Again, I think this has to do with Trent coming to terms with being someone different than he was when he was writing the Downward Spiral. The first two lines are referring to written song lyrics, pathetic ones apparently. I take this to be lyrics written currently that seem pathetic when compared to TDS's lyrics. He feels like he's failing to live up to his past. The next two lines are a metaphor for him no longer living in that type of environment/situation. Like people are looking for him to be behind the door labeled "bleak/depressing industrial god/ self-destructive/etc.." but none of those labels really fit him anymore. People are expecting him to be something he no longer is. People are trying to pigeon-hole him into a specific genre or a specific style or define him by a specific type of subject, all of which have since changed. People are expecting him to be one thing when he's really not anymore. The next two lines are pretty self-explanatory. He could of become the dark, industrial/goth, archetype person that eventually really does self-destruct into suicide, but that's not what happened. He has stepped over all those broken pieces of his shattered former life, and is asking us to do the same. The next two lines I think are more intimate. Perhaps about Mariqueen coming into his life emotionally and him being a bit reluctant to share his past because he is somewhat ashamed of it or he just still has a fear of letting anyone get too close. To me the chorus is him expressing his love for someone, whether it's his fans, his wife, or his children, I don't know, but he's saying that he wishes his past wasn't such a tragedy and perhaps was a better example if he's speaking to his children. He wishes that he could change his past so that he could be everything "good" and not be damaged from all of it so that they (his children/wife/fans) would have a better person. He keeps lying to himself by saying that he IS this "good" person and by trying to forget his past, but he realizes there really is no way of escaping it and lying to himself about it is the only way he knows how to deal with it without falling apart or being depressed about it or whatever. "Didn't it seem like something more?" This is about the expectations of him. He was expected to continue rising in popularity and influence etc, but instead he declined, at least in popularity he did. The next stanza is about his fear of the past repeating itself, probably specifically about his drug addiction resurfacing and wreaking havoc on his newly found happy and stable middle-aged life. Perhaps it's about his fear that his children will follow in his footsteps. And of course, all the guilt that comes with that.
Again, I think this has to do with Trent coming to terms with being someone different than he was when he was writing the Downward Spiral. The first two lines are referring to written song lyrics, pathetic ones apparently. I take this to be lyrics written currently that seem pathetic when compared to TDS's lyrics. He feels like he's failing to live up to his past. The next two lines are a metaphor for him no longer living in that type of environment/situation. Like people are looking for him to be behind the door labeled "bleak/depressing industrial god/ self-destructive/etc.." but none of those labels really fit him anymore. People are expecting him to be something he no longer is. People are trying to pigeon-hole him into a specific genre or a specific style or define him by a specific type of subject, all of which have since changed. People are expecting him to be one thing when he's really not anymore. The next two lines are pretty self-explanatory. He could of become the dark, industrial/goth, archetype person that eventually really does self-destruct into suicide, but that's not what happened. He has stepped over all those broken pieces of his shattered former life, and is asking us to do the same. The next two lines I think are more intimate. Perhaps about Mariqueen coming into his life emotionally and him being a bit reluctant to share his past because he is somewhat ashamed of it or he just still has a fear of letting anyone get too close. To me the chorus is him expressing his love for someone, whether it's his fans, his wife, or his children, I don't know, but he's saying that he wishes his past wasn't such a tragedy and perhaps was a better example if he's speaking to his children. He wishes that he could change his past so that he could be everything "good" and not be damaged from all of it so that they (his children/wife/fans) would have a better person. He keeps lying to himself by saying that he IS this "good" person and by trying to forget his past, but he realizes there really is no way of escaping it and lying to himself about it is the only way he knows how to deal with it without falling apart or being depressed about it or whatever. "Didn't it seem like something more?" This is about the expectations of him. He was expected to continue rising in popularity and influence etc, but instead he declined, at least in popularity he did. The next stanza is about his fear of the past repeating itself, probably specifically about his drug addiction resurfacing and wreaking havoc on his newly found happy and stable middle-aged life. Perhaps it's about his fear that his children will follow in his footsteps. And of course, all the guilt that comes with that.