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Mr. Self Destruct (view source)

Revision as of 02:52, 27 February 2020

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*Mixing engineer: [[Alan Moulder]]

*Texture generating guitars: [[Adrian Belew]]

==About==

The song's title seems to be one of several references to Soft Cell, a cited influence for [[NIN]], as a song of the same name opens their 1984 album ''This Last Night in Sodom.'' Other references may include the reference to their album ''The Art of Falling Apart'' in the remixes titled "The Art of Self Destruction" and NIN covering "[[Memorabilia]]" and "[[Sex Dwarf]]," though the latter remains unreleased and/or incomplete.

In the April 1994 issue of ''Guitar World'', Reznor was asked about the circumstances behind the guest appearance of guitarist Belew:

:GW: How did you hook up with Adrian Belew?

:REZNOR: His name just popped into my head. I called my manager and two days later he was here. As it turned out he was already in L.A., working on something else... The songs were pretty much arranged, but we thought, "What would it be like if we got someone in here who could really play his ass off? Let's see what happens." We basically told Adrian, "Just play whatever you want and we'll piece it together however we see fit. Maybe stuff from one song will fit into another." We did about six or seven songs with four or five passes each. One time we'd tell Adrian something like, "Concentrate on a rhythmic part." Another time, "Think in terms of countermelody." Or, "Think in terms of no pitch at all, just noise." He pulled out a bunch of great sounds that he never gets to use. Flood and I were definitely intimidated when he first came up. We were sitting in the living room of Sharon Tate's house--our studio--with this guy who's played with Paul Simon and David Bowie. The first song we played him was "Mr. Self Destruct"--the hardest-sounding one we had. I said, "Play whatever you want." He said, "What key is it in?" And I had to say, "Uh, I don't remember. It's probably in E." It's a real fast track. For a moment he thought, "What the fuck?" Then he kicked in and it was just the most awesome thing.

==Appearances==

===Films===

*[[In_pop_culture#Film|''Man On Fire'']] (2004)

~~==About==~~

The song's title seems to be one of several references to Soft Cell, a cited influence for NIN, as a song of the same name opens their 1994 album ''This Last Night in Sodom.'' Other references may include the reference to their album ''The Art of Falling Apart'' in the remixes titled "The Art of Self Destruction" and NIN covering "[[Memorabilia]]" and "[[Sex Dwarf]]," though the latter remains unreleased and/or incomplete.

~~In the April 1994 issue of ''Guitar World'', Reznor was asked about the circumstances behind the guest appearance of guitarist Belew:~~

~~:GW: How did you hook up with Adrian Belew?~~

:REZNOR: His name just popped into my head. I called my manager and two days later he was here. As it turned out he was already in L.A., working on something else... The songs were pretty much arranged, but we thought, "What would it be like if we got someone in here who could really play his ass off? Let's see what happens." We basically told Adrian, "Just play whatever you want and we'll piece it together however we see fit. Maybe stuff from one song will fit into another." We did about six or seven songs with four or five passes each. One time we'd tell Adrian something like, "Concentrate on a rhythmic part." Another time, "Think in terms of countermelody." Or, "Think in terms of no pitch at all, just noise." He pulled out a bunch of great sounds that he never gets to use. Flood and I were definitely intimidated when he first came up. We were sitting in the living room of Sharon Tate's house--our studio--with this guy who's played with Paul Simon and David Bowie. The first song we played him was "Mr. Self Destruct"--the hardest-sounding one we had. I said, "Play whatever you want." He said, "What key is it in?" And I had to say, "Uh, I don't remember. It's probably in E." It's a real fast track. For a moment he thought, "What the fuck?" Then he kicked in and it was just the most awesome thing.

==Versions==

==Live==

"Mr. Self Destruct" made its live debut on [[1994/08/27 Rochester, NY|August 27, 1994]]. Often used to open shows during the later [[Self Destruct Touring Cycle|Self Destruct]] tours, its sample intro was used only long enough to count in the song, and the opening with the full band following it was extended by 16 instrumental bars while Reznor and stage crew pulled apart the scrim covering the front of the stage. During the 2006 [[Live: With_Teeth]] winter tour and the [[Year Zero Warm-Up Tour]], [[Alessandro Cortini]] joined the rest of the band at the front of the stage playing guitar. The 2009 [[Wave Goodbye Tour]] arrangement saw a synthesized ambient introduction surround manipulations of the ''THX 1138'' sample before jumping into the first verse. During the [[Cold And Black And Infinite Tour]], the studio version's looped guitar noise ending was recreated.

==Lyrics==

Piggy

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