Hurt by Nine Inch Nails [Album "The Downward Spiral"], covered by Johnny Cash

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bvc

Bluelighter
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Aug 26, 2025
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So notsmokeymcpot42088​

mentioned this song in the "Primo Covers v. Better Than The Original" thread. I've never seen or heard any variation of either version of the song, or the music video. I like both artists. I just figured I'd post all the shit in one place so as to compile it or whatever. Didn't want to clutter up the thread so I just made a separate one. I don't currently feel for the song enough to do a write-up of it. Just wanted to present everything in one place. Cheers.

Lyrics: The same basically except Trent Reznor tells us "I wear this crown of shit" while Johnny Cash tells us "I wear this crown of thorns".

The original recordings [Nine Inch Nails, Remastered by Youtube user [Brian Martens Music]: [Johnny Cash by Youtube user [The Match Me Podcast]:



Johnny Cash's video:



I don't have any feelings for the song(s) either way; some prefer one or the other, some like both; some talk of "the best", some of "my favorite", etc. Some consider the songs themselves, some seem to use the video itself when comparing. I don't know.

An clip with an interview with Trent Reznor about the song and Johnny Cash covering it:


The wikipedia article here.

Apparently, there's a live version featuring David Bowie singing along with Trent Reznor:

'

!: (Apparently the owner on youtube is forcing you to watch on youtube).

And if that wasn't enough, the song is also used in a video to promote Canada's The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), affiliated with the University of Toronto. I can't embed it here, because of fucking space ["no more than 5 pieces of media"] limits falling in bluelight's thread rules. So here's the link. (Damn, denied twice (once by bluelight, once by youtbe), once more and we're in biblical territory)).
 
Blew my mind when I learned the Johnny Cash version wasn't the original. He certainly made it his own. Heartbreaking music video too with the context of his wife's sudden death and his own impending demise.

I'm more of a NIN fan generally don't listen to a lot of country music but I prefer the cash version by a solid margin. Unpopular opinion but DS is probably my least favourite NiN album barring the weird shit like Ghosts.
 
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