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."
Hey living thing, buy me a drink
and drive me out to the airport
give me two hundred dollars and say
the best thing anyone's ever said
if you steal every word
from your grandmother's purse
and lay them out on the dash board
we'll be fine...
we'll be fine.
Hey living thing, if you're turning in
I'll wake you when something changes
then I'll ring all the bells again
and you'll spill champagne in my shoes
We'll make rose-coloured smoke
from bad horoscopes,
confetti from news pages
and you'll be mine...
you'll be mine.
and the same heart attack
will keep feeding back
right under the street
skipping every other beat
(Hey living thing, let me in to the world you live in)
Hey living thing, you've waited for it
for billions counting backwards
like a dog on a fire escape,
like a bird in a basement
Now release your breath from its paper bag
and no matter what you hear
if green lights should rain down tonight
it means tomorrow's another year
The same heart attack
will keep feeding back
right under the street
skipping every other beat
Hey living thing, you're breathing again
you're breathing again
Hey living thing, you're breathing again
you're breathing again
Hey living thing, you're breathing again
you're breathing again
and drive me out to the airport
give me two hundred dollars and say
the best thing anyone's ever said
if you steal every word
from your grandmother's purse
and lay them out on the dash board
we'll be fine...
we'll be fine.
Hey living thing, if you're turning in
I'll wake you when something changes
then I'll ring all the bells again
and you'll spill champagne in my shoes
We'll make rose-coloured smoke
from bad horoscopes,
confetti from news pages
and you'll be mine...
you'll be mine.
and the same heart attack
will keep feeding back
right under the street
skipping every other beat
(Hey living thing, let me in to the world you live in)
Hey living thing, you've waited for it
for billions counting backwards
like a dog on a fire escape,
like a bird in a basement
Now release your breath from its paper bag
and no matter what you hear
if green lights should rain down tonight
it means tomorrow's another year
The same heart attack
will keep feeding back
right under the street
skipping every other beat
Hey living thing, you're breathing again
you're breathing again
Hey living thing, you're breathing again
you're breathing again
Hey living thing, you're breathing again
you're breathing again
Lyrics submitted by ohkamikaze
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More Featured Meanings
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
A call out for help, asking for some 'living thing' to energise the narrator.
'Hey living thing, buy me a drink, and drive me out to the airport. Give me 200 dollars and say the best thing anyone's ever said.'
The 'best thing' is along the lines of 'get out of here; make something of your life'. It goes both ways also, with the narrator promising the other that he will wake them and 'ring all the bells'.
This idea of helping lift another up out of the standard life is upheld by the verse about a dog on a fire escape, a bird in a basement. This is, symbolically, what each of the characters in this song are like in their lives.
I think this one is a very powerful, positive reflection on what 'good love' is.
An interview in Jmag of Paul Dempsey: "It's about words as a powerful means of escape and renewal. The somewhat whimsical idea that, if somebody gave you a small wad of cash and a plane ticket and toppped it off by saying the greatest thing you've ever heard in your entire life, then that would be all you'd need to go and live happily ever after. The 'grandmother's purse' is a childhood memory, the secret repository from which springs all things good and mysterious in the world. I thought that addressing someone as 'living thing' was funny, your name or species doesn't matter, just the fact that you're somehow miraculously alive."
i really don't know what this song is about. would anyone like to shed some light on the matter??
In Sydney, Paul dedicated this one to his grandmother - to whom it seems there's a reference in the song, if that gives you something to start with.