Down In It (song)

Album:Pretty Hate Machine

Length:3:46

Tempo:{{{BPM}}} BPM

Versions:Down In It
Down In It (Skin)
Down In It (Shred)
Down In It (Singe)
Down In It (Demo)
Down In It (Demo II)
Down In It (Demo III)
Down In It (Demo IV)

Live:Pre-Hate (1988) - Present
Uncommon

Down In It was the first single for the 1989 album Pretty Hate Machine and the third track on the disc. It has been stated by Trent Reznor that this song is the first he ever wrote and is a rare treat to hear live. Following the "Down In It" single release, a music video was made.

Inspiration

In a 1994 radio broadcast biography of Reznor, it was said that "Down In It" was inspired by a relationship that had then recently ended for him with a woman named Krissy.

Reznor has openly admitted that this song "was a total rip-off of "Dig It" by Skinny Puppy.

Song Credits

• Production: Trent Reznor, Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc
• Engineering: Trent Reznor, Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc, Kennan Keating
• Mix: Adrian Sherwood

Appearances

Halos

• Down In It
• Pretty Hate Machine
• Head Like a Hole
• Closure (music video and live performance)

Other

• Purest Feeling (unofficial)
• Purest Feeling II (unofficial)

Versions

Down In It

Appears on Purest Feeling as the last track, differing from its official counterparts as that it has an extended intro with strange screams and odd static. It also includes about 1 minute and 8 seconds of distorted clippings of the song at the end as a finish to the album. Musically it's extremely close to the "(Demo)" version from the Head Like a Hole US single.

Down In It (Demo)

Appears on Head Like a Hole (US) as the last track, it's extremely similar to the Purest Feeling version, except that it lacks the long intro and all the extra layering of it's Purest Feeling counterpart as well as the distorted outro. Most likely it's the definitive "original version" of Reznor's very first song as Nine Inch Nails.

Song Credits

• Writing, performance, production, mixing: Trent Reznor

(Demo II)

Appears on the Purest Feeling II bootleg. It's simply the "(Skin)" version from Pretty Hate Machine with an unadulterated version of the "Terrible Lie" intro tacked onto the end which fades out.

(Demo III)

Appears on the Purest Feeling II bootleg. Almost exactly the same as the Purest Feeling version, simply lacking the extra layering and sound effects as well as the distorted outtro, though it does retain the extended drumbeat intro and is probably the version the Purest Feeling version was based upon

(Demo IV)

Appears on the Purest Feeling II bootleg. It's an odd version with Reznor whispering a good portion of his vocals an odd beat set compared to the others. It also includes faux-Oriental sounding synths which are noticeably absent in any of the other versions of the song

Down In It (Skin)

The mix from the Down In It single and later chosen to be the mix that appeared on Pretty Hate Machine.

Song Credits

• Reproduced and remixed by Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc

Down In It (Shred)

A mix that appears on both the Down In It and Head Like a Hole singles. It's basically retains the original song with an extended intro and a long instrumental area that makes up the entire latter half of the song, considered the "extended single version" of the song by some.

Song Credits

• Reproduced and remixed by Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc

Down In It (Singe)

A mix that appears on both the Down In It and Head Like a Hole singles. It's a mostly instrumental "dub" mix of the song with minimal vocals and strange warping and mixing of the beats with heavy bass emphasis. It should be noted that this mix is actually 18 seconds longer on the Head Like A Hole (US) single than it was on the Down In It single. The reason for this is unknown, though it's probably due to the time constraints imposed on Vinyl singles compared to a full sized LP Maxi Single.

Song Credits

• Reproduced and remixed by Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc

Live

Live, from Closure

This is a live version found on the Closure home video. It was filmed on the Self-Destruct Tour between 1994 and 1997.

General

As of Fragility 2.0, Reznor had stated that he didn't like the song as much as he used to, but during the later legs of the Live: With Teeth tour, it seemed as if he's changed his mind about the song, playing it more as the tour progressed. The song usually features a lot of destruction from Reznor towards the end.

Music Video

"Down In It" was the first Nine Inch Nails video. It was directed by Eric Zimmerman and Benjamin Stokes, who also directed "Head Like A Hole." The video depicts Reznor running through downtown Chicago and climbing to the roof of a building, where he falls to his death. Bandmates Richard Patrick and Chris Vrenna discover the body days later.

This was the first video to be met with controversy. To film the shots of lifeless Reznor, he was covered with cornstarch to create the illusion of decay and cameras were tied to heavy-duty balloons that were tied down. During the filming of these scenes, one of the balloons broke free and took the camera with it, drifting some 200 miles before being found by a farmerin Michigan. The camera was turned over to local police who, upon seeing the raw video footage, assumed it was a snuff film and the FBI was called in to investigate. The incident was even reported on Hard Copy and recalled in an interview for SPIN magazine. Because MTV and its US affiliates were uncomfortable with the video's subject matter, all scenes that depict Reznor's body lying on the ground behind the building were deleted.

Lyrics

    Kinda like a cloud I was up way up in the sky and I was feeling some feelings you wouldn’t believe
    Sometimes I can’t believe them myself and I decided I was never coming down
    Just then a tiny little dot caught my eye it was just about too small to see
    But I watched it way too long and that dot was pulling me down
    
    I was up above it
    Now I’m down in it
    
    Well shut up so what what does it matter now
    I was swimming in the haze now I crawl on the ground
    And everything I never liked about you is kind of seeping into me
    Try to laugh about it now but isn’t it funny how everything works out
    (“I guess the joke’s on me,” she said)
    
    I was up above it
    Now I’m down in it
    
    I used to be so big and strong
    I used to know my right from wrong
    I used to never be afraid
    I used to be somebody
    I used to have something inside
    Now just this hole that’s open wide
    I used to want it all
    I used to be somebody
    
    I’ll cross my heart and hope to die but the needle’s already in my eye
    And all the world’s weight is on my back and I don’t even know why
    And what I used to think was me is just a fading memory
    I looked him right in the eye and said “goodbye”
    
    I was up above it
    Now I’m down in it

External Links

"Down In It" (Director's Cut) Hard Copy segment about the FBI investigation