I was listening yesterday to one of my favourite covers of one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite bands: Johnny Cash covering Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" .
I've always loved Trent Reznor of NIN, as far as I'm concerned everything he touches turns to gold (musically speaking.) "Hurt," though popular, is an extermely anomalous piece for the Alt/Industrial band. The song is full of nuanced tonality and beautiful melodic lyricism. You can see immediately why the song appealed to Cash.
You can watch and listen to Nine Inch Nails perform "Hurt" on Youtube.
Trent Reznor's accompanying video is classic NIN: over the top and intentionally provocative, but not necessarily deeply meaningful. Still, he skillfully moves between volume extremes, at times almost whispering. The melody alternates between a haunting, minor scale accompanyment to the verses, and a satisfying major key for the simple, repetitive refrain.
Reznor himself is quoted as saying that the song means much more coming from Johnny Cash, and frankly I agree. In fact, listening to Cash you can hear the pain of regret in his voice, and see in his eyes both bitterness and nostalgia. The words seem appropriate for an aging musician with a storied past.
Click here to see Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" on YouTube.
Cash's choice of acousitc guitar (Reznor has a recording in acoustic too, incidentally) and piano lends itself well to momentum of the piece; Reznor's pounding, repetitious chords are brought to life under Cash's sensitive musical touch. Cash, I think, exhibits greater asthetic sensibility when choosing how to move between loud and quiet: and where NIN's version tends to drag, his coaxes. He paces himself, thereby pulling the listener through the song as it ebbs and flows, compelling you forward to a rising crescendo. And when Cash, his voice pained, sings the line "If I could start again, a million miles away / I would keep myself... I would find a way" the crest falls smoothly into silence.
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I love this song, Cash's cover. To be honest, I'll admit I haven't listened to the original version. Yes, something about that craggy, experienced voice of the old man signing that song is more genuine that anything anyone else could ever manage. Singers sometimes have that perfect fit and then there it is the definitive recording of a song. I love all the old-age albums of Johnny Cash. Some others that have this quality are "Mercy Seat" a ballad where the narrator is on death row and he takes you there too, and "The Man Comes Around," about the book of Revelations. In spite of the sins of his youth, Cash became a man of faith. And that was genuine too.
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