Closer

Closer

Original Album:	The Downward Spiral
First Time Played Live:	1994
Last Time Played Live:	2007

About

"Closer" is the fifth track on the 1994 release "The Downward Spiral." It begins with an electronic beat that is reminiscent of a heartbeat for eight bars. A keyboard pattern and stxteenth-note beat join in along with the vocals. Layers are continuously added before dropping out at the end, leaving a simple chromatic piano melody to end the song.

"Closer" is perhaps the most well-known song from Nine Inch Nails, maybe moreso for its video. The subject matter is clearly about sex, but it's not just sex. Instead it's a feeling of worthlessness and trying to quell that feeling through sex. The song was at the number 2 position on AOL's "69 Sexiest Songs of All Time," mostly due to the frankness of the chorus of "I want to fuck you like an animal/I want to feel you from the inside."

Appearances

• The Downward Spiral (1994)
• Closer To God (1994)
• Closure (Music video; 1998)
• And All That Could Have Been (CD/VHS/DVD; 2002)
• Beside You In Time (2007)

Versions

Several remixes of "Closer" have been made. These appear on Closer To God.

• Closer To God
• Closer (Precursor)
• Closer (Deviation)
• Closer (Internal)
• Closer (Further Away)

Lyrics

    You let me violate you, you let me desecrate you
    You let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you
    Help me I broke apart my insides, help me I’ve got no soul to sell
    Help me the only thing that works for me, help me get away from myself

    I want to fuck you like an animal
    I want to feel you from the inside
    I want to fuck you like an animal
    My whole existence is flawed
    You get me closer to God

    You can have my isolation, you can have the hate that it brings
    You can have my absence of faith, you can have my everything
    Help me tear down my reason, help me it’s your sex I can smell
    Help me you make me perfect, help me become somebody else

    I want to fuck you like an animal
    I want to feel you from the inside
    I want to fuck you like an animal
    My whole existence is flawed
    You get me closer to God

    Through every forest, above the trees
    Within my stomach, scraped off my knees
    I drink the honey inside your hive
    You are the reason I stay alive

The Video

in April 1994, a video for "Closer" was filmed. It was directed by Mark Romanek, who also directed "The Perfect Drug" in 1997 and Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" in 2003. The concept to the video is that it's an old stag reel recently uncovered. The aesthetic, atmosphere, and images in the video were inspired by the works of Man Ray, Francis Bacon, and, most notably, Joel-Peter Witkin. It was filmed using three-color film and hand-cranked cameras, to make it look much older. Additionally, there were more modern devices included in the video, such as a television.

Romanek has said that Trent Reznor was pretty much tortured throughout the shoot, yet he never once complained. Reznor seemed to know that what they were making would be phenominal and would push the proverbial envelope of the music video format.

Initially, there was a plan to film two versions of the video: an uncensored director's cut, and an edited version for MTV. This idea would save money on editing because of the costs of editing the film that was used. Reznor objected to shooting a censored version, stating that he didn't care whether or not MTV would show the video. MTV would show the video, but not before edits were made. The network censors objected to religious imagery they felt was blasphemous (a crucified monkey and a crucifix on a nude woman's mask), too risqué (Reznor gagged by a wall covered with sado-masochistic paraphernalia and writing from a chain while blindfolded), or too overtly sexual in nature (the nude woman and a diagram of a vulva). Ultimately, the video was edited for MTV, with offending images either bluured or blacked out, zoomed in to avoid objectionable content, or replaced by a screen reading SCENE MISSING. Despite the heavy editing on MTV, "Closer" would go on to become one of the network's most popular videos in 1994 and 1995. The uncensored director's cut can be seen on the Closure video.

Since then, "Closer" had been included on many Greatest-Video lists. in 2006, it was voted the greatest video on VH1 Classic's "20 Greatest Music Videos of All Time."