That’s the part that always gets me...it’s like he’s saying goodbye. Ultimately, I’m curious...which was his greater love? June or music? Either is beautiful. Opinions are what they are, but for me, this is the greatest cover. I’m a NIN fan, but this cover transcends the original when it was adopted as the life story and farewell song for one of the greatest artists of all time.
I got the impression the big crescendo at the end of the original was meant to symbolise Trent's character ending it, more like a self obituary than any deep digging
When you hear NIN, it's all the angst and regret felt with that intensity and passion of youth. Powerful song. And then here come Johnny Cash, and lets take that song through the lens of 70 years of a hard life, the mistakes, the regrets.... damn.
I agree I think they both are very powerful in their own meaning, where the NIN's version feels more like the feelings of angst, isolation, crippling depression, and not being understood, while Johnny Cash's version is more about the past and what he wishes could have gone different or had something else. Making it a very reflective song from two very different angles
Aye. NIN certainly did a very good job, but Cash had several decades on them when it came to bad choices and regret about all he did wrong. As I recall Trent Reznor of NIN (who wrote it?) pretty much agreed that it was a Johnny Cash song after that cover. If the original artist (who, let me remind you did a very good job) hands it over to you it does say something.
They're both really good in their own right, and emotional for different reasons; there's simply no comparing them, as they are effectively different songs.
But one guy wrote the words. Another guy just sang them. Regardless of how the words resonates with JC, who I adore, they aren’t his. This song is way to personal to give JC credit. Trent Reznor was at his lowest point and gave this to the world. Most folks wouldn’t dare do such a thing.
I dont think it is that I think she could feel how much more pain johnny has already went through, his life of pain, opposed to trent's feel of a much younger pain
Imo, hurt, without the context of the downward spiral, might as well be a "who beat covered this katy perry song?" The journey is the meaning, the ideation of the end and the continuation and aftermath, the guilt, surrender, and wishing that things could have been any other way, that's all crucial to a much deeper understanding of the style and body of work of NIN as a whole.
@@maestrozero117 This so much. While Hurt is a deeply personal song by Trent I still think you only hear half of it without the Album it is embedded in. The rest of American III or IV (I forgot which one) is just asorted other cover songs in a time where an album is often not considered a holistic piece of art (but I still enjoy his covers).
Last week I laid my final grandparent, my grandfather, to rest. He chose all the music for his own funeral. To start it off was Johnny Cash. Sure miss my dad and grandparents. Would give anything to visit with them again. I know they are all in Heaven right now and I will see them again.
I see a lot of comments saying Johnny Cash's version gives them a sense of hope while NIN's feels really dark. But honestly, I get the reverse of that. NIN's version gives me hope because during the beginning, and first half, for that matter, its him/the character facing suicidal thoughts and a feeling of hopelessness, thinking its just not worth it. And then in the second chorus, when it picks up more, I feel like thats kinda the sun rising up. And he may still feel horrible and depressed but has a sliver, a tiny sense of hope, after seeing the light in the shadows, that maybe things can get better, and he can dig himself out of the hole hes in. I think the main thing that makes me think this is the fox at the end going back on the stages of decay. And Johnny's version makes me feel as if its a goodbye, a look back on the life hes leaving behind, all his regrets, everything. It feels less hopeful and more accepting a fate that he must face. And the closing of the piano at the end is almost the opposite of the fox at the end of NIN's version. Its a definite end, a closing to the song and in a sense his life.
Agreed, and it's accurate if you look at what happened to both of them after their respective versions. Trent cleaned up and looks great, now has an Oscar winning career. Where as Johnny died like 7 months after this video?
@@joelangrehr6184 agreed. That's exactly how I see it with both versions. I love NIN. And I admire Cash, and with that, the fact that they create two path ways for the same song is beautiful. Youth in revolt, yet elderly in regret.
Regarding the Johnny Cash version, I watched a BBC biography piece about him, and they asked his own kids about the video. Rosanne Cash noted that Johnny's secretary had sent all the kids a copy before it went public and she recalled her sister calling her immediately and telling her to "Be Careful." In my opinion the imagery captured in this video is some of the most powerful I have ever seen, particularly in a music video. While just hearing it... it's a great cover, different enough from the source material to be cool, especially if you are a fan of both Cash and NiN. It's the video complement to the song that hits you like a truck. I've seen people remark that they think it's because Reznor wrote it about drug addiction, while thinking Johnny made it all about his mortality, a lot of folks either don't know, or forget that Cash struggled with addiction much of his life as well, so I strongly suspect he was well aware of the subject matter. But it can't be denied he also made it about his mortality, I think he also put a lot of his life's regrets into it as well. I think it's great that you engage your kids in things that you enjoy, and get their opinions, one of the greatest gifts I got from my parents and grandparents was a wide range of interests. Well done sir.
I think you are spot on with this summary, the cover itself is immense and is a credit to Johnny Cash as an artist. For this to be effectively his swan song should remind us all that you can have all the power and fancy things in the world, but when the time comes there will always be regrets.
Cash 100% knew and felt the original intent of the song... it just so happened it was also fitting as his last hoorah as it were. His earlier life was a roller coaster of addiction and pain, at the end of your life you realize there are no do overs. I imagine that the pain of that realization was what we all hear when we hear it. I hear both versions and I love them both because they feel like two songs instead of an original and a cover.
Rezor's version may have been about drug addiction, but that automatically makes it about mortality, too. Trust me, as a former drug addict myself, all you think about in those rock bottom moments is your wasted life, and your inevitable early death.
matthew gill - seems I gave you too much credit... A nice, drawnout unmedicated withdrawal'd do you a world of good and gladden several hearts, esp.mine. And please spare me your illiterate, wanna-be, comicbubble answers.
I've seen it dozens of times, heard it audio-only dozens more... it never DOESN'T HIT, and HARD. I have shed many tears to this, never a single tear wasted.
NIN gives me empty numb feelings which fits the theme but Johnny Cash's version gives me deep raw feelings which also fits the theme both GREAT VERSIONS!!!
maybe i am wrong, but i am certain June Carter Cash had already moved on prior to this video? and thus the true meaning of "you are someone "else", but I am still right "here". they are together today.
The Johnny Cash version makes my eyes instantly tear up every time i hear it. The raw hurt in the way he sings this in tribute to his wife is telling knowing he will join her soon after...
Johnny Cash version feels like a man who's lived a long life and lost so much Trent's version feels like a young mans suicide note. That hits me harder
I was an angsty teen when NiN released Hurt .. and I found it fitting and relevant and moving to my life at the time. When Cash's version came out, the older view to it that Cash provided aged well with me. The cover, and the imagery of the video, "fits" better as an adult looking back at my life and hits harder as a result. That's no discredit to the impact it had when it came out. Both are good reminders to be conscious of the decisions you make because you may come to regret them later in life.
NIN's version resonates with us Trent fans who grew to like his abrasive style, but I do have to say Johnny's life experience really poured through the song amazingly. One of the last true legends in music
I agree 100% with, and can relate to your comment. What an honor to have an older country legend cover a young mans industrial/metal/alternative song like this! That doesn't happen often!
What’s truly great about both of them is that they represent the age of the person singing them. The NIN version is about the anger and rage of youth and the Cash version is about the pain and regret of old age. Kudos to Trent Reznor either way.
I agree. It seems to me that Trent does a lot of things to kind of hide the raw emotion and pain that's in the song... I recall reading an interview where he admitted that he whispered some of the vocals and added a bunch of noise and stuff to the mix to sort of obscure his voice because he didn't quite feel confident enough to put himself out there... seems odd for Reznor of all people to say that but it was almost too close to home for him. Cash though, having lived an entire hard life and facing the end, just puts it all front and center, and while Reznor's version sneaks up on you, Cash's version of the song pretty much just punches you in the mouth. Both great records, but to this day the Cash one gives me chills every time I hear it.
I remember seeing NIN do a "cover" of Cash's version of their song on tv shortly after his passing. They played his videos throughout the song and played with his instruments (more acoustic instead of electric). It was a good tribute.
Johnny Cash did a full album of covers shortly before dying including this song. I think it was his way of saying hello and goodbye to the younger generations by paying tribute to songs he highly respected and could relate to by younger artists he respected. It was his way of connecting his legacy to the legacy of those who came after him.
I discovered Johnny Cash when I was 15. I'm gonna be 18 this year and I've been listening to him ever since. I'm an old-soul, I love singers from the 50s and 60s.
I think it shows how the exact same words said by two different people can have such different meanings. That's why opinions are so individual - the same lyrics mean different things.
I love BOTH versions, each bring there own style and emotions to the song.. But I do wish u picked a studio ver. for NiN "hurt" so u get a better experience then listen to Cash.
Glitch in the Matrix Multi-Media The Downward Spiral is more impactful when you take it as a whole, and that includes the visuals such the album art and the concert set up. I think you get a better idea of what the song is from the live version, so I think you did the right thing.
*Cash owns that song, his life, his legacy, his conviction. It's the most heartbreaking thing to watch and hear.* "What have I become, my sweetest friend" "Everyone I know goes away in the end" "You could have it all" I cant help thinking about him singing this after June passed and how empty he feels without her. Like he isnt himself anymore and he would give everything to see her for one more minute.
One of the things I think is so cool is that Johnny Cash could hear the NiN version and respect it enough to cover it. Hard to imagine lots of older people that can see through years to hear the power of the lyrics inside the modern music.
@@Warchild0311 Rick Ruben was the producer for all of the albums in the American series. +Ed Collins It may come down to semantics and opinions on what "shortly" means, but it was 6 months later. For me, at least, that's a bit longer than I would consider "shortly."
Ed Collins, this is super simplifying what he actually said. After hearing it first, he said he felt violated, like someone kissed his GF. He also found it unremarkable. But after seeing it with the video, this is what gave it it's impact.
Did you know that this is the 2nd time Johnny Cash covered a song that the original performer/songwriter said it was now his? The first time was when he covered Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down."
I love both versions, when nin first performed it I cried... when JC performed it I couldn't stop crying and playing it over and over. Having already loved the song I had a predisposition to love the cover. However, by JC doing it slow and acoustic it just drives the emotion home. If I were an actor this would be my go to for a crying scene 😭 It's so sad yet you don't want it to end
You perfectly explain why I'm glad that I'm not burdened with all of the useless emotions normal people have. I heard the NIN when it came out and thought it a great chill'n groove song that gives the warm and fuzzies. The Cash version has so much more power and I find myself grooving to it unconsciously with the super warm and fuzzies.
I have three daughters with the youngest being 13. Just seeing how you explain things to her and the interest she shows just warms my heart. My girls sporadically show interest in music that I admire but I think this is an interesting idea for me to try with them just so we could spend time together and also they’d see what songs shaped me.
1. He failed using the live version with all the avant-garde imagery, alienating his daughter 2. The fact that it had a whole montage of Johnny's life changed the tone of his cover
My thoughts exactly. He should have shown the original studio version of Reznor's Hurt, then doing the same with Johnny Cash's version. No videos, just the music...
The Cash version is even more emotional when you realize that his mobility was limited and eye sight was failing due to diabetes by that time. In the end he had his bedroom converted to a studio, so that he could continue recording. For Johnny Cash's fans, Hurt was his swan song.
Great review! I was coming back from a long day in Redding California, heading home towards Nevada City California when I heard Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt" shortly after he had died. I was quite moved by it and thought about it long afterwards. Loved Johnny's voice, sounding tired and old... and yet, what a perfect song for him to do. And what a wonderful remembrance of the man.
This is so awesome, sharing these with your daughter. My girls grew up (19 and 17) listening to dads music in the car.... NIN, DMB, Metallica, Sarah McLaughlin, etc.
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I have always preferred the Nails version. The intentional tri-tone dissonance hammering you to make you feel the pain.
The NIN version is better IMO as well. I love JC but damn the whispering on the studio version was soo much more powerful. You don't really hear it on the live version.
You and me both, Michael!!! And I always preface my opinion by saying the same thing. It's Trent's song and will always be Trent's song to me. The Johnny Cash version is fine, but it doesn't have the power of Trent's.
@@GlitchintheMatrixMultiMedia JC's version is more easily digestible. Like your daughter said, the lyrics are more discernible and the music is a more popular style. However, watching Trent perform it, you can feel that he feels every word of that song; it really is his song. The optics of Trent's video may be a bit off-putting, but that is an extension of the lyrics and the pain therein. It fits that the animal in the end is re-animated as Trent sings "I would keep myself, I would find a way." There's still hope in Trent's darker versuon, whereas JC's version seems more final without chance for redemption as closes his piano, seemingly resolved to his fate. The ending really twists the overall meaning of the song.
Your kids are really going to appreciate being able to look back on this time with you as they get older. It's really nice to see such cool interactions between kids and parents. Well done sir.
Cash’s cover of Hurt, Disturbed’s cover of The Sound of Silence, and Bad Wolves’ cover of Zombie are some of my favorite covers, not just of recent years but of all time. They’re all incredibly powerful, deep, and relevant, despite the originals being many years, and even decades old.
June Carter-Cash passed away 3 months after this video and Johnny Cash passed away 4 months after his wife passed. Their daughter, Roseanne Cash, also a singer, told her dad that song sounded like he was saying, "Goodbye ", to which he replied, "I am." Reznor dealt with depression in his version. Cash was seeing that his end. was near.
I'm in the minority but I love Trent's version more. The Downward Spiral is such a masterpiece of an album that the song as a closer means so much. Throughout the album he battles addiction and basically becoming a machine and shell of is former self, causing him to use substances and thinfs like sex to fill the void. Up until.the end he just chronicles the stuff he goes through, and after realizing what he's done and how he's affected all those around him and his own life (this is where many fans are split) he either commits suicide in the song "The Downward Spiral" and Hurt is the character reflecting on his life as a dead man, or he survived the attempt and is now reflecting on his life in the eyes of a man who almost killed himself.
Thanks for all the notes on that. From what I see with comments, there is either a VERY strong opinioin toward NIN or vice versa with Johnny Cash. Thanks for the breakdown, I love learning info like that.
That album is a masterpiece of dark demented music but it's not for everyone I can't imagine your daughter listening too it, it's too much dark complex music for her 😆 . Good album. Johnny Verison also but it feels like a different song, I love both version. Johnny Cash version gives me hope whole Trent sounds hopeless. Both are meaningful but Trent's darker.
@@sussychachi I don't know if I would say it's too complex or dark for her. That album came out when I was her age and it wasn't too dark or complex for me or my friends. On the other hand, it might be! Given what she tends to be drawn to, judging from these videos, I'm inclined to say she probably wouldn't "like" it, but I think she would understand it. Just two cents from a rando.
I actually tried explaining this song(s) to my daughter who's 14 and mildly autistic but I sadly she isn't really capable of grasping these types of emotions. But I can see Trent's pain as a former opiate addict myself and I love the live version cuz the pain in his voice and the imagery of the death and decay and the reversal of the decay at the end showing you that death is finite and there is no rewind button for bad choices. But where Trent's gives me chills Johnny's brings me to tears especially when you think of all he must have seen and the regrets he had. But also when you think of the fact that June dies right after her cameo in the video and before it actually premiered, and how Johhny followed her just a few months later, almost like he lost the will to live after losing the love of his life of nearly 4 decades he just gave up and let himself go.
I have mild autism as well, and, from my own experiences and those of the other autistic people I know, we can't experience certain emotions necessarily as they're conveyed through song, especially if we haven't felt them ourselves. That said, most of us can feel these strong emotions sometimes and we have no idea how to express them. You know your daughter better than I, of course, just throwing that piece out there, especially for those who have less experience with autistic people. We do feel emotions-sometimes even stronger than others-but just can't express them.
The original by Nine Inch Nails makes me tear up. Because, I can relate more with Trent Reznor. The places he goes in the Downward Spiral album, are places I've been. Johnny Cash did an incredible cover. One that recieved praise by Trent Reznor himself. The cover and original are from two differing points of view. I refuse to put one against the other as if it's a competition. Because logically speaking, if Trent never wrote the song, Johnny Cash could've never covered it. May he rest in peace.
You remind me of my dad so much. In all the best ways. Thanks to him I grew up listening to queen and zep and Pink Floyd and it shaped by taste in music forever. Keep doing it dad. Teach the kids everything. You rule. And your wife (the Pearl Jam can) as well. Rock on guys! 🤘🏻
Trent wasn't the only one not eager for Johnny to cover the song. His wife and daughter(s?) tried to dissuade him from doing it. It was just too raw, real and too close for comfort. Trent Reznor couldn't have written a more perfect Johnny Cash bio if he tried.
It is amazing to watch the two of you watching these videos. You are so hopeful she will enjoy these songs, it's in your eyes the whole way through... and how relieved you look that your daughter enjoyed them. I know that feeling when showing my daughters music I like as well. Great video on a great song
Aside from doing a terrific song, pretty inspiring to see a father and daughter doing something so cool. I try to teach my 5 year old daughter about music all the time and we were just talking about this song, and the cover yesterday, so it was great to show her this. Thank You both!
Wow - this is so topical for me. Was listening to Cash version with my own Father last weekend & discussed with my friends in our Whatsapp group how it's 30 years since Pretty Hate Machine came out. Seen NIN twice & Trent was always a favourite of mine, & still is now I'm aged 40. I also love Cash's music, Ring Of Fire became an unofficial anthem for Liverpool, my football club. I enjoy both versions equally for different versions. NIN for its raw emotion & Cash as its a goodbye letter, looking over his mistakes, as if he knew his time was shortly to be over. Both amazing.
I have always thoroughly loved both versions but I've never watched them back to back like this. I must admit when Cash's version started, it brought a few tears.
Oh how I wish you had picked the studio version....! I absolutely love the original, and will always pick that one!! Can’t count how many times that song made me tear up, and it still does to this day....
One is an addict who's pushed everyone away and ruined his life at his age already, the other is a man who lived the life of success and sits there at the end of it all wondering where it all went, how he had it all yet doesn't feel like it. Money isn't everything. Those he loved have passed on and soon will be him. Both are sad. But as someone who hasn't reached that age yet, and sadly with a certain history, I connect with NIN's version way more. The way his voice breaks and he whispers.... I feel the pain and can't help but tear up. Trent is just an incredible artists and someone who has suffered a lot but sharing his pain has helped him and helped so many. I'm glad he's still with us after all he went through. An inspiration to keep going. Don't give up no matter how shit it gets.
It's a great reaction video... Dad loving it, letting the music affect him. Daughter, first time to be exposed just sat absorbing and taking it all in.
I’ve always felt like they both represent very different types of pain and anguish both in performance and in musical composition. Cash’s version is (in my opinion) a pretty mellow but deep pain which he’s lived with for a very long time and is almost looking forward to leaving behind once he dies but NIN’s version is just so visceral and heart-wrenching, especially since they keep the tritones in the verses which really accentuates the positive sound of the choruses. I feel very sad hearing the Cash version but I sob my eyes out to the original because it reminds me so much of being at my worst and feeling that absolute gut wrenching pain and disgust with myself.
" Hurt " I discovered it when I was 13 years old, I understood it at 25, a year ago. I'm referring to the girl right now " whatever happens in your life, don't let your heart die. Bad things may happen, that's not a good reason to isolate yourself from the feelings, which are difficult to manage sometimes and too frail as the ages goes by" You and your father seem to be very happy, and I feel so emotional when I see happy people sharing moments. It's beautiful. Stay safe, Love from Italy.
yeah.. once the heart grows cold its no easy fix .. if any at all, to revitalize it. a lifetime of regrets is not something i wish on m yworst enemy. its pretty shit. :(
Both versions are great and it is amazing how the same song became totally different song in the hands of Johnny Cash. Cash version is also easier to understand, while the NIN version might take several listens to get into. (Ps. I was expecting more comments about the versions and reasons behind them. )
First off, it is really cool to see a dad spend time with his daughter and do interesting things together. I am a NIN fan and I always loved this song when I was 20 years old and struggling with depression. Then Johnny Cash came along and did the most unexpected cover I could imagine and not only that, it was great and I was surprised how well the lyrics transferred to a folk-country song. I love both versions but I think I like the Johnny Cash song better, it has more emotional impact and I think it is because it is more relatable to the general audience and what it is like for a man to look back on his life many years later with regret and loneliness.
there's a video on here with Trent talking about this. he did not have any problem with Johnny covering the song, and he never really expected it to happen. well it happened, and they sent Trent the audio CD of the song and he said it didn't sound right, not that he could put his finger on it, but it just didn't sound right. not long after, he got a copy of the video and he said when they watched it they had goosebumps and he finally "got it"...meaning the way Johnny covered it and that's when he said it was no longer his song, that it belonged to Johnny. you can find the video on here easily with a quick search
The first time I heard Johnny Cash's version the only version I had heard until later. I was in tears, actually me and a good buddy, were just listening to music and then that song came on and we both just started balling. Johnny Cash just made it one of those songs, it doesn't matter who you are that song will open you up.
Apparently I am the only one who just absolutely cannot hear a lot of the lyrics of NIN and of those lyrics that I can hear I am unable to understand what is being said. Cash is easily understood and moves me to tears. NIN MIGHT move me to tears if I could only understand what the heck he is saying. Well, hearing this 13 year old talk about the difficulty she had with hearing the words by NIN I feel somewhat better. I'm 60 years older than that child and if she has difficulty catching the lyrics on NIN I do not feel so much like a dinosaur because I cannot understand them. I thought you said she was in the video but then you said she died before the video was done. Now I'm really confused. Did I misunderstand?
Biggest difference in that comment is you'd have to consider the age and vibe of a NIN concert compared to Johnny Cash. If Reznor did Hurt in a one off nobody would cheer or scream. Your comparison just isn't relevant and makes no sense to be honest
Trent actually gave permission to cash too do it he felt honored that cash wanted to do it. When they sent him the cd at first he was focused on the music he was writing at the time. Plus he was depressed. But when they sent him the video he say down and took it all in. Felt overwhelmed and loved it
The Johnny Cash video for the single was recorded in February of 2003. June Carter Cash, his 2nd wife is, the woman on stairs; also a singer who toured with him and sang with him on several songs and is the person played by Reese Witherspoon alongside Joaquin Phoenix, in the biopic film of Cash and Carter, Walk the line. She had come over to check on her husband that day as his health was not so good. It was her that Cash attributed to rescuing him from his drug and Alcohol addiction when she married him. June Carter Cash passed away a few months after the video recording in May of 2003 and a bereaved Johnny Cash followed her a few months later in the September. The song is by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and is about his battle with addiction and depression. Cash also an addict and alcoholic for much of his early life spending time in Jail on half a dozen occasions for possession. The song encompasses the way both musicians life threads are woven together and entangled across the decades between them, so much so that Trent when he saw the video said it was like loosing his Girlfriend as the song had become Johnny's. Johnny was a campaigner for prison reform and the rights of Native Americans and much of his material reflected his own passions and darker past. Johnny Cash's star declined in the 80s and the Museum to his life with the smashed Gold Disk on the Floor, used as one of the backdrops to the video, ended up being shuttered. In the 1990s Rick Rubin of American Recordings more of a Rap, Punk and Metal, producer sought out Cash to record on their label, and offered Cash complete artistic freedom. With them his career revived and he brought out a his most critically acclaimed albums, the America series, bringing Cash to a new younger audience starring on The Simpsons and Headlining at Glastonbury in 1994. The 4th and penultimate album of the America series from which this is one of several Hit Singles: American IV: The Man Comes Around, was released in November of 2002 and he was still working on his final Album that was released posthumously.
I get why many people prefer Cash's cover as it's more digestible to your average listener. But the raw impact and challenging nature of the original will always elevate it over Cash's cover in my opinion. Cash's cover is flat, the original is impactful and dynamic.
Cash's cover carries more meaning I think, he didn't write it but it has greater impact because it's easier to relate to an old man at the dawn of his life who still has regrets than a still young bloke who has a future to fix all that
@@ant-onemusic444 the NIN original version has far more build up. listen to the orignal. very loud. put the lights out. listen to the music solely. it is FAR superior to the cash version.
I was not aware that the original way by Nine inch nails, thank you for letting me know :) NIN is rought to hear, but that is something I actually like, being 25. JC's version might be more my thing when I turn 60. With NIN I am in the angst and pain of the moment, JC is looking back on it. At least that is how it feels to me.
NochSoEinKaddiFan I was in my 20s when NIN came out with this song. I agree with you 100%. The cover is still second to me but I understand how it appeals to many people.
So cool to see you sharing music with your daughter! She seems so sweet and I think her dark hair and light eyes are such a lovely combination of features! 🙂
Trent Reznor wrote the song mostly about his heroin addiction. This guy should have played his daughter the NIN studio version as the live version is of poor audio quality.
Especially since Trent does all of the instruments and it is truly personal. I feel like they're just comparing music videos here which is not what Trent created.
As a father I love that you are sharing this with your daughter. My daughter is 2 and I love sharing everything I can with her. She loves music already and I share my favorite songs with her. She is my world. I think you can relate.
i feel like i _appreciate_ the nin version more - the haunting dissonance, the way it closes out the story of the downward spiral and how deep and dark a place it came from within trent. but... the way johnny sings that chorus, the insistent piano chords, the quivering in his voice that just pierces my soul. and the video really helps too. it's a hard decision. i'm not sure i could ever really say one is "better" than the other - they each convey their own emotions that are similar but also very different at the same time.
Trent Reznor is brilliant. I went to High School with him. He graduated from Mercer Area Jr./Sr. High School, Mercer PA, in 1983, and I graduated in 1984
Yes, I have spoken to Trent before, Our high school was very small, our TOWN was very small. but I was a goodie two shoes, and he was , shall I say NOT. My impression of him though was that he was a very nice guy, with an incredibly creative sense of humor. He was born and raised in that town, and I moved there when I was 13 from the suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA. so there were many who grew up with him, and knew him better than me, but yes I did know him.
Little trivia, Johnny discovered the great Merle Haggard on his prison concert tours. Merle was serving time at San Quentin (he was very young). The warden knew of Merle’s talent and introduced him to Johnny. They were instrumental in getting Merle paroled and thank God for it. One of the best Country artist and songwriters ever. Momma Tried and Sing Me Back Home are autobio’s from that time period and put Merle on the map to stardom.
Merle Haggard claims to have seen Johnny Cash at San Quentin (But not the show that became "At San Quentin"), but no, he never even talked to Johnny Cash at San Quentin. He was just in the audience. Cash didn't find out until 10 years later that Haggard was there.
Such a thoughtful young lady. It's really great to share the gift of music with loved ones. It's some of my greatest memories of my father. I still have that 16 year old enthusiasm for music. Great comparison between Cash and Reznor.
I DEFINITELY like Johnny Cash's cover better than Trent Reznor's original! However, you do Reznor a disservice by playing a live version vs the studio version by Johnny Cash!!! Play her Reznor's studio version!
I guess that it's because there is no official clip of this song with Trent singing. So he actually chosed a very good one since you can see the intensity that both of them are feeling towards the song.
J. Michael Salvetti 100% agree! Was very confused why he chose live version of Trent singing this song as the beginning is very low and gets lost in the crowd reaction.
Back in the day, a friend of mine borrowed me this tape, I literally had no idea what to expect. When this song started playing it was one of the most powerful musical experiences of my entire life. Just beautiful!
It's awesome to listen to someone that actually knows what he is talking about with these two videos. I love reaction videos, but sometimes, with people that are as iconic as Johnny Cash, it's almost annoying to hear them talk so completely clueless about someone they know nothing about. So thank you. Wonderful review.
When I listen to Cash's version, I can BARELY make it to the vocals before the tears start. And they usually don't stop until a few minutes after the song ends. I feel like I'm listening to him die.
I can’t imagine how a 13 year old can relate to the angst of an older man, and the regrets that we experience. It takes experience to understand the mistakes in life that makes one realize how compromised one can become. I weep every time I see this video. I hear his pain. I understand his message.
He died seven months later after this song, so that imagine of him closing the piano was powerful, closing it for the last time
Oh wow, thanks for the facts on that. Appreciate it.
June was the woman on the staircase (the photo on the wall was Johnny’s mother, not her); she died 3 months after filming, Johnny 7.
Listen to the last track on American IV: The Man Comes Around, "We'll Meet Again" is Cash saying goodbye to all his listeners.
That’s the part that always gets me...it’s like he’s saying goodbye. Ultimately, I’m curious...which was his greater love? June or music? Either is beautiful.
Opinions are what they are, but for me, this is the greatest cover. I’m a NIN fan, but this cover transcends the original when it was adopted as the life story and farewell song for one of the greatest artists of all time.
Exactly he knew this was him signing off for the last time and purging himself of some regrets.
The NIN version is a young life of regret.
The Johnny Cash version is a lifetime full regret.
Exactly. You nailed it.
I got the impression the big crescendo at the end of the original was meant to symbolise Trent's character ending it, more like a self obituary than any deep digging
Great analogy.
A look back on time being on top and having it all; then looking up to see it has all came crashing down around you. R.I.P. Johnny.
Damn. THIS.
When you hear NIN, it's all the angst and regret felt with that intensity and passion of youth. Powerful song. And then here come Johnny Cash, and lets take that song through the lens of 70 years of a hard life, the mistakes, the regrets.... damn.
I agree I think they both are very powerful in their own meaning, where the NIN's version feels more like the feelings of angst, isolation, crippling depression, and not being understood, while Johnny Cash's version is more about the past and what he wishes could have gone different or had something else. Making it a very reflective song from two very different angles
Agreed
Joseph Hewitt I also agree . There's sadly the drug use inferences. I love both versions. I just hope this 13 yo can handle it.
Aye. NIN certainly did a very good job, but Cash had several decades on them when it came to bad choices and regret about all he did wrong. As I recall Trent Reznor of NIN (who wrote it?) pretty much agreed that it was a Johnny Cash song after that cover. If the original artist (who, let me remind you did a very good job) hands it over to you it does say something.
Nailed it.
They're both really good in their own right, and emotional for different reasons; there's simply no comparing them, as they are effectively different songs.
Well said
But one guy wrote the words. Another guy just sang them. Regardless of how the words resonates with JC, who I adore, they aren’t his. This song is way to personal to give JC credit. Trent Reznor was at his lowest point and gave this to the world. Most folks wouldn’t dare do such a thing.
Im glad that she has no idea of the pain Trent is trying to convey.
I dont think it is that I think she could feel how much more pain johnny has already went through, his life of pain, opposed to trent's feel of a much younger pain
Imo, hurt, without the context of the downward spiral, might as well be a "who beat covered this katy perry song?" The journey is the meaning, the ideation of the end and the continuation and aftermath, the guilt, surrender, and wishing that things could have been any other way, that's all crucial to a much deeper understanding of the style and body of work of NIN as a whole.
@@maestrozero117 This so much. While Hurt is a deeply personal song by Trent I still think you only hear half of it without the Album it is embedded in. The rest of American III or IV (I forgot which one) is just asorted other cover songs in a time where an album is often not considered a holistic piece of art (but I still enjoy his covers).
In young regret one has a long life to make up for mistake, old regret hurts more cause time is'nt on your side.
@@slenderman6925 i feel even though the 2 sing the same words. I feel they are very different messages
It's one of the very few songs that can reduce me to tears, both versions
The whininess of Trent and the epic farewell of Johnny makes those songs ethereal.
@Robin You don’t know anyone who feels the same pain as you. So stop assuming
Cash’s version brings me to tears every time I see it - EVERY SINGLE TIME . Such a powerful musical and visual combination- truly a work of art!
Last week I laid my final grandparent, my grandfather, to rest. He chose all the music for his own funeral. To start it off was Johnny Cash. Sure miss my dad and grandparents. Would give anything to visit with them again. I know they are all in Heaven right now and I will see them again.
I see a lot of comments saying Johnny Cash's version gives them a sense of hope while NIN's feels really dark. But honestly, I get the reverse of that. NIN's version gives me hope because during the beginning, and first half, for that matter, its him/the character facing suicidal thoughts and a feeling of hopelessness, thinking its just not worth it. And then in the second chorus, when it picks up more, I feel like thats kinda the sun rising up. And he may still feel horrible and depressed but has a sliver, a tiny sense of hope, after seeing the light in the shadows, that maybe things can get better, and he can dig himself out of the hole hes in. I think the main thing that makes me think this is the fox at the end going back on the stages of decay.
And Johnny's version makes me feel as if its a goodbye, a look back on the life hes leaving behind, all his regrets, everything. It feels less hopeful and more accepting a fate that he must face. And the closing of the piano at the end is almost the opposite of the fox at the end of NIN's version. Its a definite end, a closing to the song and in a sense his life.
Agreed, and it's accurate if you look at what happened to both of them after their respective versions. Trent cleaned up and looks great, now has an Oscar winning career. Where as Johnny died like 7 months after this video?
That's exactly what it Is
@@joelangrehr6184 agreed. That's exactly how I see it with both versions. I love NIN. And I admire Cash, and with that, the fact that they create two path ways for the same song is beautiful. Youth in revolt, yet elderly in regret.
Which makes them both perfect.
@@antdujar you did a really good job interpretating the songs man
Regarding the Johnny Cash version, I watched a BBC biography piece about him, and they asked his own kids about the video. Rosanne Cash noted that Johnny's secretary had sent all the kids a copy before it went public and she recalled her sister calling her immediately and telling her to "Be Careful." In my opinion the imagery captured in this video is some of the most powerful I have ever seen, particularly in a music video. While just hearing it... it's a great cover, different enough from the source material to be cool, especially if you are a fan of both Cash and NiN. It's the video complement to the song that hits you like a truck. I've seen people remark that they think it's because Reznor wrote it about drug addiction, while thinking Johnny made it all about his mortality, a lot of folks either don't know, or forget that Cash struggled with addiction much of his life as well, so I strongly suspect he was well aware of the subject matter. But it can't be denied he also made it about his mortality, I think he also put a lot of his life's regrets into it as well. I think it's great that you engage your kids in things that you enjoy, and get their opinions, one of the greatest gifts I got from my parents and grandparents was a wide range of interests. Well done sir.
I think you are spot on with this summary, the cover itself is immense and is a credit to Johnny Cash as an artist. For this to be effectively his swan song should remind us all that you can have all the power and fancy things in the world, but when the time comes there will always be regrets.
Cash 100% knew and felt the original intent of the song... it just so happened it was also fitting as his last hoorah as it were. His earlier life was a roller coaster of addiction and pain, at the end of your life you realize there are no do overs. I imagine that the pain of that realization was what we all hear when we hear it.
I hear both versions and I love them both because they feel like two songs instead of an original and a cover.
Rezor's version may have been about drug addiction, but that automatically makes it about mortality, too. Trust me, as a former drug addict myself, all you think about in those rock bottom moments is your wasted life, and your inevitable early death.
You dont think cash was a drug addict..... ill have me summa that c'caine.... walk hard you dumb bastards
matthew gill - seems I gave you too much credit... A nice, drawnout unmedicated withdrawal'd do you a world of good and gladden several hearts, esp.mine. And please spare me your illiterate, wanna-be, comicbubble answers.
Wow, never heard or seen the Johnny Cash version. It moved me to to tears.
It does that to most people when they watch it for the first time
The first time hearing Cash's version is incredibly powerful, I wish I could go back and experience it again!
June died not long after
I've seen it dozens of times, heard it audio-only dozens more... it never DOESN'T HIT, and HARD. I have shed many tears to this, never a single tear wasted.
NIN gives me empty numb feelings which fits the theme
but Johnny Cash's version gives me deep raw feelings which also fits the theme
both GREAT VERSIONS!!!
June dies shortly after the video. Then, Johnny died within 6 months of her passing.
Then the house and everything was lost in one of the California fires shortly after they both had passed.
Aaaawww...so sad.
maybe i am wrong, but i am certain June Carter Cash had already moved on prior to this video? and thus the true meaning of "you are someone "else", but I am still right "here". they are together today.
@@lizmann5752 They didn't live in califorina they lived in Tennessee
@@angusrocks939 she died after, song was released in 2002 and they both died in 2003
The Johnny Cash version makes my eyes instantly tear up every time i hear it. The raw hurt in the way he sings this in tribute to his wife is telling knowing he will join her soon after...
Johnny Cash version feels like a man who's lived a long life and lost so much
Trent's version feels like a young mans suicide note. That hits me harder
I was an angsty teen when NiN released Hurt .. and I found it fitting and relevant and moving to my life at the time. When Cash's version came out, the older view to it that Cash provided aged well with me. The cover, and the imagery of the video, "fits" better as an adult looking back at my life and hits harder as a result. That's no discredit to the impact it had when it came out. Both are good reminders to be conscious of the decisions you make because you may come to regret them later in life.
We were the lucky ones to be teens when the original came out & older (hopefully wiser!) adults when Cash’s version came out
NIN's version resonates with us Trent fans who grew to like his abrasive style, but I do have to say Johnny's life experience really poured through the song amazingly. One of the last true legends in music
I agree 100% with, and can relate to your comment.
What an honor to have an older country legend cover a young mans industrial/metal/alternative song like this! That doesn't happen often!
This song is perfect for Johnny Cash. Knowing his life and the things he did and went through adds so much more meaning to it.
That's the magic of this song. In my 20's I would be relating to the 9 inch nails version. Now in my late 40's I relate to Johnny Cash's version.
Disagree. I'm also in my 40s now, but I always loved the NIN song and still do, the other version I'm not interested in at all.
I'm in my late 20's and I relate more to the Cash version. Probably because I made a lot of bad life-altering, irreparable decisions in my teens.
Rick Rubin deserves a Grammy just for signing Johnny Cash to American Recordings.
something about an old man singing about making mistakes gets me every. time. What an awesome performer, Johnny Cash.
What’s truly great about both of them is that they represent the age of the person singing them. The NIN version is about the anger and rage of youth and the Cash version is about the pain and regret of old age.
Kudos to Trent Reznor either way.
I prefer the Cash version. It just feels like 80 years of tears being unleashed in a guitar and voice. So raw it hurts
I agree. It seems to me that Trent does a lot of things to kind of hide the raw emotion and pain that's in the song... I recall reading an interview where he admitted that he whispered some of the vocals and added a bunch of noise and stuff to the mix to sort of obscure his voice because he didn't quite feel confident enough to put himself out there... seems odd for Reznor of all people to say that but it was almost too close to home for him. Cash though, having lived an entire hard life and facing the end, just puts it all front and center, and while Reznor's version sneaks up on you, Cash's version of the song pretty much just punches you in the mouth. Both great records, but to this day the Cash one gives me chills every time I hear it.
My respects for Cash but his version does nothing for me because I am not a fan of his. I still do like his delivery of it, that is a no brainer.
@@alejandroespinoza3686 no you're wrong
Alejandro Espinoza I’m not a cash fan either but his version is so much better no doubt 👌🏼
You can like whatever but the original is better in my opinion
I remember seeing NIN do a "cover" of Cash's version of their song on tv shortly after his passing. They played his videos throughout the song and played with his instruments (more acoustic instead of electric). It was a good tribute.
This cover was his good bye to us.
Johnny Cash did a full album of covers shortly before dying including this song. I think it was his way of saying hello and goodbye to the younger generations by paying tribute to songs he highly respected and could relate to by younger artists he respected. It was his way of connecting his legacy to the legacy of those who came after him.
I discovered NIN when I was 13. Been listening ever since. I'm 41 now. 28 years of NIN.
I 1st saw nin in the 90s and have loved them ever since pretty hate machine
I discovered Johnny Cash when I was 15. I'm gonna be 18 this year and I've been listening to him ever since. I'm an old-soul, I love singers from the 50s and 60s.
this guy reviewed queen live aid with his son...he seems to have a beautiful relationship with his children
One of the rare occasions that both versions are amazing and show how different interpretations can change a song so much. I love them both.
I think it shows how the exact same words said by two different people can have such different meanings. That's why opinions are so individual - the same lyrics mean different things.
I love BOTH versions, each bring there own style and emotions to the song.. But I do wish u picked a studio ver. for NiN "hurt" so u get a better experience then listen to Cash.
Ya, ran into some copyright issues and blocked video issues with the studio, but I see your point, that would have been better balanced.
Glitch in the Matrix Multi-Media The Downward Spiral is more impactful when you take it as a whole, and that includes the visuals such the album art and the concert set up. I think you get a better idea of what the song is from the live version, so I think you did the right thing.
i agree the live version hits different than the studio version; sounded not like I remember.
they both have a respect for what theyre saying, yk?
The live version was the promotional single version, so it's not surprising that that's the version they could get.
I love the concept of reacting to both versions. Especially when it comes to a song so masterfully re-made.
*Cash owns that song, his life, his legacy, his conviction. It's the most heartbreaking thing to watch and hear.*
"What have I become, my sweetest friend"
"Everyone I know goes away in the end"
"You could have it all"
I cant help thinking about him singing this after June passed and how empty he feels without her. Like he isnt himself anymore and he would give everything to see her for one more minute.
He sadly doesn't own it
No, not literally.
You do realize that June is in the video on the stairs. She passed away after this was done. Look it up
You do realize he's allowed to sing the song more than once.
One of the things I think is so cool is that Johnny Cash could hear the NiN version and respect it enough to cover it. Hard to imagine lots of older people that can see through years to hear the power of the lyrics inside the modern music.
he also covered soundgardens song rusty cage.
Artists tend to be more open-minded than the average person.
Artists tend to be more open-minded than the average person.
Trent Reznor heard that version and said " that song is no longer mine" Johnny Cash died shortly after making that video
Ed Collins Trent Reznor Produced that Johnny Cash album with the cover
@@Warchild0311 Rick Ruben was the producer for all of the albums in the American series.
+Ed Collins It may come down to semantics and opinions on what "shortly" means, but it was 6 months later. For me, at least, that's a bit longer than I would consider "shortly."
Ed Collins, this is super simplifying what he actually said. After hearing it first, he said he felt violated, like someone kissed his GF. He also found it unremarkable. But after seeing it with the video, this is what gave it it's impact.
Did you know that this is the 2nd time Johnny Cash covered a song that the original performer/songwriter said it was now his? The first time was when he covered Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down."
Contrary to what seems to be the popular opinion I think Trent's live piano version is the best one. All of them are good though mind you.
I love both versions, when nin first performed it I cried... when JC performed it I couldn't stop crying and playing it over and over. Having already loved the song I had a predisposition to love the cover. However, by JC doing it slow and acoustic it just drives the emotion home. If I were an actor this would be my go to for a crying scene 😭 It's so sad yet you don't want it to end
You perfectly explain why I'm glad that I'm not burdened with all of the useless emotions normal people have. I heard the NIN when it came out and thought it a great chill'n groove song that gives the warm and fuzzies. The Cash version has so much more power and I find myself grooving to it unconsciously with the super warm and fuzzies.
I have three daughters with the youngest being 13. Just seeing how you explain things to her and the interest she shows just warms my heart. My girls sporadically show interest in music that I admire but I think this is an interesting idea for me to try with them just so we could spend time together and also they’d see what songs shaped me.
1. He failed using the live version with all the avant-garde imagery, alienating his daughter
2. The fact that it had a whole montage of Johnny's life changed the tone of his cover
My thoughts exactly. He should have shown the original studio version of Reznor's Hurt, then doing the same with Johnny Cash's version. No videos, just the music...
God Johnny Cash version. Gives me chills every time and a teardrop in my eye.
The Cash version is even more emotional when you realize that his mobility was limited and eye sight was failing due to diabetes by that time. In the end he had his bedroom converted to a studio, so that he could continue recording. For Johnny Cash's fans, Hurt was his swan song.
Great review! I was coming back from a long day in Redding California, heading home towards Nevada City California when I heard Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt" shortly after he had died. I was quite moved by it and thought about it long afterwards. Loved Johnny's voice, sounding tired and old... and yet, what a perfect song for him to do. And what a wonderful remembrance of the man.
This is so awesome, sharing these with your daughter. My girls grew up (19 and 17) listening to dads music in the car.... NIN, DMB, Metallica, Sarah McLaughlin, etc.
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I have always preferred the Nails version. The intentional tri-tone dissonance hammering you to make you feel the pain.
I hear ya, but yes, people LOVE JC's version ever since it came out.
The NIN version is better IMO as well. I love JC but damn the whispering on the studio version was soo much more powerful. You don't really hear it on the live version.
I agree. I think I'll appreciate Cash's version more when I'm in my 60s though. In my 20s, NIN version gives me chills everytime.
You and me both, Michael!!! And I always preface my opinion by saying the same thing. It's Trent's song and will always be Trent's song to me. The Johnny Cash version is fine, but it doesn't have the power of Trent's.
@@GlitchintheMatrixMultiMedia JC's version is more easily digestible. Like your daughter said, the lyrics are more discernible and the music is a more popular style. However, watching Trent perform it, you can feel that he feels every word of that song; it really is his song. The optics of Trent's video may be a bit off-putting, but that is an extension of the lyrics and the pain therein. It fits that the animal in the end is re-animated as Trent sings "I would keep myself, I would find a way." There's still hope in Trent's darker versuon, whereas JC's version seems more final without chance for redemption as closes his piano, seemingly resolved to his fate. The ending really twists the overall meaning of the song.
Your kids are really going to appreciate being able to look back on this time with you as they get older. It's really nice to see such cool interactions between kids and parents. Well done sir.
Cash’s cover of Hurt, Disturbed’s cover of The Sound of Silence, and Bad Wolves’ cover of Zombie are some of my favorite covers, not just of recent years but of all time. They’re all incredibly powerful, deep, and relevant, despite the originals being many years, and even decades old.
A shame what they did to Tommy Vext.
June Carter-Cash passed away 3 months after this video and Johnny Cash passed away 4 months after his wife passed. Their daughter, Roseanne Cash, also a singer, told her dad that song sounded like he was saying, "Goodbye ", to which he replied, "I am."
Reznor dealt with depression in his version. Cash was seeing that his end. was near.
RIP Johnny and June, you touched so many peoples souls.
I'm in the minority but I love Trent's version more. The Downward Spiral is such a masterpiece of an album that the song as a closer means so much. Throughout the album he battles addiction and basically becoming a machine and shell of is former self, causing him to use substances and thinfs like sex to fill the void. Up until.the end he just chronicles the stuff he goes through, and after realizing what he's done and how he's affected all those around him and his own life (this is where many fans are split) he either commits suicide in the song "The Downward Spiral" and Hurt is the character reflecting on his life as a dead man, or he survived the attempt and is now reflecting on his life in the eyes of a man who almost killed himself.
Thanks for all the notes on that. From what I see with comments, there is either a VERY strong opinioin toward NIN or vice versa with Johnny Cash. Thanks for the breakdown, I love learning info like that.
That album is a masterpiece of dark demented music but it's not for everyone I can't imagine your daughter listening too it, it's too much dark complex music for her 😆 . Good album. Johnny Verison also but it feels like a different song, I love both version. Johnny Cash version gives me hope whole Trent sounds hopeless. Both are meaningful but Trent's darker.
You make me want to hear the whole album now. I've never listened to much NIN, but your description intrigues me.
@@sussychachi I don't know if I would say it's too complex or dark for her. That album came out when I was her age and it wasn't too dark or complex for me or my friends. On the other hand, it might be! Given what she tends to be drawn to, judging from these videos, I'm inclined to say she probably wouldn't "like" it, but I think she would understand it. Just two cents from a rando.
I keep reading this. You're not in the minority Lol You're honest. Original is always better most of the time
I actually tried explaining this song(s) to my daughter who's 14 and mildly autistic but I sadly she isn't really capable of grasping these types of emotions. But I can see Trent's pain as a former opiate addict myself and I love the live version cuz the pain in his voice and the imagery of the death and decay and the reversal of the decay at the end showing you that death is finite and there is no rewind button for bad choices.
But where Trent's gives me chills Johnny's brings me to tears especially when you think of all he must have seen and the regrets he had. But also when you think of the fact that June dies right after her cameo in the video and before it actually premiered, and how Johhny followed her just a few months later, almost like he lost the will to live after losing the love of his life of nearly 4 decades he just gave up and let himself go.
I have mild autism as well, and, from my own experiences and those of the other autistic people I know, we can't experience certain emotions necessarily as they're conveyed through song, especially if we haven't felt them ourselves. That said, most of us can feel these strong emotions sometimes and we have no idea how to express them. You know your daughter better than I, of course, just throwing that piece out there, especially for those who have less experience with autistic people. We do feel emotions-sometimes even stronger than others-but just can't express them.
The original by Nine Inch Nails makes me tear up. Because, I can relate more with Trent Reznor. The places he goes in the Downward Spiral album, are places I've been.
Johnny Cash did an incredible cover. One that recieved praise by Trent Reznor himself. The cover and original are from two differing points of view. I refuse to put one against the other as if it's a competition.
Because logically speaking, if Trent never wrote the song, Johnny Cash could've never covered it. May he rest in peace.
You remind me of my dad so much. In all the best ways. Thanks to him I grew up listening to queen and zep and Pink Floyd and it shaped by taste in music forever. Keep doing it dad. Teach the kids everything. You rule. And your wife (the Pearl Jam can) as well.
Rock on guys! 🤘🏻
For what it’s worth, I’ve seen NIN live 18 times, and two weren’t ended with Hurt.
I like the fact you do not interrupt the videos before commenting. The Johnny Cash version is a work of the ages.
The Johnny Cash version will never fail to bring tears to my eyes..especially when viewing the video with it.
I am 16 years old and I just recently got into Cash's music. Loved the vid and just subscribed. Thanks!
Thanks for subbing, so much more to come soon!
Trent wasn't the only one not eager for Johnny to cover the song. His wife and daughter(s?) tried to dissuade him from doing it. It was just too raw, real and too close for comfort. Trent Reznor couldn't have written a more perfect Johnny Cash bio if he tried.
I know, I completely agree, this was amazing from JC, chills everytime.
The beast in me is the perfect follow up to hurt.
It is amazing to watch the two of you watching these videos. You are so hopeful she will enjoy these songs, it's in your eyes the whole way through... and how relieved you look that your daughter enjoyed them. I know that feeling when showing my daughters music I like as well.
Great video on a great song
Aside from doing a terrific song, pretty inspiring to see a father and daughter doing something so cool. I try to teach my 5 year old daughter about music all the time and we were just talking about this song, and the cover yesterday, so it was great to show her this. Thank You both!
My favorite version is the live one in which Trent sang it in a duet with David Bowie. Amazing rendition.
A few people have mentioned that, I need to look into it, I haven't seen it either.
Trent Reznor sung THIS song with Bowie?! Now this is something I need to find.
Gui Porto - Wow, that's pretty mad. Having NIN open for Bowie is such a Bowie thing to do.
@@steveh4290 A radiobroadcast of one of these shows (NIN + Bowie) is available on cd even.
Wow - this is so topical for me. Was listening to Cash version with my own Father last weekend & discussed with my friends in our Whatsapp group how it's 30 years since Pretty Hate Machine came out. Seen NIN twice & Trent was always a favourite of mine, & still is now I'm aged 40. I also love Cash's music, Ring Of Fire became an unofficial anthem for Liverpool, my football club. I enjoy both versions equally for different versions. NIN for its raw emotion & Cash as its a goodbye letter, looking over his mistakes, as if he knew his time was shortly to be over. Both amazing.
Thanks for the story, great comment
I have always thoroughly loved both versions but I've never watched them back to back like this. I must admit when Cash's version started, it brought a few tears.
I went to a Johnny Cash Museum and as you near the exit, they are playing his version of Hurt. It bring tears.
I cant choose between them. Like choosing a favourite child. Love em both too much.
Oh how I wish you had picked the studio version....!
I absolutely love the original, and will always pick that one!! Can’t count how many times that song made me tear up, and it still does to this day....
One is an addict who's pushed everyone away and ruined his life at his age already, the other is a man who lived the life of success and sits there at the end of it all wondering where it all went, how he had it all yet doesn't feel like it. Money isn't everything. Those he loved have passed on and soon will be him. Both are sad. But as someone who hasn't reached that age yet, and sadly with a certain history, I connect with NIN's version way more. The way his voice breaks and he whispers.... I feel the pain and can't help but tear up. Trent is just an incredible artists and someone who has suffered a lot but sharing his pain has helped him and helped so many. I'm glad he's still with us after all he went through. An inspiration to keep going. Don't give up no matter how shit it gets.
It's a great reaction video... Dad loving it, letting the music affect him. Daughter, first time to be exposed just sat absorbing and taking it all in.
Trent Reznor wrote an amazing song and performed it great. Johnny Cash just picked it up and knocked it right out of the park.
Good on this fella hanging with the daughter. Holding her hand and teaching and sharing 👍👍
I’ve always felt like they both represent very different types of pain and anguish both in performance and in musical composition. Cash’s version is (in my opinion) a pretty mellow but deep pain which he’s lived with for a very long time and is almost looking forward to leaving behind once he dies but NIN’s version is just so visceral and heart-wrenching, especially since they keep the tritones in the verses which really accentuates the positive sound of the choruses. I feel very sad hearing the Cash version but I sob my eyes out to the original because it reminds me so much of being at my worst and feeling that absolute gut wrenching pain and disgust with myself.
" Hurt " I discovered it when I was 13 years old, I understood it at 25, a year ago.
I'm referring to the girl right now " whatever happens in your life, don't let your heart die. Bad things may happen, that's not a good reason to isolate yourself from the feelings, which are difficult to manage sometimes and too frail as the ages goes by"
You and your father seem to be very happy, and I feel so emotional when I see happy people sharing moments. It's beautiful.
Stay safe,
Love from Italy.
yeah.. once the heart grows cold its no easy fix .. if any at all, to revitalize it. a lifetime of regrets is not something i wish on m yworst enemy. its pretty shit. :(
She almost lost it on the Johnny Cash version. Most emotional reaction yet.
Both versions are great and it is amazing how the same song became totally different song in the hands of Johnny Cash. Cash version is also easier to understand, while the NIN version might take several listens to get into.
(Ps. I was expecting more comments about the versions and reasons behind them. )
Thank you for introducing me to both renditions of this song! It’s one of of my all time favourites now.
First off, it is really cool to see a dad spend time with his daughter and do interesting things together. I am a NIN fan and I always loved this song when I was 20 years old and struggling with depression. Then Johnny Cash came along and did the most unexpected cover I could imagine and not only that, it was great and I was surprised how well the lyrics transferred to a folk-country song. I love both versions but I think I like the Johnny Cash song better, it has more emotional impact and I think it is because it is more relatable to the general audience and what it is like for a man to look back on his life many years later with regret and loneliness.
there's a video on here with Trent talking about this. he did not have any problem with Johnny covering the song, and he never really expected it to happen. well it happened, and they sent Trent the audio CD of the song and he said it didn't sound right, not that he could put his finger on it, but it just didn't sound right. not long after, he got a copy of the video and he said when they watched it they had goosebumps and he finally "got it"...meaning the way Johnny covered it and that's when he said it was no longer his song, that it belonged to Johnny. you can find the video on here easily with a quick search
Great facts, thanks for the info
@@GlitchintheMatrixMultiMedia you're welcome.
Biggest difference between the two versions is that no one would be cheering when Cash sang it. They would've been contemplating their lives silently.
The first time I heard Johnny Cash's version the only version I had heard until later. I was in tears, actually me and a good buddy, were just listening to music and then that song came on and we both just started balling. Johnny Cash just made it one of those songs, it doesn't matter who you are that song will open you up.
I've seen it in concert. Goes from a roaring crowd to dead silence immediately.
Excellent take!
Apparently I am the only one who just absolutely cannot hear a lot of the lyrics of NIN and of those lyrics that I can hear I am unable to understand what is being said. Cash is easily understood and moves me to tears. NIN MIGHT move me to tears if I could only understand what the heck he is saying. Well, hearing this 13 year old talk about the difficulty she had with hearing the words by NIN I feel somewhat better. I'm 60 years older than that child and if she has difficulty catching the lyrics on NIN I do not feel so much like a dinosaur because I cannot understand them. I thought you said she was in the video but then you said she died before the video was done. Now I'm really confused. Did I misunderstand?
Biggest difference in that comment is you'd have to consider the age and vibe of a NIN concert compared to Johnny Cash. If Reznor did Hurt in a one off nobody would cheer or scream. Your comparison just isn't relevant and makes no sense to be honest
Trent actually gave permission to cash too do it he felt honored that cash wanted to do it. When they sent him the cd at first he was focused on the music he was writing at the time. Plus he was depressed. But when they sent him the video he say down and took it all in. Felt overwhelmed and loved it
The Johnny Cash video for the single was recorded in February of 2003. June Carter Cash, his 2nd wife is, the woman on stairs; also a singer who toured with him and sang with him on several songs and is the person played by Reese Witherspoon alongside Joaquin Phoenix, in the biopic film of Cash and Carter, Walk the line. She had come over to check on her husband that day as his health was not so good. It was her that Cash attributed to rescuing him from his drug and Alcohol addiction when she married him. June Carter Cash passed away a few months after the video recording in May of 2003 and a bereaved Johnny Cash followed her a few months later in the September.
The song is by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and is about his battle with addiction and depression. Cash also an addict and alcoholic for much of his early life spending time in Jail on half a dozen occasions for possession. The song encompasses the way both musicians life threads are woven together and entangled across the decades between them, so much so that Trent when he saw the video said it was like loosing his Girlfriend as the song had become Johnny's. Johnny was a campaigner for prison reform and the rights of Native Americans and much of his material reflected his own passions and darker past.
Johnny Cash's star declined in the 80s and the Museum to his life with the smashed Gold Disk on the Floor, used as one of the backdrops to the video, ended up being shuttered.
In the 1990s Rick Rubin of American Recordings more of a Rap, Punk and Metal, producer sought out Cash to record on their label, and offered Cash complete artistic freedom. With them his career revived and he brought out a his most critically acclaimed albums, the America series, bringing Cash to a new younger audience starring on The Simpsons and Headlining at Glastonbury in 1994. The 4th and penultimate album of the America series from which this is one of several Hit Singles: American IV: The Man Comes Around, was released in November of 2002 and he was still working on his final Album that was released posthumously.
I get why many people prefer Cash's cover as it's more digestible to your average listener. But the raw impact and challenging nature of the original will always elevate it over Cash's cover in my opinion.
Cash's cover is flat, the original is impactful and dynamic.
Cash's cover carries more meaning I think, he didn't write it but it has greater impact because it's easier to relate to an old man at the dawn of his life who still has regrets than a still young bloke who has a future to fix all that
@@ant-onemusic444 the NIN original version has far more build up. listen to the orignal. very loud. put the lights out. listen to the music solely. it is FAR superior to the cash version.
I was not aware that the original way by Nine inch nails, thank you for letting me know :)
NIN is rought to hear, but that is something I actually like, being 25. JC's version might be more my thing when I turn 60.
With NIN I am in the angst and pain of the moment, JC is looking back on it. At least that is how it feels to me.
NochSoEinKaddiFan I was in my 20s when NIN came out with this song. I agree with you 100%. The cover is still second to me but I understand how it appeals to many people.
Both versions are awesome. Johnny covered it as a tribute to his lost love who he missed terribly. He passed shortly after the song released.
So cool to see you sharing music with your daughter! She seems so sweet and I think her dark hair and light eyes are such a lovely combination of features! 🙂
Trent Reznor wrote the song mostly about his heroin addiction. This guy should have played his daughter the NIN studio version as the live version is of poor audio quality.
He wasn’t addicted to heroin, though.
Especially since Trent does all of the instruments and it is truly personal. I feel like they're just comparing music videos here which is not what Trent created.
it was shiet LOL
Agree. Studio version would have been better.
Agree. The studio version is a masterpiece
Trent Reznor’s version is how I feel about the world, Johnny Cash is more personal and hits me more about my own history and the people in my life.
As a father I love that you are sharing this with your daughter. My daughter is 2 and I love sharing everything I can with her. She loves music already and I share my favorite songs with her. She is my world. I think you can relate.
Trent rensor even talked to Johnny before his death and said that it’s his song not his anyone… so much respect!!!
While I prefer the NIN version. I can’t help but love Johnny’s version too.
They feel like two different songs to me and I love them both.
i feel like i _appreciate_ the nin version more - the haunting dissonance, the way it closes out the story of the downward spiral and how deep and dark a place it came from within trent. but... the way johnny sings that chorus, the insistent piano chords, the quivering in his voice that just pierces my soul. and the video really helps too. it's a hard decision. i'm not sure i could ever really say one is "better" than the other - they each convey their own emotions that are similar but also very different at the same time.
@@nikki-lx3yf NIN all the way
Nine inch nails what's the best between 1989 and 1999 after that it was all downhill
The original doesn't need the video to have maximum impact. The Cash video is the saddest video ever.
Love how Reznor yells "I will find a way" into ever increasing noise, and how Cash almost wisers it into silence.
Ugh the feels... Both versions bring me to tears. As we go through life this song in particular hits close to home with so many things in life.
Trent Reznor is brilliant. I went to High School with him. He graduated from Mercer Area Jr./Sr. High School, Mercer PA, in 1983, and I graduated in 1984
That’s amazing! Did you ever talk?
Yes, I have spoken to Trent before, Our high school was very small, our TOWN was very small. but I was a goodie two shoes, and he was , shall I say NOT. My impression of him though was that he was a very nice guy, with an incredibly creative sense of humor. He was born and raised in that town, and I moved there when I was 13 from the suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA. so there were many who grew up with him, and knew him better than me, but yes I did know him.
Wow, that’s so cool! Surreal to think about.
Little trivia, Johnny discovered the great Merle Haggard on his prison concert tours. Merle was serving time at San Quentin (he was very young). The warden knew of Merle’s talent and introduced him to Johnny. They were instrumental in getting Merle paroled and thank God for it. One of the best Country artist and songwriters ever.
Momma Tried and Sing Me Back Home are autobio’s from that time period and put Merle on the map to stardom.
Niiiice, story, love hearing music facts like that. Thanks so much for the comment.
Didn't know Johny discoved him,
Merle Haggard claims to have seen Johnny Cash at San Quentin (But not the show that became "At San Quentin"), but no, he never even talked to Johnny Cash at San Quentin. He was just in the audience. Cash didn't find out until 10 years later that Haggard was there.
I think is so Amazing you showing to your daughter this music.There´s hope. Cheers man.
Such a thoughtful young lady. It's really great to share the gift of music with loved ones. It's some of my greatest memories of my father. I still have that 16 year old enthusiasm for music. Great comparison between Cash and Reznor.
Johnny Cash died of a broken heart when he lost absolute true soulmate and savior June Carter Cash.
She was his everything.
J M O
Only if you call diabetes his "absolute true soulmate."
Pneumonia and diabetes could equate a broken heart, I guess
@@aceldamia9114 you can live with those things... he died because he was without reason to continue living.
I DEFINITELY like Johnny Cash's cover better than Trent Reznor's original! However, you do Reznor a disservice by playing a live version vs the studio version by Johnny Cash!!! Play her Reznor's studio version!
I guess that it's because there is no official clip of this song with Trent singing. So he actually chosed a very good one since you can see the intensity that both of them are feeling towards the song.
J. Michael Salvetti 100% agree! Was very confused why he chose live version of Trent singing this song as the beginning is very low and gets lost in the crowd reaction.
Back in the day, a friend of mine borrowed me this tape, I literally had no idea what to expect. When this song started playing it was one of the most powerful musical experiences of my entire life. Just beautiful!
It's awesome to listen to someone that actually knows what he is talking about with these two videos. I love reaction videos, but sometimes, with people that are as iconic as Johnny Cash, it's almost annoying to hear them talk so completely clueless about someone they know nothing about. So thank you. Wonderful review.
When I listen to Cash's version, I can BARELY make it to the vocals before the tears start. And they usually don't stop until a few minutes after the song ends. I feel like I'm listening to him die.
Have you done I Will Always Love You? As amazing as Whitney’s voice was, Dolly’s emotion blows me away. Please do it .
Edmund Snyder yep
I can’t imagine how a 13 year old can relate to the angst of an older man, and the regrets that we experience.
It takes experience to understand the mistakes in life that makes one realize how compromised one can become.
I weep every time I see this video.
I hear his pain. I understand his message.
I could listen to this song a million times and cry every single time.