It means whatever it means to you. That's the beauty of music. And that's why it's written that way.

The best songs will actually mean different things to you the more you listen.

OnslaughtSix posted:

It means whatever it means to you. That's the beauty of music. And that's why it's written that way.

The best songs will actually mean different things to you the more you listen.

Not fair man, you give the best answer in every thread. XD

wow alright I'll give this one a shake

To me I really relate to this song being about drugs. I know I know, not everything is about drugs. But for me I really relate to this song being about drugs. Off and on (mostly on) over the past really long time I've struggled with drugs. Not just the fun ones either, and if brought me to some really dark places. So to answer your points on how I interpret this song....

The song title of course Something I Can Never Have could be a lot of different things but I get the 'loss of innocence' from it. Like he wants to be the person he sees himself as while on drugs. He wants the quick wit, the 'fast' feeling, the strong, independant person he is while on drugs.

I know it sounds kinda silly but this is something you get to learn in rehab (yay) that drugs become like a best friend. They're always there for you, they never judge, and you'd do anything for them. I don't know Trents favored drug (I think I read somewhere that it was cocaine and heroin (yay for speedballs!)) but regardless of the flavor drugs really have one purpose: to take away. It may sound like a harsh concept but for those of us without healthy coping mechanisms its really true. Cocaine makes you numb and alive at the same time. And Heroin seriously makes it all go away (chorus line).

Maybe he's talking about a love or something but to me it's really relatable to drugs. The lines "I'm down to just one thing and I'm starting to scare myself" to me always meant I have one hit left and being out of cocaine is really sucky, and the possiblities of what I would do to get more always scared the shit out of me.

I think he's personificating the drug and what it does, and towards the end of the song maybe hes in his old room at his moms house, in the last verse he's talking about returning somewhere and he still can't get away from it (personally I had one of those little testtube looking things I kept my coke in so I could have a sniff anywhere i.e. my moms funeral, or just anywhere you can't just cut a good line):

"In this place it seems like such a shame
Though it all looks different now,
I know it's still the same.
Everywhere I look
You're all I see
Just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be."

And the reiteration of the line "I just want something I can never have" could be related to these memories of a safe place (his room or otherwise) where he wasn't like this, he didn't need all of this, and it was safer and not as frenzied as it is when he came to the point of writing this song.

Anyways I hope this helps put a perspective on it. Like I said before this is just how I relate to this song, and I know that Trent had a drug problem all the way up until he released With Teeth, and when he wrote SICNH for PHM he was probably loaded. I personally don't know what the song means to him, but for me it's a personification of the relationship one addict has with his drug (the addict being me). It might actually be about his dog but for me that's what I feel for a lot of NIN songs.

Ruiner_Collector posted:

OnslaughtSix posted:

It means whatever it means to you. That's the beauty of music. And that's why it's written that way.

The best songs will actually mean different things to you the more you listen.

Not fair man, you give the best answer in every thread. XD

I try.

@onslaughtsix-I agree 100%. When I listen to a NIN song I do not try to figure out what it means to TR or why he wrote it. Music truely is a form of therapy.

Something I can never have is personal to me for many reasons

1) I've lost my hearing and it's something I can never have and the person I used to be before I was diagnosed has pretty much died and I've become this recluse and I'm starting to scare myself because I'm slipping away.

2) The death of my mother in 2001 when I was 19-she's something I can never have and being adopted plays into this as well. A mother is something I can never have and everywhere I look she's all I see and reminds me of the person I used to be before she died.

that's how I feel about the song-does it matter why trent wrote it? I don't think it should-it should only matter how you feel about the song and what it means to you on a personal level. That is the beauty of music.

redhotsfan posted:

Yes, you are right actually. The songs of NIN are full with symbols and I can "read" and understand this symbols like I want. ^^]

Yeah, but I think it's kind of important to know Trent's official meaning behind the songs, be it full on story or just mood.


I could say, "Capital G means to mean that Bush is the best president EVAR and that Jews should DIE LOLolOLOloLloLOLOO!!!!1!LOL!"


Doesn't mean it would be an "accepted" meaning of the song.

rodheh posted:

redhotsfan posted:

Yes, you are right actually. The songs of NIN are full with symbols and I can "read" and understand this symbols like I want. ^^]

Yeah, but I think it's kind of important to know Trent's official meaning behind the songs, be it full on story or just mood.


I could say, "Capital G means to mean that Bush is the best president EVAR and that Jews should DIE LOLolOLOloLloLOLOO!!!!1!LOL!"


Doesn't mean it would be an "accepted" meaning of the song.

YZ is different--it's a rock opera. (Or, well, an industrial opera?) Or a concept album or whatever you want to call it. There's specific setpieces that are in place that definitely need to be taken in context, and then there's parts that are open to interpretation--like just what the hell The Presence is, the Great Destroyer, the destruction of the world, and what happens after.

tadhg23 posted:

SICNH appealed to me because i felt i could relate to the song as it's written by someone who is an outsider and who looks at the world around them and questions everything about it, and it is in this way that they feel that thay can't really belong. It is this knowledge that they can never really love someone but then someone comes along that they feel that they can love but they realise they just can't because they would be lying to themselves, but they still want it " i just want something i can never have".
This feeling of detachment and loneliness creates a sense of despair but not depression in the line "i'm down to just one thing and i'm starting to scare myself" i think that the "one thing" is suicide as when they are with the person that they feel they love they make this feeling of despair go away "you make this all go away" describes this. (the feeling of suicide is also seen in the song"The Downward Spiral"
The first few lines"i still recall the taste of your tears echoing your voice like the ringing in my ears" i feel that the theme of noises in my head is a recurring theme(The Becoming-"goddamn this noise inside my head", I Do Not Want This-"I stay inside my head" i feel that it is used to describe the confusion that is going on in his head about what he thinks and feels.
"This thing is slowly taking me apart" in this line he shows that he knows what it's doing to him, the longing for it is damaging him but he still wants it because " you make it all go away" as that is what he really wants and he sees this in this person that he loves.
And then in the last verse he is remembering this person and "though it all looks different now i know it's still the same" is that time has moved on, things have changed but his feelings haven't changed. As he still wants "to make this all go away" as what's been going on in his head is still there as that is what he is but he knows that he can never change that.

This is just the way i feel about this song and it's the first time I've put the way i feel about a song into words so it probably sounds all jumbled up, but i hope some of what i said makes sense.

The line in IDNWT is "I stay inside my bed; I have lived so many lives all in my head." (Just felt like correcting it.)

Also, one could definitely portray the "something" being a blind faith in God and religion, but I'm literally in another argument elsewhere on the Interwebs so my mind's kind of focused on that.

Jademeplease posted:

I know it sounds kinda silly but this is something you get to learn in rehab (yay) that drugs become like a best friend. They're always there for you, they never judge, and you'd do anything for them. I don't know Trents favored drug (I think I read somewhere that it was cocaine and heroin (yay for speedballs!)) but regardless of the flavor drugs really have one purpose: to take away. It may sound like a harsh concept but for those of us without healthy coping mechanisms its really true. Cocaine makes you numb and alive at the same time. And Heroin seriously makes it all go away (chorus line).

It states on Wikipedia that Trent did cocaine, but not heroin. This is the source article: Source Article

I kind of made this song mine and put my own meaning into it.

At the time I was with this chick that I didn't want to be with and there was another chick(who is now my girlfriend)that I wanted, but I knew I couldn't have(because of age difference). Now that I have here the "everywhere I look you're all I see, just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be." refers to my ex because she was such a jerk and a bitch I just can't get over how much she sucked. Now I have gotten over her. I can't call this song mine anymore.

something I can never have reminds me of my mother who died in 2001 from cancer when I was only 19.

" you always were the one to show me how. Back then I couldn't do the things that I can do now ( I've grown up )"

the song is whatever you feel it is!

honestly I kinda don't care what it means to the artist. I don't listen to NIN or Lady Gaga because of "why" they wrote this or that but because of how they make me feel and what they mean to me.



S.

I think it's pretty straight-forward. A woman broke his heart, and the relationship he had hoped for will never happen and he's heartbroken. Could be wrong, that's just how I interpret it.

Btw, does anyone know the story as to why the lyrics printed in the booklet are not the same as the ones in the actual song?

Cool. I wonder if there are some demos with some alt. lyrics. Guess we'll have to wait for the boxset.

Although I love "With Teeth", it's my favorite album and I love every song (except Sunspots), this song is my all time favorite. It is just beautiful and amazing. I love it. My favorite lyric is "Grey would be the color, if I had a heart". Wow! So powerful.

To me its about love that left him, or maybe i think this becuase my love of 9 yrs just left me...

The OP's post:
1. "Everywhere I look you're all I see
Just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be" <--- Does this show that he is seeing the previous Trent or... ?
2.And why "And I'm starting to scare myself"?
3.And what does "You make this all go away" mean. That the tears and the voice of the girl( if we speak for a girl) have gone?

My view of these questions:

1.Everything he sees reminds him of thigs he used to do with her, and even if it may be a inanimate object it still is a memory of her,which then just fills his head with her.It then reminds him of who he used to be, her lover.
2.he is having irrational thoughts,and/or being tormented by the thoughts of her and how she is gone.
3.if only she would come back he would be complete and this torment would end.