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."
What's your life about, enlighten me
Is you gonna live on your knees, or die on your feet
Fire in the street, fire in my swisher
Fire in between the two legs of your little sister
Just get a sip of this elixir
Before they crop us out the picture
I've never seen a crop circle
But I've seen a cop circled the block
I puff squares, but I swear one day I'ma stop my nerves itch
On the brink of my career
While my peers struggle for employment
Can you hear the screams (Uncle Sam ain't no kin to me)
One two, three four grams and a fifth of Hennessy
A bad bitch, fuck the penitentiary
Section 80's babies, blame Ronald Reagan, we raising hell
Lord forbid
The homie got wet, so we trying to soak it in
The president is black, but you can't vote for skin
You vote for the better man
Come to our show you can see the diversity
Unified people they going to peep it universally
We might not change the world
But we going to manipulate it
I hope you participating
Ayo Dot, won't you let these cats know
We knew we'd be here, like back in 04'
Started hiiipower because our generation
Needed a generator and a system, meant to disintegrate us
And all we do is assist them
We're not victors, we're victims
The bigger picture hasn't developed yet
Like what if Keisha were celibate
What if Tammy came across a real man
Who didn't play games like children
My nigga cheated on his girlfriend with his girlfriend's girlfriend
Let the world end
And everybody tripping off 2012
And the extraterrestrial presence as well (Our Future's odd)
But our future is not, that Martial law shit dropped
We gonna all get got
So keep that question mark on your face
Eat that fast food, and use that flouride toothpaste
Hide your feelings from the public
Work a long nine to five, don't forget to pay your tithes
And to thank God you're alive (Hiiipower)
And on another note
We focused like the Hubble Telescope, Soul
Life is a traffic jam (Life is a traffic jam)
I wrote this because I was ordered to
People say I speak for generation Y
Why lie, I do, Section 80
Your son will play me if the radio won't
Daughters that just turn one to twenty one listen to Kendrick
For instance
What's your life about, enlighten me
Is you gonna live on your knees, or die on your feet
Take out that student loan, and pay off your college degree
And do exactly what you see on TV
True story, hm, can you repeat that for me Soul
What's your life about, enlighten me
Is you gonna live on your knees, or die on your feet
Is you gonna plead the fifth, or sound the horn
The time is now my child, come on
See a lot of ya'll don't understand Kendrick Lamar
Because you wonder how I could talk about money
Hoes, clothes, god and history all in the same sentence
You know what all the things have in common
Only half of the truth, if you tell it
See I've spent twenty three years on the earth searching for answers
Til' one day I realized I had to come up with my own
I'm not on the outside looking in
I'm not on the inside looking out
I'm in the dead fucking center, looking around
You've ever seen a newborn baby kill a grown man
That's an analogy for the way the world make me react
My innocence been dead
So the next time I talk about money, hoes, clothes, god and history all in the same sentence
Just know I meant it, and you felt it
Because you too are searching for answers
I'm not the next pop star
I'm not the next socially aware rapper
I am a human motherfucking being, over dope ass instrumentation
Kendrick Lamar
Now fuck em' up Terrace (Soul!)
Is you gonna live on your knees, or die on your feet
Fire in the street, fire in my swisher
Fire in between the two legs of your little sister
Just get a sip of this elixir
Before they crop us out the picture
I've never seen a crop circle
But I've seen a cop circled the block
I puff squares, but I swear one day I'ma stop my nerves itch
On the brink of my career
While my peers struggle for employment
Can you hear the screams (Uncle Sam ain't no kin to me)
One two, three four grams and a fifth of Hennessy
A bad bitch, fuck the penitentiary
Section 80's babies, blame Ronald Reagan, we raising hell
Lord forbid
The homie got wet, so we trying to soak it in
The president is black, but you can't vote for skin
You vote for the better man
Come to our show you can see the diversity
Unified people they going to peep it universally
We might not change the world
But we going to manipulate it
I hope you participating
Ayo Dot, won't you let these cats know
We knew we'd be here, like back in 04'
Started hiiipower because our generation
Needed a generator and a system, meant to disintegrate us
And all we do is assist them
We're not victors, we're victims
The bigger picture hasn't developed yet
Like what if Keisha were celibate
What if Tammy came across a real man
Who didn't play games like children
My nigga cheated on his girlfriend with his girlfriend's girlfriend
Let the world end
And everybody tripping off 2012
And the extraterrestrial presence as well (Our Future's odd)
But our future is not, that Martial law shit dropped
We gonna all get got
So keep that question mark on your face
Eat that fast food, and use that flouride toothpaste
Hide your feelings from the public
Work a long nine to five, don't forget to pay your tithes
And to thank God you're alive (Hiiipower)
And on another note
We focused like the Hubble Telescope, Soul
Life is a traffic jam (Life is a traffic jam)
I wrote this because I was ordered to
People say I speak for generation Y
Why lie, I do, Section 80
Your son will play me if the radio won't
Daughters that just turn one to twenty one listen to Kendrick
For instance
What's your life about, enlighten me
Is you gonna live on your knees, or die on your feet
Take out that student loan, and pay off your college degree
And do exactly what you see on TV
True story, hm, can you repeat that for me Soul
What's your life about, enlighten me
Is you gonna live on your knees, or die on your feet
Is you gonna plead the fifth, or sound the horn
The time is now my child, come on
See a lot of ya'll don't understand Kendrick Lamar
Because you wonder how I could talk about money
Hoes, clothes, god and history all in the same sentence
You know what all the things have in common
Only half of the truth, if you tell it
See I've spent twenty three years on the earth searching for answers
Til' one day I realized I had to come up with my own
I'm not on the outside looking in
I'm not on the inside looking out
I'm in the dead fucking center, looking around
You've ever seen a newborn baby kill a grown man
That's an analogy for the way the world make me react
My innocence been dead
So the next time I talk about money, hoes, clothes, god and history all in the same sentence
Just know I meant it, and you felt it
Because you too are searching for answers
I'm not the next pop star
I'm not the next socially aware rapper
I am a human motherfucking being, over dope ass instrumentation
Kendrick Lamar
Now fuck em' up Terrace (Soul!)
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
Ab-Soul's Outro Lyrics as written by Terrace Martin Kendrick Lamar
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Mountain Song
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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