[Verse 1]
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that’s real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
[Chorus]
What have I become
My sweetest friend?
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
[Verse 2]
I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar’s chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here
[Chorus]
What have I become
My sweetest friend?
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
[Outro]
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
“Hurt” official music video performed by Johnny Cash.
This song is about realizing consequence and regret. It sends a powerful message that we should all proceed through life wisely, because there is nothing worse than being stuck with a label, a pain, a sickness, or a death, that we know beforehand will leave us only wishing things had been different and that we could change the choices we made.
In 2003, “Hurt” was covered by Johnny Cash to commercial and critical acclaim; it was one of Cash’s final hits released before his death, and the related music video being considered one of the greatest of all time by publications such as NME. Reznor praised Cash’s interpretation of the song for its “sincerity and meaning”, going as far as to say “that song isn’t mine anymore.”[2]
Meaning
The song includes references to self-harm and heroin addiction, although the overall meaning of the song is disputed. Some listeners contend that the song acts as a suicide note written by the song’s protagonist, as a result of his depression, while others claim that it describes the difficult process of finding a reason to live in spite of depression and pain and does not have much to do with the storyline.[3]
Music video
The music video for Nine Inch Nails’ original version of “Hurt” is a live performance that was recorded before the show in Omaha, Nebraska on February 13, 1995 and can be found on Closure and the DualDisc re-release of The Downward Spiral. The audio portion appears on the UK version of Further Down the Spiral. The version released on Closure differs slightly from the video originally aired on MTV. In addition to using an uncensored audio track, the Closure edit shows alternate views of the audience and performance at several points during the video.
To film the video, a scrim was dropped in front of the band on stage, onto which various images, such as war atrocities, a nuclear bomb test, survivors of the Battle of Stalingrad, a snake staring at the camera, and a time-lapse film of a fox decomposing in reverse, were projected, adding visual symbolism to fit the song’s subject matter. A spotlight was cast on Reznor so that he can 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.[citation needed]
There are also official live recordings on the later releases And All that Could Have Been and Beside You in Time. Each version features distinct instrumentation by the varying members of the band in the respective eras.
Live performances
During the Dissonance tour in 1995, when Nine Inch Nails opened for David Bowie, Bowie sang “Hurt” in a duet with Reznor, backed by an original melody and beat. This served as the conclusion to the dual act that began each Bowie set.
During the Fragility tours, the progression was performed by Robin Finck on acoustic guitar rather than on piano.
Since the 2005–06 Live: With Teeth tour, Nine Inch Nails 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.
The song was brought back to its original form during the Lights In The Sky tour in 2008, before returning to the toned down style on the 2009 Wave Goodbye tour.
The original version was played near the end of The Hangover III, and the Johnny Cash version was played as karaoke by Ken Jeong earlier in the film.
A choral version, arranged by French composer Alexandre Lessertisseur and performed by the Sofia Session Choir, was used as the intro credit music for the 2017 M6 miniseries The Frozen Dead (Glacé).
Cash’s cover of the song had sold 2,148,000 downloads in the United States as of March 2017.[13]
Background
When Reznor was asked if Cash could cover his song, Reznor said he was “flattered” but worried that “the idea sounded a bit gimmicky.” He became a fan of Cash’s version, however, once he saw the music video.
I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. [I felt like] 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.[14]
Music video
The music video was directed by former NIN collaborator Mark Romanek[15] who sought to capture the essence of Cash, both in his youth and in his older years. In a montage of shots of Cash’s early years, twisted imagery of fruit and flowers in various states of decay, seem to capture both his legendary past and the stark and seemingly cruel reality of the present. According to literature professor Leigh H. Edwards, the music video portrays “Cash’s own paradoxical themes”.[1]
Romanek had this to say about his decision to focus on the House of Cash museum in Nashville:
It had been closed for a long time; the place was in such a state of dereliction. That’s when I got the idea that maybe we could be extremely candid about the state of Johnny’s health, as candid as Johnny has always been in his songs.[16]
71 years of age at the time of filming (in February 2003), Cash had serious health problems and his frailty is clearly evident in the video. He died seven months later, on September 12;[17] his wife, June Carter Cash, who participated in the video (she is shown gazing at her husband in two sequences), died three months after filming, on May 15, closely preceding him in death.
In July 2011, the music video was named one of “The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos” by Time.[18] It was ranked the greatest music video of all time by NME.[19]
The house where Cash’s music video for “Hurt” was shot, which was Cash’s home for nearly 30 years, was destroyed in a fire on April 10, 2007.[20]
ITV Sport used this version in a montage of England’s exit from the 2006 FIFA World Cup after losing a penalty shoot out against Portugal. One montage scene showed David Beckham visibly shaken and emotional for not being able to play due to an injury during the match, being in tears at one point .[24]
Sky Sports also used a section of this version in a montage of the 2013–14 Ashes series following England’s 5-0 defeat by Australia.[25]
During the edition of November 14, 2005 of WWE Raw, WWE used the song for their tribute show dedicated to Eddie Guerrero following his death from a heart attack.[26]
Awards
The Johnny Cash cover was given the Country Music Association award for “Single of the Year” in 2003. It ranked as CMT‘s top video for 2003, No. 1 on CMT’s 100 Greatest Country Music Videos the following year, and No. 1 on the Top 40 Most Memorable Music Videos on MuchMoreMusic’s Listed in October 2007. As of March 2016, the single occupies the number nine spot on Rate Your Music‘s Top Singles of the 2000s.[27] The song is also Cash’s sole chart entry on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, where it hit No. 33 in 2003.[28] In June 2009, the song was voted No. 1 in UpVenue’s Top 10 Best Music Covers.[29]
“Hurt” was nominated for six awards at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, winning for Best Cinematography. With the video, Johnny Cash became the oldest artist ever nominated for an MTV Video Music Award.[30]Justin Timberlake, who won Best Male Video that year for “Cry Me a River“, said in his acceptance speech that the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video should have gone to Cash.[31]
Hardcore band Hundredth released a cover on their 2011 EP Let Go.
Jean-Marc Lederman‘s musical project La Femme Verte recorded a cover on its 2010 album Small Distortions, with Julianne Regan on vocals, using the lyrics rewritten for Johnny Cash’s version.
Eddie Vedder made a live cover version in 2008, referencing it as “borrowed from Chicago”.[46][47]
Na Yoon-sun covered the song on her 2013 album Lento.
The song is used during the opening credits of the 2016 French TV series Glacé (The Frozen Dead), arranged and conducted by Alexandre Lessertisseur and sung by the Sofia Session Choir.
In Flames released a cover on their 2017 EP Down, Wicked & No Good.
