A Collection of musings on music, life, and the world as we know it by someone who shouldn't know better.
Songoftheday 11/15/21 - I'd listen to the words he'd say but in his voice I heard decay, the plastic face forced to portray all the insides left cold and gray ...
Today's song comes from Nine Inch Nails, the industrial rock act started and mostly carried out as a music project for Reznor, who originally came from western Pennsylvania, but
established the act in Cleveland. Recording demos as he worked in a
record studio, he eventually got signed to TVT Records, which at that
time was most noted for releasing compilations of television show theme
songs. The debut album from Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine,
was a collection of hard-hitting but danceable songs that were promoted
initially as a club act like Nitzer Ebb or My Life with The Thrill Kill
Kult. The lead single "Down On It", released in 1991, climbed to #16 on both the Modern Rock radio chart and the Dance Club Play list in Billboard magazine. That was followed by "Head Like A Hole",
which got to #28 on the Modern Rock chart, #17 on the Dance Club Play
tally, and had enough mainstream airplay and sales to "bubble under" the
pop Hot 100 chart in America. (It was their first charting hit in the
UK as well at #45.) A third release, "Sin",
was missed in the U.S. most likely due to its sexually provocative
music video, but the song became Trent's first top-40 British hit at
#35.
Although Pretty Hate Machine as an album was a big success,
becoming one of the first independently-distributed albums to sell over a
million copies and "go platinum", Trent and the record label were
fighting already over the money and the direction of the act. Secretly
recording until his contract was bought out by Interscope Records (and
mogul Jimmy Iovine), Nine Inch Nails returned with the EP Broken in 1992. The record would be Trent's first top ten effort, peaking at #7 on Billboard's Album Sales Chart, while lead single "Happiness In Slavery" went to #13 on the Modern Rock radio chart. The second, "Wish",
got to #25 on that chart, and earned Trent his first Grammy Award for
Best Metal Performance ("Happiness In Slavery" would also win a Grammy
for the same thing for their live performance at Woodstock 94 from that concert album).
In 1992, Reznor set to record his second full-length album, and first
for Interscope, at the house where the cult members of Charles Manson
killed Sharon Tate and friends of hers back in 1969. Working with
producer Mark "Flood" Ellis, the resulting work, The Downward Spiral, was put out in the spring of 1994. The lead single, "March Of The Pigs",
was an entirely experimental piece of industrial rock that radio simply
couldn't play, but due to fan interest had the single climb to #59 on Billboard's
Hot 100 chart. But that would change with the next release. "Closer",
written solely by Trent, was sinister in intent, but this time totally
accessible musically. With a graphic music video edited for use by MTV, the song just missed the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 pop chart in the fall of 1994, though it also came one notch from the top ten on their Alternative Rock list. Another cut from the Downward Spiral album, "Hurt", was nominated for Best Rock Song at the Grammys in 1996, losing to Alanis Morissette for her "You Oughta Know" smash. The album was also up for Best Alternative Album, which Green Day took home for their breakthrough Dookie set.
During the long five year break between albums, Reznor helmed the soundtrack to the movie Lost Highway in 1997. The record had one Nine Inch Nails song on it, "The Perfect Drug", which ended up going to #46 on the Hot 100 while making both the Alternative (#11) and Mainstream (#21) rock radio charts in Billboard. It was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance, which the Smashing Pumpkins won for "The End Is The Beginning Is The End".
Finally after many delays, Reznor re-emerged with his third full-length studio album The Fragile in the fall of 1999, as a two-disc opus. The lead single released from the set was "The Day The World Went Away". Written by Reznor, who co-produced it with Alan Moulder, the song is a dark, brooding piece that's definitely way beyond the confines of what a "pop song" is. First off, it's mostly instrumental save for a single verse way near the middle of the record. There's no drums, but a droning bass that keeps the pace of the piece. And what lyrics there are in the song are nihilistic to the point of inducing depression on the susceptible. But yeah, it reflects how Trent's life had been spiralling from drugs and mental blocks that had delayed the album as long as it did. The music video wasn't even released, perhaps it was too bleak for MTV. Nevertheless the fans were waiting for this, and in return Trent got the highest-charting "pop" hit of his career...
Coming out more than a month before the album, so many people rushed to buy the single in America that it spent a solitary week in the top half of the top-40 in August of 1999, even with minimal airplay on mainstream or rock stations. Internationally, the single made the top-40 in New Zealand (#15) and Australia (#31). The Fragile album, released in September of that year, scored Nine Inch Nails their first #1 album on the Billboard 200 sales tally in America, going on to sell over a million copies of the two-disc set. At the Grammy Awards in 2000, The Fragile was nominated for Best Alternative Album, which Beck won for his Mutations album.
The "B-Side" of the single, "Starfuckers, Inc.", wasn't listed on the Hot 100 (maybe because it wasn't on the 12" vinyl single), but it did at least get some rock radio airplay (sanitized to "Starsuckers Inc"). A biting takedown of the music industry and especially the rock world, it subtly shot at Marilyn Manson; nevertheless, Manson showed up for the video anyway...
"Starsuckers Inc" got to #39 on the Alternative Rock radio chart. The unadulterated version was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 2000, losing to Black Sabbath for their live "ringer" version of "Iron Man".
"We're In This Together" came out as the next song from The Fragile promoted to radio, and climbed to #11 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart and #21 on the Mainstream Rock format tally. It also gave Trent his third top-40 hit on the British Singles chart at #39. That was followed by "Into The Void", which also made it to #11 on the Alternative Rock chart, and #27 on the Mainstream list. It was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal (his first time in that category), which went to Lenny Kravitz for his pop hit "Again". Nine Inch Nails will return to the series.
The Day The World Went Away: (6/10)
Starfuckers, Inc: (6/10)
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
The CD single and 12" vinyl record also had an alternative version subtitled "Quiet", which strips the guitars from the track....
Next up, Reznor performing the song in concert in 2009...
Reznor and Manson shared a stage for "Starfuckers Inc."...
And lastly, "The Day The World Went Away" live in 2018...
Up tomorrow: Neo-soul singer is planning for the long haul.
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