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."
Like maggots, they breed with headlines, dining the wounds in breathless cadavers.
Mirror blind and aimed for gold, Now watch a terror turn on its own.
They race and they race to the carcass rot to feed.
And just past decay, this design delivers life, but they prefer to play cancer.
In chase for the sky, towers uprise. In fear, the earth quakes for what's forgot.
They cut like the butchers with pride as their cleavers, as the tide prowls their shores.
They never listened when we screamed, "Wash the blood from your hands!
Rip off the veils! Wash the blood from your hands and run, see what you forgot!"
Then the clouds met the sands as the cyclones began.
In epic charge rose the hordes, all branches and thorns.
As the stone from their walls broke legs as they crawled,
The stars had no mercy, they screamed for blood in their fall.
Six eyes pierce the night and now...
24 teeth in each of the 3 makes 72 white knives your new ending.
With every slaughter bring your kingdom home.
How are we deserving this pain we are feeling?
How are we deserving this pain with healing?
And on trails these symphonies of agony...
Cant you see? We're still demanding self-pity.
Look to the moves of the things surrounding.
We're the only ones, the only ones who keep from growing.
One day the reaping will return, and we'll be butchers no more.
Bring this slaughter home, and send everything above.
Mirror blind and aimed for gold, Now watch a terror turn on its own.
They race and they race to the carcass rot to feed.
And just past decay, this design delivers life, but they prefer to play cancer.
In chase for the sky, towers uprise. In fear, the earth quakes for what's forgot.
They cut like the butchers with pride as their cleavers, as the tide prowls their shores.
They never listened when we screamed, "Wash the blood from your hands!
Rip off the veils! Wash the blood from your hands and run, see what you forgot!"
Then the clouds met the sands as the cyclones began.
In epic charge rose the hordes, all branches and thorns.
As the stone from their walls broke legs as they crawled,
The stars had no mercy, they screamed for blood in their fall.
Six eyes pierce the night and now...
24 teeth in each of the 3 makes 72 white knives your new ending.
With every slaughter bring your kingdom home.
How are we deserving this pain we are feeling?
How are we deserving this pain with healing?
And on trails these symphonies of agony...
Cant you see? We're still demanding self-pity.
Look to the moves of the things surrounding.
We're the only ones, the only ones who keep from growing.
One day the reaping will return, and we'll be butchers no more.
Bring this slaughter home, and send everything above.
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This is just my take on the song...line by line
It seems to be talking about the human race in the beginning:
"Like maggots, they breed with headlines, dining the wounds in breathless cadavers."
Shows how we, as humans, are so inclined to start wars and kill each other.
"Mirror blind and aimed for gold. Now watch a terror turn on its own."
Perhaps the first sentence refers to the greed of humans, and the "terror" turning on its own...I think that refers to the whole killing thing again.
"They race. And they race to the carcass rot to feed. And just past decay, this design delivers life, but they prefer to play cancer."
I think the third sentence of this line is saying that if we stop wars and killing, we could find ways to live longer and better, but we'd "prefer to play cancer", or let diseases go without curing them...something along those lines anyway.
"In chase for the sky, towers uprise. In fear, the earth quakes for what's forgot."
Saying how we build such grand buildings, etc. I think the second sentence is kinda the turning point in the song...from there on out it seems to be referring, basically, to the tribulation period. I bet a lot of these lines refer to things in the book of Revelations in the Bible, but researching it all out would take time.
"One day the reaping will return, and we'll be butchers no more. Bring this slaughter home, and send everything above."
Perhaps referring to the rapture, sending "everything above" to heaven.