Hurt (song)

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"Hurt" is a promotional single from Nine Inch Nails' remix album Further Down the Spiral (Halo Ten). Originally from 1994's The Downward Spiral, "Hurt" and its remixes were released as a radio only single to promote Halo Ten the following year. Often hailed as one of Trent Reznor's best pieces of songwriting, "Hurt" displays Trent Reznor's songwriting at what is widely considered his most introspectively personal.

Several years later, "Hurt" was covered by Johnny Cash to great critical acclaim; it was Cash's final hit before his death in 2003. Its accompanying video, featuring images from Cash's life up to his final months, was named the best video of the year by the Grammy Awards and Country Music Awards.

Contents

1 The song
2 NIN videos
3 Johnny Cash's recording

3.1 Reznor's reaction

4 Other versions of the song
5 The NIN single

5.1 Track listing

6 References
7 External links

The song

"Hurt," the conclusion to the The Downward Spiral's tale of self-destruction, presents a man's hindsight view of his own downfall. It is a sobering, harrowing song, the chorus asking "what have I become?" before admitting, "everyone I know goes away in the end." It also acts as an apology to those surrounding the narrator: "I will let you down, I will make you hurt," acknowledging the pain caused to loved ones. The song ends on an ambiguous note, proclaiming:

If I could start again

A million miles away

I would keep myself

I would find a way

It is not readily apparent whether this is the possibility of a new beginning or an impossible, hopeless lament. However, a decade later Reznor appeared to imply the former reading, including the lyric "I've become a million miles away" in the song "All the Love in the World" on ''With Teeth.

In retrospect to this being ambiguous, "I would keep myself / I would find a way", hints toward the failure of life. That after all has been said and done, another chance would bring on more of the same disappointment, so "I would keep myself" could be considered as a sacrifice, a burden being lifted from those known; so that his death would be painless.

One widespread theory about the last line of the song holds that the blast of three loud guitar chords followed by nothing but a humming noise and static could be representative of the narrator committing suicide. However, the fact that humming noises and industrial drones are present throughout the album makes their overwhelming presence in "Hurt" cause others to dismiss this theory.

Also, the mechanical and industrial theme throughout the album can suggest that this song is an apology to the people around him as he is being overtaken or overwhelmed by the machine.

NIN videos

"Hurt" was promoted with a concert video recorded during Nine Inch Nails' 1995 Self-Destruction tour. During the live performance of the song, a screen covers the stage and carries black-and-white video scenes of pain and suffering: decaying animals, war zones, malnourished children, and Holocaust victims. The band plays behind the backdrop, and a spotlight illuminates Reznor through the images.

A slightly different version of this video is available on Closure. Also on that set, but not released promotionally, is a live duet of "Hurt" performed by Reznor and David Bowie from their co-headlining Outside tour.

Johnny Cash's recording

Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" was released on his 2002 album, . Rick Rubin, producer of Cash's American series and friend of Trent Reznor, suggested the song to Cash. Cash's time-ravaged voice and sparse arrangement lent weight to the song's lamenting tone. The line "crown of shit" was changed to "crown of thorns" in Cash's version, as it was in Reznor's clean version. Cash's recording was given the Country Music Award for "Single of the Year" in 2003. In 2005, Cash's rendition appeared prominently in television commercials for the upcoming fifth season of the F/X television drama, The Shield, as well as being used for one of two tribute videos to Eddie Guerrero that appeared on WWE programming and an episode of Smallville (Shattered). Also, Johnny Cash's version of 'Hurt' appeared on the documentary Why We Fight. The song also appeared on British television to play over a concised retrospective video of England's world cup soccer exit to Portugal in the 2006 world cup.

Reznor's reaction

In an interview with Alternative Press, Reznor admitted that when Rubin first asked if Cash could cover his song, he was "flattered" but worried that "the idea sounded a bit gimmicky." The power of Cash's cover didn't fully hit Reznor until he saw the video:

I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. 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. ^{[#endnote_AP_Sept_04]}

Reznor still occasionally refers to "Hurt" as "a song that isn't mine anymore." ([theninhotline.net])

Other versions of the song

"Hurt" has been covered by other artists in addition to Cash, including The Razor Skyline and Sevendust. On his Outside Tour, David Bowie performed the song with Nine Inch Nails live as well as other hits in a dual act that began each concert. Tori Amos frequently used three or four lines of the song as an introduction to songs during her Dew Drop Inn tour in 1996. The band Sevendust performed a cover of "Hurt" for the album, dedicated to Johnny Cash.

The song was also covered by Frank Peterson's musical experiment known as "Gregorian" [(Gregorian Official Site)]. Peterson's arrangement put the lyrics into a medieval Gregorian Chant.

The NIN single

Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" was never produced as a commercial single for the public. However, a promotional disc was distributed, containing censored ("clean") and uncensored ("soiled") mixes. The disc, Interscope Records PRCD 6179, is labeled "Halo Ten" though it is not considered an official halo. The uncensored mixes appear on The Downward Spiral and both versions of Further Down the Spiral.

Track listing

"Hurt" (Quiet Version - Clean) [5:04]
"Hurt" (Live Version - Clean) [5:15]
"Hurt" (Album Version - Clean) [6:16]
"Hurt" (Quiet Version - Soiled) [5:21]
"Hurt" (Live Version - Soiled) [5:15]
"Hurt" (Album Version - Soiled) [6:13]

References

↑ Alternative Press #194. September, 2004.

External links

Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor

Aaron North | Jeordie White | Alessandro Cortini | Josh Freese

Discography

Halo index: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21

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