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 stepped into a room of clocks that all told different times
I stepped into a mirrored world that mirrored all our crimes
You keep picking at the scab but I'll keep selling the plaster
You keep telling me that I'm bad
But I keep on getting better faster
You hold me down and you hold me up
You can't communicate
You brought me up just to bring me down
I've nothing left to say
I've lost, I've lost my innocence
I've found my self-belief
And in a cup of loneliness
I've found instant relief
You hold me down, you hold me up
Oh Daddy, are we out of luck?
You brought me up to bring me down
You shut me in, you shut me up
I'm gone, I'm gone to heaven
I'm gone, I'm gone to hell
If nobody could see I'd hold my hand out to be held
You hold me down and you hold me up
I can't communicate
You brought me up just to bring me down
I've nothing left to say
I've lost, I've lost my innocence
I've found my self-belief
And in a cup of loneliness
I've found instant relief
You hold me down, you hold me up
Oh Daddy, are we out of luck?
You brought me up, you bring me down
You shut me in, you shut me up
You keep picking at the scab
So I'll keep on selling the plaster
And you, you think I'm bad
So I'll keep on getting better faster
I've lost, I've lost my innocence
I've found my self-belief
And in a cup of loneliness
I've found instant relief
You hold me down, you hold me up
Oh Daddy, are we out of luck?
You brought me up to bring me down
You shut me in, you shut me up
I've lost, I've lost my confidence
I found my self belief
And in a cup of loneliness
I sailed a thousand seas
You tell me what to say and wear
You say that it's because you care
But I would rather to be alone
Than live a life that's not my own
I stepped into a mirrored world that mirrored all our crimes
You keep picking at the scab but I'll keep selling the plaster
You keep telling me that I'm bad
But I keep on getting better faster
You hold me down and you hold me up
You can't communicate
You brought me up just to bring me down
I've nothing left to say
I've lost, I've lost my innocence
I've found my self-belief
And in a cup of loneliness
I've found instant relief
You hold me down, you hold me up
Oh Daddy, are we out of luck?
You brought me up to bring me down
You shut me in, you shut me up
I'm gone, I'm gone to heaven
I'm gone, I'm gone to hell
If nobody could see I'd hold my hand out to be held
You hold me down and you hold me up
I can't communicate
You brought me up just to bring me down
I've nothing left to say
I've lost, I've lost my innocence
I've found my self-belief
And in a cup of loneliness
I've found instant relief
You hold me down, you hold me up
Oh Daddy, are we out of luck?
You brought me up, you bring me down
You shut me in, you shut me up
You keep picking at the scab
So I'll keep on selling the plaster
And you, you think I'm bad
So I'll keep on getting better faster
I've lost, I've lost my innocence
I've found my self-belief
And in a cup of loneliness
I've found instant relief
You hold me down, you hold me up
Oh Daddy, are we out of luck?
You brought me up to bring me down
You shut me in, you shut me up
I've lost, I've lost my confidence
I found my self belief
And in a cup of loneliness
I sailed a thousand seas
You tell me what to say and wear
You say that it's because you care
But I would rather to be alone
Than live a life that's not my own
Lyrics submitted by incurable_humanist, edited by lenka
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Mountain Song
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
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“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.
Well, I figure one thing for sure, scab is a natural healer, plaster is an artificial substance that almost instantly covers up something. when she means "picking at the scab" she means this person continues to tear her down when she's trying to let herself heal from whatever she is healing from, but since this person is doing this, she has to result to putting up plaster, something fast. When she says she's "selling the plaster" she's making it believable that putting up the instant plaster that she is fine to convince him. The rest is a little hard for me.
I'm certain it's to do with the difficulty of growing up and people suddenly expecting a lot from you. The lyrics make it clear that it's someone who's brought her up telling her what to do and controlling her. The scab line is possibly to do with constant arguing between them as is common with teenagers and adults (So they never get the chance to let the wounds heal), and the plaster is referring to what American's call a 'Band-aid', something to put over the wound; your theory of it being artificial is correct, but it correlates with the scab more so as it's simply a man-made variant of a scab.