The Fragile (song)

Album:The Fragile (Left)

Length:4:35

Tempo:{{{BPM}}} BPM

Versions:The Fragile
The Fragile (Still)

Live:Fragility through present

"The Fragile" is the sixth track on the Left disc of The Fragile. It is the title track of the album it appears on.

Appearances

Halos

• The Fragile (1999)
• And All That Could Have Been (Deluxe Edition CD; 2002)

Other

• Still (2002)

Versions

The Fragile

This is the original album version.

The Fragile (Still)

This stripped-down version is on Still, which was originally packaged with the Deluxe Edition CD of And All That Could Have Been and is curently available through NIN.com.

Song Credits

• Performance: Trent Reznor, Jerome Dillon
• Mix engineering: Alan Moulder
• Engineering: Alan Moulder
• Second Engineering: Leo Herrera
• Programming: Keith Hillebrandt

Live

When played during the Fragility tours and the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards, the song would remain very similar to the album version except somewhat louder. During the Year Zero Warm-Up Tour, the Still version of the song was played.

Lyrics

    She shines
    In a world full of ugliness
    She matters
    When everything is meaningless
    
    Fragile
    She doesn’t see her beauty
    She tries to get away
    Sometimes
    It’s just that nothing seems worth saving
    I can’t watch her slip away
    
    I won’t let you fall apart
    
    She reads the minds of all the people as they pass her by
    Hoping someone can see
    If I could fix myself I’d—
    But it’s too late for me
    
    I won’t let you fall apart
    
    We’ll find the perfect place to go where we can run and hide
    I’ll build a wall and we can keep them on the other side
    …But they keep waiting
    …And picking…
    
    It’s something I have to do
    I was there, too
    Before everything else
    I was like you