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."
The gap that grows between our lives
The gap our parents never had
Stop those thoughts control your mind
Replace the things that you despise
Oh you're old I hear you say
It doesn't mean that I don't care
I don't believe in it anymore
Pathetic acts for a worthless cause
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
The world is full of refugees
They're just like you and just like me
But as people we have a choice
To end the void with all its force
So don't forget or don't pretend
It's all the same now in the end
It was set in a different life
Destroys my days and haunts my nights
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
The gap our parents never had
Stop those thoughts control your mind
Replace the things that you despise
Oh you're old I hear you say
It doesn't mean that I don't care
I don't believe in it anymore
Pathetic acts for a worthless cause
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
The world is full of refugees
They're just like you and just like me
But as people we have a choice
To end the void with all its force
So don't forget or don't pretend
It's all the same now in the end
It was set in a different life
Destroys my days and haunts my nights
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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.
Whats fascinating is that this is the first one on the album.
Yeah, I can relate to it. My word can I relate. It's about you, the world, and how genuine everything was when you were a child.
And now here I am, finding meaning in a song in a little-known website, yearning for that feeling, the days when my mind didn't rule school. Right and wrong was just instilled and you understood.
You didn't have to make the rules for yourself. To teach yourself to be better, you were just good. As you try to be decent and serve those you respect and trust, they grow apart, most people you went to school with gone.
Basically this song is for all the genuine people at heart, those who didnt grow up with a 'view' who didnt judge. But found themselves having to carefully reconstruct how the estrangement began. The big world full of refugees, they once shared a classroom, but now have this not so great freedom, just like everyone else, whats really important is to belong, and never give up on people.
But the hopeless fight goes on, to communicate, to understand, why were we turned against each other? The only thing that lasts is orbit, where do we go from here? I tried! But rambled sadly.
I know why some think its about childhood, and your explanation is creative but I dont think it explains a lot of the lines and the fact is the line "it was said in a different life" sort of hints at something further back in time than the authors own experience backed up by the line "the gap that grows between our lives the gap our parents never had" my explanation of it being about fascism and racism with a smidgin of class strugle thrown in makes more sense on a line by line basis, or it may be wholly about class strugle as someone else suggested.