Nine Inch Nails - Capital G

Cafe Society
1

This is the first song since The Downward Spiral that NIN has put out that I genuinely like. Pre-Fragile NIN was by far my favorite band, the last band to hold that distinction even. After that his angst-pop became very derivative, but this song is interesting.

What is this song about?

It seems like he is saying that he is now part of the ruling class, and is kind of taking a piss on Gangsta Rap and American Greed within all of the classes.

That’s the obvious part.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/capital-g-lyrics-nine-inch-nails.html

So whose name is signed with the capital G?

Is he saying his God is George W. Bush?

EDIT: I guess it’s Greed.

2

I thought it was Bush, because YEAR ZERO came out in the middle of his term. Could be greed too, never thought of it that way.

3

I’ve always just figured he was talking about W. The whole album is a commentary on Bush’s politics and modern conservatism interpolated ~20 years in the future.

It’s one of my favorite rock albums of all time, and not just because of the theme/concept. I genuinely love all the songs on this one (My favorite tune being In This Twilight).

4

I love the album myself, and the “game” that was going on prior to the album’s release was mesmerizing.

5

I think NIN definitely peaked with The Downward Spiral but there are large swathes of The Fragile and With Teeth that I love. Unfortunately, I feel like each album since The Downward Spiral is just a bit worse than the one before it. Still better than most other bands, but still.

As for the lyrics, I assumed that he simply meant God with a capital “G” (i.e. fundamentalist Christian-type) but according to online sources, Trent has said it meant “Greed.” Oh well.

Also, am I the only one that hates The Great Destroyer on this album? Reminds me of early (bad) versions of The Day the World Went Away.

6

I’ll have to check the album out because I haven’t heard much from it and I like this track. The Fragile and With Teeth are just both straight up boring to me.

The Downward Spiral, Broken and Pretty Hate Machine are just great fucking albums though.

Erdosain I thought it was the Christian God too but since he says, “I sold my god for this one.”, I thought that made no sense.

I guess George W. Bush makes sense, but so does Greed.

I am listening to “In This Twilight” but it’s a bad live recording. Reminds me a bit of Downward Spiral in the beginning but then it goes to the straight up top 40 pop rock that he switched to with ‘The Fragile’.

7

I’m not too fond of that track either. IMO, it’s the only weak song on YZ.