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."
Striking at mental apparitions
Like a drunk on a vacant street
Silently beset by the hands of time
And elegant in its fury
An aberrant crack as skeletons yield
To unrelenting gravity
While viruses prowl for helpless victims
Who succumb rapidly
[Chorus]
(Tell me!) Tell me, where is the love?
In a careless creation
When there's no "above"
There's no justice
Just a cause and no cure
And a bounty of suffering
It seems we all endure
And what I'm frightened of
Is that they call it "God's love"
Well we twist in torment and make believe
There's a truth and we all submit
"Believe my eyes," my brain replies
To all that they interpret
[Chorus]
I know there's no reason for alarm
But who needs perspective when it comes to pain and harm
We can change our minds, there's a better prize
But first you've got to
[Chorus]
They call it God's love
My pain is God's love
Like a drunk on a vacant street
Silently beset by the hands of time
And elegant in its fury
An aberrant crack as skeletons yield
To unrelenting gravity
While viruses prowl for helpless victims
Who succumb rapidly
[Chorus]
(Tell me!) Tell me, where is the love?
In a careless creation
When there's no "above"
There's no justice
Just a cause and no cure
And a bounty of suffering
It seems we all endure
And what I'm frightened of
Is that they call it "God's love"
Well we twist in torment and make believe
There's a truth and we all submit
"Believe my eyes," my brain replies
To all that they interpret
[Chorus]
I know there's no reason for alarm
But who needs perspective when it comes to pain and harm
We can change our minds, there's a better prize
But first you've got to
[Chorus]
They call it God's love
My pain is God's love
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I think that what they are trying to point out is the stupidity of Christian teaching, how when they don't have an explanation, they resort to "It was God's plan," or "God's Love." In the middle portion when they say "I know there's no reason for alarm," they are saying "Maybe I'm overreacting." But then he looks out at the world, and how pathetically detached the American Christian Right is from the suffering they talk of: "But who needs perspective when it comes to pain and harm" He then realizes that the answers that he's been fed from when he was born are false, or at least incomplete, because he still has all these unanswered questions: "Where is the love?/In a careless creation/When there's no above."