Prince

...your heart's made of stone.

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Glory's Sun

Consider my heart made of stone.

I much prefer Trent's version of this and I'm not a big fan of JC.

Jetée

Agreed; it is not as though Cash thought up, wrote, and ultimately created the message conveyed by the song. He just thought to contact Trent for the rights to do a cover version of it.

It has some evoking imagery, yes, but it does contain the same tone and presence as the one who made this song a reality. Cash in no way during his entire lifetime experienced anything as near as what Trent had, and at the particular moment in which Trent pondered the makings of this song, he was perhaps at the lowest point in his life.

That is not meant to detract from Cash's wonderful take on it, but it does not hold the same unyielding power and raw feeling as the original; and in my mind, very few imitations do.

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—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Shauk

I feel trent comes across as more heartfelt and sincere in his pain.

I could identify with it better, to be sure.

FoolThemAll

Eh, the original doesn't interest me nearly as much as Cash's cover. "We're in this Together" and "Something I Can Never Have" aside, I'm not a big NIN fan.

Not a Cash fanboy either, but I think he greatly improved upon the song.

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Jinn

I agree with Trent. And he's my favorite male singer.

I'm not really sure which one I like best.

It's the same words, but somehow one is a painful exploration of drug abuse and another is a sad story of a man's life and ultimate death.

Both are powerful, for different reasons.

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Derwood

agreed. i feel the same about cash's cover of "In My Life" by the Beatles. The original was written/sung by an early-20's John Lennon, which gives the song an entirely different meaning than being song from a mid-70's Cash.

noodlebee

It gives a different mood. Trent sings with more anguish. Cash has more of a "look back on the past" mood with the instrumentation and images in the video. Hard to pick which is better.

pan6467

Very touching and tough to watch, brings tears to this Johnny Cash fan's eyes.

Mind if I cheer it up a tad by showing what Johnny's sense of humor was like?

Johnny Does Elvis..............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYctb...elated&search=

and A boy Named Sue....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M89c3...elated&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcNv_...elated&search=

Both the above play the same song.... but in different ways.

Johnny was great and you never heard anything bad about the man.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

Sion

I think you should do some more research.

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He's the best, of course, of all the worst.
Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz

I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...

Strange Famous

Personally, I would say that this IS a Johnny Cash song now... it hardly matters who wrote it or performed it first.

I am perfectly willing to believe the dude from NiN has taken more drugs than Cash did, or had a turbulent life... but Johnny Cash is an icon and I believe he performed that track in a way no one else could. In every word and every note - its is filled with the knowledge that he was on his way out and he was so filled with regret. His version is simply more powerful and better to me.

Sinatra didnt write "My Way" as far as I know... but how could anyone else sing it in an unironic way now?

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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."

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SecretMethod70

Count me in as another fan of the original. Don't get me wrong, Johnny Cash's version is pretty good, but I have a hard time seeing it as anything special. At best, it's equally powerful. My opinion of it is not helped by how completely annoying it is to hear people who think it's Johnny Cash's song, including radio DJs.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

Cynthetiq

what?!?!?!? it's not sad kermit's hurt????


c'mon you gotta admit Rolph makes the video @ 2:50

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telekinetic

yes. Sad kermit > trent > Cash. Although I will admit I teared up a little after watching Walk the Line, and then this, after never having seen either.

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twisted no more

Willravel

My heart isn't made of stone, but a combination of cardiac muscle cells, contiguous cytoplasmic bridges, and dacron. I never really liked the music of Johnny Cash. NIN is okay, but a cover of NIN? Meh.

If you have a recording of Johnny Cash doing Habanera, that'd be interesting.

Frosstbyte

And a million Nine Inch Nails fans suddenly cried out in pain without knowing why.

I have nothing against Cash, I like quite a few of his songs and definitely enjoy his cover of Hurt, but it's not the original and it's not really close to what Sinatra did with "My Way."

Sinatra picked up a song by a few random guys and turned it into something huge based on his star power. Cash picked an iconic NIN song and did his own thing with it. I mean, if anything, this is the very definition of a GOOD cover. It took a great song and did something original with it while maintaining the magic that made the original good (I'm looking at you all you shitty punk bands who poorly cover great songs!). Hurt was secured in the industrial/metal/rock pantheon of great songs before Cash touched it, he just exposed it to a larger audience. It is interesting to note that Reznor himself does not feel like "Hurt" is really his song anymore, as you can see on the wikipedia article about the song. Linky!

Part of the appeal of Cash's "hurt" I'm sure is that it was really his last big hit before he passed away. It really is an on the way out type of song, so everything clicked to make it a great hit. And I certainly won't detract from that.

Regardless, I think plenty of fans still know and love the original as the original and it speaks to a very different place and a very different group than Cash's version does. People are stupid and lazy so those who knew of the song only after Cash released his version are probably going to mis-attribute it to him, but I don't think the man in black would have any problem at all giving credit where credit was due.

biznatch

I honestly knew nothing about Johnny Cash before watching the video. Besides that he was a famous American musician and that a successful movie was made about his life recently.
I thought I knew more about him after I saw the video, but if it wasn't his song then I really don't know much about him either way.
One day I'll take the time to get to know his stuff. I don't want to just go and download one mp3, that wouldn't give me a good perspective of what kind of musician he was.
Anyone have any recommendations of albums for someone who's new to Johnny Cash?

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Cynthetiq

I can't really recommend any albums of Johnny Cash, but I can recommend the song A Boy Named Sue written by Shel Silverstein the children's poet.

Again, taking someone else's lyrics and giving it a good personal touch.

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Xazy

Agreed Kermit > Trent > Cash, I can picture him in the swamp, the details are a bit graphic. Pooor Kermie and that whore Miss Piggy, is all I can say.

neflyte

for some reason, I always found it a bit unsettling that I actually slow-danced with my ex to this song. i knew it was pretty dark when I heard it, but at the time I didn't know who performed or originally wrote it.

yeah, we're no longer together... (obviously...)

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Baraka_Guru

Agreed. Both men had at one point struggled with substance abuse. Yet, Reznor admits having a sheltered childhood. Cash, on the other hand, started working on his family's cotton farm by the age of five, had an older brother die tragically, and lived through the Great Depression. These would explain the tone of many of his songs.

It's hard to compare the two because they are classified in different genres. If you don't like country music, you won't likely appreciate what Cash did for the genre. It would be like saying "meh" to John Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things" because you don't like jazz but loved The Sound of Music. ("What? No singing?!")

A lot of what Cash did with "Hurt" has to do with context. Cash's version carries with it the feel of reflecting over a long and turbulent life of ups and downs. Look how hold he is... he can barely keep his hand steady. The video reveals how he isn't long for this world (and, as it turned out, he wasn't... neither was his wife, who died 4 months before he did, the year after the video was produced).

For those who don't know Cash well enough, he is known as a groundbreaking country artist who contributed a lot to the genre, much the same way Ray Charles did to pop music: they both blended several genres in their music to create something new and grossly appealing. It is for this reason that Cash is known not just as a performing artist but also as a brilliant songwriter.

I have a lot of respect for what Trent Reznor does (I was sucked in while in high school when The Downward Spiral was released ) but he has a long way to go before he deserves the same level of respect as an artist. Time will tell if Reznor too will have such a legacy. But I'm certain he's greatly honoured by what Cash did with his "Hurt." I know I would be.

And as a side note, having no emotional response to this video sounds like a cop out simply because you like NIN better. If this really is the case, I suggest you work harder to hone your listening and viewing skills; the world is a much more enriching place when you can think critically and respond emotionally to things for what they are actually worth. The only way I would accept this answer is if you can convince me that you don't understand or simply cannot stand country music... though this version isn't heavy on country conventions per se.

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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

willynilly

I have tremendous respect for Trent Reznor. He does everything crafting his albums. Hurt is a great song. And while I do not generally like covers as much or sometimes at all, I think that the Johnny Cash version is amazing. I would literally tear up the first few times I watched the video. But that is to take nothing away from Trent Reznor. It just happens to be two great artists. Trent wrote the song, but his voice will never sound like Johnny's. Props to both.

seretogis

Johnny Cash did not deserve to cover Hurt. His music prior was mostly garbage, with only a couple of songs that resonate due solely to how much playtime they received. He was not a musical genius, nor a sympathetic tortured soul.

Trent, Maynard, and Prince are far more talented, write far more compelling songs, and are more respectable altogether.

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perfect little dream the kind that hurts the most, forgot how it feels well almost
no one to blame always the same, open my eyes wake up in flames

telekinetic

Do you realize how ignorant you sound?

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twisted no more

Glory's Sun

you can't really call a person ignorant for not liking a musical genre or musician. This is the reason we have multiple genre's. I think country music is laughable. Almost no talent exists in the genre..yet there are millions who would disagree with me.

I've always thought Cash was over-rated. Again, there are millions who disagree with me.

The fact that I like Trent's version better is not an ignorance on my musical ear.. it's just an opinion and should be treated as such.

Willravel

I don't like Cash, and I don't particularly care for NIN. The Kermit version was funny in concept, but it got boring and I only ended up watching like 30 seconds.

It's okay to think a certain type of music or certain piece is crap. I love Mozart, but I think Eine kleine Nachtmusik is pure garbage. I love Jazz, but I can't stand Sonny Rollins. I can't listen to country music without getting sick. That's just the way my tastes work. It doesn't make me ignorant, in fact it's good that I've experienced so much that I know what I like and dislike.

telekinetic

If you notice, I didn't say he was ignorant, just that if he had a legitimate opinion, he was phrasing it poorly, in a way that made him sound ignorant.

The difference between "Cash isn't my taste" and "All of his work is overplayed garbage, these three musicians are more talented and respectable" to me isn't just one of degrees.

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twisted no more

Baraka_Guru

Try telling that to Trent...


http://www.mtv.com/bands/n/nin/news_feature_050509/


http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...s_trent_reznor

Why would Trent Reznor suggest that Cash demands respect, then? That he has importance?

__________________
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

Plan9

I think covers are important regardless of who likes what. Like prayer to religion.

Not all prayers are beautiful... but its the thought that counts.

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Not Right Now

The Trent version is far more visceral than than this one. That oe realy makes me want to cry. Trent's voice sounds so tortured that you can feel his pain.

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