Difference between revisions of "We're In This Together (song)"

Revision as of 14:28, 28 October 2009

Album:The Fragile (Left)

Length:7:15

Tempo:{{{BPM}}} BPM

Versions:We're In This Together
We're In This Together (Radio Edit)
We're In This Together (Short Edit)

Live:Performance 2007

"We're In This Together" is the fifth track on the Left disc of The Fragile. It was also released as a single, receiving the designation of Halo 15.

Trent Reznor commented on the creation of the song in a VIVA 2 Magazine interview: "When I wrote that song it was one of the last songs for the record. I like the obviousness of the track but I was fearful of the obviousness of the track and in a record that I think is pretty dense and somewhat challenging to get through, I didn't want a song that was too obviously the hit single. Of all the tracks on that album I think that was the hardest to arrange and mix, because if it was mixed poorly, it sounded too obvious in the context of the record, and at this point we were very aware of the context of the record. So what I learned from the process of doing that was the vocal track I would have thrown out that was out of tune and my voice was breaking up was the one that I needed to use, because it added a desperation that made the whole mood of the song feel right."

Appearances

Halos

The Fragile
We're In This Together

Seeds

Versions

We're In This Together

This is the original album version, found on The Fragile and all parts of We're In This Together. Beginning out of the ending of "The Wretched" with a machine-like, rhythmic sound collage, it builds in volume and intensity but stops to introduce the main rhythmic thrust of the song, a distorted and staccato guitar riff that runs through all of the verses. After the drums and wah guitar enter, Reznor begins yelling the first verse abrasively. The chorus is driven by loud, distorted and constant guitars and live drums accompanying more melodic and higher-pitched yelling by Reznor. After a second verse and chorus, a driving bridge featuring a wah guitar solo and walls of fluent guitars leads into a final chorus. A descending guitar riff from this chorus continues through the mellow coda of the song, a section which also shares the piano theme of "La Mer." It eventually gives way to the opening e-bow guitar line of "The Fragile." On the singles and Vinyl versions, the segues from "The Wretched" (in the beginning) and "The Fragile" (at the end) have been removed.

We're In This Together (Radio Edit)

In this edit, the intro is shortened and the coda is significantly shortened.

We're In This Together (Short Edit)

This was found only on the promo, and begins with the bridge before going to the first verse. The coda is shortened even more as well.

Music Video

The video for this song first aired in 1999, and was directed by Mark Pellington. It shows Trent Reznor and an army of black-clad people running frantically through empty buildings, streets, and eventually a desolate field where everyone except Reznor had disappeared. The video was filmed on location in Guadalajara, Mexico.

On the meaning of the music video, Reznor states in the aforementioned VIVA 2 interview: "When I came to do the video for it I tried to make the song uglier than it would have been if you just heard it and the idea of a tragedy or situation where everything is happening too fast, you're not aware of where you're at until it's too late and you might be caught up in something you're not sure about but you're blindly embracing this comfort of security, that was the global idea for that."

He also states in the same interview the difficulty in making it: "There was good artistic communication until the very end when I got the edit back and got into a situation where what I saw in my head wasn't on the screen. It comes down to a bigger problem which is I've taken over every aspect of the recording process... But in the world of video, I don't know how to do that yet, I haven't directed my own videos so I have to embrace another artists ideals and hope that they see my vision. On this particular one when I got to then end I realized his vision wasn't mine and we tried to reach a common ground and heads butted, and it amounted to me editing the video by myself. There's a slightly unpleasant taste in the whole process of that thing but it made me learn it's time to read the manual for my video camera and just do that too."

Live

Although "We're In This Together" is a single, it was not performed live until the Performance 2007 tour, where it entered the setlists alongside Last, another never before played song. This song is performed in a lower key, presumably due to the vocal strain required to sing it as it appears in the album.

The song debuted at Lisbon, Portugal, and was played (at least) at three other shows.

Lyrics

    I've become impossible
    Holding on to when
    When everything seemed to matter more
    The two of us
    All used and beaten up
    Watching fate as it flows down the path we have chose
    
    You and me
    We're in this together now
    None of them can stop us now
    We will make it through somehow
    You and me if the world should break in two
    Until the very end of me
    Until the very end of you
    
    Awake to the sound as they peel apart the skin
    They pick and they pull
    Trying to get their fingers in
    Well they've got to kill what we found
    Well they've got to hate what they fear
    Well they've got to make it go away
    Well they've got to make it disappear
    
    The farther I fall I'm beside you
    As lost as I get I will find you
    The deeper the wound I'm inside you
    Forever and ever I am a part of
    
    You and me
    We're in this together now
    None of them can stop us now
    We will make it through somehow
    You and me
    If the world should break in two
    Until the very end of me
    Until the very end of you
    
    All that we were is gone we have to hold on
    All that we were is gone we have to hold on
    When all our hope is gone we have to hold on
    All that we were is gone but we can hold on
    
    You and me
    We're in this together now
    None of them can stop us now
    We will make it through somehow
    You and me
    Even after everything
    You're the queen and I'm the king
    Nothing else means anything

External Links

Images from the video
"We're In This Together" music video (LP version)
"We're In This Together" extended music video
Interview with VIVA 2 Magazine

Previous track - "The Wretched"

Track 5 from The Fragile Left (CD), Side B (Vinyl)

Next track - "The Fragile"

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 ==Versions==
 ===We're In This Together===
-This is the original album version, found on ''The Fragile'' and all parts of ''We're In This Together.'' Beginning out of the ending of "[[The Wretched]]" with a machine-like, rhythmic sound collage, it builds in volume and intensity but stops to introduce the main rhythmic thrust of the song, a distorted and staccato guitar riff that runs through all of the verses. After the drums and wah guitar enter, Reznor begins yelling the first verse abrasively. The chorus is driven by loud, distorted and constant guitars and live drums accompanying more melodic and higher-pitched yelling by Reznor. After a second verse and chorus, a driving bridge featuring a wah guitar solo and walls of fluent guitars leads into a final chorus. A descending guitar riff from this chorus continues through the mellow coda of the song, a section which also shares the piano theme of "[[La Mer]]." It eventually gives way to the opening e-bow guitar line of "[[The Fragile (song)|The Fragile]]." On the singles, the segues from "The Wretched" (in the beginning) and "The Fragile" (at the end) have been removed.
+This is the original album version, found on ''The Fragile'' and all parts of ''We're In This Together.'' Beginning out of the ending of "[[The Wretched]]" with a machine-like, rhythmic sound collage, it builds in volume and intensity but stops to introduce the main rhythmic thrust of the song, a distorted and staccato guitar riff that runs through all of the verses. After the drums and wah guitar enter, Reznor begins yelling the first verse abrasively. The chorus is driven by loud, distorted and constant guitars and live drums accompanying more melodic and higher-pitched yelling by Reznor. After a second verse and chorus, a driving bridge featuring a wah guitar solo and walls of fluent guitars leads into a final chorus. A descending guitar riff from this chorus continues through the mellow coda of the song, a section which also shares the piano theme of "[[La Mer]]." It eventually gives way to the opening e-bow guitar line of "[[The Fragile (song)|The Fragile]]." On the singles and Vinyl versions, the segues from "The Wretched" (in the beginning) and "The Fragile" (at the end) have been removed.
 ===We're In This Together (Radio Edit)===