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Zack Snodgrass

Professor Leonard

English 1201

February 13th, 2022

Too Hurt

Pain is a feeling many know, but none seek out this feeling as it is not fun to be hurt. Pain

can look like scraping a knee on the concrete, having a broken arm, or even burning oneself, but

the worst pain is the pain that is not seen. Feeling hurt by a person or by the actions of oneself is

a truly awful feeling. In the two songs “Hurt” by the original creators Nine Inch Nails and by

then by the cover artist Johnny Cash they both convey serious hurt through the emotions of each

song and the visual displays of each video. Nine Inch Nails talks about the struggle of sadness

and coping with drug addiction and going back to drugs, but also realizing that the drugs had not

helped at all. The Johnny Cash version is about the pain he feels in his life coming to the

realization it's almost over and reflecting on the past mistakes and achievements. In “Hurt” the

two artists Nine Inch Nails and Johnny Cash express their regret and hatred for their lives, but

each artist's feelings of depression, sickness, and pain are different as Nine Inch Nails is written

about the suffering of drug addiction and suicide and Johnny Cash is about regret with his own

life and the coping with death.

Nine Inch Nails' version of the song is extremely depressing as it is said the song

intention was to be a suicide note about not being able to get over his addiction with drugs. The

original “Hurt” was sung live in Nebraska as Trent Razor (the singer of Nine Inch Nails) wanted

the song to have a painful sound to the lyrics and he thought that sound couldn't be replicated in
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a studio by himself so it was sung live and then recorded. The song is very quiet at points and

sometimes slow and methodical. They almost want the audience to barely hear what they are

saying as if the writer was embarrassed about what has done in his past. As the song goes on the

music gets louder with a booming “And you could have it all, my empire of dirt, I will let you

down, I will make you hurt…” (1:50-2:11) Solidifying the pain he feels always letting others

down with his actions. Trent Razor told people that “Hurt” might have been his favorite song as

it really meant a lot to who he was at the time of his and what it would take to get over his

addictions and suicidal thoughts. They really pull at the strings of the listener as it is easy to fall

down a rabbit hole trying to understand the full meaning of the song and its writer, but we are

going to have to be content with the uneasy dread the song leaves the listener.

As Nine Inch Nails' song is about depression and drug addiction, Johnny Cash’s version

somewhat reflects the original with its lyrics and mood. Johnny Cash puts a twist on his song as

it is more about the regret of his life as he also dealt with drug addiction and many other issues

such as divorce and criminal records. At first Johnny was not interested in singing the song for

his last album as he thought it was bland and not appealing, but after a lot of convincing by the

video producer Rick Ruban it was recorded. Rick knew that Johnny's voice was extremely weak

and he knew Johnny needed something to sing with emotion and not grandiose deep tones.

Johnny sang the song and got the rhythm he liked, but didnt love. Johnny still wasn't convinced

he loved the song, but as he sang the song again and again he started to put in a lot of emotion,

sadness, and pain in the lyrics. Johnny fell in love with the version he created, but had a hard

time listening to it after the video was produced and compiled as it pulled out many memories of

his life that he regretted. It was hard for Johnny to look back on his life and see what he had done
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and what he wasn't proud of. Looking on the outside in, many could say he lived an amazing life,

but we don't really know what went on behind the scenes of Johnny's life. When Trent Razor,

singer for Nine Inch Nails found out about Johnny Cash covering his song he was extremely

angry as the song meant so much to him, but then he listened to the song and his mind was

changed very quickly as he praised Johnny for his amazing voice and the aluad to drug addiction

but also the regret that he had for the actions of his life.

As most songs do, “Hurt” pulls at the emotions and heart strings of the audience using

Pathos. The original and every cover of the song “Hurt” uses emotion to capture the true feeling

the singer is conveying as well as a strong support of videos to help. Both songs are sung by

legends in the music industry and both versions will go down as two of the saddest, heart

wrenching songs to have ever been sung. The reason these songs will go down in infamy is the

reason they were sung as a way to convey pain and sadness as everyone feels sad at one point in

their lives and turning to these songs to understand that it's okay to be sad is why they are so

popular. “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails and “Hurt” by Johnny Cash are amazing songs and embody

each artist's feelings of depression, sickness, and pain, but are different as Nine Inch Nails is

written about the suffering of drug addiction and suicide and Johnny Cash is about regret with

his own life and the coping with death.

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Works Cited Page

Cash, Johnny. “Johnny Cash - Hurt.” YouTube, 13 Sept. 2019,

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

Garate, Cesar. “Nine Inch Nails Hurt Official Video.” YouTube, 12 Sept. 2009,

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