The Day the World Went Away
Single
The Day the World Went Away is a Nine Inch Nails release. It contains what some people describe as a beautiful remix of The Fragile's "The Day the World Went Away". This particular version is labeled as the "Quiet" mix, and features mostly acoustic instruments, as well as an extended ending sequence. It is said that one would be hard-pressed to find a more emotional or excitingly introvertive performance of any song, especially given that it was done in a matter completely different from the way it was done on the album.
This single version of "The Day the World Went Away" has a significantly different vocal track than the album version.
A promotional music video was created for the song, but was never released. Still images that were used for the Nine Inch Nails website have indicated that the video takes place at a funeral, and that it was too personal for Trent Reznor to release (The song's lyrics are supposidly about the death of Trent's grandmother).
An alternate video for the song, using live audio and a combination of live and original footage, is included in the hidden "Beneath the Surface" section of the And All That Could Have Been DVD.
Track listing:
- "The Day the World Went Away"
- "Starfuckers, Inc."
- "The Day the World Went Away (Quiet)"
The version of "Starfuckers, Inc." that is on the single is almost identical to the album version, except that at the end of it (after the explosion), there is the sound of a man yelling "Goodnight! Whoo!" over the sound of a cround cheering, and then the guitars for the song "Complication" (which follows "Starfuckers" on the album) starting to be played, followed by the track fading. The yelling and the crowd cheering are taken from a live KISS concert.
The vinyl pressings of the single did not have "Starfuckers, Inc.", but had an exclusive remix by Porter Ricks. Some promotional copies had all four tracks.
Song
The song, as mentioned above, is one of the singles off of Nine Inch Nails's 1999 release, The Fragile. The single and Fragile mixes of the song consist of a droning background noise, overlapped with layers of distorted guitars, a middle section with the lyrics sung over the droning with a mandolin at the end, and a return to the harsh guitars, with a chanting chorus. The song is distinctive in the band's history due to its lack of any drums or percussion.
There are currently six different versions of this song:
- "The Day the World Went Away" from the single.
- "The Day the World Went Away (Quiet)" from the single.
- "The Day the World Went Away (Porter Ricks)" from the vinyl single.
- "The Day the World Went Away" from the album, The Fragile.
- "The Day the World Went Away" from And All That Could Have Been: Live.
- "The Day the World Went Away" from And All That Could Have Been: Still.
