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."
perhaps these hands held children's hands
but what do they hold now?
what love lay in this heart now silent
empty, a broken vessel
i've searched and searched from crown to toe
but there's no trace of you
no history in histology
innominate anatomical
no biography in biology
innominate anatomical
i won't believe
i can't believe
that we're just a sum of parts
but what do they hold now?
what love lay in this heart now silent
empty, a broken vessel
i've searched and searched from crown to toe
but there's no trace of you
no history in histology
innominate anatomical
no biography in biology
innominate anatomical
i won't believe
i can't believe
that we're just a sum of parts
Lyrics submitted by NoLightToSeeBy
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Mountain Song
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innominate anatomical!
Such a good song.
It's contradicting the idea of "Birds of a feather flock together." When it's talking about history/histology and biography/biology it's saying that just because the words have the same root "histo" and "bio", they aren't even close to similar. People are unique. People change. Some move on, while others don't.
that snaking guitar line at the beginning before the vocals come in makes up some of my favorite seconds of music.
.....school? Hm, tough to say, this is why i like Off Minor, their lyrics are very out there :)
To me it's about identity. It sounds like when he says "i've searched and searched from crown to toe but there's no trace of you" the speaker is addressing a past version of himself. We, as people, are constantly in flux, our personalities changing faster than we realise, to the point where sometimes, if we look back five or ten years at our former selves, it's very difficult to believe that we were once like that. The history/histology and biography/biology wordplay is particularly significant, because both comparisons deal with the contrast of the story of a person's life with their cellular/biological formation. In the end, although it's difficult to stomach, "we're just a sum of parts".
this song is about looking at a dead friend in a casket.
this song is about looking at a dead friend in a casket.
Jamie said at a live show a few years ago that it's about struggling with the notion that a cadaver has no identity or personality - it's just a lump of flesh and bones.
"no history in histology" / "no biography in biology" - implying there's no story being told by a corpse, it's just a lump of cells that form a body. it's a tragedy.
"innominate anatomical" - or put another way, anonymous human body
we're more than that. all of us.
you guys are getting way too deep with this. He's just talking about looking at a dead person. The lyrics are pretty straightforward in their meaning.