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Hurt (Nine Inch Nails song)

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For the Christina Aguilera song, see Hurt (Christina Aguilera song).
"Hurt"
Song

"Hurt" is a song written by Trent Reznor, first released as a promotional single on Nine Inch Nails 's 1994 album The Downward Spiral. In 2002, "Hurt" was covered by Johnny Cash to critical acclaim; it was Cash's final hit before his death. Its accompanying video, featuring images from Cash's life, was named the best video of the year by the Grammy Awards and Country Music Awards. Cash's video was directed by Mark Romanek.

Single

"Hurt" was never produced as a commercial single for the public. However, a promotional disc was distributed, containing censored ("clean") and uncensored ("soiled") mixes. The disc, Interscope Records PRCD 6179, is labeled "Halo Ten" though it is not considered an official Halo.

Track listing

  1. "Hurt" (Quiet Version - Clean) [5:04]
  2. "Hurt" (Live Version - Clean) [5:15]
  3. "Hurt" (Album Version - Clean) [6:16]
  4. "Hurt" (Quiet Version - Soiled) [5:21]
  5. "Hurt" (Live Version - Soiled) [5:15]
  6. "Hurt" (Album Version - Soiled) [6:15]

Video

The video is a live performance that appears on Closure and the DualDisc re-release of The Downward Spiral. The audio portion appears on the UK version of Further Down the Spiral.

A scrim had been dropped in front of the band on stage, onto which various images, such as war atrocities, survivors of the Battle of Stalingrad, a snake staring at the camera, and a time-lapse film of a decomposing wolf in reverse, were projected. A spotlight was cast on Reznor so he could be seen through the images. Compared to the live renditions performed on future tours, this version most resembles the studio recording with its use of the song's original samples.

There are also official live recordings on And All that Could Have Been and Beside You in Time.

Live performance

During the Dissonance tour in 1995, David Bowie sang "Hurt" duet with Reznor, backed by an original melody and beat. This served as the conclusion to the dual act that began each Bowie set. Since the 2005-06 Live: With_Teeth tour, NIN has been playing "Hurt" in a more toned-down style, featuring only Reznor on keyboard and vocals until the final chorus, when the rest of the band joins in.

Johnny Cash's cover

"Hurt"
Song
B-side"Personal Jesus"
"Wichita Lineman"

Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" was released on his 2002 album, American IV: The Man Comes Around. Rick Rubin, producer of Cash's American series and friend of Trent Reznor, suggested the song to Cash. {{citation}}: Empty citation (help) The line "crown of shit" was changed to "crown of thorns", not only removing profanity from the lyrics, but also suggesting a reference to Christ. The cover was with the B-side "Personal Jesus", a cover of the Depeche Mode single.

The cover was given the Country Music Award for "Single of the Year" in 2003. It also ranked as CMT's top video for 2003 and was ranked #1 in CMT's 100 Greatest Country Music Videos the following year. The cover also currently occupies the number two spot on Rate Your Music's Top Singles of the 2000s.

The house where Cash's music video for "Hurt" was shot, Cash's home for more than 20 years, was destroyed in a fire on April 10 2007. [1]

In October 2007, Much More Music placed "Hurt" by Johnny Cash as number 1 of the Top 40 Most Memorable Music Videos on "Listed".

Track listing

  1. "Hurt" – 3:39
  2. "Personal Jesus" – 3:21
  3. "Wichita Lineman" – 3:06

Reznor's reaction

In an interview with Alternative Press, Reznor admitted that when Rubin first asked if Cash could cover his song, he was "flattered" but worried that "the idea sounded a bit gimmicky." The power of Cash's cover didn't fully hit Reznor until he saw the video:

I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore… It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning—different, but every bit as pure.[2]

Reznor still occasionally refers to "Hurt" as "a song that isn't mine anymore."

(Rock Sound- article transcribed on the NIN Hotline)

- Also read the Stagepass News article

Other versions of the song

  • The chorus of "Hurt" is quoted in the opening pages of Stephen King's 2004 novel The Dark Tower. King said, "I've always been a TrentRez fan—and Nails. "Hurt" says all you need to know about what life takes away. What it always takes away in the end. A song like that is a treasure because it vocalizes what we all feel but somehow can't say. Of course the Cash video blew me away, but that song [has] been in my head for a couple of years now."[3]
  • The song plays at the beginning of the episode "Last Call" in season 4 of Third Watch. Officer John "Sully" Sullivan is sitting in front of the TV with a gun, presumably about to commit suicide. It was also used in promotion of the series in Sweden.
  • The Cash recording was used in an episode of Boston Public in a scene where a drug-addicted mother is arrested in front of her young daughter.
  • The Johnny Cash version has been used as an advertisement highlighting abused children in Australia.
  • Best-selling young adult author Amelia Atwater-Rhodes contributed a short story to the horror anthology "666: The Number of the Beast" (itself an Iron Maiden reference) titled "Empire of Dirt" in reference to the Johnny Cash cover of the song.
  • The Johnny Cash version plays at the end of the episode "Shattered" in Season 3 of Smallville. Lex Luthor is in a padded cell at the Belle Reve sanitarium as his father, Lionel Luthor, looks in on him through one-way glass.
  • An edited version of the Johnny Cash version was also used in a Nike advertisement in the UK.

References

  1. ^ "Fire destroys Johnny Cash home". Retrieved 2007-08-01.
  2. ^ Alternative Press #194. September, 2004
  3. ^ "TNH briefly steps into the shadows with Stephen King". The NIN Hotline. 2004-10-06. Retrieved 2007-04-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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