“Head Like a Hole” by Nine Inch Nails

It has DEFINITELY been one of those weeks.

misscook:

Nine Inch Nail // Starfuckers, Inc.

I am every fucking thing and just a little more
I sold my soul but don’t you dare call me a whore
And when I suck you off not a drop will go to waste
It’s really not so bad you know once you get past the taste, yeah
(asskisser)

I thought of this song instantly when I saw today’s theme was Vanity Fair. Mostly because it made me think of the magazine and the obsession with celebrity and that’s with this song is all about. Actually, there’s even better lyrics that demonstrate my point, but C’MON, how could I not use the sucking you off part?!

“Starfuckers, Inc.” by Nine Inch Nails

(Words/Music: Trent Reznor and Charlie Clouser, Album: The Fragile, Nothing Records 1999)

When I started writing this blog almost a year ago, one of the things that I insisted on was incorporating cover songs and live songs and remixes into it somehow. There is just something about examining various interpretations of one song whether it is recorded by another band, changed around live, or remixed by someone else. One of the things I didn’t expect to find were songs which contained parts of other songs. Granted, I knew that occasionally bands will segue into songs live (which happens numerous times on the Tragically Hip’s live album Live Between Us), but rarely is it found in a studio recording. Most artists either cover the song outright, or say what they want to say on their own. 

Leave it to Trent Reznor to take “cover songs” to a new level. Now I’m not saying that no other artist has ever incorporated another artist’s lyrics into their own song, but I just can’t think of any off the top of my head (and I know I’ll probably get a dozen messages the minute I post this pointing out glaring omissions, but so be it). So when I heard Reznor’s scathing condemnation of fake and talentless stars (which is supposedly about Courtney Love), I was surprised to hear the chorus from Carly Simon’s famous song about a self-absorbed star, “You’re So Vain.” However, not only did it make absolute sense lyrically, it actually helped build Reznor’s case that the current pop culture of shallow fame is not new but is an essential component of it. There will always be, as there has always been, artists who create for art’s sake, and people who create for money. But the reaction is where Reznor and I differ - while he gets angry at this dichotomy, I accept it and realize that they are both necessary. The truth is that the mega-stars, who tend to be fairly shallow and only marginally talented, bring enough money into the record company to allow them to take chances with small indie-type bands and genres that don’t generally make much money, like jazz. So while many people don’t like these stars, they do seem to serve a greater purpose. 

More Nine Inch Nails: AmazonMP3 - last.fm - AllMusic - eMusic

More Re-worked Thursday posts from shelterfromthenorm

“Heroin” by Billy Idol

(Words/Music: Lou Reed, Album: Cyberpunk, Chrysalis 1993)

I will admit that when I first heard this song in 1999, I hated it. It reeked of everything I disliked about music and the music industry. It seemed like a contrived attempt by a once relevant artist to re-establish his street credibility by attaching himself to an eternally underground (no pun intended) song and artist. In addition, it also seemed to be an attempt to merge the legendary underground with new, hip underground movement of the cyberpunk off-shoot of science fiction writing and industrial/electronica music. That these things could all together at once seemed, well, contrived. The fact that I was not an “early adopter” of industrial or electronica music didn’t help the song’s case. Needless to say, this downloaded song would sit on my hard drive for years before I listened to it again. 

As I became more versed in this particular musical style, I began to understand and appreciate what Idol was trying to do and his efforts to reinvent himself and begin a new stage in his career seemed more genuine to me. Not only was he paying homage to those who pushed the envelope before him like Lou Reed and Velvet Underground (and Patti Smith’s version of “Gloria” from which the “Jesus died for somebody’s ins but not mine” lines were taken), but he was bringing their legendary messages to a new genre and audience who would probably appreciate them. To put this album in context, it was released a year before Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral and two years before Moby’s Everything Is Wrong albums, both of which introduced their respective genres to the mainstream. Perhaps having first listened to Idol’s “Heroin” in 1999, six years after it was released, gave me a skewed perspective of its relevance. I believed the song to be taking advantage of the new underground musical styles, when in fact he was one of the first mainstream artists to embrace them. 

More Billy Idol: AmazonMP3 - last.fm - AllMusic - eMusic

More Re-worked Thursday posts from shelterfromthenorm