Last

Album:Broken

Length:4:44

Tempo:90 BPM

Versions:Last
Throw This Away
Last (Butch Vig Remix)

Live:Performance 2007
Wave Goodbye Tour
Cold And Black And Infinite Tour through present

"Last" is the third track on 1992's Broken EP.

Song Credits

• Production: Flood, Trent Reznor

Appearances

Halos

• Broken
• Fixed

Seeds

• The Definitive NIN - Heavy Tracks

Other

Films

• The Cabin In The Woods (2012)

Video Games

• Rock Band video game (available for download)

Versions

Last

This is the original album version. Very guitar-oriented and immediate, the song also features abrasive vocals by Reznor during the verses but melodic singing in the choruses, a contrast repeated in later songs like "Head Down". The chorus musically contrasts the verses as well, containing no guitar but moving much quicker and with synthesizers instead. The song can be seen in three sections mediated by two guitar-only breaks, similar in approach to later material like "Reptile". The end features a buildup consisting of the verse music and a single repeated phrase, which eventually gives way to the opening guitar of "Help Me I Am In Hell". The lyrics "I wish I could put the blame on you" can be heard faintly from 3:12.

Throw This Away

Running Time: 4:13

This minimalist remix, on Fixed, contains elements from "Last", "Wish (song)" and "Suck". Opening with bubbling synthesizer loops adapted from the first verse of "Wish", it mostly consists of the bass riff from the middle of "Suck", which is repeated throughout the track. Layered below it are various quiet vocal samples from "Last" and "Suck". Eventually, the drum beat featured at the very end of the original bridge in "Suck" is looped and fades in, eventually segueing directly into the ending of Butch Vig's mix of "Last".

Song Credits

• Remixed by Trent Reznor and Chris Vrenna (section A), Butch Vig (section B)

Last (Butch Vig Remix)

Running Time: 4:32

This remix has never been commercially released. It was originally uploaded the Cyberden FTP server by "someone in Chemlab's camp" as an 8-bit/11kHz AIFF file in 1993, which circulated as the only available copy until Reznor hosted a CD-quality MP3 of the song in his remix.nin.com profile. Musically the opposite of the original, it features completely new guitar parts and drum loops, giving the song more of a radio rock feel. Its ending was incorporated into "Throw This Away." The mix was also eventually included on a self-released Butch Vig remix compilation.[1]

Live

"Last," despite being on the 1992 release Broken, was not played live until February 10, 2007, in Lisbon, Portugal, the first show of the Performance 2007 tour. It was the second song in the set, following "Mr. Self Destruct." It has since been a rarity to setlists, though it was often paired with "We're In This Together" on the same tour.

Lyrics

    Gave up trying to figure it out my head got lost along the way
    Worn out from giving it up my soul I pissed it all away
    Still stings these shattered nerves
    Pigs we get what pigs deserve
    I'm going all the way down I'm leaving today
    
    Come come on you've gotta fill me up
    Come come gotta let me inside of you
    Come come come on you've gotta fix me up
    Come come gotta let me inside of you
    
    Still feel it all slipping away but it doesn't matter anymore
    Everybody's still chipping away but it doesn't matter anymore
    Look though these blackened eyes
    You'll see ten thousand lies
    My lips may promise but my heart is a whore
    
    Come come come on you've gotta fix me up
    Come come gotta let me inside of you
    Come come come on you've gotta fill me up
    Come come gotta let me get through to you
    
    This isn't meant to last
    This is for right now
    
    I know it's all getting away and it comes to me as no surprise
    I know what's coming to me is never going to arrive
    Fresh blood through tired skin
    New sweat to drown me in
    Dress up this rotten carcass just to make it look alive
    
    Come come come on you've gotta fill me up
    Come come gotta let me inside of you
    Come come come on you've gotta fix me up
    Come come gotta let me get through to you
    
    This isn't meant to last
    This is for right now
    I wish I could put the blame on you
    
    I want you to make me
    I want you to take me
    I want you to break me
    Then I want you to throw me away

External Links

• "Last" (Butch Vig remix) at archive.org
• "Last" live from on stage in Holmdel, NJ 6.06.09

Previous track - "Wish" Track 3 from Broken Next track - "Help Me I Am In Hell"