Mouthful Of Cavities

Shannon died from cocaine and not heroin...Ive never heard of him having a problem with heroin. I know he did have a valium deal, and valium is an opiate, but dont think the heroin thing is valid.

Ever known anyone with bad teeth? Do they smile real big when they are happy, do they laugh with their mouths open alot? Check one of your friends sometime who has a bunch of cavities on their front teeth....they are so conscious of their teeth they dont smile like most people.

With that in mind, I think the song is about remembering a friend, who on the outside doesnt look happy because of his unwillingness to smile, but the knowledge that he is laughing and smiling on the inside even if it is evident to the outside observer.

Knowing that the narrator takes pleasure in knowing that not only is his friend actually happy, the narrator sees that the world itself and everyone on it acts in the same manner. On the outside people are afraid to let their emotions show, but its nice to know that everything is going well, and that everything is really OK.

I also love the way Shannon uses poor grammar or wrong words to help paint the image of the song.

In "Time" on the first album he called Cumulus clouds, Columbus Clouds.... not only did it sound better, but it invites symbolism of Christopher Columbus..the first clouds of the day, pioneering the sky.

In this song Shannon says... "one of these days this will die, so will me and so will you"

So will me?? my english teacher would have kicked my ass for writing that! In the context of the song, though, it is very effective, and adds to the emotion of the statement.... Blind Melon did that kind of stuff all the time....it is hard to catch sometimes, but really gives you another look at the song and what is being said.

this is such a great song...shannon was beautiful...all true fans miss him RIP

i believe he's speaking in 1st and 3rd person in the 1st verses. mouthful of cavities is a decietful and dishonest tongue. and a person like this reminds him how desparately he wants more (like true freindship). the feinds are the ones with the bullshit freindship or acquaintenceship. in the 2nd verse he's begging for more than this, and for these people to be true, rather than waste precious time, because in the long run who wants regrets, then he reminds himself that there are beautiful people in the world (his friend he loves to see smiling). and he misses that comfort. all the while, these fake people laugh while they watch him make mistakes and wait for him to fall again. thats my interpretation

Everybody expects something more. Everybody is a fiend waiting four one to fall down. The won't care for what you really are, but for what you really seem to me. Nobody sees what's inside you, you're laghing from the inside out, and nobody will ever see it, and nobody should really care.

Jena Kraus does the backup vocals for this song and its one of my favorites. She used to show up at tons of Blind Melon shows claiming she could sing and finally one time they let her sing for them and Shannon decided to let her to backup vocals for this song. I really like how it turned out. It just makes me think about how sometimes when something really bad happens to u and a group of friends or at least for me, we all just lost 4 of our really good friends in a car wreck and we are dealing with one of them who is barely alive in the hospital and how i havent really seen any of them smile in awhile, but yet somewhere they are still happy which is giving them enough to hol donto. Thats what this song makes me think of.

It's about Heroin addiction.

"Oh please give me a little more and I'll PUSH away those baby blues"

It's about what his addiction was doing to him and to everyone around him.

What a beautiful song. Damn Shannon was a sacred soul.

Let's get something straight. An addict is an addict. there is no such thing as a heriod addict or a coke addict or a food addict or a sex addict. There is just addict. Different addicts tend to prefer differ drugs or ways of getting off but most will use whatever you put in front of us. At some point, many of us believe that if we avoid the specific drug that got us into trouble we will OK not realizing it is a lie. SO, just because he died from a coke OD does not mean he was not also herion, or that he was using my herion. My experience, there are some differences between folks who like uppers and folks who like downers. Shannon's music certainly did not seem like the result of a coke or meth bindge. The thing that amazes me about so many of the songs is the way they describe addiction and trying to get clean and depression and trying to get well. That is one of the things that breaks my heart about his death. he really seemed to want to be well, in his lyrics at least. I wish he could have found his way home to recovery from active addiction.

This song is simply beautiful, does anything else have to be said? Shannon was/is beautiful.

This song is simply beautiful, does anything else have to be said? Shannon was/is beautiful.