Mountain Song

Mountain Song is a Jane’s Addiction song written by Eric Avery and Perry Farrell in 1985.  Eric Avery has stated that this was the first thing he and Perry wrote together and pre-dated the Jane’s Addiction band name.  This song is a staple of the band’s live set.

Porno For Pyros covered this song and made it a staple of their set during much of the Good God’s Urge tour.

Music Video:

The official version of this video, as created by the band, is what appears on the Soul Kiss video. An edited version of this video, which puts black bars and shapes over shots of Perry Farrell and Casey Niccoli’s genitals, was created for MTV, who refused to show this video until after the band released the album Ritual de lo Habitual. This video features live footage shot by Modi from the August 19, 1988 Jane’s Addiction concert at The Scream @ The Probe mixed with footage shot by Perry Farrell and Casey Niccoli.

A third version of the music video exists, which is completely different than the band’s version. This version was contracted out, without the band’s knowledge or involvement, to a third party by Warner Brothers Records. This version is the music video primarily shown abroad, and was also featured in an episode of the MTV television series Beavis & Butthead. The band’s response to this was to release the Mountain Song video to their fans, and thus they created the Soul Kiss fan video.

Finally, a fourth music video for this song was released in 2010.  This version is Modi’s “director’s cut”, and is comprised of footage she shot for the band’s music video at The Scream in August of 1988.

Director’s Cut Video:

Lyrics:

Comin’ down the mountain
One of many children
Everybody has
Their own opinion
Everybody has
Their own opinion
Holding it back
It hurts so bad
Jumping out of my flesh
And i said…. cash in!

Cash in now honey
Cash in now
Cash in now baby
Cash in now honey
Cash in Miss Smith
Cash in now baby!
Oh, oh oh, oh oh oh

I was comin’ down the mountain
Met a child she had pin eyes
We had the same opinion
Had the same opinion
She was holding it back
It hurts do bad
Jumping out of her flesh
And i said…
You better cash in

Cash in now honey
Cash in now
Cash in now baby
Cash in now honey
Cash in Miss Smith
Cash in now baby!
Oh, oh oh, oh oh…

Demo version:

Comin’ down the mountain
One of many children
Everybody has
Their own opinion
Everybody has
Their own opinion
Holding it back
It hurts so bad
I’m jumping out of my flesh
And i said…
Cash in!

Cash in now honey
Cash in now
Cash in now baby
Cash in now honey
Cash in Miss Smith
Cash in now baby!
Yeah!

I was comin’ down the mountain
Met a child she had dark eyes
We had the same opinion
Had the same opinion
She was holding it back
It hurts do bad
She was jumping out of her flesh
And i said…
Cash in!

Cash in now honey
Cash in now
Cash in now baby
Cash in now honey
Cash in Miss Smith
Cash in now baby!
Yeah!

Ooh, oh oh oh yeah!
Ooh, oh oh oh yeah!
Ooh, oh oh oh yeah!
Ooh, oh oh oh yeah!

Lyric Info

The lines at the start of the second verse of Had A Dad, Well I, spoke to the mountain, I listened to the sea, they both told me that the fountain, was the best that you could be, were originally lyrics intended for Mountain Song. While there are no known recordings of Mountain Song with these lyrics, they can be found at the end of the liner notes for the Kettle Whistle album.

Music Video

There are three official music videos for this song:

  1. The first and original version is the one created by Perry Farrell and Casey Niccoli. It features live footage of the band recorded at the August 19, 1988 Scream show at The Probe, in Los Angeles, CA. They band had a number of people in diapers in the crowd and on stage that can be spotted in the video. There are also shots of the band members kissing each other as well as footage of the Casey being covered in plaster molding for the sculpture that appears on the cover of the Nothing’s Shocking album. It is this footage, and additional footage that shows both Perry and Casey nude, surrounded by flowers that got this video banned by MTV. This video, as the band intended it, can be seen in the Soul Kiss video and downloaded from iTunes.
  2. The second version of the video is a “clean” version of the band’s video that was created to try and get airplay on MTV. It has black objects covering Casey’s nipples and Perry and Casey’s genitals during all scenes with nudity. While MTV initially refused to show even this censored version, it rescinded the ban and finally began airing the video around 1991, after the huge success off Been Caught Stealing.
  3. The third version of this video was, which seems to be the most popular version shown in Europe and Australia, is an alternate video the band did not create. Warner Brothers, unhappy with the creative direction and progress of the band’s video, contracted an outside producer to create a video for this song. Like the original video, it also features some footage shot at The Probe in 1988, however that is where the similarities end. The video starts with a shot of a mountain and then jumps to a shot of Perry covering his ears. In a 1991 interview on MTV’s 120 Minutes, Perry dismissed this version. A short clip of this version made an appearance in an episode of the MTV cartoon Beavis & Butthead.

Commercialization

Mountain Song was briefly used in a Coors beer commercial. Fan backlash, due to the history of the Coors family and the Coors business, lead Perry Farrell to have the commercial recalled.

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