Nine Inch Nails

Gave Up

Duration: 4:08 • BPM: 144 • ninwiki
Appearances
Broken (September 22, 1992)
Live
Performed 728 times
First time: April 13, 1994
Last time: September 19, 2025
Personnel
Composer(s):
Trent Reznor
Producer(s):
Flood , Trent Reznor
Lyrics
perfect little dream the kind that hurts the most
forgot how it feels well almost
no one to blame always the same
open my eyes wake up in flames

it took you to make me realize
it took you to make me realize
it took you to make me realize
it took you to make me see the light
smashed up my sanity
smashed up integrity
smashed up what i believed in
smashed up what's left of me
smashed up my everything
smashed up all that was true
gonna smash myself to pieces
i don't know what else to do

covered in hope and vaseline
still cannot fix this broken machine
watching the hole it used to be mine
just watching it burn in my steady systematic decline
of the trust i will betray
give it to me i throw it away
after everything i've done i hate myself for what i've become

i tried
i gave up
throw it away