[midlife 150] #142: johnny cash “hurt”

#142 Hurt by Johnny Cash (taken from American IV: The Man Comes Around, 2002)

The song is by Nine Inch Nails, of course. But it is also by Johnny Cash, in that when you listen to it, it doesn’t merely feel re-recorded. It feels re-written.

The lyrics take on new meaning – and attract yet more meaning when set to the Mark Romanek’s powerful video – while the musical tweaks (mostly removing the dissonance that gives the original its more disturbing veneer) move the song into Cash Country, or at least its borderlands.

The result is an astounding meditation (if such a thing is possible) on mortality, regret and the futility of the past.

This review is part of close to 94 ‘s [midlife 150] series, which counts down favourite music 1970-2009.