Changes

| album = ''[[Broken]]''

| versions BPM = Pinion113| live versions = ???? - presentPinion<br>Pinion (''And All That Could Have Been'')}}<br><br><br><br>| live = [[Self Destruct Touring Cycle]] through [[NIN 2013 Festival Tour]]<br>[[NIN + QOTSA Tour]] through [[NIN 2014 Europe/UK Tour]]<br>[[Europe + Asia 2018]] through present==About==''}}'''"Pinion''"''' is a very simplistic track that begins the ''[[Broken]] '' EP.  A pinion is a gear with a small number of teeth, often engaging a larger gear. It featuring 's also a pulsing drone bird's wing or flight feathers. To pinion someone is to bind their hands and feet in such a manner that they cannot be used. An example of this last definition can be seen in the music video to the eventually picks up and leads into [[Wish]]song.

[[Image:Pinionstill.jpg|thumb|Screenshot from the "Pinion" video]]The [[Nine Inch Nails music videos|music video ]] for "Pinion," released in 1992, was directed by Eric Goode and Serge Becker, who also directed "[[Help Me I Am In Hell]]."  The video was filmed entirely in black-and-white and starts in a restroom. The camera focuses on a toilet containing a dark substance, typically assumed to be blood. The water and was relleased the substance are flushed down as the camera follows. As the viewer is led through the pipes to see where the water is going, the camera cuts between exterior views and interior views of the pipes. As the music crescendos, the water pressure increases. Finally the camera comes to a white room as water is pumped through a pressurized machine, which is forcing the water into the mouth of a figure that is blindfolded, bound completely in 1992vinyl (or patent leather) and strapped to the wall. Because of the disturbing nature of the video, MTV would only play it late at night before removing it altogether. However, part of the video's finale became an integral part of the opening sequence for the network's ''Alternative Nation.'' The same video is featured both on ''Closure'' and the ''Broken Movie.''

Because ==Live==Recordings of this song have often been played as an introduction as the distubing nature band takes the stage, sometimes with the aforementioned looping, backwards David Bowie vocal sample (resembling the word "flush" but actually just "shut up" backwards). It was resequenced, bent, distorted and combined with the opening loop of "[[Terrible Lie]]" to open [[Woodstock '94]] and most other dates on the video[[Self Destruct Tour]], MTV would only play it late at night before yanking it altogetherand combined with "[[The New Flesh]]" to open all [[Fragility]] Tour shows. HoweverWhen preceding "Mr. Self Destruct" and "Somewhat Damaged, part of " noise samples operated as connective tissue between the video's finale became an integral part final notes of "Pinion" and the opening sequence for of the network's "Alternative Nationfirst song."

==Performed Live==This song A very short version began [[KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas]], presumably because they were behind schedule in setting up the stage. The full studio version was also used to bridge the quieter, ''[[Ghosts I-IV]]''-focused section of the [[Lights In The Sky Tour]] setlist (the end of "[[The Greater Good]]") with the faster-paced second half (beginning with "Wish"). It has also been featured meshed with "[[The Eater Of Dreams]]" as an introduction as the band takes the stagea pre-show opener on various tour dates.