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."
You tell me you don't love me over a cup of coffee
And I just have to look away
A million miles between us
Planets crashing to dust
I just let it fade away
I'm walking empty streets hoping we might meet
I see your car parked on the road
The light on at your window
I know for sure that you're home
But I just have to pass on by
So no of course we can't be friends
Not while I'm still this obsessed
I guess I always knew the score
This is how our story ends
I smoke your brand of cigarettes
And pray that you might give me a call
I lie around in bed all day just staring at the walls
Hanging round bars at night wishing I had never been born
And give myself to anyone who wants to take me home
So no of course we can't be friends
Not while I still feel like this
I guess I always knew the score
This is where our story ends
You left behind some clothes
My belly summersaults when I pick them off the floor
My friends all say they're worried
I'm looking far too skinny
I've stopped returning all their calls
And no of course we can't be friends
Not while I'm still so obsessed
I want to ask where I went wrong
But don't say anything at all
It took a cup of coffee
To prove that you don't love me
And I just have to look away
A million miles between us
Planets crashing to dust
I just let it fade away
I'm walking empty streets hoping we might meet
I see your car parked on the road
The light on at your window
I know for sure that you're home
But I just have to pass on by
So no of course we can't be friends
Not while I'm still this obsessed
I guess I always knew the score
This is how our story ends
I smoke your brand of cigarettes
And pray that you might give me a call
I lie around in bed all day just staring at the walls
Hanging round bars at night wishing I had never been born
And give myself to anyone who wants to take me home
So no of course we can't be friends
Not while I still feel like this
I guess I always knew the score
This is where our story ends
You left behind some clothes
My belly summersaults when I pick them off the floor
My friends all say they're worried
I'm looking far too skinny
I've stopped returning all their calls
And no of course we can't be friends
Not while I'm still so obsessed
I want to ask where I went wrong
But don't say anything at all
It took a cup of coffee
To prove that you don't love me
Lyrics submitted by Nevers0ul
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More Featured Meanings
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Somewhere Only We Know
Keane
Keane
Per the FAQ on Keane's website, Keane's drummer Richard Hughes, stated the following:
"We've been asked whether "Somewhere Only We Know" is about a specific place, and Tim has been saying that, for him, or us as individuals, it might be about a geographical space, or a feeling; it can mean something individual to each person, and they can interpret it to a memory of theirs... It's perhaps more of a theme rather than a specific message... Feelings that may be universal, without necessarily being totally specific to us, or a place, or a time..."
With the nostalgic sentiment and the overall tone of the song, I think Keane is attempting to express a Portuguese term known as 'saudade', which does not have a direct English translation but roughly means "that which we remember because it is gone."
Zombie
Cranberries, The
Cranberries, The
"Zombie" is about the ethno-political conflict in Ireland. This is obvious if you know anything of the singer (Dolores O'Riordan)'s Irish heritage and understood the "1916" Easter Rising reference.
"Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken
-
Another mother's breaking
Heart is taking over"
Laments the Warrington bomb attacks in which two children were fatally injured on March 23rd, 1993. Twelve year old Tim Parry was taken off life support with permission from his mother after five days in the hospital, virtually braindead.
"But you see it's not me
It's not my family"
References how people who are not directly involved with the violence feel about it. They are "zombies" without sympathy who refuse to take action while others suffer.
Indigo
Of Mice & Men
Of Mice & Men
This track is about is about questioning why the sky would choose to be blue if it had the choice to be anything else, “blue also meaning sad,” states frontman Aaron Pauley. “It's about comforting a loved one in a time of loss by telling them you feel blue, too.”
Sure the song is about a broken heart, but the things she describes can only really be understood by someone who goes through a bad breakup after a long relationship. ("I now for sure that your home, but I just have to pass on by") This song personifies that sinking feeling in your stomach when you see something of your ex's (You left behind some clothes My belly summersaults when I pick them off the floor"), or a blindsided by a memory of them. In addition it shows how we rarely went to know exactly why a relationship failed, but would rather preserve that person in our mind as they were
You don't necissarily have to have had a bad break up after a long relationship. Just the feeling of being in love with someone when suddenly all of that comes to a crashing halt. When I bought this CD, at the same time I had the biggest heartbreak I have yet come to encounter and I related so well to this song. Just everything about it, because though we weren't exactly "together" we were something and I had things of his that when I touched them my heart broke and I used to have to drive by his house and sometimes I would see his light on. It was an all too weird experience to perfectly relate to this song.
I think this song does a superb job of describing not the sadness of a breakup, but the emptiness and hopelesness you feel. Rather than talking about crying her eyes out and so on, it's more like, she is so disinterested in everything that she just lives life like a robot. Staring at the walls, going to bars and sleeping with anyone. It's so true to life. And the whole wishing you'd never been born. that's a big one.
this song is good, but sooo depressin... i love it anyways.
this song hurts to listen to. u can tell she really feels it
"Hanging round bars at night wishing I had never been born/ And give myself to anyone who wants to take me home" -Some of the best lyrics ever. She doesn't sugar coat anything does she.
"I'm walking empty streets hoping we might meet"
I do this every time I'm home for Xmas, Easter etc. I just walk around town at night, hoping to bump into a guy I used to know.
I'm so lame.
Nothing new to add to this just my personal experience with the song. The line that hit me the hardest was "I lie around in bed all day just staring at the walls" because I was literally lying in bed staring at the ceiling trying not to think of the person when it played. It's such a true song that it's easy to relate too. Oh and this song has one of my favorite sounds, violins playing backwards.
ahhh heartbreak. its a disease.. or a cure? its something toxic.. cause i know this feeling that this song brings. its like that hope you still cling to but in your heart of hearts YOU KNOW its NEVER going to happen, no matter how much you wish. Also. "And no of course we can't be friends" its sickening how the people who dump us still want to be friends - As if it was really that easy.. and it hurts that its that easy for them but you cant just do that.. its too hard. anyways.. found this song about 5 years ago and its just now reckoning in me/my life.
Sameoldtune, this song is not about the holocaust, fuck off.