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."
Daniel is travelin' tonight on a plane
I can see the red taillights headin' for Spain
Oh, and I can see Daniel wavin' goodbye
God, it looks like Daniel
Must be the clouds in my eyes
They say Spain is pretty, though I've never been
Well, Daniel says it's the best place he's ever seen
Oh, and he should know, he's been there enough
Lord, I miss Daniel
Oh, I miss him so much
Oh, Daniel, my brother, you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal?
Your eyes have died, but you see more than I
Daniel, you're a star in the face of the sky
Oh, Daniel, my brother, you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal?
Your eyes have died, but you see more than I
Daniel, you're a star in the face of the sky
Daniel is travelin' tonight on a plane
I can see the red taillights headin' for Spain
Oh, and I can see Daniel wavin' goodbye
God, it looks like Daniel
Must be the clouds in my eyes
Oh God, it looks like Daniel
Must be the clouds in my eyes
I can see the red taillights headin' for Spain
Oh, and I can see Daniel wavin' goodbye
God, it looks like Daniel
Must be the clouds in my eyes
They say Spain is pretty, though I've never been
Well, Daniel says it's the best place he's ever seen
Oh, and he should know, he's been there enough
Lord, I miss Daniel
Oh, I miss him so much
Oh, Daniel, my brother, you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal?
Your eyes have died, but you see more than I
Daniel, you're a star in the face of the sky
Oh, Daniel, my brother, you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal?
Your eyes have died, but you see more than I
Daniel, you're a star in the face of the sky
Daniel is travelin' tonight on a plane
I can see the red taillights headin' for Spain
Oh, and I can see Daniel wavin' goodbye
God, it looks like Daniel
Must be the clouds in my eyes
Oh God, it looks like Daniel
Must be the clouds in my eyes
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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.
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.
Indigo
Of Mice & Men
Of Mice & Men
This track is about is about questioning why the sky would choose to be blue if it had the choice to be anything else, “blue also meaning sad,” states frontman Aaron Pauley. “It's about comforting a loved one in a time of loss by telling them you feel blue, too.”
according to Philip Norman's (brilliant) biography of EJ, when he and Bernie Taupin first toured the US, Bernie read a newspaper article about a young kid whose brother had been sent to fight in Vietnam. Tp save him worrying his parents had told the youngster that his brother was going on holiday to Spain. His brother then returned blinded and with many other wounds. Originally there was a third verse which brought it all together (a "denouement" as they call it) but it was cut in the studio to include the elctric piano solo and keerp the song to three minutes.
@jonnytwospoons Yes real sad, it is a beautiful song, really moving.
Bernie Taupin read an article about a Vietnam veteran who had gone been very disappointed at life back home in USA after the war and founded new life in Spain. The song simply is a storyteller told through the eyes of Daniel's brother about Daniel leaving to Spain. It's based on a true-story.
The original lyrics by Taupin had one more verse to them, which explained what the song was about basicly, but Elton figured it wouldn't fit in his melody scheme's and it was never recorded.
are they written somewhere?
@hairychester I wish Elton John would reconsider and record that last part. Let the people decide if that last part belongs or not!
@hairychester He should've gone further and not recorded any of the verses at all
"Your eyes have died but you see more than I"
This line doesn't mean that Daniel is blind. When a soldier comes off the front line, a soldier who has seen the worst, toughest fighting, is sometimes said to have a "thousand yard stare", the eyes appear to stare right through you and to something far behind you. It's a phrase coined from the Vietnam War.
Very closely, to say "your eyes have died" is a reference to this emotional battle scar (the thousand yard stare). To add that "you see more than I" is saying that Daniel, even though scarred, sees things for what they really are.
@Alsatian --Reference to shell shock maybe.
@Alsatian I would totally disagree with this view. Bernie Taulpin is english and i'm sure would not know of this. It is clear that Daniel is actually blind. It say's it in the line you quoted.<br /> When he say's that Spain is the best place he has ever seen, he is being ironic, as Daniel cannot see Spain. I know Americans don't do irony, but trust me Brits do.
This song means so much to me. I never knew that it was about a Vietnam vet, but it reminds me of my friend named Daniel who died in a car crash last Mother's Day.
I always took "Spain" to represent "Heaven" somehow, and for some reason the rest of the song seems to make sense with that. When Elton John sings "God it looks like Daniel...must be the clouds in my eyes" this is just what I feels like when I have a dream and Daniel is in it.
The "pain of the scars that won't heal" speaks of the injuries that he recieved at the time of the car crash, and after seeing him in the wake, this song made that much more sense to me.
"Lord I miss Daniel, oh I miss him so much..."
RIP Daniel Snow 05/09/2004
What if, its about the person himself died, and is watching from heaven as his brother mourns for him ? (lyrics go here)
@BlackTaxi2d I really like this song, everytime i hear about this song, i remember my ex fiance, daniel. I always call him brother. Coz he is such a big brother to me. He works in aviation industry and he often travels so much and he seems so distant from other people. (He is an introvert). So i always remember him when i hear this song. He is still sate and sound but he just never been with us anymore (physically) coz he always travels oversea.
@BlackTaxi2d How old was Daniel Snow when he died?
@BlackTaxi2d - Wow! Today is 9/4/2019 and I just read your post for the first time. I like what you wrote. God bless you. ~Cat I
i also agree! When i say that i like Elton John's music, everyone looks at me like i am weird. Then they say that he'a gay. And i go ya so what. But i love this song, it is very beautiful!
\// Peace
I agree with you guys. Sexual orientation has absolutely no bearing on musical talent.
I agree too with u all, Elton is the greatest of greats,,his talet has no frontiers,,,he posses a gift, was born to sing.
@pUnK_rOcK_dUcK <br /> and is so very talented that he has to have another write the lyrics he sings
I've always heard it's about a person headed to Vietnam. I felt that it was that way also. But it gets confusing. If he (Daniel) was headed to Spain then I feel he is going to vietnam. Because Spain would be a possible stop for a British Soldier going to Vietnam. Also Daniel says it's the Prettiest place he's ever seen. Which means he has Eyesight. Unless of course there is some poetic meaning in there.
Then when it says "Scars that won't heal" I think he is back from Vietnam and has been wonded.
Either way excellent song.
Well, if they were going to viet nam, they would probably travel west. . . :><br /> <br /> also, I do think that "Scars that won't heal" would mean that, excepting I think that they would be mental scars more than physical. . .just a thought. :>
@smittie1984 A tonne of interpretations seem to cling to this little lyric when in the actual fact it is about Edie Sedgwick's time spent and then leaving 'The Factory'
Yeah, this song is about VietNam--and the aftermath. The little brother is telling the story of the big brother he wanted to be like. But Big brother came home changed.
So many VN vets did. And I don't think the line about "His eyes have died. He's sees more than I" refers to real blindness or eye injury. It was a heart injury that blinded him. . . his eyes became dead. . . like so many eyes do that have seen too much of the ugliness.
Song makes me cry so it must be good :_)
Ed Clarke, do you have no respect? Noone is pretending to care. It's a genuine emotion to feel for the people who gave their lives so we could live in peace. Quite simply, you're an ignorant, selfish idiot who should keep quiet.
As to the song.. Someone said they're the best lyrics ever. I disagree. I really appreciate the meaning behind the song, but the lyrics are actually very simply, in my opinion. (Very straightforward)
Basically, I think the song is about Daniel who has died. Because Daniel thinks Spain is "the best place that he's ever seen", that is where the brother imagines him being in heaven, if that makes sense. (The first verse with Daniel leaving on a plane to Spain). I LOVE this song.