Strange Famous

A simple question - which version of Hurt do you think is the BEST version

(which may or may not be a distinct question from which one you like the best)

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Halx

There's nothing special about the Cash version. The original NIN song is always going to be straight from passion. Everything else is just an overlay.

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Willravel

If I had to say, I'd say the Trent version. I'm not really partial to either of them, though.

Cynthetiq

no Sad Kermit version????

I like the NIN version... it's much more passionate. I've never seen the video for it, but the Cash video is a good rendition too.

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Jinn

Another vote for NIN. I think it's better, but without Johnny's version there wouldn't be a NIN version, so there's that...

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Strange Famous

For me, Johnny Cash's version is just more powerful.

Maybe its the context, but to me it really was the last lament of a dying man, and the NIN version didnt have the same intensity and anger.

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"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas

Lasereth

I had heard the song before but not a lot. I just listened to both versions on youtube and I have to say that I like the Cash version better.

Willravel

Cash's Hurt struck me as a gimmick for the Cash movie. Not only that, but I never particularly cared for Johnny Cash's music.

It would have been better to have Ray Charles sing "I Wanna Fuck you Like an Animal".

vanblah

NiN. Because of the subject matter -- not that Johnny Cash didn't have any experience with drugs; but because the words are not written from the point of view of an old man.

Johnny Cash did an incredible job with it. But I really have to wonder how much of it was "produced" by Rick Rubin? Regardless, I love the Cash version as well.

The fact that JC was elderly and on the verge of dying makes it seem more powerful than it really is. If he'd done the song 15 years ago (or say 1995) would people still feel the same way about it?

snowy

I prefer Johnny Cash's version; something just hits me *there* with his take on it. I find it far more depressing yet also more enjoyable. To me, it's one of the few covers that I like better than the original.

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Lasereth

Just LOLed at work +1

Baraka_Guru

Cash's version is more potent to me when you contextualize it with his life, career, and such, at the point when he recorded it.

Reznor's original is good, too, of course, but if I had to pick just one....

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Jinn

My opinion is probably also colored by the fact that I didn't know who Johnny Cash was until I found out one of NIN's songs was actually a cover for one of his.

Yes yes, I'll get off your lawn.

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inBOIL

The original version seems to convey more anger, and a sense of being almost proud of what he's become. The Cash version is more of a lament, and to me, more powerful.

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JumpinJesus

I can't say I really like either one of them, but if I absolutely had to choose, I'd pick Johnny Cash. Not because I think he's better, it's just that I really really really can't stand Nine Inch Nails.

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SecretMethod70

Jinn...

uh...

I could swear you've been corrected on this before, but I could be wrong...

Cash's version was the cover.

NIN came out with Hurt in 1995. It's pretty much a classic of the period.

Cash covered it in 2002.


Anyway, I prefer NIN.

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Frosstbyte

I will never know where this misconception came from, but Cash covered Nine Inch Nails. Almost the entire album American IV: The Man Comes Around is covers.

I, like others, think Cash's version is particularly well regarded because of when he recorded it and had it happened at another time in his life or career, it would not have the same sort of quasi-autobiographical reflective effect. The video goes a long way towards promoting this message, too. It's certainly a good cover, as far as covers go, because he made the song his ow instead of just replaying someone else's music.

That being said, I don't think it holds a candle to the original. It's without question one of Nine Inch Nails' best songs and nothing else will suffice when you're in the mood.

Edit: Apparently SM beat me to the punch.

YaWhateva

I just saw this thread and thank god someone said that even though it took a long damn time. I kept cringing as I scrolled down not seeing anyone say it.

Edit: Also, will, the Johnny Cash movie came out 3 years after Cash's version of the song, I really don't see how it was a gimmick for the movie

As for my feelings of which is better, I will choose the NIN version. I love the Cash version but they convey different emotions. Trent was going through some bad times in his life when he wrote that song and it's really conveyed. To me it comes off as a song about someone angry at the world and his regret for his past and about his drug abuse. The Cash version (exemplified in the video) is about a man on his deathbed and in frail form. It's more of a goodbye song. They are both extremely emotional songs but for some reason I connect with the original version more. I guess it's because I haven't really had an entire lifetime to look back on.

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kate jack

Nine Inch Nails by far. I just love how Trent Reznor did it. Cash did a great job, but I just like the NIN version much better.

Redjake

Cash version is better in my opinion. Reznor wrote a damn good song, Cash catapulted it into "perfection" status.

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Atreides88

I prefer Cash's version. It's far more haunting; just the single guitar and his gravelly voice. Also, I dislike NiN, industrial rock has never had a strong appeal to me.

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m0rpheus

That pretty much says how I feel. I love the NIN version but Cash took it and made it better.

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Baraka_Guru

Another example of this is Dale Hawkins' "Susie Q." How many people know that CCR didn't write that song, and how many know who Hawkins is? Spoiler: He was a rockabilly pioneer. I haven't actually heard the original recording, but since I like CCR's version so much, I doubt I'd like it any better.

Not that I'm suggesting Reznor's version will be forgotten, but it will be interesting to see what time will do to each of these recordings.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Redlemon

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Baraka_Guru

Thanks, Redlemon.

I like the original, though I admire CCR's guitar work more. Those solos are amazing. They infused more of that southern rock sound in there, which I like.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

seretogis

Johnny Cash is an overrated talent-less hack. Sorry, was.

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Baraka_Guru

The ironic thing is that one could just as easily say that about Trent Reznor. Well, except for the was part.

In either case, there are many who'd beg to differ.

Thanks for your input. It's helped me get some perspective on this thread.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

The_Jazz

Or not. We'll just agree to disagree there, I guess.

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