“you’re keeping in step
in the line
got your chin held high and you feel just fine
because you do
what you’re told
but inside your heart it is black and it’s hollow and it’s cold
just how deep do you believe?
will you bite the hand that feeds?
will you chew until it bleeds?
can you get up off your knees?
are you brave enough to see?
do you want to change it?
what if this whole crusade’s
a charade
and behind it all there’s a price to be paid
for the blood
on which we dine
justified in the name of the holy and the divine
just how deep do you believe?
will you bite the hand that feeds?
will you chew until it bleeds?
can you get up off your knees?
are you brave enough to see?
do you want to change it?
so naive
to keep holding on to what I want to believe
i can see
but i keep holding on and on and on and on
will you bite the hand that feeds you?
will you stay down on your knees?”
Ok so we have heard the song numerous times. These are the lyrics stolen from Daps Lyrics.
Can we see an overall message? Well Ronnie has and I have proof to back him up. Ronnie sees an anti-religious message within the song similiar to “Heretic”.
What evidence do we have for this?
Lexical (Semantic) Domains of religion and Catholicism link most of the lines with the song.
holy, divine, blood, crusade, believe, hand, heart, high, knees, see . . .
So what is Trent saying in the song. The people are in line, then on their knees, being fed something, which later is said to be blood, which they dine, justified by the name of the holy and the divine. The people are being given communion.
Later after saying he is one of them with the use of “we”, says “so naive / to keep holding on to what I want to believe”. Here he is calling people who practice in this “charade”, which is religion, are “naive” as he is and should “bite the hand that feeds” or be “brave enough to see” the charade and so forth.
[quote:e313674faf]Ronnie sees an anti-religious message within the song similiar to “Heretic”.[/quote:e313674faf] Actually I said I had not done an in-depth analysis of the lyrics yet, but I may be detecting a passing reference to religion in there somewhere. But since you saved me the trouble of having to figure out the lyrics for myself… Yep. Definitley about religion. And I think these lyrics have a little more meat to them than “heretic”. Whereas heretic was straightforward and not too subtle, this song relies more on symbolism and double meaning. Wonder what part the music plays in the overall message as well, other than being a catchy pop tune kind of thing. Originally I thought the song was just another general anti-conformity rant. It sounds so much better focused on a specific target. Guess I’ll go ahead and listen to that CD you gave me now. Ron.
So I’ve had the chance to listen to the CD a few times and I have the to say: Totally completely utterly and truly awesome. It’s different. That’s for sure. Doesn’t sound like any of the earlier albums. But it works. And those last two songs are just brilliant. “What if all the world you used to know is an elaborate dream?” Ron.
duck hunter!!!!
Those Photek remixes were pretty good. While perusing another message board I someone put up a link to thier own [url=http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~dph342/thtf/Nine%20Inch%20Nails%20-%20The%20Hand%20That%20Feeds%20(Reminiscence).mp3]remix[/url]. It’s okay, but not great. Then there’s this [url=http://www.thtffanremixes.cjb.net/]site[/url], which has about 200 remixes. Don’t woryy though, if that’s too much to digest, they are distilled into a [url=http://www.echoingthesound.org/phpbbx/viewtopic.php?t=9785&sid=971613bbe3c45407babdd7b9a5b254af]top ten[/url]. “The ruiner that feeds” is one of the best. “The hand that sins” is also very good, but for me, it cuts off about a minute and a half into the song. And for all the Brittany Spears fans, well, there’s a “thtf” [url=http://www.nathanchase.com/nin/toxic_trent.mp3]remix[/url] for them as well. Not the most productive couple of hours of my life, but I did clean out the fridge, the tub and do some laundry. Wonder if Trent Reznor knew what he was starting when he released the files for “The Hand That Feeds”? [quote:22f9505823]Hello all- For quite some time I’ve been interested in the idea of allowing you the ability to tinker around with my tracks – to create remixes, experiment, embellish or destroy what’s there. I tried a few years ago to do this in shockwave with very limited results. After spending some quality time sitting in hotel rooms on a press tour, it dawned on me that the technology now exists and is already in the hands of some of you. I got to work experimenting and came up with something I think you’ll enjoy. What I’m giving you in this file is the actual multi-track audio session for “the hand that feeds” in GarageBand format. This is the entire thing bounced over from the actual Pro Tools session we recorded it into. I imported and converted the tracks into AppleLoop format so the size would be reasonable and the tempo flexible. So… You need a Macintosh and you need GarageBand 2.0. If you have a newer Mac, you already have the software. The more RAM you have the better. I did this on a PowerBook 1.67 w/ 2G RAM but it has been running on far less powerful systems. Drag the file over to your hard disk and double click it. Hit the space bar. Listen. Change the tempo. Add new loops. Chop up the vocals. Turn me into a woman. Replay the guitar. Anything you’d like. I gave this to my crew and band to test out and all work effectively stopped for a while – it’s fun to mess around with. I’ve now heard a [b:22f9505823]country version of the track [/b:22f9505823]as well as an abstract Latin interpretation (thanks, Leo). There are some copyright issues involved, so read the notice that pops up. Giving this away is an experiment. I’m interested to see what comes of it, what issues are raised and what the results are. Have fun- Trent Reznor April 15, 2005 [/quote:22f9505823] Ooh ooh, I want to hear the country version. Ron. (Will be burnt-out soon)