Check out Ripping me Apart by Nothing More… or any song from their album A Few Not Fleeting or their album The Stories We Tell Ourselves. I love your content! Keep up the good work! Your beautiful and so smart! 
You should check out the Johnny Cash cover of HURT.
Like Rob Zombie it’s Art. Rob is Vegan. Trent did a PETA ad so is against abuses showing it
When I was single in the 90’s…… this song was money
I presume uou’ve done “Hurt”. Be surprised if you haven’t.
Sit down sometime and listen to the whole “Pretty Hate Machine” album. Dead serious. You’ll especially dig “Something I Can Never Have”…
This song is unimaginably terrible
1:38 woah. true…
She does not like the filth.
You should listen to Hurt by this band, I’m sure you would have a glorious analysis of that song.
Saw them in Austin in a club 89 or 90 maybe before they broke out big.
Your analysis of this song is spot on. The song is on an album called The Downward Spiral and it follows the journey of a man’s self destruction through sex, drugs, and other vices. At the end of the album he takes his own life.
Hmmm🤔 I’ve heard by many this was about Blk- commonly referred to as a woman. Megadeth n other musicians refer to drugs under cryptic lyrics such as women/lovers. More subtle n more poetic…Get me closer to GoD, references description of being hugged by GoD while bangin’ H. Common description of how potent and powerful the high is from Blk. Most lyrics point to abusing drugs. Nearly everyone was doing H n Coke during these time frames. Its well documented by athletes, musicians and actors, n the dealers
MASSIVELY late to the party, but the concept album that is “The Downward Spiral” is, in its entirety, a build-up of an individual who is down and out. A crushed being. Suffocating under the weight of humanity and its ills. They discuss the concepts of hatred and disgust for ‘GOD,’ an over arching being that they perceive as the sum total of all their suffering.
They lament God’s seeming apathy towards humanity, God’s lack of potency while being an omnipotent being, and even humanity being such an ineffective creation. They equate fucking things to what it is that God does, ergo the explicit sexual connotations of many of the songs. ‘Protagonist’ then begins to view theirself as capable of doing as God cannot. To be or become equal to or greater than this ‘child with a magnifying glass and an anthill’ that they perceive God to be.
This leads to such raucous anthems as Reptile and Eraser. The being perhaps kills God, or becomes God, then inevitably realized that they have become the very thing they hate, obsessed with ‘fucking’ everything around them either metaphorically or literally. They then recount their depraved exploits as an omnipotent being and their desire, upon self-actualization, to SPOILERS:
… to die. To be destroyed, the same way they destroyed God, once again metaphorically or literally. It all culminates in the soul-crushing ballad of Hurt. Their own realization of what they’ve done after what they’ve become. It’s a tremendously and masterfully crafted concept album that needs a full listen to really grasp and digest all the points that it postulates. It was also, to my memory, during the height of Trent’s Smack addiction. Potent in all ways, shapes, and forms. Probably the most important album, to me, that I’ve ever consumed in my life.
I think that a full interpretation must acknowledge how iconoclastic and revolutionary this music was at the time it was published. Themes of a protagonist descending into self-destruction, nihilism, despair, addiction, and mental anguish were not “new” in either 20th century Pop music, nor in Western music more broadly. But they had always been uncommon, and generally had been delivered in less raw and unapologetic form.
During the late 18th and 19th century composers such as Beethoven, Mahler, and Wagner had explored themes of self-destruction, death, existential dread and tragic fates. Some 20th century classical composers such as Schoenberg and Stravinsky also challenged traditional structures, paralleling a shift in art toward confronting human suffering and existential alienation.
Blues and Jazz, from its origins in the early 20th century, are arguably the most notable genre in which themes of suffering, self-destruction and tragedy had already been well-explored prior to some mid and late 20th century rock artists (The Doors, Pink Floyd, Joy Division, The Cure, Metallica, Black Sabbath, etc.) creating haunting and compelling examinations of these dark themes.
What was really distinctive and novel about Reznor’s work was that it stripped away the layers of metaphor and fantasy, presenting these themes as deeply personal, unadorned, and visceral. The listener was drawn directly into the protagonist’s internal collapse, without poetic distancing or escapism. Few prior albums delved so deeply and exclusively into the downward trajectory of mental and emotional unraveling. The Downward Spiral’s narrative structure (culminating in Hurt) provided a focused, unrelenting depiction of despair and nihilism. Reznor brought a heightened intensity to these themes which arguably emerged from and reflected on prevailing angst during the early 1990s. During this period there was increased unwillingness to gloss over mental health issues, addiction, and alienation and considerable disillusionment with authority and consumer culture, fueled by Generation X cynicism.
The Downward Spiral (the album this comes from) is a concept album about Trent’s addition to heroin. The album ends with the song “Hurt,” which was covered by Johnny Cash. You should listen to Johnny’s version, which is one of the saddest songs ever recorded.
Everyone has something they want to escape from. The hardest things in life is facing what you want to run away from, and dealing with it. It’s not easy.
Always remember brain lady. The Key to the human spirit is in the Heart 3 6 9
If you want to explore the hole that is Kurt Resner’s unique views, check out I’m Afraid of Americans by David Bowie. (NTS - if I ever find fabric similar to Bowie’s suit, I’m buying it and duplicated that look. That’s my therapy.)
help me!!! Yes!!!..
Help me get away from myself!!! True