#NIИ meanings

[cold-black-and-infinite]

Speaking of NIN logos, I am shocked that the variation from the “Sin” single was never used beyond that (and I think maybe a t-shirt? Not sure). I mean, look at it!

The “NIИ” logo is iconic for a reason, but this one’s pretty dang cool.

[elizabeth-daae]

My TOP 10 Favorite Country Songs

Because why not? Though I hate most modern country music, I used to listen to nearly nothing but country and metal back when I was a kid. I will not be repeating any artists on this list. So these are just some of my all-time favorite country songs of all time. 

10. Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver 

This is not John Denver’s Version, I just prefer it... Because I listen to it as cities are destroyed by a mad Irishman. 

9. How Do I Live? by LeeAnn Rimes. 

I love LeeAnn Rimes, the problem is, I have a list and she cannot be on it but once. This song really songs 90s movie soundtrack listening to it again. Which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just clear in it’s time period. So I looked it up, this song was released in 1997, so this song is as old as I am! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Olo8gzgpC4

8. Love Story by Taylor Swift

I was a big fan of Taylor Swift from 2006 to around 2010 when I became too edgy for her stuff. *Flashbacks* Let’s just say, though this song is stupid in many ways, it brings me back. Also this music video! I want that dress so bad!!!! :) 

7. I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack

This is actually this first time I’m watching the music video for this song... Not bad, but oh my god the early 2000s. Also for some reason, this song reminds me of my grandpa? Don’t remember this song ever playing with him, but I guess he gave me a similar message. Oh well! Love it!

6. Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks

I actually couldn’t decide if I wanted to put this song on here or Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks. Just consider them tied, one is just more entertaining than the other. 

5. Hurt by Johnny Cash

This is one of the few songs on here that is not in reference to my childhood or teen years, this is completely dependent on the movie Logan (2017). I’d heard the song of course, and heard the original version by NIИ, but this movie really brought out my love for it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt1Pwfnh5pc (Apparently the link button isn’t working anymore.)

4. Fancy by Reba

Do I even need to speak of the majesty that is Fancy by Reba McEntire? I mean really? This is one of the best songs by Reba for me. Just listen! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIwbegWh1S0&t=54s 

3. Man! I Feel like a Woman by Shania Twain

So first things first, I’ve actually heard an argument that Shania Twain is what killed country music and that’s why we’re living in the age of “Bro-Country”. No. No. She didn’t kill country music, country music killed itself. Country music decided to go from the fun but rebellious music of the working class, to the music of an overly patriotic, they have always been patriotic just more than before, and unquestioning people. 

When did this happen? When Miley Cyrus sang Hoedown Throwdown in the Hannah Montana movie. That’s when Country music started its death spiral. Or maybe it was 9/11? I think the Hoedown Throwdown. There is good modern country music out there, it’s just I don’t feel like finding it and honestly, is it even worth it? 

Rant over! So my dad was a big fan of Shania Twain when I was younger and whenever she came on the radio or he had one of the CDs with him for car trips, she was played loudly. And honestly, this is good stuff. So this could have gone to about every other Shania song in her discography, but I choose this one because it makes me smile. And while rewatching this video though, made me have a whole other gay realization. And another song that came out in 1997! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJL4UGSbeFg

2. Jolene by Dolly Parton

A song that was difficult to choose from considering Dolly’s long list of hits. 9 to 5, I Will Always Love You, Here You Come Again, or Why’d You Come in Looking like that?. This song I’d actually never heard until I was in middle school and watching CMT before school and saw the old footage of Dolly singing it. 

I loved it as soon as I had heard it! And so for it being a fun song for all music lovers, no matter their genre preference, Jolene by Dolly Parton is number 2. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW25foOMkwI

1. When You Say Nothing At All by Alison Krauss. 

I grew up with a live version of Alison Krauss and Union Station CD. I love(d) that thing to bits, I own it on about every medium but vinyl. I’ll be honest and say I loved almost every single song off that album, but of course, this song always stood out as the best. Alison Krauss has many beautiful songs sung with that angelic voice of hers. But, this one will always be my favorite, and thus, this song is my number 1 pick for my favorite country songs. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SCOimBo5tg

I got bored. Want to see more lists? No? Okay then, more on their way! :) 

[gemfyre]

I’m currently posting brief album reviews on Facebook and thought I might do songs on tumblr.  Individual songs and what they mean to me is a far more personal thing and I’m more comfortable putting it here.

Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have from Pretty Hate Machine (1989)

Sometimes a song comes along that speaks to you on such a level that you have to be downright cautious about actually listening to it.  Back in the late 90s, after I first heard this song I often had to skip it and NOT listen to it because it would turn me into a mess.  Even now - 20 years later - it leaves me feeling fragile and stripped bare and wanting to cry myself to sleep.

I think I must have bought PHM in 1998.  I think I bought The Downward Spiral in 1997, more out of curiosity than anything, but by the start of 1998 I had met someone online (who I soon met in real life).  We became good friends, we would always chat online, we’d see each other at parties, we’d visit each other’s houses.  He was a big NIИ fan and only served to stoke the fire of a what was until then just a passing interest.  He also introduced me to various other bands of the industrial, death metal and black metal persuasions, very little which stuck with me (honestly, most of it was crap to my ears).  We were both kinda screwy and right into the bleakness and nihilism of the time.

He got a speeding fine and had trouble finding the money to pay it.  So he offered to sell me his entire Nine Inch Nails collection for a paltry $100.  This was all the halos up to Further Down The Spiral.  Plus a few of the UK release singles and the 3 inch disc that came with early pressings of Broken.  (I recall there was also a Marilyn Manson and a KMFDM single in there).  I called him an idiot for selling it, but I most definitely bought it off him.

I was in love with him.  In a problem that still exists today I never told him that, I’m not sure if he had an inkling, I think some of our mutual friends may have.  One day he appeared in the chat channel talking about his new girlfriend.  That girl was not me.  I recently found out what became of him, as expected he’s married with a few kids.  It felt like a kind of closure because every so often for the last 20 years I’d find myself yearning for him, even though when I look at it through rational eyes a relationship, between us, at that time, would probably have been a disaster.  But it still hurt, and the memory of those feelings never goes away.  And that is what this song speaks to me, even now.