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."
I knew him as a gentle young man
I cannot say for sure the reasons for his decline
We watched him fade before our very eyes
And years before his time
Surrounded himsef with shiny things
First night tickets, ermine, pearls upon a string
And disappeared in all the pestilence
That sudden pleasure brings
He never asks after her anymore
He made a point of losing her address
And every trinket that she ever touched
He keeps locked away
And just burns up in the furnace of his chest
Well I spoke to a man who says he's done it all
And the only thing that pleases or excites him now
Is hurting, hurting then hurting some more
There's someone I want to forget tonight
Don't you want to forget someone too?
I left him, and I can leave you too
Baby let's go out tonight
It will all turn out all right I'm sure
Don't want to drink at home again tonight
So let's go out
Let's go out tonight
It's getting dark earlier now
But where you are it's just getting light
Where you are it will just be getting light
I cannot say for sure the reasons for his decline
We watched him fade before our very eyes
And years before his time
Surrounded himsef with shiny things
First night tickets, ermine, pearls upon a string
And disappeared in all the pestilence
That sudden pleasure brings
He never asks after her anymore
He made a point of losing her address
And every trinket that she ever touched
He keeps locked away
And just burns up in the furnace of his chest
Well I spoke to a man who says he's done it all
And the only thing that pleases or excites him now
Is hurting, hurting then hurting some more
There's someone I want to forget tonight
Don't you want to forget someone too?
I left him, and I can leave you too
Baby let's go out tonight
It will all turn out all right I'm sure
Don't want to drink at home again tonight
So let's go out
Let's go out tonight
It's getting dark earlier now
But where you are it's just getting light
Where you are it will just be getting light
Lyrics submitted by scatter_brain
Tender Is the Night Lyrics as written by David S Koz David Koz
Lyrics © PFIVE Entertainment Mexico, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
When We Were Young
Blink-182
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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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Sad nobody's commented much the Triffids' section, and even sadder there's only one album up. I'll work on this if I can...
This song is incredible in both its incarnations: as 'Tender is the Night (The Long Fidelity)', and 'The Long Fidelity (Tender is the Night)', which has the same lyrics, but is all a duet between David and Jill. In this version, just the final two verses are sung with male accompaniment.
It's a freakin' gem, though. In an album full of songs about losing loves, it ends with a small victory in the form of a companion who's just as weary and guarded and tired of the same old shit. You feel they're together because their situations just allow them to feel empathetic enough to tolerate one another.
BSD does sort of play out like a concept record, if you consider the suicidal female (Jill) singing on "Tarrilup Bridge" meeting up with the despondant male (David) that sings on the other eight album tracks getting on together in this song.
David must have been thinking "What pitiful souls these two are. Let's put them together, so they may commiserate."
I just think this song is the perfect finish to the album, it is able to reflect on the themes of grief throughout the album, yet allows for hopeful lament towards the end.
This album finisher says it all about the album, life is hard, death is inevitable, however it just makes us think at the end "let's make good with the time we have left" I think this is the power of David McComb's songwriting.