In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
This is where the helicopters came to take me away
This is where the children used to play
This is only half a mile away from the attack
This is where my life changed in a day
And then it changed back
Buried in the din of rotor noise and close explosions
I do my best to synthesize the sounds and my emotions
This is where the allies bombed the school
They say by mistake
Here nobody takes me for a fool, just for a fake
Later at the hotel bar, the journalists are waiting
I hurry back to my guitar while they're commiserating
And I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
Just as soon as we were on the ground
We were back in the jet
Just another three day foreign tour we'd never forget
It's hard to sympathize with all this devastation
Hopping 'round from site to site like tourists on vacation
And I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
I can't help anyone 'cause everyone's so cold
Everyone's so skeptical of everything they're told
And even I get sick of needing to be sold
Though it's only half a month away, the media's gone
An entertaining scandal broke today, but I can't move on
I'm haunted by a story and I do my best to tell it
Can't even give this stuff away, why would I sell it?
Everybody's laughing, while at me they point a finger
A world that loves its irony must hate the protest singer
So, I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
This is where the children used to play
This is only half a mile away from the attack
This is where my life changed in a day
And then it changed back
Buried in the din of rotor noise and close explosions
I do my best to synthesize the sounds and my emotions
This is where the allies bombed the school
They say by mistake
Here nobody takes me for a fool, just for a fake
Later at the hotel bar, the journalists are waiting
I hurry back to my guitar while they're commiserating
And I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
Just as soon as we were on the ground
We were back in the jet
Just another three day foreign tour we'd never forget
It's hard to sympathize with all this devastation
Hopping 'round from site to site like tourists on vacation
And I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
I can't help anyone 'cause everyone's so cold
Everyone's so skeptical of everything they're told
And even I get sick of needing to be sold
Though it's only half a month away, the media's gone
An entertaining scandal broke today, but I can't move on
I'm haunted by a story and I do my best to tell it
Can't even give this stuff away, why would I sell it?
Everybody's laughing, while at me they point a finger
A world that loves its irony must hate the protest singer
So, I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
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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.
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This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
The narrator himself is fictional, but is rather obviously patterned after singer Bruce Cockburn, whose "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" was covered by BNL as part of the Cockburn tribute album "Kick at the Darkness".
The first half of the song recounts a fictionalized version of Cockburn's visit to Guatemala (updated for the purposes of the song into a late 1990s Balkan war), and how it inspired his "If I Had a Rocket Launcher".
"This is where the helicopters came"
telegraphs this straight away by alluding to the first line of IIHaRL: "Here comes a helicopter, second time today".
The first half of "Helicopters" has the singer tagging along with a bevy of TV reporters covering a Kosovo-like conflict. The reporters see him as nothing but an opportunist:
"Here nobody takes me for a fool, just for a fake"
This interlude of tragedy and horror makes for quite a jarring addition to his routine as a performer:
"Just as soon as we were on the ground, we're back in the jet" "Just another three-day foreign tour we'd never forget"
(shades here also of Cockburn's "Tokyo")
In the second half he is disheartened at how easily the press moves on from the war to the next "important" story.
"Though it's only half a month away, the media's gone" "An entertaining scandal broke today, but I can't move on"
He tries to use his song to draw attention to the real tragedy of the situation...
"I'm haunted by a story and I do my best to tell it"
But "Helicopers" suggests that times have changed since Cockburn's era--the singer's efforts are greeted with ridicule. People have become so jaded that they assume he's just one more self-promoting windbag. He is indignant at this; after all, he hasn't profited by his choice of subject.
"Can't even give this stuff away, why would I sell it?"
The song suggests that no-one today would follow Cockburn's example because no-one dares to speak in earnest to a public that is incorrigibly cynical;
"A world that loves its irony must hate the protest singer"
and so the days of the protest singer have passed, possibly never to return.
"I'll be leaving soon"
@TheForbinProject great analysis<br />