Nine Inch Nails – The Big Come Down

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  General Comment:This song hits hard. Highly discordant, relentless percussion, tortured vocals. This Big Come Down, finally getting what you want, which is the End. It could mean coming down off a drug, but it also carries the connotation of death as metaphor. If the narrator was "high" on life, drugs, identification with the material as a way of escaping true nature, this song is about coming down to harsh reality. The instrumental portion near the end reminds me of being in a hospital, of something being horribly wrong physically but being unable to escape it.

  Flag Pray4Iceon February 11, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I best relate to this song when thinking in terms of a literal come down off a drug. To me it is about trying to conform to normality when your anything buy (try so hard to make the pieces all fit), and the anger that results from the lack of success at said conformity (smash it apart from the fuck of it). This song as well as a few others by Trent are literally the soundtrack to my prior heroin addiction. Heavy...

  Flag Demerocon July 19, 2010   Link

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  Song Meaning:The song, according to the Nine Inch Nails Wikipedia (ninwiki.com/…), 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.

  Flag Lodairon April 16, 2010   Link

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  My Interpretation:disregard the lyrics and just simply listen to the emotion that this song is drenched with. this song wrapped up in one word: Chaos. once you can hear the song and hear every nuance of chaos weaved within it, you'll be able to get a better grasp on what's being portrayed by the lyrics, which i'd say is a mix between drug addiction and trying to find a way out of a self-perpetuating cycle, whether it be love, sex, or anything else that could incur the darkness that's felt

  Flag DismantleDissecton March 04, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:the big come down isn't that what you wanted?
  Brilliant, think everyone is pretty much right...
  I don't really think the phrase is about this but it made me think of how people want bad things to happen to them, for attention or something? just a thought.

  Flag DJgifon April 09, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:the solo is awesome. btw

  Flag djh3mpon February 16, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I Love this song. If you have ever been addicted to, or have had problems with drugs you know exactly what Trent is talking about...
  
  I'm not sure if people leaving comments have ever been to a Nine Inch Nails concert but there's always a good amount of dope being booted, blown, popped, and smoked ... Actually I'm sure he came off of a huge meth binge when he wrote this. I have never found another song that portrays the inescapable depression and hurt that going through withdrawals brings than in this song. In some of the lines it sounds like Trent is talking to himself asking why he chose to do what he did? and was it all really worth it?
  
  "got to get back to the bottom
  the big come down isn't that what you wanted?
  find a place with the failed and forgotten
  isn't that really what you wanted now?"
  
  Then he depicts what all addicts feel as a drug wears off and the user doesn't want the feeling to end:
  
  "the closer I get the worse it becomes
  the closer I get the worse it becomes
  
  there is no place I can go there is no place I can hide
  is feels like I keeps coming from the inside"
  
  It's such a true song, the fragile remains my favotrite NIN album.

  Flag paradise7on May 22, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:I dunno what this song is about. It's not really what I think the song is about, but have you ever wanted to know what it's like to be depressed? Have you ever seen some people around high school and shit that drama everything up, as if they want to screw up their lives?
  
  But then, something big pops up, and it blows away all the other meaningless shit that they thought was terrible.
  
  I guess it kinda goes with the line on "I'm Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally... "Thought he lost everything, then he lost a whole lot more."

  Flag The Honest Liaron May 13, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:This song reminds me of a panic attack so much.
  Mainly the "there is no place I can go there is no place I can hide
  is feels like I keeps coming from the inside." It's like, you feel it coming, and you try and stop it, but there's no use.
  
  I read everyone else's interpretations, and they all kinda fit. I guess we won't know what it's really about unless Reznor himself tells us. :P

  Flag iamjacksgoaton January 10, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:This is the only song for me that Trent's drug usage on The Fragile really stands out. I dunno.

  Flag Lazo89on January 04, 2008   Link

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