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".
Ask Bruce Springsteen. Bruce has actually never had a number 1 hit. Well, technically, he did. As Songwriter, when Manfred Mann's cover of "Blinded by the Light" went #1. MM also covered "Spirit in the Night" much better than Bruce. While she actually performed it first, Patti Smith's version of Springsteen's "Because the Night" was better. The Band with "Atlantic City", etc.
And to tie back to Johnny Cash, his covers of Bruce's "Highway Patrolman" and "Johnny 99" were better than Bruce's. In the end, I guess Bruce was a much better songwriter than performer.
relating Smokey, Marvin, Gladys and CCR to “I Heard it Thru the Grapevine.”
>> Cash’s version is definitely better than the original. <<
Cash’s PERFORMANCE is definitely better than the original. But what Cash did was shine cut a rock into a diamond, and reveal that under all that shock-value crap, Reznor had created something rather beautiful.
“Closer” is a desperate search for a cure; “Wish” is simply hatred. But wih “Hurt” Reznor hit something real. Tbe brilliance of Rubin introducing Cash to Hurt was recognizing that without the external crap, Hurt was something that could be in common to both an angry, young punk and a legendary, dying old man.
>> In the end, I guess Bruce was a much better songwriter than performer. <<
Welll... Blinded By the Light may be the most insipid song of the 1970s. Hell, it includes “Chopsticks” where you might expect a guitar solo!
Bruce’s problem is that most of the time, his singing sounds like my uncle’s old dog who’d snarl, bark and growl while he’d attack my shoe laces. He actually sounds great on those rare occasions when he belts; as pissy as it makes the Rolling Stones journalists, there’s no question to me in the slightest why his biggest hits were Born to Run, Hungry Heart, Dancing in the Dark, Born in the USA and Glory Days! (Streets of Philadelphia was also popular, but Gawd, he sounds like he’s a patient at an old-folks’ home muttering to himself.) (My Hometown is more like his mumbly crap, but sung clearer and therefore also popular.)
One of my favorites!….with Molly Skaggs rendering
That was a great scene. Here it is:
Bookmark
I was never a Cash fan but always a NIN fan. I’ll take Cash’s rendition over Reznor’s all day long. The whole CD is soulful.
Right. I remember an interview with some member of Deep Purple to this day he still gets 5 figure residuals for just one song.
Take a guess what that song is?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZvPSpLxCg&t=7s&ab_channel=TearsForFearsVEVO
and the original was very good too.
Thats “Mad World” by Tears for Fears - 1982. Right?
This has to be the best cover of it ever. Similar to your link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVevvbFNKiY
The one a lot of people love is by Gary Jules from a late 90s movie.
Let me guess… Is it pretty much the first song that everyone who learns to play a guitar, learns how to play?
Donnie Darko is the movie. Never seen it. It free on youtube. Thanks
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