In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
That was as far as the tide came in
I remember the starfish and the wails of the sirens then
We replaced the tridents, embraced Poseidon
And discovered ourselves living on an island
We flow like water across the lost city
Chalk prophecies and washed off graffiti
In continents
Trade off for payoff
And high concepts then lost to K-Os
Many tales radiate from one nexus
Defending a dream of a new directive
A call from the deep sums up a notion
The day when the people bum rushed the ocean
From the beaches they ran to meet the day after
Underneath the waves won’t repeat the same chapter
Knew what they had to do
That which creates life has power to take it right back
Fucking with the icecaps
We’ve gotta push the tide back
We can survive collapse if we don’t get sidetracked
If we visualize living underwater hidden by prisms
Countries fall but people transition if one for all we live in that vision
Hundred dollar bill origami
Balloon inflation new world economy
We float on tsunami to global warming
We need structures to control what’s coming
Corporate monopolies obsolete
The philosophy leaves us lost at sea
But from Marwar to Cochabamba
We are the warriors that won’t get conquered
‘Cause rising tides drown all villages
Divided fighters succumb to pillage
Rescuers whatever your latitude
It’s time to pioneer a new world attitude
Put local cycles first we’re Global Islanders with nothing left to plunder
Alert the law alternate nations train in the streets
Act to limit all non-transparent industries so
We must defend Atlantis
Anchor the land and never transform into seas
Assets to liquify all netted toxic indices so
We must defend Atlantis
For centuries human beings have pursued the meaning of Atlantis
Central to their teaching is that it’s existence answers man’s essential questions
Much like the feeding of the 5,000
Even if the facts aren’t accurate the story’s magic is alive
Of utmost importance to convert the impertinent
Atlantis holds the answer to man‘s ills at their most pertinent
Aspersions easily dispersed when I certainly answer
The most diverse aversions when I firstly channel _
Is this all that you hold
For a warriors role
The ground shakes
You claim my country not my soul
I fought I toiled, for the lost in the waves I will not tire
I die no slave
If the seas my grave
I sleep with my city
My people my oath
My shame my city is that
I cannot save my city
From waves that claim you
And curse the gods who can’t explain
Who to blame
At the end of the reign
Heed me
The season passes Atlas
His keeps in the sediment
Failing monumentally
And leaving no monuments to see
Only sea to shining sea
(Assess the loss as new tidal inundations surface
Amidst the legions are now thousands in starfish
We must defend Atlantis
As the land acquiesces no tears in sympathy
Address the legacy and never treat it separately
Access telepathy last as neverending transcendency…)
And survival hinged on an attempt by the humble
And the sirens wailed as the empire crumbled…
With nothing left to plunder corporations drowned
Waves clapped like thunder and stormed the gates with sound
Forming a new nation now
As the icecaps melted water levels rose
We raised our hands together and made the levees hold
Heals in the sand we revealed the depths below
The population of starfish exploded from the ocean
Survival we unified to focus on
And the voices were many but we spoke as one
As the tale was retold we multiplied
And swelled across the faultlines to halt the tide
We let the altars die to keep our pulse alive
And from the barren wastelands of naked trash
We stitched together a shelter from fallen nation’s flags
And chose to build a future from an ancient past
The crowns of thorns was worn we put the tritons down
We found new forms of anchors deep inside the ground
The world is an island now
I remember the starfish and the wails of the sirens then
We replaced the tridents, embraced Poseidon
And discovered ourselves living on an island
We flow like water across the lost city
Chalk prophecies and washed off graffiti
In continents
Trade off for payoff
And high concepts then lost to K-Os
Many tales radiate from one nexus
Defending a dream of a new directive
A call from the deep sums up a notion
The day when the people bum rushed the ocean
From the beaches they ran to meet the day after
Underneath the waves won’t repeat the same chapter
Knew what they had to do
That which creates life has power to take it right back
Fucking with the icecaps
We’ve gotta push the tide back
We can survive collapse if we don’t get sidetracked
If we visualize living underwater hidden by prisms
Countries fall but people transition if one for all we live in that vision
Hundred dollar bill origami
Balloon inflation new world economy
We float on tsunami to global warming
We need structures to control what’s coming
Corporate monopolies obsolete
The philosophy leaves us lost at sea
But from Marwar to Cochabamba
We are the warriors that won’t get conquered
‘Cause rising tides drown all villages
Divided fighters succumb to pillage
Rescuers whatever your latitude
It’s time to pioneer a new world attitude
Put local cycles first we’re Global Islanders with nothing left to plunder
Alert the law alternate nations train in the streets
Act to limit all non-transparent industries so
We must defend Atlantis
Anchor the land and never transform into seas
Assets to liquify all netted toxic indices so
We must defend Atlantis
For centuries human beings have pursued the meaning of Atlantis
Central to their teaching is that it’s existence answers man’s essential questions
Much like the feeding of the 5,000
Even if the facts aren’t accurate the story’s magic is alive
Of utmost importance to convert the impertinent
Atlantis holds the answer to man‘s ills at their most pertinent
Aspersions easily dispersed when I certainly answer
The most diverse aversions when I firstly channel _
Is this all that you hold
For a warriors role
The ground shakes
You claim my country not my soul
I fought I toiled, for the lost in the waves I will not tire
I die no slave
If the seas my grave
I sleep with my city
My people my oath
My shame my city is that
I cannot save my city
From waves that claim you
And curse the gods who can’t explain
Who to blame
At the end of the reign
Heed me
The season passes Atlas
His keeps in the sediment
Failing monumentally
And leaving no monuments to see
Only sea to shining sea
(Assess the loss as new tidal inundations surface
Amidst the legions are now thousands in starfish
We must defend Atlantis
As the land acquiesces no tears in sympathy
Address the legacy and never treat it separately
Access telepathy last as neverending transcendency…)
And survival hinged on an attempt by the humble
And the sirens wailed as the empire crumbled…
With nothing left to plunder corporations drowned
Waves clapped like thunder and stormed the gates with sound
Forming a new nation now
As the icecaps melted water levels rose
We raised our hands together and made the levees hold
Heals in the sand we revealed the depths below
The population of starfish exploded from the ocean
Survival we unified to focus on
And the voices were many but we spoke as one
As the tale was retold we multiplied
And swelled across the faultlines to halt the tide
We let the altars die to keep our pulse alive
And from the barren wastelands of naked trash
We stitched together a shelter from fallen nation’s flags
And chose to build a future from an ancient past
The crowns of thorns was worn we put the tritons down
We found new forms of anchors deep inside the ground
The world is an island now
Lyrics submitted by hitchcockm00
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"'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."
Mountain Song
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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."
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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.
I think it's describing how even the best things in the world can be destroyed by human nature. In the story of Atlantis, it was said that Zeus destroyed Atlantis because the greed Atlantians had with their perfect city. Scientists believe that the comet that caused the great biblical flood destroyed it, but acording to the bible, it was also a form of punishment, renewal and reform. I think that what they're pushing through is that it will happen again. 'From the beaches they ran to meet the day after. Underneath the waves, WON'T REPEAT THE SAME CHAPTER." <<< I think that's a huge hint.