Hurt.

[The Worker Sang]

the thing I like best is the chorus.....the strumming and Matt's voice....cuz well yeah I got used to hearing Cash's barritone voice singing it....so when I hear Matt's interpretation it rocked my socks

[uglyredhonda]

Cash sold it with his version on pure emotion, singing it as a retrospect on his life.

He actually didn't sing it that way. From the album bio:

 

But when producer Rubin brought ['Hurt' and 'Personal Jesus'] to Cash's attention, he recalled the demons in his own life and responded to them instantly. "I think 'Hurt' is the best anti-drug song I ever heard," says Cash. "It's a song about a man's pain and what we're capable of doing to ourselves and the possibility that we don't have to do that anymore. I could relate to that from the very beginning."

 

You can thank Mark Romanek for the retrospective aspect of the song. He begged and begged Rick Rubin to let him film the video, and offered to do it for free.

 

And, honestly, without the video, the song wouldn't have had the same impact.

 

 

At the same time, the "Hurt" movie that was shown during the 1994/5 NIN tour was one of the most emotionally powerful and disturbing concert moments I can remember. (It's partially seen in the "Hurt" video, but I wish they'd left out the closeups and just captured the movie on its own.) For me, it really helped sell the strength of the song.

[Guest apsham]

I think that the song had the same impact on me, video or not... the video just made it worse. Anyways, as far as it goes for me:

 

1. Johhny Cash

2. Matthew Good

3. NIN

 

The Good one would be better without Melissa, me thinks.

[andielicious]

The Good one would be better without Melissa, me thinks.

I concur.

[Circum]

When you have an Original song that gets covered by bands. The original version is the way it was meant to be done. Like art, originals are always the best, copies can never compare.

 

Of course there has only been one exception to this. Lovers In a Dangerous Time. The BNL version is by far better than the original.

 

But that is the only exception.

[andielicious]

I beg to differ. I think there are many songs out there which are covers and are better than the originals. An example would be Nothing Compares 2 U. I feel that the Sinead O'Connor version is 10 times better than the original Prince version. But in the end it all comes down to personal taste. To each their own.

[running4home]

i love love loved it with melissa. i haven't heard the bootleg yet but i heard it on sunday and monday and it was amazing. i liked it better than nin and cash's.

[trufflepig]

matt's version was better than expected...but come on, nin's version is the best ;)

[e man]

i am yet to hear any version of this song but look forward to hearing matts when it becomes available

[Guest apsham]

You have enough for it, if you go to the store right now.

 

And I wish it didn't cut off... oh man.

[S.E. Hardy]

It's really... it's really - fuckin' sexy...

[ToadMan]

I really enjoyed Matt's version. It's a little less raw than the NIN version, and seems to flow a little more than the Cash version.

[laser30]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didnt even the lead singer of NIN come out and say that Cash did a better version than they orginally did?

[uglyredhonda]

Close to that, but not exactly.

 

Trent Reznor: "Rick Rubin has been a friend for a long time, and he called me asking how I felt about Johnny covering 'Hurt'. I was flattered, but frankly, the idea sounded a bit gimmicky to me. I really didn't put much thought into it, as I was working on something at the time and was distracted. A few weeks later, a CD shows up with the track. Again, I'm in the middle of something and put it on and give it a cursory listen. It sounded... weird to me. That song in particular was straight from my soul, and it felt very strange hearing the highly identifiable voice of Johnny Cash singing it. It was a good version, and I certainly wasn't cringing or anything, but it felt like I was watching my girlfriend fuck somebody else. Or something like that. Anyway, a few weeks later, a videotape shows up with Mark Romanek's video on it. It's morning; I'm in the studio in New Orleans working on Zack De La Rocha's record with him; I pop the video in, and... wow. Tears welling, silence, goosebumps... Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore. Then it all made sense to me. 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. Some-fucking-how 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. Things felt even stranger when he passed away. The song's purpose shifted again. It's incredibly flattering as a writer to have your song chosen by someone who’s a great writer and a great artist.

Edited March 29, 2006 by uglyredhonda

[Prometheon]

I like how Matt sings "And what have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end..."

 

It adds some much needed dynamics to the song.

[RhysOttawa]

I will deffinately have to go with the NIN version. But then again, I would usualy take origionals instead of covers. Unless it is Manson covering them, all his covers are amazing.

[Evil Ash]

I've always been a NIN fan, but each version of this song appeals to me, for different reasons. Like it's been said before, it is really difficult to compare each one, because they are each very different. If I absolutely had to rank each one, I'd have to go with NIN, followed by Cash, and then Matt. I hope I didn't miss this in the thread, but has Matt said why he's chosen to play the song?

[mrs jesus]

no one's version of hurt is better than nin. come on, people.

could i have said that better?

 

other than adding the word fuck in there somewhere, i really doubt it.

[Goudie]

matts cover with the chic singing too is awesome. But johnny cash's is sweet too.

[wmarskell]

i wonder if matt chose the cover because of nin or because of cash?????

[noise_pollution]

He did the Johnny Cash version. He mentioned it before he played it. Plus in recent interviews(The Winnipeg Free Press) he said he has been listening to Johnny Cash lately.

[Shortcut To Moncton]

Pretty sad that a country junkie by the name of Johnny Cash is more respected than Trent Reznor's version. By golly, why is that? It is because the man is badly aged/now diseased when Rick Rubin asked him to cover it (alongside Rusty Cage). Johnny Cash was washed up in his later stages and he was terribly monotone in the cover. The ending of the song (the highlight of the NIN version) is non-existant and the song is ripped drastically.

 

So overrated.

 

I went to a Nine Inch Nails show a few weeks back and my friend thought that Johnny Cash wrote the song (who was wearing a Downward Spiral hoodie) which really pissed me off.

 

Also, a side note, NIN outperformed Pearl Jam for the greatest concert I've ever seen--my god. And hell no, Matthew Good isn't an outstanding performer.

 

 

Oh yes, I guess I better hear Matthew Good's version.

[saturnine]

where did you see nin a few weeks back? rochester? erie?

[Shortcut To Moncton]

where did you see nin a few weeks back? rochester? erie?

Maybe it was a month back--don't have teh ticket stub with me. It was at the John Labatt Centre in London.

 

Incredible show BOTH musically AND visually.

[MarcTheBored]

Agreed; Trent Reznor can put on a show like no one else. Too bad his last Ottawa show was cancelled ;)

 

Anyways, if I had to pick, I'd say the NIN version is best. It has seniority for me.