'I hurt myself today,
to see if I still feel.
I focus on the pain,
the only thing that's real.
The needle tears a hole,
the old familiar sting.
Try to kill it all away,
but I remember everything.
What have I become,
my sweetest friend.
Everyone I know goes away in the end.
And you could have it all,
my empire of dirt.
I will let you down,
I will make you hurt.
I wear this crown of thorns,
upon my liar's chair.
Full of broken thought,
I cannot repair.
Beneath the stains of time,
the feelings disappear.
You are someone else,
I am still right here.
What have I become,
my sweetest friend.
Everyone I know goes away in the end.
And you can have it all,
my empire of dirt.
I will let you down,
I will make you hurt.
If I could start again,
a million miles away,
I would keep myself,
I would find a way.'
I don't know of a popular song that more perfectly describes the human condition. Trent Reznor apparently calls it 'the song that isn't mine any more.' Listen to both the original Reznor and the Johnny Cash version.