Something I Can Never Have

Album:Pretty Hate Machine

Length:5:55

Tempo:{{{BPM}}} BPM

Versions:Something I Can Never Have
Something I Can Never Have (Still)
Something I Can Never Have (NBK Version)

Live:Hate Tour (1990) - Present
Common

About

The fifth song on the first Nine Inch Nails album, Pretty Hate Machine, it is a song about lost love and missed chances, though the true story about the song isn't widly (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").

Appearances

• Pretty Hate Machine
• Closure (Live)
• Still (Reworked)
• Beside You In Time (Live)

Versions

• Something I Can Never Have
• Something I Can Never Have (Still)
• Something I Can Never Have (NBK Version)

Song Credits

• Production: Trent Reznor, John Fryer
• Engineer/Mix: John Fryer

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

Performed live

The only notable difference between the album version and live version are the notably louder drums.