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."
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs
I feel like a newborn
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
I feel so real
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Yeah
I don't believe in
I don't believe in
Your sanctity
Your privacy
I don't believe in
I don't believe in
Sanctity
A hypocrisy
Could everyone agree that
No one should be left alone?
And I feel like a newborn
Kicking and screaming
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Yeah
Hey, Dad
What do you think about your son now?
Ah, hey, Dad
What do you think about your son now?
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Yeah
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs
I feel like a newborn
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
I feel so real
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Yeah
I don't believe in
I don't believe in
Your sanctity
Your privacy
I don't believe in
I don't believe in
Sanctity
A hypocrisy
Could everyone agree that
No one should be left alone?
And I feel like a newborn
Kicking and screaming
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Yeah
Hey, Dad
What do you think about your son now?
Ah, hey, Dad
What do you think about your son now?
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Yeah
Lyrics submitted by jstalilwyrd
Take A Picture Lyrics as written by Richard Michael Patrick
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Lyrics have at least two meanings. The first is the intended meaning of the songwriter. I think there's a lot of evidence that meaning is about Richard Patrick getting drunk on a plane, stripping and having it photographed and sent to his father, with a sub-text of what it means to be famous.
But the second meaning of a lyric is what it means to the person who values the song. Sometimes that second meaning is close to the intended meaning. But sometimes this personal meaning goes off in another direction. A lot of poets and songwriters insist that personal meanings are as important as original intended meaning.
I find a lot of posts at this site are actually people sharing their personal meaning, even if they don't distinguish between the two meanings. Here's my personal meaning for this song.
When I hear this song or watch the video, I experience intense nostalgia. I don't mean just remembering some period in the past fondly. I'm talking an existential connection between the me of the present moment and a time of my life that is gone where I experience a deep spiritual and emotional nexus that combines both remembering what what was real and intense loss because it no longer is real and is no longer experienced and not fully remembered. This, for me, is both soul piercing sadness and elevating joy at the same time. I very much want to feel this but it also very much hurts to feel it.
Three things really activate this intense state. Scent, music and images. For instance the smell of cut grass on a hot day takes me right back to my teenage years while not taking me fully enough back, thus I have this experience.
The music of this song, now over a decade later, has this powerful effect on me. It's like a magic spell activating the time period when my adult sons were teenagers and we were evolving from them liking my music to me liking theirs. But the words, for me, have a personal meaning that is all about this nostalgia.
You see when that past was present I was "Awake" to it, My skin was "bare" to it, even belonging to it, being "theirs," all that was around me including the other people who were there. Here's something weird about this experience. It doesn't matter if back then it was a good or bad experience, it didn't matter if what was happening to me was due to others' scorn or hypocrisy or sanctity. I was awake to it all and now I'm not. Then it was "real" and I was "newborn" into that reality, but now it's gone.
So what I needed to make it somehow real now is a picture, a storing of the moment, because "I won't remember" it fully, it will be lost fully. Thus I will have this nostalgia.
A lot of nostalgia like this for me is a mix of either when I was a child/youth, in which a vital part of my life was relating to my parents, or when my children were young, in which a vital part of my lfie was relating as a parent. Either way the refrain "Hey dad what do you think of your son now" captures all that, both of them, even though I'm a woman. The entire experience includes the then and the now and what would my dad then think now of me his daughter and what do I now think now about my son(s) then.
So that's my personal meaning of the song. I think it is congruent with the original meaning about a specific moment in Richard Patrick's life, because I think he also realized the same existential nexus between that specific moment and the rest of his existence afterwards. But even if it's just my personal meaning, it's still my personal meaning.
Yes, in the post i felt like you captured the meaning on the song perfectly. While reading you're post i was baffled you literally took the toughs out of my head
Eloquently said!
That is awesome. I couldn't have said it better.
I was going to write my own meaning but I don't need to. You did it.
@LibWingofLibWing Amazingly put
@LibWingofLibWing I have never agreed to an interpretation of any literary artwork as much as I have about this. Thank you for sharing. Particularly the lines, "both piercing sadness and elevating joy."<br /> <br /> To me, this is a very spiritual song and closely captures those same feelings you get at a church event; when all your emotions are on overdrive and all you can do is let yourself go in that moment.<br /> <br /> It also echoes a sense of understanding that there are billions of other moments waiting for us to experience in our own personal life. It was the same feeling I had as a teenager when I first heard this song, but I couldn't understand it now that I am a bit older and in that same sense I feel like a newborn letting yourself go in that moment.<br /> <br /> In my opinion, this song is a masterpiece, more so than a 90s radio hit song.
@LibWingofLibWing I'm fully with you on that one. The original meaning is irrelevant to me. There's such a sense of nostalgia and sadness but it's beautiful at the same time.<br /> <br /> Personally this reminds me of early 2000s when a lot was going on in my life and I was having a very emotional and manic time. I was flying back and forth between London and New York for work while in a hypomanic state (undiagnosed bipolar at that time). The talk of 'awake on my airplane' brings back definite memories of the couple of hours before landing in New York the second time immensely excited as I'd decided to move there on a whim. Excited but also massively agitated - made liveable my partying and drinking with some new friends.<br /> <br /> Once I came down from the mania I became massively depressed and wondered what the hell I was thinking. Flew back to London and spent a few years getting my life back together. <br /> <br /> So this song means all that! I came here to post this and see what the song meant to others after listening to the song for the first time in years. I'm very happy to hear you have similar happy/sad feelings about it.<br /> <br />
@LibWingofLibWing this is basically how I feel as well. I think about all of the times I had with friends as a kid and when I was younger. All the times we got high together and tripped. Some things I will never forget and this song helps me to live out those memories in my everyday life. All the memories you hold close to your heart and the happiness that good memories can bring. Such as memories of loved ones who are no longer with us and good times with friends where there was no responsibility or worry.
@LibWingofLibWing this is basically how I feel as well. I think about all of the times I had with friends as a kid and when I was younger. All the times we got high together and tripped. Some things I will never forget and this song helps me to live out those memories in my everyday life. All the memories you hold close to your heart and the happiness that good memories can bring. Such as memories of loved ones who are no longer with us and good times with friends where there was no responsibility or worry.
@LibWingofLibWing I see you wrote this 11 years ago. I love you style of writing, your sense of putting the person back as a teen, smelling the cutting grass and the feeling of nostalgia that came over me from your interpretation of the song. Thank you.
@LibWingofLibWing signed up again just to upvote this response, I know the bands intentional meaning is the first one but it's your second bit so much for me! Awesome in depth review of the track
Actually folks what happened is the lead singer is afraid of flying. To calm him down one night the band got himwasted on the flight. He started dancing around and taking off his clothes acting like an idiot. One of the band members started taking pictures so he would remember what he'd done in the morning. The part where he says "hey dad, what d'ya think about your son now" refers to the fact that the band mailed the nude photos to the lead singers parents as a joke. The song was just a tribute to a fun spirited memory. (found this out at a Filter concert)
@EolasTear finally a comment that makes sense Lol
haha, funny how this is partly aimed at a father for not approving of his son's career choice - a father with TWO pretty successful sons in showbiz - Richard's brother Robert played the T1000 in Terminator 2, Jonnhy Cash's dad in Walk the Line and a bumch more; Richard was only like the lead guitarist for a band called Nine Inch Nails, oh, and I think he had a band called Filter... what do you think about your sons now dad??
@b4model "Hey Dad, what do you think about your son now" is the most revealing lyric in the whole song. IMHO.
@b4model Hilarious comment!<br /> <br /> Given that in interviews he has said that the line "Hey, Dad, what do you think about your son now?" was in way a slag on his father, and has nothing to do with any disapproval by his father of his career, the only conclusion I can draw is that you are a classic troll who makes up 'facts' to support his own father issues!<br /> <br /> Man, don't make stuff up! You'll get called on it every time, and be exposed as the fake you are!
@b4model I love NiN tbh
To me, this song represents the time in your life when you realize it's time to grow up and get on with your life. You decide to rid yourself of the past and move on to something new. "Awake on my airplane/I feel so real" is that feeling you get when your whole perspective on life has changed. Then my favorite part "Could you take my picture, cause I won't remember.." I love hearing it. I remember the first time I heard this song, almost two years during my sophomore year. I was having the worse year of my life. I was miserable and crying all the time because of a guy (who turned out to be the hugest, funniest waste of time ever) and I felt to insecure like everyone hated me. And then.. things started changing for me. I met new people who actually cared about me. I realized I had to get over him, and he wasn't that amazing. I remember feeling more relaxed, and not scared anymore. I didn't realize it then, but it really was the first time in a year that I'd actually felt happy. Since I heard this song around that time, and it described exactly how I felt, whenever I play this song, it's like I'm instantly taken back to that time. I remember it as the time that I started getting rid of the old naive me and becoming who I am now. The chorus to me means that you know these times aren't going to matter ten years from now. For me, that time is high school. Haha. It's like saying, "take my picture, because I'm happy right now and I have to care about anything," and you know things aren't going to be like this one day. It's about living in the moment and appreciating everything in life :)
This song is about( or could be about ) someone who has finally found success as a rock star..Although he has found success, we can tell by the author that he was " left alone " as a child and although he is now successful, (even has his own personal airplane), the fact that he was alone as a child is still painful to him..
" Awake on My Airplane "..." My ", meaning his own personal airplane ",a staple of suucess in society.
"My skin is bare, my skin is theirs" <~~~Although he is successful, he ultimately still belongs to the record label..
" feel like a newborn " <
~His newly found success is a " new " to life to him...A newborn with a new adventure.."Could you take my picture 'Cause I won't remember" <
~~~He knows this new found success as a rock star will probably be over quickly. Most rock stars careers are filled with drugs, alcohol and forgotton experiences..He's asking someone to " take a picture " because after this new career comes and goes, " he won't remember ""I don't believe in, I don't believe in Your sanctity " <~~~~This is addressed to his father. He's basically saying, " You weren't so perfect "
Which is proven by the next statement,
" Could everyone agree that No one should be left alone " <
~~~Apparantly his Father was not around and left him alone as a child.Song makes me wanna get high.
I guess its just one of those songs where you just listen to it and I think the main guy (don't hate me becuase i don't know the names and stuff) maybe had problems with his father or maybe if the guy has a kid it might be just a song for his son. I really have no idea but i like the song!
His father always told him that he would never make it in the music buisnes. This song was his way of telling his dad "What do you think of your son now".
:)
@SSJ4_Gogitta yeah :)
i thought it was about the lead singer (i forgot his name...Patrick?) once getting drunk on an airplane, and someone reporting it in the news. He then proceeded to write a song about the rigours and the burdens of being famous....perhaps...maybe....
With the nature of this band, me and my friends all agree about what this song is about. It's about a guy that gets on an airplane and gets really drunk and procedes to get naked. Then he wants people to take a picture cause he won't remember it when he wakes up from his drunken slumber.