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."
Today she's been working,
She's been talking, she's been smoking,
But it'll be alright,
Cos tonight we'll go dancing,
We'll go laughing, we'll get car sick,
And it'll be okay
Like everyone says, it'll be alright and ever so nice,
We're going out tonight, out and about tonight.
Oh, whatever makes her happy on a Saturday night,
Oh whatever makes her happy, whatever makes it alright.
Today she's been sat there,
Sat there in a black chair, office furniture,
But it'll be alright,
Cos tonight we'll go drinking
we'll do silly things, and never let the winter in,
And it'll be okay
Like everyone says, it'll be alright and ever so nice,
We're going out tonight, out and about tonight.
Oh, whatever makes her happy on a Saturday night,
Oh, whatever makes her happy, whatever makes it alright.
...we'll go to peepshows and freak shows,
We'll go to discos, casinos,
We'll go where people go and let go...
...oh whatever makes her happy...
She's been talking, she's been smoking,
But it'll be alright,
Cos tonight we'll go dancing,
We'll go laughing, we'll get car sick,
And it'll be okay
Like everyone says, it'll be alright and ever so nice,
We're going out tonight, out and about tonight.
Oh, whatever makes her happy on a Saturday night,
Oh whatever makes her happy, whatever makes it alright.
Today she's been sat there,
Sat there in a black chair, office furniture,
But it'll be alright,
Cos tonight we'll go drinking
we'll do silly things, and never let the winter in,
And it'll be okay
Like everyone says, it'll be alright and ever so nice,
We're going out tonight, out and about tonight.
Oh, whatever makes her happy on a Saturday night,
Oh, whatever makes her happy, whatever makes it alright.
...we'll go to peepshows and freak shows,
We'll go to discos, casinos,
We'll go where people go and let go...
...oh whatever makes her happy...
Lyrics submitted by 3ssence
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More Featured Meanings
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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.
Trouble Breathing
Alkaline Trio
Alkaline Trio
While the obvious connections with suicide or alcoholism could be drawn easily, more subtly this song could be about someone who views the world through a negative lens constantly and how as much as the writer tries to show the beauty in the world, this person refuses to see it. It's one or another between the rope and the bottle. There is no good option for this person. They can't see it. Skiba sings it in a kind of exasperated way like He's tired of hearing this negative view constantly and just allowing that person to continue feeling the way they feel knowing he can't do anything about it. You can hear it when he says maybe you're a vampire.
Another Love
Tom Odell
Tom Odell
I think the meaning is pretty clear. This person got really burned in a previous relationship, and because of this is unable to love and show care in his present one, even though he so badly wants to. It's lovely song, and very sad. You can really feel how defeated and frustrated he is with himself.
Sunglasses at Night
Corey Hart
Corey Hart
In the 1980s, sunglasses were a common fashion for people who wanted to adopt a "tough guy" persona (note all the cop shows from that era -- Simon & Simon, Miami Vice, etc. -- where the lead characters wore shades). So I think this song is about a guy who wears shades as a way of hiding his insecurity after learning that his girlfriend is cheating on him. He's trying to pretend that he's a "tough guy" to hide the fact that his girlfriend's affair is disturbing him.
Absolutely gorgeous song. About a guy who works all day, and whose main reason for existing and carrying on is a girl. She also works, is fed up with her job, and he feels that he can make her life worthwhile on a Saturday night at the weekend. Wonderful, wonderful song.
And it has Keeley Hawes in the video. What else do you want?!
"lovey dovey" eh?... ...no, I honestly don't think so... ;-) It's rather about blowing one's mind in order to forget, for one night, the trivial everyday unsatisfying life of the rest of the week... So it may apparently sound fun, but there's an underlying desperation there...
I think I'd have to agree with everyone who says this song is a commentary on the emptiness and superficial pleasures of nightlife, and has a darker message than just being a love song or whatever. The depressing music video at least seems to imply this.
wow discos, casinos, and drinking! your life at 10 must've been real fun!! =)
Just to say, the video to this song is one of my favourite music videos ever. The tude station setting captures the feeling of going out in London very well.
Maybe my focus is unusual, because I do the work I do....but I have allways thought that the song is about a couple, who has had a personal tradegy, maybe lost a child or got cancer? That is why the everyday life seems so meaningless in the song, and that is why she gets what she wants on a saturday night, and that is why they have to go out to forget what has happened for a little while, constantly reassuring themselves that "it will be allright"/"it will be ok" and wanting to let go? Maybe the black chair is even the office furniture at a doctors office?
there's no posts about this song? jeeeeeeeez. well im the first. This song reminds me of my true home, london, where i no longer live, loved it since it was release back in good ol 1996/97. best 2 years of my life, even if i was only 10.
I thought it was a rather nonchalant song. This song came out when i was 13/14.. And the Djs loved to play it on saturdays. At that time staying out late at night was still a novelty and i get wide eyed excited about it. Listening to this song made me wonder whether ten years down I'd be spending my saturdays like this.. Grin.
LOVEY DOVEY SONG.
"LOVEY DOVEY SONG."
No. It really isn't.