Nine Inch Nails – "Closer": История и Значение Песни

Song by Nine Inch Nails

"Closer" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as the second single on their second studio album, The Downward Spiral (1994). Released in May 1994, it is considered one of Nine Inch Nails' signature songs and remains their most popular song. Most versions of the single are titled "Closer to God", a rare example in music of a single's title differing from the title of its A side ("Closer to God" is also the title of an alternate version of "Closer" featured on the single, which was also released as a separate promotional single for club play). The single is the ninth official Nine Inch Nails release, making it "Halo 9" in the band's official Halo numbering system. A promotional single provided by the label to radio stations included both long and short vocal censored (i. e. silenced profanity) versions. Although the song addresses themes such as self hatred and obsession, its sexually aggressive chorus led to widespread misinterpretation of the song as an anthem of lust, which helped it become Nine Inch Nails' most successful single up to that time and cemented Trent Reznor's status as an industrial rock icon. Commercially, "Closer" reached No. (Number) 41 on the US Billboard Hot 100, No. 25 on the UK Singles Chart, and No. 3 on the Australian Singles Chart. Censored versions of the song and its Mark Romanek directed music video received substantial airplay on radio and MTV.

"Closer" has been described as industrial rock and alternative rock. "Closer" uses elements of funk, avant garde, and electronic music. The drum track of "Closer" is built around a heavily modified sample of the bass drum from the 1977 Iggy Pop song "Nightclubbing", which was performed by a Roland drum machine. The samples were produced using two Akai S1100 samplers, each with an expander, essentially making up four samplers. The samples were then combined with beats produced by a Roland R 70 drum machine. The production features sound effects such as a bass squelch, synth echo, and feedback growl. Radio edits of "Closer" were created by muting the vocal track for the duration of each deleted obscenity. Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, said of the song, "Come on dude: 'I wanna fuck you like an animal'? That's the all time fuck song. Those are pure fuck beats—Trent Reznor knew what he was doing. You can fuck to it, you can dance to it and you can break shit to it." Although there were numerous remixes of "Closer", the version titled "Closer to God" was heavily reworked, as the vocals were completely re recorded and the overall song retained only a few elements from the original version. "Closer to God" was also released as a promotional single separate from "Closer", mainly intended for club play. In 2021, it was listed at No. 270 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2020, Kerrang and Billboard ranked the song number five and number one, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Nine Inch Nails songs.

During the Self Destruct and Fragility tours, bassist Danny Lohner and guitarist Robin Finck joined Reznor and full time keyboardists James Woolley (during the first half of the Self Destruct Tour) and Charlie Clouser (during the remaining tours) on keyboards for the song, with Reznor performing an extended synth solo. Nine Inch Nails performed the "Closer to God" rendition of the song live during their 1995 tour on numerous occasions, omitting the original song from the setlist when done so. There are performance videos of "Closer" on And All that Could Have Been and Beside You in Time. In the tours following the release of With Teeth, Nine Inch Nails performed a shorter version of "Closer" with the keyboard solo played as a guitar solo and a breakdown incorporating a portion of "The Only Time," a track from Pretty Hate Machine. Two performances of this version of the song appear on Beside You in Time.

+Release dates and formats for "Closer"RegionDateFormat(s)Label(s)Ref. (Reference)United StatesMay 30, 1994CD, cassetteNothing Records, Nothing, TVT Records, TVT, Interscope Records, Interscope, Atlantic Records, AtlanticUnited KingdomJune 6, 199412 inch vinyl, CDIsland Records, Island, TVT

"Closer" has been covered by many musical acts, including MGMT, Blood on the Dance Floor, Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine, Eric Gorfain, Maroon 5, Maxwell, The Asylum Street Spankers, Asking Alexandria, Rosetta Stone, In This Moment and Japanese Voyeurs. Thirty Seconds to Mars uses samples from "Closer" when they perform "The Fantasy". "Weird Al" Yankovic has paid tribute to "Closer" twice: in "The Alternative Polka" on his album Bad Hair Day, a section of the song was used in which the word "fuck" is replaced with a cartoon sound effect. "Germs" on his Running with Scissors album is a style parody of several Nine Inch Nails songs. The Asylum Street Spankers occasionally perform a bluegrass version, available at the Live Music Archive. In 1995, the Australian novelty act Nine Inch Richards covered the song under the title "Closer to Hogs". Sung in a southern drawl, it combined Trent Reznor's sexually charged lyrics with barnyard animal samples, humorously implying that the song is about bestiality. A video clip of the parody was taken at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. This single peaked at No. 51 in Australia. In 2008, Sy Smith performed the song as part of her "Conflict Tour". In August 2010, Smith performed the song again at "Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Heights Plaza". In 2014, from the compilation album in the Punk Goes 90's 2 has been covered by British rock Asking Alexandria. In 2016, singer songwriter Father John Misty covered the song live in Chicago during two separate performances. Fellow Interscope act Limp Bizkit parodied "Closer" (as well "The Perfect Drug" and "Burn") in their song "Hot Dog". The chorus goes, "You wanna fuck me like an animal, You'd like to burn me on the inside, You like to think that I'm a perfect drug, Just know that nothing you do will bring you closer to me." Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst said he was a big fan of Nine Inch Nails, who has additionally inspired his music.