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Ezra Simmons

Prof. Garrett

ENG 1201

21 February 2021

“Hurt” - Polar Covers Through Similar Lyrics

In 1994, the Nine Inch Nails (NIN) frontman Trent Reznor wrote the song “Hurt”,

the final and concluding track to his album, The Downward Spiral. This album has the

main character slowly falling into their own pit of despair because of the use of drugs.

The song “Hurt” ended up later in the hands of country legend Johnny Cash, around

2002. Johnny Cash was infamous well before his hit cover of “Hurt”, yet, he released

the cover roughly one year before his death. With this came many implications behind

Cash’s true meaning behind covering the industrial rock song. In an interview for

Alternative Press, Reznor says, “I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a

way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in. Somehow that winds

up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era and still retains sincerity

and meaning - different, but every bit as pure” (O’Gorman). Renzor’s quote summarizes

the relationship between the two renditions perfectly. Another way to display the

contrast yet synergy between the renditions’ meanings is through an excerpt. A similar

section from both songs is as follows:

And you could have it all,

My empire of dirt.

I will let you down,

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I will make you hurt.

Depending on the author of the song, this excerpt can be interpreted two ways. From

Reznor’s rendition, it means: Reznor has made some mistakes in the past, and to numb

the pain, he starts using. Because of drug usage, he drives people away, which makes

his existence a never-ending cycle to numb the pain of friends leaving him because of

his addiction. From Cash’s rendition, it describes: In the end, everything that I’ve built up

doesn’t matter, no matter how famous I may have gotten. Realistically, everyone will

pass (death often hurts others). Despite their key differences, both the artists declare

that they would start over if possible. Because of this, the visuals presented in the music

videos, the audience following each group’s tambre, and the artists’ tone in each of

these songs paint two polar pictures: one of introversion and isolation through usage,

and one of holism and unity through death.

The visuals presented in each video exemplify the difference in message

perfectly. From the first few seconds, one can see images of war soldiers beaten down

and worn from Reznor, contrasting with golden statues seemingly kept through time

from Cash. This already shows the disparity between the messages, and mentalities of

the speakers. Reznor’s soldiers show that he is going through life beaten and bruised,

while Cash on the other hand shows statues as he has been through life and is now

jaded. As another example, later in each video Reznor shows images of snakes and

other predators, as if to show that death is unnaturally looming upon himself. Cash,

contrarily, shows himself with old age frequently in the video, as if to say that his life is

slowly fading by natural means.

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The audience, in any work, links directly back to the main message, therefore

one can analyze the audience in correlation to the message and find similarities. To

look at the audience, however, one should look at the instrumentation and style of

music provided. In Cash’s “Hurt”, there are only three instruments, with four separate

parts. There are two acoustic guitar parts, a vocal part, and a piano part. This gives

Cash’s “Hurt” a very authentic and raw feel, which is very closely related to his roots in

country music. Reznor’s “Hurt” features vocals, distorted electric guitar, bass guitar,

synthesizers, piano, and drums. This gives the song a rock feel, which corresponds to

the band’s roots. This can be related to the audience of each group, with Cash’s

audience mainly being older and more classical, while NIN’s audience being young and

reckless. Their unique sound furthers their point, with NIN’s being a sound that could be

considered younger and newer, with Cash’s being an older sound of the classical

country side of music, because of their respective audiences. Their audiences heavily

contribute to each of their individual perspectives in their songs, because generally

speaking one must know their own audience to deliver their message with acumen.

The tone implied by each of the songs is similar, yet leagues apart as well. While

some of this is contributed from the music itself, the images presented in each

respective video also implies much emotion behind each work. While Cash shows the

experiences of his life and all he has built up, the tone is foreboding, realistic, and

neutral. Cash sounds more as if he has accepted his fate through all of his experiences.

Comparatively, Reznor's tone shows that he is distressed and unsettled in his skin by

showing death and destruction. Because of their tones, the difference in meaning is

even more apparent, with Reznor’s cry against life, and Cash’s warning against death.
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Through visuals, audience, and tone, the polarity in meaning behind Nine Inch

Nails and Johnny Cash’s interpretations of “Hurt” are apparent. Reznor’s being an

egocentric testimony about digging his own grave through mistakes made, and Cash’s

telling of how his grave is near, and how he wishes that the good times would have

lasted longer. With these differences in paradigms, it is evident that the pasts that

shaped these two individuals caused two parallel messages through the same lyrics

provided.
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Works Cited

Cash, Johnny. “Hurt.” Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI

O'Gorman, Martin. “How Covering Hurt Gave Johnny Cash's Career a New

Lease of Life.” Radio X, Radio X, 12 Sept. 2020,

www.radiox.co.uk/features/why-did-johnny-cash-cover-hurt/. Accessed 17 Feb.

2021.

Reznor, Trent. “Hurt.” Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbHz9p7Z4OU