Posted on 09/16/2023 6:40:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Plus, Rick Rubin on how Cash "looked at me like I was insane" Remembering The Man In Black's stunning Nine Inch Nails cover 20 years to the day after his death
It's 20 years to the day since we lost The Man In Black. The country star was one of the genre's defining stars throughout an uncompromising career that spanned half a century.
"Having Johnny Cash, one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, want to cover your song, that's something that matters to me"
But for many (at the time) younger music fans, it was the Man In Black's remorselessly sparse 2002 cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt and its accompanying video that made them sit up and take notice of the country legend.
Hurt originally debuted on Nine Inch Nails' 1994 album The Downward Spiral, before Cash performed it on the 4th of his epic American Recording series of albums, under the guidance of uber-producer Rick Rubin.
When they met, Cash had no idea who Rubin was. Speaking on the BBC's Desert Island Discs, the producer said, “He didn’t know who I was, but he wanted to understand why I would want to work with him because why would anyone want to work with him? In his mind, he was done,” Rubin said.
“I didn’t convince him. We just sat and talked for a while, and I said, ‘Well, let’s just sit down and play me songs you love, and we’ll figure out what to do.’
"He sat in my living room and he just started playing me these songs, most of which I had never heard, old country songs, or old folk songs, and it was magnificent.”
Later, Rubin said, “I played him the song [Hurt] first and Johnny just looked at me like I was insane, because the Nine Inch Nails version of the song is very noisy, aggressive,”
“Johnny was wary! [Laughs] And I think I did a demo where I had a guitar player play it, and I said the words the way I imagined him saying it, and then when he heard the lyrics, and he heard the format of what it could be, he said, ‘Let’s try it.’”
"I'd been friends with Rick Rubin for several years," he said at the time. "He called me to ask how I'd feel if Johnny Cash covered Hurt.
In 2008, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor spoke to British tabloid The Sun about his first hearing of Cash's spine-tinglingly emotive version.
"I said I'd be very flattered but was given no indication it would actually be recorded.
"Two weeks went by. Then I got a CD in the post. I listened to it and it was very strange. It was this other person inhabiting my most personal song.
"I'd known where I was when I wrote it. I know what I was thinking about. I know how I felt. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend. It felt invasive."
It was the moving video, though, that made it all fall into place for the Nine Inch Nails star: "It really, really made sense and I thought what a powerful piece of art.
"I never got to meet Johnny but I'm happy I contributed the way I did. It felt like a warm hug. I have goosebumps right now thinking about it.
"Having Johnny Cash, one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, want to cover your song, that's something that matters to me. It's not so much what other people think but the fact that this guy felt that it was worthy of interpreting.
"He said afterwards it was a song that sounds like one he would have written in the '60s and that's wonderful".
I think it could hurt to have somebody so relatively effortlessly improve your work.
Cash’s version is definitely better than the original.
Great song off of a great album. The Man Comes Around is my favorite song off of that one. Zack Snyder used it to great effect in the into to Dawn of the Dead.
I was a Cash fan before being a Cash fan was cool with the new kids.
His “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” is powerful, along with a host of other songs, but his rendition of “Hurt” (along with the video) makes me weep.
Ecclesiastes with a country twang.
I have spent my life in classical and jazz music, loved bluegrass and avoided country, but I cannot watch and listen to Cash’s “Hurt” without breaking down into tears.
What have I become, my sweetest friend?
Everyone I know goes away in the end.
I agree, The Cash version was much better.
x2. I never thought anything written by Reznor could be that good.
“I think it could hurt to have somebody so relatively effortlessly improve your work.”
I’m sure it really can be. I have heard that Nina Simone was very annoyed that Eric Burdon & the Animals had such a big hit with her song “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good”. Which is an amazingly good song and they did an amazing version of it.
But I always thing Burdon & Co. had the edge, because to me that song makes more sense from a man. But, she did write it. So, ART!
Cash’s version of Hurt is also amazing. And so is Chrissie Hynde’s version of Creep.
I find one way to test a song, to see if it is a good song even if it is not to my taste, is to transpose it into another genre.
If, in the case of this song, Cash took a grunge rock genre song and turned into a classic country song and it’s fantastic. To me, even though I’m not a fan of grunge rock, it’s obviously a fantastic song on its own merits.
I saw Johnny Cash in concert twice. Both shows were excellent.
The Cash version along with the video really took you somewhere. It made me respect Johnny Cash even more than l already did. Truly great.
Bookmarking.
What really almost made me lose it is when June appears. The way she's looking at what her husband is doing to himself. You can practically hear her asking Johnny "Why?"
Sometimes the covers are better than the Original
Kudos to Trent to have publicly acknowledged that.
I requested a cover of an old depeche tune once. It was good
What a great article. I love Johnny Cash’s video version.
There was a video team among the members who produced a daily in-house television program. One day it was noted that the date was Friday the 13th. One of the video crew asked if we could have fun with that and I told him absolutely.
So the team took the camera and videoed various staff and members looking horrified and trying to flee. That was used with a bunch of clips of Jason Vorhees from the Friday the 13th movies. And it was all set to Johnny Cash's "Ain't No Grave".
I was REALLY darn proud of them for coming up with that :-D
rent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails was not grunge it’s industrial, which, if anything, is farther away from country than grunge.
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