Pure Punk Picks
Hurt – Johnny Cash
“I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain. The only thing that’s real.” Reading about Johnny’s life, I’m guessing some parts he wasn’t too proud of. “But I remember everything. What have I become my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end.”
“Hurt” is a song written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, a musician and band I much admire. Johnny Cash did a cover of this song a short time before he was about to leave our life.
The lyrics Trent wrote are great but, of course, they relate to a young man depressed and disillusioned with life.
But with Johnny singing this song it takes on a new perspective.
What Trent’s expressing with his writing is more likely referring to lost relationships and friendships that a young man will experience. While Johnny’s implies an old man whose friends and family are dying off.
I just came across a video of Trent performing this song as a duet with David Bowie. It was recorded live when Nine Inch Nails was opening up for Bowie on a tour and it is very, very good.
But when Trent first heard Johnny’s version he said, “It was very strange. It was this other person inhabiting my most personal song. I’d know where I was when I wrote it. I knew what I was thinking about. I knew how I felt. Hearing it was like someone kissing your girlfriend, it felt invasive.” But after seeing the video of Johnny’s version he said, “It really, really made sense and I thought- What a powerful piece of art.”
Trent later went on to proclaim that Johnny’s version was better than his own and that the song really belongs to Johnny now.
People ask me sometimes, who do I consider the best punk of all time? I think they’re expecting me to say Joe Strummer or Iggy Pop, Jello Biafra, Lux Interior or maybe, Joey Ramone- all excellent choices. But what I reply is, “Johnny Cash.”
Because when I look at his music, his role in country music and his lifestyle- there was no one more against the grain of life and society than him during his prime.
And what a great artist! To produce some of your greatest work, ably aided by producer Rick Rubin of Beastie Boys fame, at the tail end of your career as you’re literally dying.
Very few musical artists do this unless they die very young. Though, I think Bowie and Lou Reed went out very well, I think the prize for the best must go to Johnny.
“You could have it all, my empires of dirt. I will let you down. I will make you hurt.”
Maybe, while recording this song, one he didn’t want to do at first until Rick Rubin convinced him, maybe he was thinking about his wife June Carter Cash, who died shortly before this song was recorded.
“If I could start again, a million miles away. I would keep myself. I would find a way.”
Maybe he was thinking he would give up all his wealth and fame if he could go back in time and correct all the wrongs he did, and all the mistakes he had made and make them right.
Not only did Johnny not want to record this song at first, but after he died his estate didn’t want to release the video of the song. Thankfully, his daughter Rosanna insisted- and I’m really glad she did.
I consider this the best musical video of all time. Hands down.
I think it’s wild and great and life affirming that an industrial/metal rocker of the nineties could so amazingly link up with a country/folk artist of the fifties and sixties. This just proves to me that art is not limited to the time in which it was created but lives on in other artists works and is timeless, priceless and infinite, as well.
I kind of think that Johnny would scoff at that last line and yell me out- but I’ll still stick by it.
As this song fades at the end of this song, the end of this video-As he lays down his keys. I feel that’s it’s his way of saying not only is the video over but his life is, too. It signifies to me, that his work is done, that it is finally completed.
And for my take?
This is the end of a great video of a great song, by a great artist whose accomplishments and influence were great and who will always be thought of and remembered as great.
And you can guess what word I would describe this.
(Slimedog)
