Terrible Lie Lyrics
Am I not living up to what I'm supposed to be?
Why am I seething with this animosity?
Hey God, I think you owe me a great big apology
Terrible lie
Terrible lie
Terrible lie
seems like salvation comes only in our dreams
I feel my hatred grow all the more extreme
hey God, can this world really be as sad as it seems?
Terrible lie
Terrible lie
Terrible lie
Don't take it away from me, I need you to hold on to
Don't take it away from me, I need you to hold on to
Don't take it away from me, I need someone to hold on to
Don't tear it away from me, I need you to hold on to
Don't tear it away from me, I need someone to hold on to
Don't tear it away from me, I need you to hold on to
Don't tear it... don't tear it... don't take it, don't take it, don't...
I lost my ignorance, security and pride.
I'm all alone in a world you must despise.
Hey God, I believed the promises, your promises and lies
Terrible lie
Terrible lie
Terrible lie
My morals left to decay (terrible lie)
How many you betray
You've taken everything (terrible lie)
My head is filled with disease
My skin is begging you, please (terrible lie)
I'm on my hands and knees
I want so much to believe
I need someone to hold on to
Don't take it away from me
I need someone to hold on to
my sweet everything
hey God, i really don't know who i am.
in this world of piss
The meaning of this song is pretty straightforward. It is not an atheist or anti-religion song like the other well known Heresy. This is about a man who is teetering. His whole life is collapsing around in and his faith in the god he believes in is slipping. It gets to the point where he is hopeless in life to the point where he surrenders himself entirely to his god, but his belief is slipping away permanently as the logical fallacies inherent in religious beliefs become clear. With everything gone, he begs on his hands and knees for salvation and to retain his belief "I want so much to believe", "don't take it away from me, I need you to hold on to (the idea of god)".
Pretty powerful song, once you get the meaning behind it. If you are an agnostic, atheist or deist who was raised in a religious household like I was, and at one point in time you were forced into realization, then you know these feelings just as I and Trent do.
So yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
It should be noted that the emotion here is uncertainty, as opposed to condemnation or satire in most god or religion oriented NIN songs (Heresy, God Given, i.e), in that he realizes logically he does not believe in that idea of god anymore, yet he does not want to let it go as he well be entirely alone in the world.
It should be noted that the emotion here is uncertainty, as opposed to condemnation or satire in most god or religion oriented NIN songs (Heresy, God Given, i.e), in that he realizes logically he does not believe in that idea of god anymore, yet he does not want to let it go as he well be entirely alone in the world.
I take it someone lied to him about "on the down low" too ;)
I take it someone lied to him about "on the down low" too ;)
@LyricallyAnonymous What do you mean?
@LyricallyAnonymous What do you mean?
He's questioning his faith. Everyone here knows that Trent doesn't understand being boxed in by organized religion. The song is coming from someone who did all that God told him to do and bad things happened anyway, so he doesn't understand why God is punishing him.
How many times has this happened? Many. Trent's being honest about it.
I think Terrible Lie refers to Trents sense of rejection from god. This song is a clear first impression of the straightfoward depth that Trent Reznor uses in Pretty Hate Machine. This song is amazing, especially live.
I agree with punkedyou and Admiral Thumper... Fucking awesome 80's beat here! It's amazing, I love it!!
This song is very much about God. That seems pretty clear. He is conflicted when it comes to God. He wants to hold on, but he doesn't know how long he can due to the screwy experience he is going through.
I'm surprised no ones mentioned the "music industry" angle here. God being the organisations that lord over artists. Fist filling their heads with dreams of riches and fame. But then once you're in the business, you discover its all a lie. And you're nothing but a little worker ant.
"Hey God, why are you doing this to me? Am I not living up to what I'm supposed to be? Why am I seething with this animosity? Hey God, I think you owe me a great big apology"
He's not producing cds fast enough, or that stay at number 1 long enough so he gets pressure and grief from the big men who run the show.This causes him to hold animosity towards the industry.
"Hey God, I really don't know what you mean seems like salvation comes only in our dreams I feel my hatred grow all the more extreme hey God, can this world really be as sad as it seems?"
Its not all about the music, its about the money. people become cash cows, and the masses eat it up. (this is in general, not that he is a cash cow.)
"Don't take it away from me, I need you to hold on to"
He still wants to be making music and doesn't want to be torn out of the industry.
I find the religion angle to be very accurate. But i thought of this as a possible dual meaning hidden within the obvious messages.
Your grammar isn't bad, so I'm going to assume you're not stupid. However, you obviously have never felt the depths of pain that this man was going through when he created this music for the first time.
Your grammar isn't bad, so I'm going to assume you're not stupid. However, you obviously have never felt the depths of pain that this man was going through when he created this music for the first time.
He was dying and God did the same thing God always does: nothing. No matter what he tried to accomplish, no matter how hard he tried, or how moral he acted, he still lost everything. He still got to feel so hopeless, and the only path he could find out of that hopelessness was anger. Tears of fear rip...
He was dying and God did the same thing God always does: nothing. No matter what he tried to accomplish, no matter how hard he tried, or how moral he acted, he still lost everything. He still got to feel so hopeless, and the only path he could find out of that hopelessness was anger. Tears of fear rip through him as he proclaims God non-existent. That's the only thing he can believe to save his life: If I'm in this much pain, how can there be a God?
I have felt this, as I'm sure many people have... and it has nothing to do with money. A man doesn't write a song as powerful as this for something so meaningless as a bunch of greedy fools taking money from other, more artistically creative, greedy fools. This system functions well enough to get this music to us, it does not warrant that level of fear and pain. It does not define the world's misery. God does.
@wordbarber true that the influence and upbringing with "god" can mess you up pretty bad, but I feel all artists can get in a very bad place yes spiritually and that takes a toll on "sanity" whatever that means ha ha :) but emotionally and physically I do see the comparison to the company and noting the worker ant thing he said, its true, if you haven't seen the film "Barton Fink" it will show both similarities of both God AND the music industry or any art industry (in the film in was movie writing) and this theory to terrible...
@wordbarber true that the influence and upbringing with "god" can mess you up pretty bad, but I feel all artists can get in a very bad place yes spiritually and that takes a toll on "sanity" whatever that means ha ha :) but emotionally and physically I do see the comparison to the company and noting the worker ant thing he said, its true, if you haven't seen the film "Barton Fink" it will show both similarities of both God AND the music industry or any art industry (in the film in was movie writing) and this theory to terrible lie is compounded by the song "happiness in slavery" sorry I skipped a point on the physical and emotional aspect, when you are a creative person you are already very weary of control, because art can be interpreted and used in soo many ways that can be very negative, which is not why artist do art in the first place (mostly)...this loss of control can also be disheartening for someone who is only gifted in art, it feels like a curse...plus Trent is known to try and maintain control over his work thats why his first album was done all by himself...And that very much so can lead to fear and pain, because most people that can create are living on the edge of existence in my opinion, ghosts (ha ha) really so imagine the fear and pain of an artist living on the street or not being able to hold a job due to mental illness or being a victim of drug addiction/abuse. I tell you from experience the pain of not having a place to go and the fear of merely trying to survive in a place soo designed for people to follow the system and people soo afraid to lose that system would kill off somebody else stuck in a hard place just so they can live in a dream like matrix that does nothing to develop a healthy human being.
i think of it more as realizationt that God is a lie.
"Hey God, there's nothing left for me to hide. I lost my ignorance, security and pride. I'm all alone in a world you must despise. Hey God, I believed the promises, your promises and lies"
he lost his ignorance, the beleif in god his security, the faith that there is something beyond this life his pride, the idea that "god made me, i'm special!"
he's all alone in a world god must despise. if there was a god why would there be so much crap allowed to happen? if theres a god, he must hate the world is the assumption here.
he beleived in the promises of god, essentially gods lies. the title of the song "terrible lie" the lie that is god.
i beleive this, because i have been there.
I believe that your interpretations is in the song. But, I took this song a bit deeper.
Yes, he's talking about how God is a lie, but let me take you into another meaning, too.
"Don't take it away from me, I need you to hold on to Don't take it away from me, I need you to hold on to Don't take it away from me, I need you to hold on to Don't take it away from me, I need someone to hold on to Don't tear it away from me, I need you to hold on to Don't tear it away from me, I need someone to hold on to Don't tear it away from me, I need you to hold on to Don't tear it... don't tear it... don't take it, don't take it, don't..."
Here, taking it away from him means that he doesn't want to give up believing in God. He needs that to hold onto. To believe in. He wants it but he feels like he can't hold on to it.
"My head is filled with disease My skin is begging you, please (terrible lie) I'm on my hands and knees I want so much to believe "
And again, he wants to believe in God. And, he's begging people(and himself) to let him. He wants to feel comforted, touched, by God. And, his head with filled with disease because he doesn't believe in God. So, therefor he is sinning. He doesn't want to doubt the existance of God, but things around him has made him feel that way.
agree with punckedyou!
agree with punckedyou!
@punkedyou Religion is a lie, not really God. But eh I guess everyone tries to center the song around their own beliefs :/
@punkedyou Religion is a lie, not really God. But eh I guess everyone tries to center the song around their own beliefs :/
The message I recieve from this song would be that Trent was at a very low point in his life, and invested all his trust and faith in God, and felt betrayed and lied to both by God and himself
ok for real, reznor claims to be atheist. then how can he write and sing about a higher being? it still baffles me...
he wasn't always, and it's about feeling betrayed by his blind faith when he was forced to accept that it was all a "terrible lie" and couldn't prolong his comforting ignorance. he used the figure of "god" not as a literal figure, but a metaphorical representation of all religious thought. what better to represent all the religious ignorance, than by what they identify as the embodiment of it?
he wasn't always, and it's about feeling betrayed by his blind faith when he was forced to accept that it was all a "terrible lie" and couldn't prolong his comforting ignorance. he used the figure of "god" not as a literal figure, but a metaphorical representation of all religious thought. what better to represent all the religious ignorance, than by what they identify as the embodiment of it?
I am a former Nine Inch Nails fan. I have listened to this song more times than I can remember because I once felt that I could identify with it so well. Frankly, I now believe that no one can be an honest atheist. Hopefully the following article that I wrote on my site will shed some light on the subject....
I am a former Nine Inch Nails fan. I have listened to this song more times than I can remember because I once felt that I could identify with it so well. Frankly, I now believe that no one can be an honest atheist. Hopefully the following article that I wrote on my site will shed some light on the subject....
http://jdlarsenmn.tripod.com/response.htm
http://jdlarsenmn.tripod.com/response.htm
You can copy paste that address into your address bar to see the article. Some people are hard to completely figure out. However, from the info that is given in the video expose...
You can copy paste that address into your address bar to see the article. Some people are hard to completely figure out. However, from the info that is given in the video expose that I shared in part of that article, it appears that Trent Reznor is really more of a Satanist than an atheist.
There may be some professing Satanists who don't actually believe Satan to be real. However, the info given in this next article that I will share shows a quote from Susan Atkins about Anton LaVey (the founder of the Satanic church) which states that “Anton told me that as a Satanist he does believe in the God of the bible but he refused to worship Him and made a conscious decision to worship Satan instead.” Here is the article....
http://www.goodfight.org/a_co_sataniccults.html
Just food for thought. I also want to mention that there appears to be a lot more Satanists today then many people realize.