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."
Stub towers in the distance, riders the blasted moor
Against the horizon
Fickle promises of treaty, fatal harbingers of war,
Futile horizons
Swirl as one in this flight, this mad chase,
This surge across the marshy mud landscape
Until the meaning is forgotten.
Hood masks the eager face, skin stretched
And sallow,
Headlong into the chilling night, as swift
As any arrow.
Feet against the flagstones, fingers scrabbling
At the lock,
Craving protection.
'Sanctuary!' croaks a voice,
Half-strangled by the shock
Of its rejection.
Shot the bolt in the wall, rusted the key;
Now the echoes of all frightfull memory
Intrude in the silence.
What a crawl against the slope
Dark loom the gallows
One touch to the chapel door,
How swiftly comes the arrow.
"Compassion" you plead, as though
They kept it in a box
That's long since been empty.
I'd like to help you somehow,
But I'm in the self-same spot:
My condition exempts me.
We are all on the run on our knees;
The sundial draws a line upon eternity
Across every number.
How long the time seems, how dark the shadow,
How straight the eagle flies,
How straight towards his arrow.
How long the night is
Why is this passage so narrow?
How strange my body feels,
Impaled upon the arrow.
Against the horizon
Fickle promises of treaty, fatal harbingers of war,
Futile horizons
Swirl as one in this flight, this mad chase,
This surge across the marshy mud landscape
Until the meaning is forgotten.
Hood masks the eager face, skin stretched
And sallow,
Headlong into the chilling night, as swift
As any arrow.
Feet against the flagstones, fingers scrabbling
At the lock,
Craving protection.
'Sanctuary!' croaks a voice,
Half-strangled by the shock
Of its rejection.
Shot the bolt in the wall, rusted the key;
Now the echoes of all frightfull memory
Intrude in the silence.
What a crawl against the slope
Dark loom the gallows
One touch to the chapel door,
How swiftly comes the arrow.
"Compassion" you plead, as though
They kept it in a box
That's long since been empty.
I'd like to help you somehow,
But I'm in the self-same spot:
My condition exempts me.
We are all on the run on our knees;
The sundial draws a line upon eternity
Across every number.
How long the time seems, how dark the shadow,
How straight the eagle flies,
How straight towards his arrow.
How long the night is
Why is this passage so narrow?
How strange my body feels,
Impaled upon the arrow.
Lyrics submitted by inpraiseoffolly, edited by Dobbo1, Orion8
Arrow Lyrics as written by James Gerard Mcdermott
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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