Something I Can Never Have
Something I Can Never Have (Natural Born Killers soundtrack)
Something I Can Never Have (live, Closure)
Something I Can Never Have (live, Beside You In Time)
Contents
About
Something I Can Never Have is the fifth track on the 1989 release Pretty Hate Machine. It's a song about lost love and missed chances, though the true story about the song isn't wildly (or at all) known. It is the first song in which Trent Reznor plays a piano and is the first song in which he uses the word "fuck" ("fading fucking reminder").
Song Credits
- Production: Trent Reznor, John Fryer
- Engineer/Mix: John Fryer
Appearances
Halos
- Pretty Hate Machine
- Closure (Live)
- Still (Reworked)
- Beside You In Time (Live)
Other
Versions
Something I Can Never Have
This is the original album version.
Something I Can Never Have (Natural Born Killers Soundtrack)
Coming soon
Something I Can Never Have (Still)
This stripped-down reworking consists of Reznor on piano and vocals, and Jerome Dillon on guitar.
Song Credits
- Performance: Trent Reznor, Jerome Dillon
- Mix engineering: Alan Moulder
- Engineering: Alan Moulder
- Second engineering: Leo Herrera
- Programming: Keith Hillebrandt
Live
A difference from the studio version is the noticeably louder drums that are persistent in the choruses. The keyboard part is usually played by the bassist (Danny Lohner and Jeordie White).
During Woodstock and Self Destruct, Trent ended the song with "I can never have... and you will never, ever, ever understand... how I feel."
Since Live: With Teeth, the last chorus has seen an additional rising guitar screech.
Live, from Closure
Coming soon
Live, from Beside You In Time
Coming soon
Lyrics
I still recall the taste of your tears
Echoing you voice just like the ringing in my ears
My favorite dreams of you still wash ashore
Scraping through my head ‘till I don’t want to sleep anymore
Come on tell me
Make this all go away
You make this all go away
I’m down to just one thing and I’m stating to scare myself
Make this all go away
You make this all go away
I just want something
I just want something I can never have
You always were the one to show me how
Back then I couldn’t do the things that I can do now
This thing is slowly taking me apart
Grey would be the color if I had a heart
I just want something I can never have
In this place it seems like such a shame
Though it all looks different now, I know it’s still the same
Everywhere I look you’re all I see
Just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be
Come on tell me
Make this all go away
You make this all go away
I’m down to just one thing and I’m starting to scare myself
Make this all go away
You make this all go away
I just want something
I just want something I can never have
I just want something I can never have
Think I know what you meant
That night on my bed
Still picking at this scab
I wish you were dead
Your sweat and Perry Ellis
Just stains on my sheets