10 Legendary Songs That Were Completely Improvised

Going into a record like the Downward Spiral, you know you're not exactly in for the safest of sonic rides. Given Trent Reznor's production pedigree with Marilyn Manson, this is the kind of record that's meant to leave you with your fair share of scars by the end of things. And while Mr. Self Destruct feels very calculated in its layering of noise, Piggy came to be from one of the worst drum sounds you've ever heard in your life.

Before going into the studio, this song began with Trent playing the drums behind the song, which he has said was not his primary instrument. When you listen back, he's good at keeping time, only for everything to get more and more chaotic and out of control as the track goes on. Most other producers would probably told him to scrap that part and make something else, but that's the drum track that you hear on the final record.

For all of the ramshackle sounds that Trent is using on this record, the uneven beats of the drum actually have a lot more character behind them, almost illustrating how much this person's mind is slowly falling apart. Aside from all of the white noise, this is one of the only organic things that we get on the whole record. It's a glimpse at this man's humanity, and that's slowly going to be stripped away the further we go down the spiral.