10 Hard Rock Albums With Only One Bad Song
2. Big Man With A Gun - Nine Inch Nails
Anyone who has ventured towards The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails probably has their fair share of horror stories from it. Being one of the founding albums of the industrial rock revolution, the entire thing feels like a slow descent into the mind of Mr. Self Destruct, which finally culminates in his tragic suicide and lament towards the end. So with all that in mind, did we really need a pseudo joke song like Big Man With a Gun?
Because yes...that is in fact what this song is...just ask Trent Reznor himself. As much as songs like Heresy and Closer touch on every single deplorable aspect of this character, Big Man was meant to be Reznor taking a few shots at gangsta rap emerging around the same time, as our protagonist plays up his more chauvinistic mood. However, this is just the kind of shock factor that went a little too far the other way.
Being as much a satire of this kind of behavior as a condemnation of it, censors at the time didn't see it the same way, wanting Reznor to be hung at the stake for his horrible suggestions in his lyrics. Given the amount of backlash, Reznor has expressed a desire to leave it off the album if he had the opportunity to do it again. With no real demand these days, there's probably not too many complaining about that either.