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."
Are you listening?
We write a thousand pages
They're torn and on the floor
Headlights hammer the windows
We're locked behind these doors
And we are never leaving
This place is part of us
And all these scenes repeating
Are cold to the touch
My hands seem to deceive me
When I'm nervous or when I'm healthy
The scenery's all drawn.
They hang here from the walls dear
Painting pictures, bleeding colors
Blanket the windows
Sometimes it gets so hard to breathe
Your eyes see right through me
These fights with your arms left beside
One thing and one more says goodnight
You've got the map come get to me
These knuckles break before they bleed
Tear out these veins that own my heart
This skin that wears your lasting marks
I've built these walls come get to me, come get to me
Is this your lesson, a slight discretion
The lines that keep you, the lines that sweep you
Lock the doors from inside
Your face is so contagious, it wears announcements
It leaves me breathless, I won't forget this, I won't forget
Let the walls have their say
This time the walls will have their say
No conversation, without remorse
And this television drowns the only source
Wake from these dreams of you in my arms
To the staircase where you hold my heart
This place, these walls mean everything to me
We write a thousand pages
They're torn and on the floor
Headlights hammer the windows
We're locked behind these doors
And we are never leaving
This place is part of us
And all these scenes repeating
Are cold to the touch
My hands seem to deceive me
When I'm nervous or when I'm healthy
The scenery's all drawn.
They hang here from the walls dear
Painting pictures, bleeding colors
Blanket the windows
Sometimes it gets so hard to breathe
Your eyes see right through me
These fights with your arms left beside
One thing and one more says goodnight
You've got the map come get to me
These knuckles break before they bleed
Tear out these veins that own my heart
This skin that wears your lasting marks
I've built these walls come get to me, come get to me
Is this your lesson, a slight discretion
The lines that keep you, the lines that sweep you
Lock the doors from inside
Your face is so contagious, it wears announcements
It leaves me breathless, I won't forget this, I won't forget
Let the walls have their say
This time the walls will have their say
No conversation, without remorse
And this television drowns the only source
Wake from these dreams of you in my arms
To the staircase where you hold my heart
This place, these walls mean everything to me
Lyrics submitted by all_is_vanity, edited by jayzuscrust
Walls Lyrics as written by Sam Eyes Yasmin Green
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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More Featured Meanings
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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.
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.
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.
I love the beginning of this song.
"Your face is so contagious, it wears announcements, it leaves me breathless, I won't forget this." <3this line
On this one there aren't even the screaming part in the beginning
Are you listening? We write a thousand pages They're torn and on the floor Headlights hammer the windows We're locked behind these doors And we are are never leaving This place is part of us And all these scenes repeating Are cold to the touch
I think this song is more vain, more personal. The beginning maps out a crime scene where the criminals take defense inside a building as their opponents wait outside. The only form of communication between the two is via written letters. It's notable that writting letters is physically non-violent. The crime scene is revealed as a metaphor in the second "stanza". The actual situation is one of the narrator and a significant other. The narrator takes harsh verbal abuse and the "walls" are a type of emotional defense that he has taken up. The point that stands is that the narrator didn't just build these walls to keep himself from the verbal abuse; the walls are like boudries that keep his relationship with this other person non-violent, such as the criminals are not physically violent in writing the letters. But it is also very important to know that these words are detramental and have much influence over the narrator. This is shown by the wripping of the pages and the breaking nuckles. So, the narrator is so effected by this influence that he hurts himself in fits of anger. As he "locks the doors from the inside" he locks himself in a place where he physically hurts himself..... To sum up that part: a guys "girlfriend" (or friend or whoever) yells at him (or hurts him in some non-violent way) and instead of reacting to his friend he gets angry and takes it out on himself. (It's kinda like when you get so mad that you punch walls or some other inanimate object.) The last paragraph basically identifies the fact that there is hope and the narrator does feel very connected to this person that causes him pain. He dreams of the day when things will be better, but at the same time he respects his situation: "this place, these walls, mean everything to me."
This song is so amazing. The first time I heard it, I fell in love with it. The band is full of really nice guys who deserve nothing but the best. I couldn't make it to one of their shows and they wrote me a note saying that they missed having me there. They are awesome!
this was the first emery song i heard and it turned me into a fan. i had read earlier that day that the used didn't want to make another screamo record. i was so sad. than i d/l this song and wala. i got what i wanted.
who ever put in the lyrics forgot the best part of the song. The screaming in the beginning and those lyrics are amazing. This band is awesome
^^ yeah i was looking for the beginning as well
hmmm.. i thought the whole point of the site is figuring out what the song means. hint the name.
yeah but its ok if you just wanna post comments. I mean, it does say: Add you comments and not add your meaning.
Such a twat.
This song kicks soooo much ass...I love the whole cd....When they play this song live its so crazy in the pit..ahh I love it....the whole band is so nice too, we talked to them after the show at soundwaves last tuesday on 4-20 and they're soooo kick ass