25
edits
Changes
→Music Video
This is a major reworking of "Closer," and is quite different in sound and structure. The vocals were re-recorded to fit the sound of this song. The only differences in the vocals are that the words appear to be sung slower that the original and "Help me tear down my reason, help me it's your sex I can smell/help me you make me perfect, help me become somebody else" is changed to "You tear down all my reason, you see through what I hide/You make me perfect, help me get inside." Likewise, the chorus is no longer "I want to fuck you like an animal/I want to feel you from the inside," it is "I want to fuck you/I want to taste you/I want to feel you/I want to be you/Just like an animal."
"Closer To God" is the one of the only remixes that has been performed live.
===Closer (Precursor)===
Romanek has said that Reznor was pretty much tortured throughout the shoot, yet he never once complained. Reznor seemed to know that what they were making would be phenomenal and would push the proverbial envelope of the music video format.
Initially, there was a plan to film two versions of the video: an uncensored director's cut, and an edited version for MTV. This idea would save money on editing because of the costs of editing the film that was used. Reznor objected to shooting a censored version, stating that he didn't care whether or not MTV would show the video. MTV would show the video, but not before edits were made. The network censors objected to imagery they felt was blasphemous (a crucified monkey and a crucifix on a nude woman's mask), too risqué (Reznor gagged in front of a wall covered with sado-masochistic paraphernalia and writing writhing from a chain while blindfolded), or too overtly sexual in nature (the nude woman and a diagram of a vulva). Ultimately, the video was edited for MTV, with offending images either blurred or blacked out, zoomed in to avoid objectionable content, or replaced by a screen reading SCENE MISSING. Some innuendo did make it past the censors, such as the shape of the microphone in some scenes, and what the hanging beef carcass appeared to resemble in addition to wings. Despite the heavy editing on MTV, "Closer" would go on to become one of the network's most popular videos in 1994 and 1995. The uncensored director's cut can be seen on the ''Closure'' video.
Since then, "Closer" had been included on many Greatest-Video lists. In 2006, it was voted the greatest video on VH1 Classics' "20 Greatest Music Videos of All Time."