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."
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk
Slowly grind away the innocence
If you can hide the evidence
Erase the photographs
If you can choke down the laughs
Advertise the bruises and the lows
Cause you know it never shows
It's too late to let it in
When it's under your skin
Why'd you take the long way round
Going nowhere
I heard you tried to make a sound
Out of dead air
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Know when to walk away
The only way that i know how to be
Is slowly killing me
But I keep it in my coat
Or maybe stuffed down my throat
Apologize for every breath you take
Cause the world is what we make
To slowly blur the line
Between the out and inside
Did you take what you deserve
And then some
And didn't catch a single word
Above the bedlam
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
These confessions are worthless
A dozen a dime
A drop of blood in the sea
So serious, so serious
Can you honestly tell me
That there is nothing more to say?
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Slowly grind away the innocence
Slowly grind away the innocence
Slowly grind away the innocence
Slowly grind away the innocence
Slowly grind away the innocence
Know when to walk
Khow when to walk away
Slowly grind away the innocence
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Slowly grind away the innocence
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Slowly grind away the innocence
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk
Slowly grind away the innocence
If you can hide the evidence
Erase the photographs
If you can choke down the laughs
Advertise the bruises and the lows
Cause you know it never shows
It's too late to let it in
When it's under your skin
Why'd you take the long way round
Going nowhere
I heard you tried to make a sound
Out of dead air
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Know when to walk away
The only way that i know how to be
Is slowly killing me
But I keep it in my coat
Or maybe stuffed down my throat
Apologize for every breath you take
Cause the world is what we make
To slowly blur the line
Between the out and inside
Did you take what you deserve
And then some
And didn't catch a single word
Above the bedlam
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
These confessions are worthless
A dozen a dime
A drop of blood in the sea
So serious, so serious
Can you honestly tell me
That there is nothing more to say?
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Slowly grind away the innocence
Slowly grind away the innocence
Slowly grind away the innocence
Slowly grind away the innocence
Slowly grind away the innocence
Know when to walk
Khow when to walk away
Slowly grind away the innocence
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Slowly grind away the innocence
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Slowly grind away the innocence
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Your silence is murder
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Know when to walk
Know when to walk away
Lyrics submitted by Heartahimfan666
Know When To Walk Away Lyrics as written by Jay Clifford
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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brilliant song, brilliant man. so good.
your silence is murder basically the other person won't talk to him they're just there together and he can't bear it his innocence is gone his heart is broken and he has to walk away
I interpret this song as someone who is physically abused in a relationship and refuses to acknowledge it....
she simply needs to "know when to walk away."
I agree 100% with cstanton. I know it is completely wrong, but this song also speaks to me as an introvert. Particularly the line "The only way that i know how to be, is slowly killing me." I feel like "Your silence is murder" is talking about how hard it is to be introverted in an extrovert world. It is like a blow to my self esteem every time I can't think of something to say in a conversation. Of course I realize that this isn't true, because the other lines prove otherwise lol. idk maybe I'm crazy. It's a great song either way.
so we can't delete these comments, but i changed my mind,
or i thought about it more clearly i guess, i think that the silence is actually murder.
at least it might lead to one, slowly grind away the innocence, it's literal as this small child has to watch his mother get beaten, it slowly grinds away his innocence, the only way he knows how to live is to stay out of the way, but it kills him because of what the male figure is doing to his mother.
and the fact that until this moment he has said nothing, and that she will most likely go on saying nothing, keeping her silence, will lead to her death.
if she doesn't learn when to walk away, and soon; her silence might literally be her undoing.
I completely see it the way you guys do: "If you can hide the evidence" Keep anyone from figuring out she/he's being beaten. "If you can choke down the laughs" I don't know, maybe the person beating doesn't have any pity and it just makes them laugh how the other person just shuts up. "It's too late to let it in when it's under your skin" It's too late to get over it (actually, it can also mean to speak up) when you already have a connection, are already attached. Someone might also think of it as cheating. Hiding the evidence of it. Slowly grind away the innocence can be that one is influencing another into things they've never done before, most likely sex. I guess I see it this the way I do because I can relate to it so much more this way.