sense somehow
A stone has blocked my hourglass, no progress made, no time's run out
I'd almost rather have the latter
Save myself with sad defeat
A stone just broke my hourglass
I peel the skin that had me trapped
Leave him balked and unfulfilled
Holding inside outwardly patient
'Till the time he'll call it
Alluring exotic twisted hero
Leaving him more lonely still
He waits around, he's spun around and left without the power to stop it
Peers don't know what they can't see
They can't see inside of me
It's sickening how comforting the privacy of the mind can be
How much longer will I try before I realize I'm desperate in the situation
that I'm in again
I'm exhausting yet another topic
I've exhausted frequently with no regrets
Abstruse and lacking rational but making so much sense somehow
A stone has blocked my hourglass, no progress made, no time's run out
I'd almost rather have the latter
Save myself with sad defeat
A stone just broke my hourglass
I peel the skin that had me trapped
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Mountain Song
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It sounds like it's about a person (we'll say guy because the narrator is male) who is feeling trapped and desperate in his life because he has a disability, and society seems to want to discriminate against him for it. "Peers don't know what they can't see/They can't see inside of me" refers to the fact that his disability is hidden and the rest of the world don't see his reactions unless he flips out or does some other behavior that he doesn't want occurs because of said disability. He's impatient to find out why he's behaving this way, and he wants to find out why he is behaving like this.