Well, I don't necessarily agree with you (eksfaktr), but I think you're sort of right. First off, I don't think it's literal. I think it's more about how he has changed over the years and grown as a person. The first verse seems to be about him being "reborn" in a sense, and I think that's what he's referring to with the imagery. "Shed your precious skin" where the "skin" is his image, the image everyone expects him to wear. He's telling himself that he needs to stop trying to be what everyone wants him to be and just be himself, even though it is vastly different from who/how he was during The Downward Spiral era for example. He has to purge who he was, which basically means the same thing as shaking off his image, because his image was who he was in the past. It is going to hurt to fully change and show the world who he is now, show the world his new image. The part about it being "someone else" I think is about him doubting and second guessing himself about being this new person. The chorus is again him being unsure of who he really is or really wants to be. The next verse seems to be like two different parts of him talking, one part being the part of him that wants to change, and the other being the one that wants to hold onto the past. "Thrive just become your disease"-this is the part of him that wants to hold onto his old image. His "disease" being addiction and self-destruction. I think Reznor makes a connection between his past self-destructive self and his fame and success. I know when With Teeth came out he said how he felt unsure about even being able to write songs sober. So now it's like he wants the success and all that from his past, but without the addiction issues and self-destructive attitudes and behaviors. And that's precisely where the dilemna lies. Part of him thinks "fuck it, just go back to being an addict so you can have all the success all over again," but the other part of him says "no, you can't turn back to drugs," so he's stuck in this decision about what to do. "Leave them behind you are free"- this part is the part of him that wants to change telling him to leave the past behind him and accept who he is today. "Take what you want, what you deserve"- what you want and what you deserve are often two different things. He wants fame, success, etc.., but wonders if he really deserves that after the way he abused things before, if is family deserves that. Either way, the decision he makes is going to hurt him. He concludes by saying he still isn't sure what he should do or what he wants to do or if he will even be able to do it once he decides. Think of it as an identity crisis, or possibly even a mid-life crisis.
@Androgyne I agree mostly with this... I think there's also a specific sense that trying to write songs about broken lives the same way he did in the 90s and 2000s wouldn't be true anymore because he has fixed his life in a sense.
What's interesting is that I hear a line in the second verse slightly differently as "take/what you want/to deserve". That definitely would suggest some level of desire to go back to writing the way he did before- basically a desire to deserve less than he feels he really does deserve.
@Androgyne I agree mostly with this... I think there's also a specific sense that trying to write songs about broken lives the same way he did in the 90s and 2000s wouldn't be true anymore because he has fixed his life in a sense.
What's interesting is that I hear a line in the second verse slightly differently as "take/what you want/to deserve". That definitely would suggest some level of desire to go back to writing the way he did before- basically a desire to deserve less than he feels he really does deserve.
Well, I don't necessarily agree with you (eksfaktr), but I think you're sort of right. First off, I don't think it's literal. I think it's more about how he has changed over the years and grown as a person. The first verse seems to be about him being "reborn" in a sense, and I think that's what he's referring to with the imagery. "Shed your precious skin" where the "skin" is his image, the image everyone expects him to wear. He's telling himself that he needs to stop trying to be what everyone wants him to be and just be himself, even though it is vastly different from who/how he was during The Downward Spiral era for example. He has to purge who he was, which basically means the same thing as shaking off his image, because his image was who he was in the past. It is going to hurt to fully change and show the world who he is now, show the world his new image. The part about it being "someone else" I think is about him doubting and second guessing himself about being this new person. The chorus is again him being unsure of who he really is or really wants to be. The next verse seems to be like two different parts of him talking, one part being the part of him that wants to change, and the other being the one that wants to hold onto the past. "Thrive just become your disease"-this is the part of him that wants to hold onto his old image. His "disease" being addiction and self-destruction. I think Reznor makes a connection between his past self-destructive self and his fame and success. I know when With Teeth came out he said how he felt unsure about even being able to write songs sober. So now it's like he wants the success and all that from his past, but without the addiction issues and self-destructive attitudes and behaviors. And that's precisely where the dilemna lies. Part of him thinks "fuck it, just go back to being an addict so you can have all the success all over again," but the other part of him says "no, you can't turn back to drugs," so he's stuck in this decision about what to do. "Leave them behind you are free"- this part is the part of him that wants to change telling him to leave the past behind him and accept who he is today. "Take what you want, what you deserve"- what you want and what you deserve are often two different things. He wants fame, success, etc.., but wonders if he really deserves that after the way he abused things before, if is family deserves that. Either way, the decision he makes is going to hurt him. He concludes by saying he still isn't sure what he should do or what he wants to do or if he will even be able to do it once he decides. Think of it as an identity crisis, or possibly even a mid-life crisis.
@Androgyne I agree mostly with this... I think there's also a specific sense that trying to write songs about broken lives the same way he did in the 90s and 2000s wouldn't be true anymore because he has fixed his life in a sense. What's interesting is that I hear a line in the second verse slightly differently as "take/what you want/to deserve". That definitely would suggest some level of desire to go back to writing the way he did before- basically a desire to deserve less than he feels he really does deserve.
@Androgyne I agree mostly with this... I think there's also a specific sense that trying to write songs about broken lives the same way he did in the 90s and 2000s wouldn't be true anymore because he has fixed his life in a sense. What's interesting is that I hear a line in the second verse slightly differently as "take/what you want/to deserve". That definitely would suggest some level of desire to go back to writing the way he did before- basically a desire to deserve less than he feels he really does deserve.
@Androgyne I think it's about him becoming his addiction before he cleaned up. I'd echo the rest of this..
@Androgyne I think it's about him becoming his addiction before he cleaned up. I'd echo the rest of this..