Head Like A Hole, in melodic soprano at 50bpm
Damn I haven’t written here since 9/9? Sorry about that. Well here’s something for you all:
I have just had the most hilarious guitar lesson.
So we’re playing and my teacher (who knows I’m going to see NIN soon) asked if there was any news on that, and then we started talking about them, and he said, “Oh did I ever tell you my Nine Inch Nails story? The one about the guitarist?” Why no he hadn’t told me, so I asked which guitarist (because they [”they” meaning the one guy who makes up NIN] change guitarists for the various tours) and he said, “The really tall one, from Georgia.”
“Oh that’s Robin Finck.”
“He’s really tall and wears platform boots and black lipstick on his face and has a shaved head? Or used to?”
“Yep, that’s Robin for sure. So what’s this story?”
So he told me, and it was very funny but that is not the funny part that makes up this post, and which I won’t repeat so don’t ask. That part doesn’t matter to *this* story and since this is my blog it’s all about me, innit? Go find your own Robin discussion.
Anyhoo so we finished laughing (no, not in a mean way) about that and then he gets all back to business and said, “Okay on to John Barleycorn” [which is a song I have been practicing travis-picking on; travis-picking is finger-picking. You know, instead of strumming you pick the strings in a certain combination of patterns]. And John Barleycorn is kind of a sad melancholy song. Someone dies or gets hanged for rebellion against the government or loses his one true love or something else horribly depressing. I don’t know, I don’t read the words. I can barely keep up with the chord changes while trying to get my right hand to pick correctly, who has time to read words? But the point is, it’s a sad sort of quiet mournful song. So I said “Okay” and he said kind of under his breath, still obviously having NIN in the tail end of his mind, “Well that’s better to practice on than Head Like A Hole.” In case you don’t know, Head Like A Hole is one of NIN’s earliest songs from the first album and is … um … shall we say, just a little loud and kind of graphic? But that’s what caused me to have a flash of inspiration:
“OH MY GOD, that’s what I want to play! I want to travis-pick Head Like A Hole and make it really sweet and gentle and lullaby-like! All sad and mournful like John Barleycorn! The opposite of the real way it’s supposed to be sung, like you know how Sid Vicious took My Way and did his version the opposite from the way it was written and now it’s like the BEST version of My Way ever?! I want to do that with Head Like A Hole, and I want to record it!”
He immediately went and found HLAH on his Mac and deconstructed the chords and wrote them out and started playing them all sweetly soft–he said, “Hey it’s like ’sitting-around-the-campfire Head Like A Hole’”–and I was positively howling with laughter the whole time. The neighbors must have thought something odd was going on in there. It was the funniest thing I’ve seen and heard in months. He said he would help me record it and that Trent Reznor would probably think it’s hilarious. Well maybe but he might also be horrified or disgusted. Personally I think it’s going to be a smash.
Head like a hole
Black as your soul
I’d rather die than give you control
Head like a hole
Black as your soul
I’d rather die than give you control
Bow down before the one you serve
You’re going to get what you deserve-Head Like A Hole, ©Trent Reznor / NIN
Can you NOT see that as a lullaby? Or in a music box? Guitar notes with some celesta or high-register piano behind it? You could use it as your wedding song! It would sound so sweet that nobody would get the funny unless they really listened to the words. It’s better than using some “real” wedding songs like Every Breath You Take (about an obsessive stalker) or, yes I actually heard this, “She’s Having My Baby.” People would say “Oh what a pretty song, look how beautiful they look … heyyyyyy did she just sing what???” Come ON that would be hilarious!
Does this mean I am a really sick and disturbed person?
**Do not answer the above.**