The Big Come Down

The song, according to the Nine Inch Nails Wikipedia (www.ninwiki.com/The_Big_Come_Down), is an unofficial sequel to the song “March of The Pigs”. In “March of The Pigs”, Reznor sings about people whose greatest goal is to watch you fail, people who are willing for you to fall. In “The Big Come Down”, he sings about his decay and addresses a message to the same people who was referred in “March” when singing: “the big come down, isn’t that what you wanted?”; Basically, the song is about failing at some point of your life, having to deal with it and having to bear people who are actually glad for your fail.

I found my way here after putting "Freud" and "Nine Inch Nails" into Google. Crashinghero, up there (five years ago) defines Freud's death drive as the desire to "take apart what has been put together." Actually (and I haven't read very much, so you might want to check out "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" for yourself) the Freudian death drive is the opposite; the desire to put together what has been taken apart: namely, the complete ego (as the child believes that the mother is a part of him and the rest of the world is an extension of himself). He wants to become God and own all through annihilating himself, a recurring theme in Reznor's music.

I think it's trying to overcome something, but at the same time you want it to stay. You may know that something is unhealthy, but you have to have it, or either you like it. Or either, there is no way you can get away from a problem because it's all inside of you. It's complicated for me to really explain but the best way to explain it is just using the example of anorexia.

this is the release of tension. throughout the right disc of the fragile, the narrator is in a struggle between his two halves - the half trying to overcome and move beyond the loss in the left disc, and the half that wants to give in to the grief and become lost in sorrow. the big come down represents freud's death instinct, or the instinct to take apart what has been put together.

this song reminds me of my relationship currently with my gf. I want to kinda works things out with her, but my other half wants me to break it off with her. What can i say? :-/ otherwise, this is a goodsong

Actually this song reminds me of all the shit I went through in High School. Go figure....

He's attempting to sever painful ties and overcome how he's wronged, and in the end he reailzes that his biggest bully is himself. His main problem is his self-imposed prison that "keeps on coming from the inside".

well this may be different to everyone elses opinion but i think its about drugs. the name "the big come down" means when you come down from the high and "there is a game I play, try to make myself okay" means why trent does it.

"there is a game I play try to make myself okay try so hard to make the pieces all fit smash it apart just for the fuck of it"

Whenever I listened to this I thought it was about being deep in the clutches of depression and I always listen to this when I get down and it's like, "wow, this is how I feel"

The first verse(the one I quoted) to me seems like it's about how people deal with their depression like some people who cut to try to relieve the feelings (Try to make myself ok) then you try really hard to work through your problems and all that and you just give up and say fuck it (try so hard to make the pieces all fit/smash it apart just for the fuck of it)

"there is no place I can go there is no way I can hide it feels like it keeps coming from the inside"

oops, I just noticed this line and I wanted to comment on that too. I think this sort of talks about the fact that depression(clinical depression that is) isn't caused by things that happen to you, but rather, what goes on in your brain(it feels like it keeps coming from the inside)