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."
Tower to the skies
An academy of lies
And what goes up surely must come down
And we felt the mighty blowout with the walls coming down
Or something like that
Most of us are quite pleased
With the same old song
And all of a sudden I'm relatively sane
With everything to lose and nothing to gain
Or something like that
Men of wisdom
And men of compromise
Men of weak flesh in an armored disguise
All fall down
"If it's right you can tell"
Echos Myron like a siren
With endurance like the liberty bell
And he tells you of the dreamers, but he's cracked up like the road
And he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
And we're finally here
And shit yeah, it's cool
And shouldn't it be
Or something like that
An academy of lies
And what goes up surely must come down
And we felt the mighty blowout with the walls coming down
Or something like that
Most of us are quite pleased
With the same old song
And all of a sudden I'm relatively sane
With everything to lose and nothing to gain
Or something like that
Men of wisdom
And men of compromise
Men of weak flesh in an armored disguise
All fall down
"If it's right you can tell"
Echos Myron like a siren
With endurance like the liberty bell
And he tells you of the dreamers, but he's cracked up like the road
And he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
And we're finally here
And shit yeah, it's cool
And shouldn't it be
Or something like that
Lyrics submitted by agnamaracs
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
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.
One of my favorite gbv tunes - and one of your faves too im guessing!
from the hunting accidents book bob says:
"i dont think it was ever about anything specific. it was kind of like a victory song. like, "now were here. and shit yeah its fucking cool." we were on our way and we kind of knew it. we knew things were happening. i was still kind of boastful, especially at the time. wed been doing this for a long time, ten years or whatever, and just . . . around town there were a lot of bands that thought something was going to happento them. labels were talking to them or whatever, and we were just not even in the picture. i thought that it was pretty funny that we all of a sudden usurped the whole scene.we were invisible."
buy the book - if yr a big gbv fan youll be happy that you did.
It's about their rise/unrise to fame... and how they took it.
GBV were never really famous and any fame that they might have had came after this song was written and recorded.
no, it's not. they were never that famous.
Guided by Voices were never famous, much less at the time they released this song.
They were "popular" when this song was released. Popular, meaning the hot new underground band that the tastemakers wrote about. Bee Thousand was released after "they broke".
Wonderful Stuff. The bass on this song really carries it and lifts onto another level, extremely melodic and could go on forever. Another example of how playing an insturment with heart and feeling is so much more important than technique
I interpret this song to be about the New World Order: a tragic apocalypse will occur in which the youthful shall prevail and those with a high social status shall fall down.
the youthful = dreamers, intelligent but misunderstood people
I definitely can see this interpretation! Men of wisdom are the controllers, men of compromise are the ones that let it happen, and men of weak flesh are the mindless defenders of this regime.<br /> <br /> Echos Myron is the leader of the revolution.