Three Days is a Jane’s Addiction song written in 1986 about Xiola Blue’s visit to Los Angeles, where she came to attend her father’s funeral and stayed with Perry Farrell and Casey Niccoli. The trio spent three days together experimenting with drugs and sex, which is the basic premise of this song. Contrary to what some may believe, this song is not about Xiola’s death as it was written prior to that tragic event, however it was the last time Perry would see Xiola.
On the Ritual de lo Habitual version of this song, John Phillip Shenale performs strings, Geoff Stradling plays piano and Charlie Bisharat plays electric violin. The songs Three Days (Part 1) and Three Days (Part 2) are simply the song Three Days split into two parts to fit on a 7-inch vinyl single. For some reason, this split appears on the CD only release Live and Rare. The split of the song appears during the final verse.
Lyrics
Three days was the morning
My focus three days old
My head, it landed, to the sound of cricket bows…
I am a proud man anyway…
Covered now by three days…
Three days was the morning
Three lovers, in three ways
We knew when she landed, three days she’d stay
I am a proud man anyway…
Covered now by three days…
We saw shadows of the morning light
The shadows of the evening sun
Till the shadows and the lights were one
We saw shadows of the morning light
The shadows of the evening sun
Till the shadows and the lights were one…
True hunting is over
No herds to follow
Without game, men prey on each other
The family weakens by the bite we swallow…
True leaders gone, of land and people
We choose no kin but adopted strangers
The family weakens by the lengths we travel…
All of us with wings…
All of us with wings…
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
Erotic Jesus lays with his Marys
Loves his Marys
Bits of puzzle, fitting each other
All of us with wings!
“Oh my Marys!
Never wonder…
Night is shelter from nudity’s shiver…”
All of us with wings…
Opening Poem
The spoken-word bit performed by Perry Farrell at the beginning of this song has been debated for years, and will likely continue to be until an isolated recording of the song surfaces. Transcription of the poem is difficult once the music kicks in. The poem audio also appears to diverge and sections sound repeated.
The following is considered the current “best effort” at transcribing this as it appears in the song. The ellipses indicate where the audio becomes indiscernible.
At this moment
you should be with us
feeling like we do
like you love to
but never will again
I miss you my dear XiolaI prepared the room tonight
with Christmas lights
a city of candles
fresh sheets
we are all filled with dense clouds
that have us sunk into the mattress
I need to touch your skin…an alien she was…
No one made friends as easily as Xiola…
Drug pushing constructors
We were always in the audience that plagued her.
One night I met a poet…
If you listen carefully, it sounds like the poem may continue after this point, but no words can be made out.