This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Did you happen to catch or did it happen so fast
What you thought would always last has passed you by
Is everything speeding up
Or am I slowing down, I'm just spinning around
And I don't know why
All the pieces don't fit
Thought I didn't give a shit
I never wanted to be like you
But for all I aspire, I am really a liar
And I'm running out of things I can do
I'd like to stay but every day
Everything pushes me farther away
If you could show, help me to know
How it's supposed to be
Where did it go?
Pleading and needing
And bleeding and breeding
Feeding, exceeding
Where is everybody?
Trying and lying
Defying, denying
Crying and dying
Where is everybody?
Well okay, enough, you've had your fun
But come on there has to be someone
That hasn't yet become so numb and succumb
And god damn I am so tired of pretending
Of wishing I was ending
When all I'm really doing is trying to hide
And keep it inside and fill it with lies
Open my eyes, maybe I wish I could try
Pleading and needing
And bleeding and breeding
Feeding, exceeding
Where is everybody?
Trying and lying
Defying, denying
Crying and dying
Where is everybody?
Pleading and needing
And bleeding and breeding
Feeding, exceeding
Where is everybody?
Trying and lying
Defying, denying
Crying and dying
Where is everybody?
What you thought would always last has passed you by
Is everything speeding up
Or am I slowing down, I'm just spinning around
And I don't know why
All the pieces don't fit
Thought I didn't give a shit
I never wanted to be like you
But for all I aspire, I am really a liar
And I'm running out of things I can do
I'd like to stay but every day
Everything pushes me farther away
If you could show, help me to know
How it's supposed to be
Where did it go?
Pleading and needing
And bleeding and breeding
Feeding, exceeding
Where is everybody?
Trying and lying
Defying, denying
Crying and dying
Where is everybody?
Well okay, enough, you've had your fun
But come on there has to be someone
That hasn't yet become so numb and succumb
And god damn I am so tired of pretending
Of wishing I was ending
When all I'm really doing is trying to hide
And keep it inside and fill it with lies
Open my eyes, maybe I wish I could try
Pleading and needing
And bleeding and breeding
Feeding, exceeding
Where is everybody?
Trying and lying
Defying, denying
Crying and dying
Where is everybody?
Pleading and needing
And bleeding and breeding
Feeding, exceeding
Where is everybody?
Trying and lying
Defying, denying
Crying and dying
Where is everybody?
Lyrics submitted by thewhitepony33, edited by Trismagistus
Where Is Everybody? Lyrics as written by Trent Reznor
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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"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."
these are some of reznor's most revealing and self deprecating lyrics. in all his music, though there is a certain self loathing, never does reznor question his own purpose or integrity. this he does in where is everybody. reznor goes so far as to call himself a liar, probably the lowest insult an artist can get. it means his work is all a piece of crap, and his work is his life. in a way, then this could be the most depressing nails song ever written. but it isn't. it balances the self loathing with ego building hatred of everybody else. verses are balanced between the "you" and the "i," and the chous taunts everybody else. this is a truly great [and, as i get the impression, underrated] song, and is a hidden gem in the beauty of the fragile.