Wish (song)

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"Wish"

Single by Nine Inch Nails
from the album Broken
Released	1993
Format	Promotional 12", Promotional CD
Recorded	???
Genre	Industrial rock
Length	25 min 50 s
Label	Interscope Records
Producer(s)	Trent Reznor, Flood
Chart positions
#25 (US Modern Rock)
Nine Inch Nails singles chronology
"Happiness in Slavery" (1992)	"Wish" (1993)	"March of the Pigs" (1994)

"Wish" is the second promotional single from Nine Inch Nails' Broken. One of NIN's most popular and acclaimed songs, "Wish" was the first NIN single to center around metal riffing and cemented mastermind Trent Reznor's image as a rage-fueled star to the public. "Wish" was named the Best Metal Performance in the 1993 Grammy Awards. Trent later joked that his epitaph should read: "REZNOR: Died. Said 'fist fuck' and won a Grammy."

1 The song
2 The single
- 2.1 12"
- 2.2 CD
3 The video
4 Covers
5 External links

[edit] The song

A cry of rage and rebellion, "Wish" is Reznor's frustration made into sound. Written solely by Reznor and informed by his struggles against an oppressive record contract, the song holds no punches in its treatment of betrayal: "I put my faith in God and my trust in you / Now there's nothing more fucked up I could do". Its anthemic chorus,

Wish there was something real, wish there was something true

Wish there was something real in this world full of you

and aggressively-distorted production made the track a hit on radio and TV.

"Wish" has been remixed twice on Broken's companion disc, Fixed, as "Wish (Remix)" and "Fist Fuck." Both remixes were performed by J. G. Thirlwell.

[edit] The single

"Wish" was never produced as a commercial single to be sold to the public, most likely because its parent EP, Broken, was itself not much longer than a single. However, various promotional discs were distributed for airplay.

[edit] 12"

Four-track single distributed as Interscope Records DMD 1947. Each side of the record plays the same tracklisting:

"Wish" (Remix Version by J. G. Thirlwell) [9:08]
"Wish" (EP Version) [3:47]

[edit] CD

One-track single distributed as Interscope Records PRCD 4893-2.

"Wish" (No Bad Words mix) [3:37]

[edit] The video

A controversial video was produced for "Wish" under the direction of Peter Christopherson and released in 1993. Nine Inch Nails (Reznor, Chris Vrenna, Richard Patrick, and James Woolley) is shown playing inside high, caged walls while hordes of angry men assault the exterior of the cage. The band is eventually accosted: Woolley is lifted off his feet by a suspended man and Vrenna, Patrick, and Reznor are grabbed through the sides of the cage. A brief scene at the end of the video, showing men storming into the cage with bats and clubs, was deemed too violent for some TV channels and was often edited out. The video is included in the Broken Movie, intercut with scenes from the movie's "snuff" storyline.

A live video of "Wish" being performed in 1994 or 1995 was included on the Closure compilation. This version has also been occasionally played on music video channels.

[edit] Covers

The Dillinger Escape Plan covered the song on their Plagiarism (EP)
Linkin Park performed the song live at Rock Am Ring 2004 festival in Germany and often on that year's Projekt Revolution tour. It was later released on LP Underground 4.0 CD for their official fanclub.
Wish was also covered by Behemoth on their 2003 EP, Conjuration.