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."
Oh hard as hell black stone as he stood
Intellect like statue with face in the sun
Don't toy with the heavens, sing to the satellites
Cold steel slicing up the ruins
Live by words, die by spite
My mind is no more mine
The world is a tomb, killed by critics
Pride with no shame, aim with no guide
A spear in the author
Another puppet dies, the audience sighs
More blood please for the turbines
Those lost in the dark shall find new shadows to chase
But never even wonder where the light comes from
My momma told me I was cold steel in my darkest hour
Then said "friend, how does it feel?"
This dirt, this dream run dry
This idea to sell, what success feels like
The world is turning under your feet, will you be swept away or hit the whirlwind?
Concrete holds the memory, but cracks refuse to slip through
Waiting for an earthquake to swallow my work
What came first, the bullet or factory?
What came last, the ad or the article?
I want to be normal, not mediocre
I want to be principle, but not a martyr
Want to be a planet, not a super nova
Live my life like a novel, not a cheap poster
Don't want to be every man, cause every man ain't me
Happily married in a cabin, but not lost at sea
So many sycophants get more props than me, that's what we call democracy
But it's corrosive nonsense, we got hopeless posture
This corpse will sing underwater
Six years in the millennium, I'm loosing my defense against the pendulum
Cynicism at my center, a thousand bloody pens marching my medulla
Plague after plague, the crows want to kill me but the feast remain staged
Painstakingly I push my pen to say all the things that don't make sense to me
Terror in the water and the drowning hope
Bullet proof career in a rifle scope
The world is a sham, the salt in my wounds
And the voices say I blast fiend, cause they kiss no crosses
My father was a fisherman and I'm a fisher man's son
Now the fish are gone
Who needs a ocean, we got farms
Bloody in the bathroom with The Will to Power
Fumbling I rumble wicked notes, these solitary jeers just devoured
Rent is paid, took a few years off and my mind is gray
When I'm lonesome, wrote some lonesome shit
Not late for the train, it was hijacked
Whoever mocks me makes me stock up ammo
No more manifestos, the world ain't hollow
It's full of pillows, full of people like to make fossils, hostiles
But you said you had no apostles, fall of your cross they want to talk
In the electric chair, nervously they watch you
Wanted Hollywood, but I was mostly stone
Made of stars, so I have no home
It's a wasteland, a place where you face for months at a time
People changes sides like the drop of a penny
When I was full, the friends are many
When the sky turns dry, hell's a short trip
It'll hail you taxi
Intellect like statue with face in the sun
Don't toy with the heavens, sing to the satellites
Cold steel slicing up the ruins
Live by words, die by spite
My mind is no more mine
The world is a tomb, killed by critics
Pride with no shame, aim with no guide
A spear in the author
Another puppet dies, the audience sighs
More blood please for the turbines
Those lost in the dark shall find new shadows to chase
But never even wonder where the light comes from
My momma told me I was cold steel in my darkest hour
Then said "friend, how does it feel?"
This dirt, this dream run dry
This idea to sell, what success feels like
The world is turning under your feet, will you be swept away or hit the whirlwind?
Concrete holds the memory, but cracks refuse to slip through
Waiting for an earthquake to swallow my work
What came first, the bullet or factory?
What came last, the ad or the article?
I want to be normal, not mediocre
I want to be principle, but not a martyr
Want to be a planet, not a super nova
Live my life like a novel, not a cheap poster
Don't want to be every man, cause every man ain't me
Happily married in a cabin, but not lost at sea
So many sycophants get more props than me, that's what we call democracy
But it's corrosive nonsense, we got hopeless posture
This corpse will sing underwater
Six years in the millennium, I'm loosing my defense against the pendulum
Cynicism at my center, a thousand bloody pens marching my medulla
Plague after plague, the crows want to kill me but the feast remain staged
Painstakingly I push my pen to say all the things that don't make sense to me
Terror in the water and the drowning hope
Bullet proof career in a rifle scope
The world is a sham, the salt in my wounds
And the voices say I blast fiend, cause they kiss no crosses
My father was a fisherman and I'm a fisher man's son
Now the fish are gone
Who needs a ocean, we got farms
Bloody in the bathroom with The Will to Power
Fumbling I rumble wicked notes, these solitary jeers just devoured
Rent is paid, took a few years off and my mind is gray
When I'm lonesome, wrote some lonesome shit
Not late for the train, it was hijacked
Whoever mocks me makes me stock up ammo
No more manifestos, the world ain't hollow
It's full of pillows, full of people like to make fossils, hostiles
But you said you had no apostles, fall of your cross they want to talk
In the electric chair, nervously they watch you
Wanted Hollywood, but I was mostly stone
Made of stars, so I have no home
It's a wasteland, a place where you face for months at a time
People changes sides like the drop of a penny
When I was full, the friends are many
When the sky turns dry, hell's a short trip
It'll hail you taxi
Lyrics submitted by Ru1ner
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