The Lyrics:

kinda like a cloud I was up way up in the sky
and I was feeling some feelings you wouldn't believe
sometimes I don't believe them myself
and I decided I was never coming down
just then a tiny little dot
caught my eye it was just about too small to see
but I watched it way too long
it was pulling me down

I was up above it!
now I'm down in it!

shut up!
so what does it matter now?
I was swimming in the haze now I crawl on the ground
and everything I never liked about you is kinda seeping into me
try to laugh about it now but isn't it funny how everything works out
"I guess the joke's on me," she said

I was up above it!
now I'm down in it!

I used to be so big and strong
I used to know my right from wrong
I used to never be afraid
I used to be somebody
I used to have something inside
now just this whole that's open wide
I used to want it all
I used to be somebody..

I'll cross my heart I'll hope to die
but the needle's already in my eye
and all the world's weight is on my back
and I don't even know why
what I used to think was me
is just a fading memory
I looked him right in the eye and said "Goodbye"

I was up above it!
now I'm down in it!

rain rain go away come again some other day. [4x]

I was up above it
I was up above it
now I'm down in it...

(Pre 5-12-98)
This song was actually pretty simple to understand.
Its about the past in general.
At the beginning, he was indestructable, strong, could topple the world.
And then, something he felt was small and insignificgant suddenly became important, tearing down his defenses and dragging him kicking and screaming into the real world, or just depression, a weakness.

Soon, this little dot started to get to him, and he began to take notice, it was more of a larger thing that he thought. (btw, my cd player sucks)

This is just a general theorum, I could write a whole damn paper on any given NIN song with different ideas I have about each and every line in the songs.

Of course, with me, the songs I write really don't mean one single thing, they just come to me as I write, and this may be how he works. If we all get a letter from The Trent himself laughing at us, then we'll know.

-Stitcher

(Pre 5-12-98)
I think "down in it" is about a hedonistic evolution from being completely naive (Trent was raised by his grandparents in an ultra conservative environment) to a deconstructionist, more pathetic, realistic view of this world and it's contradicitons. When he was "up above it", he was high and ideolistic about the world. When he was "down in it" he complained enough to land a record deal and eventually make millions of dollars off his insecurities.

-post-nailhead

(Pre 5-12-98)
I believe once again Trent is talking about a gurlfriend, and this one is a little harder to get that out of the lyrics. He does a very good job of trying to cover it up with easily interperted lyrics that can be turned into werds about drugs, (i was feeling some feelings you wouldn't believe). This is (in my opinion) really refering to the love he felt for his gurlfriend. Once it was just getting to become something VERY special, unstoppable he thought, "I decided i was never coming down". Then something got him scared, "tiny little dot caught my eye", something very small, something he thought she was doing wrong.
Futhermore, he began studing this "dot", and it was really starting to bother him, "it was pulling me down". Next, I believe outsiders of the relationship begin to egg on his suspicion, and possibly they were the reason that he broke up with the gurl, not listening to her, but to his friends. He moves to talking to them, after he finds out nothing of the such was actually going on, "well, shut up, what does it matter now" and now beginning to hate them, for he is now lost, not knowing the truth, not knowing who to trust, his friends, or his ex, but leaning, unwilling towards his friends, "and everything i never liked about you, is slowly seeping into me". He may have now been trying to explain to her why he broke up with her, "try to laugh about it now, but isnt funny how everything works out", and her feeling like she is the only one that lost in the situation, "i guess the jokes on me, she said". Now , he feels the lose too, much more than before, and is also lost and overwhelmed by all that has happened, "i used to be so big and strong, i used to know my right from wrong, i used to never be afraid, i used to be somebody..". He also notes that he is much emptier now, without her,"i used to have something inside, now just this hole thats open wide, i used to want it all, i used to be somebody". Now, he is feeling the true stress of having what you want, and letting it go, and not being able to get it back, no matter what he does or says, she is gone forever, "i'll cross my heart and hope to die, but the needle's already in my eye, and all the worlds wieght is on my back, and i dont even know why(obvoius confusing about his feelings, wondering why they are so strong for the gurl)". Finally, and this my have taken longer than the song leads you to believe, he moves on, unwillingly or not,"and what i used to think was me, is just a fading memory, i looked him(*probably talking about himself here*)right in the eye and said goodbye". The repeated phrase, "i was up above it" he had the world in his hands, while with her, "now i'm down in it" , and now he feels on the bottom of the human emotional stack, without her, no confidence, no love, in his most cherished words of mine, he had "Nothing".

-LooN E TuN

(Pre 5-12-98)
Down In It is about suicide, or at least a fantasy about suicide that everyone seems to play out in their head at one time or another. You know- "if I killed myself, who would come to my funeral" and so forth. "i was up way up in the sky" [everything was perfect and then] "i watched it way too long" [i realized that you don't really care anymore] "i was up above it" [everything was perfect] "now i'm down in it" [you screwed me over, everything sucks.]
It is a common fact that PHM was written just after some chick ditched Trent before he went to England to start writing it. It is also a common fact that this is the first song he really sat down and wrote. Thus, I feel that "down in it" was written in direct reference to "some chick," the 'you' in my interpretation.
"what does it matter now" [it DOESN'T matter now] "i was swimming in the haze now i crawl on the ground" [again, everything good, now everything bad] "and everything i never liked about you is slowly seeping into me" [i know who you really are now, and i hate you] "try to laugh...she said" [you try to pretend it doesn't matter, but maybe you'll realize after I'm dead].
"i used to be so big... i used to be somebody" [this is everything he feels inside at this, his lowest point, just before he pulls the trigger]
"i'll cross my heart... 'goodbye'" [I think he's adressing someone else now, maybe the guy that the chick ran off with, I dunno. "what i used to think was me.." portrays how he has lost himself in apathy, that he no longer cares about anything, least of all breathing.]
As an endnote, all you guys that have seen the video for "down in it" can see some more evidence that backs up my interpretation in the form of the dead trent on the ground at the end and the shots of him jumping off buildings, etc. Furthermore, Trent gave this as the actual interpretation at one time or another (the suice fantasy part, at least), cause I read it in a book somewhere.
i really don't know who i am in this world of piss

-Acid Angel

(Pre 5-12-98)
[Kinda' like a cloud, I was up, way up, in the sky and I was feeling some feelings you wouldn't believe] I don't think that's a drug reference, but a declaration of naivete'. Ignorance is bliss, or the "Young-and-Dumb" syndrome. [sometimes I don't believe them myself] In retrospect. [and I decided I was never coming down] Why would you want to? [just then this tiny, little dot caught my eye it was just about too small to see] Life, reality, interesting things that everyone warns you about, that could mean drugs, or anything outside of your own little world. [but I watched it way too long, that dot was pulling me down] Getting caught up in something, wrapping yourself up in the newness of it all and forsaking your safe perch as expressed by [I was up above it, now I'm down in it][Shut up, so what, what does it matter now] The past is gone, move on. [I was swimming in the haze] Ignorance. [now I crawl on the ground] worse, realization that you've hit bottom. [and everything I never liked about you, is kinda' seeping into me] becoming the unwilling product and reflection of environment. Being bitter, jaded and possibly self abusive and apathetic. [try to laugh about it now, but isn't it funny how everything works out, I guess the jokes on me, she said] Bad relationship as an added twist to the already present knife. By now, the safe, secure past is just an ironic memory that's fading fast. [I used to be so big and strong, I used to know my right from wrong, I used to never be afraid, I used to be somebody] Complete understanding of how far society has dragged you down. [I used to have something inside, now it's just this whole that's opened wide, I used to want it all, I used to be somebody] Determinations and dreams smashed, left with absolute zero. [I'll cross my heart] Retraction from the world. [I'll hope to die] Suicide. [But the needle's already in my eye] Drugs? Reference to a transorbital leukotomy? :-P (used to destroy the frontal lobe by going behind the eye with something not unlike an ice pick) or maybe just pain and suffering. [and all the world's weight is on my back] getting rejected and/or blamed consistently, by others and self. [and I don't even know why] Devoid of hope and faith in anything. [What I used to think was me, is just a fading memory] You can never go back to the way you were. [I looked him right in the eye and said good-bye, I was up above it] A last lament for the past and finally letting go. [rain rain go away...] A mantra to try and banish the bad. Almost a self indulgent sarcastic inuendo towards hope.

All in all, I think the song is about being forced to grow up in a society that if played wrong, will destroy you utterly.

-HK

(Pre 5-12-98)
"Kinda like i cloud i was up way up in the sky and i was feeling some feelings you wouldn't beleave"
This is trent talking about a feeling he once had not realated to drugs it was the best feeling trent ever had.
"sometimes i don't belave in myself i decided that i was never coming down"
Trent loves this excellent feeling away from all of his pain and suffering and he refuses to ever leave that feeling.
"just then a tiny little dot caught my eye it was just about to small to see but i watched it way to long it was pulling me down"
He is feeling great but he remebers a old horrible feeling even though it was a small thing it began to pull him down and bring him back to this bad feeling and make him depressed.
"i was up above it now i am down it"
Trent beat the feeling of depression and anger he was above all that but now he's right back in it.
"Shut up so what what does it matter now i was swiming in the haze now i am crawling the ground"
Trent is saying well oh well that feeling wasn't going to change my life anyway it was just a small step above the ground...who cares.
"And everything i never liked about you is kinda seepin into me"
Well i know this for a fact that if you are diagnosed with depression you don't care about anything and you have no feeling towords anyone or anything it is like a numb emotion. That is how trent feels, he is just letting people who normaly piss the hell out of him not bother him at all. It kinda goes right into him and stayes there.
"try to luagh about it now but isn't it funny how everything works out" (i guess the jokes on me she said)"
This is trent talking about how he once told a girlfreind that he feels this way and that he doesn't feel love or hate or anything thing, that girl is saying the whole time i was with you what you said and did, didn't mean anything it was all just a joke!! "i was up above it now i am down in it" (same thing as before) "i used to be so big and strong i used to know my right from wrong i used to never be afra! id i used to want it all i used to be somebody" trent is saying he had it all he used to feel good and bad but want everything, and his life was normal but now it sucks and he doesn't feel anything at all.Nnothing matters to him, it's not worth it to be alive.
"i'll cross my heart and hope to die but the needels already in my eye"
He is saying that this is what he really mean he is already feeling the pain (needle in his eye).
"all the world's weight is on my back and i don't even know why"
Everything is all on trent shoulders like people blame him for their problems and he feels as if people have placed all there promblems on his back, and doesn't think that it is fair and doesn't understand why.
"what i used to think was me is just a fading memory i looked him riht in the eye and said good-bye"
Trent looked at his passed and realized that he was faking how he really felt possibly as a child never getting the chance to express himself so he looked at himself in the past and said that he would never let that happen to him again.
"i was up above it now i am down in it"
Trent was pretending to be happy and was above all the pain and suffering but now he is where he believes he belongs down in all that pain and suffering.

-david

(Pre 5-12-98)
Down in it in my view is the fall into perversion.
"I was up above it, now I'm down in it."
A slightly archaic term for being better than something is "I am above that". So we know that Trent at one time was better than something then he fell into what he always thought he was better than.
"What i use to think was me is just a fading memory."
Expanding on His fall to perversion he is looking in retrospect and thinking what I used to be (or what I thought I was) is going away.

-sammy

(Pre 5-12-98)
Most of Trent's songs are about a victim, told from the victim's point of view. This person has been used and wants to tell the world about it. Down In It is different. I think this song is told from the point of view of one of the abusers, one of the ruiners. It starts out with the person feeling like he's on top of the world, floating in the clouds, feeling wonderful. He likes it here and decides to stay there, no matter what the cost. This is what makes him one of the abusers. He is up on top and wants to stay there, so he exploits the weak to stay there. But then a problem he never paid attention to (because he was too busy worrying about himself) comes and brings him "down". He's not above everybody anymore, he's a normal person ("everything I never liked about you is kind of seeping into me.") He doesn't want to accept this at first ("shut up, so what what does it matter now?"). But as the realization sinks in, he quickly lashes out at everybody else, saying they did this to him, when in reality he has nobody but himself to blame. He quickly tries to make himself look like the victim rather than the villain. Still, in his overconfidence, he remains certain that he won't stay "down" for long ("try to laugh about it now, but it isn't it funny how everything works out?"). He feel he deserves to be on top, it's his right. But now he's down in it and is there to stay. Most of Trent's songs are about people like this, but they're usually told from another point of view: the victims. This song just shows how arrogant the ruiners really are, and how their own sense of selfworth will bring them down.

-Sinner

(Pre 5-12-98)
I think the song "Down In It" is a narraration about how Trent was having a good time and all that but he found the one flaw and instead of ignoring it he dwelled on it and now he's "down in it". I came to this conclusion because of the simple lyrics saying
"kinda' like a cloud I was up way up in the sky and i was feeling some feelings you wouldn't belive sometimes i dont belive them myself and i decided i was never coming down just the a tiny little dot caught my eye it was just about to small to but i watched it way too long it was pulling me down"
The tiny little dot he was referring to I think was a tiny little problem and he dwelled on it way too long and it pulled him down from his kinda' like a cloud..... up way up in the sky feeling to the "pullling me down" feeling.
I dont try over analyse Trents stuff I just say what I think he's saying.

-blackday13

(Pre 5-12-98)
Some people might say that because of the first line that this song is about drugs. I guess that I can see where you might get that! I on the other hand, strongly believe that this is about the so called "social pressures" of society. The song doesn't seem like it is about himself, and then again it does.

First verse: I think it is saying I was above all the rest, I was intelligent, and didn't give a damn what others thought about me. I made a hallow promise that I would never care what others thought of me. Then I thought about it and I realized I was slowly being sucked in to the horrors of a "trend".

Second verse: I'm turning into a fucking hypocrite. Everything I hated about you is becoming me. Those things are what I've become. I try to think how funny it was, but all I can do is think of how stupid it was.

Third verse: I used to have dreams and expectations, I used to think I knew what I would become, now I'm hallow and don't know what I want. I don't think I have the courage to get it. I used to be me and only me, now I'm you, and you, and even you. I'm just like everyone else.

Fourth verse: I'll promise to never do it again, but I broke the first promise how can I be sure of the next one? Everyone's now against me and I don't know why!! What I used to think was my hole in the world is everyone elses swimming pool. ( Last line "i looked him right in the eye and said goodbye" not a clue)

-serenity

(Pre 5-12-98)
The song is about coming down off your high stool Possibly off some sort of drug or just hitting depression. First he's up then the rest of the song is about him coming down. Filled with the same thoughts and feelings that I feel when I'm down or coming down.

-Dan Grzegorczyk

(Pre 5-12-98)
Down In It is one of my personal favorites from any of Mr. Reznor's albums (Which are all great). I think that he is talking about an experience where he was the great one, or the leader,
"I was up above it"
but then some little person or thing brought him down to a lower level,
"Just a dot just wanna see but I watched it way too long, it was bringing me down"
And now that he is in or on a lower level,
"Now Im down in it"
"I used to be so big and strong I used to know my right from wrong, I used to want it all, I used to be somebody"

-FleA

(Pre 5-12-98)
Down In It appears to be someone relating the 'downward spiral' of drug addiction, and how it has changed their life for the worse, dragged them 'down in it' so to speak, which is why the song begins with a description of flight, of being 'high' etc, however by the end of that very verse they describe something as 'pulling' (them) 'down'. Lending credit to this theory would be the verse towards the end of "I used to be so big and strong..." etc, again, a description of the negative turn of events due to the all consuming drug addiction. The line of "I was up above it" is testimony to the common delusion that when one gets themselves into drugs, they can maintain control of the drug, and not fall into being controlled by the drug (addiction). "Now I'm Down In It" is the realization that that they are no longer in control, that the drug is in fact controling them and that they are helplessly entangled in the seeming inescapable web of drug addiction.

-blue

(Pre 5-12-98)
My strongest feeling was that the beginning speaking of being captured from looking at the "tiny little dot" made me draw and analagy to conversation between Farber and Montag in the book Fahrenheit 451. They talk of the pores in the face of life and the irrational fear people have of those that look into those pores (dots?). I wonder if some of the meaning of the song can be derived from further study of this. I will reread and see if it helps. More on this later when I continue to look into those pores and see for myself. Most children have read this so I wonder if it had any influence.

-blue

(Pre 5-12-98)
Trent Reznor talks about he was up above it and now he's down in it, and there was a dot that was pulling him down. (P.S. Has anybody else seen the video for this?)
Anyways, my general thoughts on the song, not having looked into it too deeply, were that he is talking about how once he was in a lofty state of mind, up above all of the common people, and he was happy there. But I think his happiness was shattered when someone or something dragged him down, most likely a person, and it has forced him to muck through problems and unhappiness and the like. So someone hurt him and now he's lamenting it.
Yes I know it's a weak interpretation, but like I say, I haven't been able to look into it much, posessing absolutely no NIN albums (my parents would kill me). but I am a diehard NIN fan.

Rain rain, go away, come again some other day.

-Guy that is writing

(Pre 5-12-98)
"down in it" tells the story of a fall from grace...it describes the change from being a confident person who's sure of who he is and what he knows and what he believes to being full of doubt and uncertainty. He realizes that the faults he always criticized in other people are aspects of himself, and he doesn't know how to deal with that. ("Isn't it funny how everything works out?" he comments sarcastically.) Everything that he once relied on: religion, his perception of himself, etc., is now crumbling down on him and he feels its weight on his back ("and i don't even know why"). The song is like a eulogy to his former self, and at the same time he isn't sure he can completely bury the past. He longs to "be somebody", as he feels he once had worth, while acknowledging that that person is dead ("i looked him right in the eye and said 'goodbye'"). This conflict requires some sort of resolution, which never manifests in any of Trent's music. I once heard that this was the first song he wrote. I feel that this discord within his personality is the basis of much of his later discontent.

-anonymous

(Pre 5-12-98)
There are no literal interpretations of any song that Reznor writes. Only he himself knows what they are about, and maybe even he doesn't know. There are abstract images of what he might have seen happening to him--such as "i was feeling some feelings you wouldn't believe sometimes i can't believe them myslef and i decided i was never coming down", and then switching to "just then a tiny little dot caught my eye it was just about too small to see but i watched it way too long and that dot was pulling me down". That dot could have been someone that was near him, or maybe an aspect of himself that he didn't care to examine, yet did, and was snared into his own soul. The whole song could almost be seen to be a splitting of himself. We all have a seperate being in us, yet most of us never realize that side, or if we do we deny it. A conscious realization of his other self might be the whole point--"And what i used to think was me is just a fading memory i looked him right in the eye and said 'goodbye'"--A layer of masks is what he might be trying to reveal, throwing away the old and embracing the new reality, but we must also remember that he might have meant nothing at all by what he wrote. Sometimes you write and what emerges you might not even comprehend.

-S.K.

(Pre 5-12-98)
This song is pretty straightforward and simple to me. But I may not be right. I believe it is about how a person, possibly Trent, was in a position of greatness. Feeling like he was one of the best. But then that person did something stupid. They lowered themself down to regular standards, and became nothing but a normal person. He was up real high, but now he is "down in it."

-Steve Supalla

(5-19-98)
i take the title of this song literally. in the video, trent and some goth/punks are running around, kicking stuff, and eventually trent kills himself by jumping off a building roof.
ok, most people have already given good interpretations of this song, and i agree withmost of them. for the record, i think trent was high on life, chillin' with his peeps, but then he started to think about how shitty evryhing is, and when he started to notice things he could no longer pretend to be better then all of it. so he fell down in it. and the further he fell, it started to affect him. his friends stopped hanging out with him, but he couldn't go back to being normal. so he said, 'aw, fuck it' and stopped caring about living up to other people's standards.
this isnt a song interpretation.
i'm interpreting the video, for the most part, so compare the song interpreation to the symbolism in the video (for those of you who havent seen it, check it out, its on closure, its pretty 80s but still very cool).
in the video, he literally is "up above it" on the builing top. he and his punk friends are looking down on the trash bellow and thinking "i sure am glad im not down there in that trash. im too good for that." the video then shows them doing some shit, having a good time, being punk-asses (running around train stations, throwing rocks at buildings, taking e or acid or some other hallugen). but trent keeps thinking of the building, and how he wants to see what its like to be down in it. then they throw a tv down in it, cause tv sucks (not very eloquent, but i cant think of a better way to say it). trent keeps coming back to look at what its like to be down in it, because he is intrigued by it. he keeps walking the thin line of falling, playing a russian roulette, so to speak, untill he slips and falls. (you try walking on a thin ledge with combat boots on.) when he lands, he realizes that to be down in it is much more than he was asking for (death), but now there's no going back, no reverseing what he did. when his friends find him a few days later, they dont show much sorrow, just pity, and a kind of 'another one bites the dust' mentality.

however, i still don't know why trent starts going "nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah, etc..." at the end.

-the cake