Not Falling

Album: The End Of All Things To Come (2002)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Not Falling" is about persistence, courage, and self-reliance. Mudvayne frontman Chad Gray isn't falling down, crawling, or bleeding for anyone – he's standing up in defiance and driving forward.

    The lyrics suggest there might be something metaphysical going on in the tune as well, as Gray sings at the song's start, "the middle pillar path to sit like the sun by a star in the sky and just be." Influential spiritual figure Israel Regardie wrote extensively about the Middle Pillar Exercise practiced by a Western esoteric group known as the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn (Regardie also claimed that every human being was a kind of cosmic star). It refers to the Tree of Life from the Kabbalah and is meant to bring a person spiritually and psychologically into balance, the "middle pillar" between two extremes, integrating the "lower self." The song alludes to demons attempting to drag Gray down and "sinners throwing stones."
  • On July 26, 2022, Chad Gray tumbled off stage while performing "Not Falling" in Tampa, Florida. Gray laughed at the irony, but the accident was pretty brutal for the 50-year-old. He was trying to step out from the stage and place one foot on a barricade, with the intention of stepping out into the crowd. As he did, the crowd rushed into the barrier, causing him to lose balance and fall four or five feet onto cement.

    "I thought I was gonna piss my pants," he said of the impact. "It hurt so f--kin' bad." News of the incident gave the song new life and led to a surge of renewed interest in "Not Falling." A couple days after the accident, Gray took to Instagram to give a health update and to ask fans to look out for him during such future stunts.
  • The song is played during the final scene and credits of a 2002 horror film titled Ghost Ship. The song wasn't included on the film's official soundtrack album, and oddly (considering its exclusion from the album), the DVD of the movie included its own unique video for "Not Falling," featuring scenes from the movie.
  • The band released two other videos for "Not Falling." The first was in promotion of the Ghost Ship movie. It shows the band performing in fog and blue light before having mechanical insects injected into their bloodstreams. The second video is the most prominent. It was directed by Dean Karr, who has also worked with artists like Marilyn Manson, Korn, and Screaming Trees. It shows the band playing in a snowy landscape while a girl in a blue robe carries a blue orb through the snow, eventually handing it to Gray as he stands in a triangle painted on the ground.
  • The 2004 Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood video game includes "Not Falling."

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