by Greg Mayer
As my postscript to Country Music Week, I submit for your approval Johnny Cash’s 2003 cover of “Hurt” by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, perhaps the only “Industrial Country” song ever. It is a solemn meditation on mortality and loss. [Link to video updated on 2019 09 26.]
Cash’s feeling and phrasing are haunting and moving. The video, directed by Mark Romanek, who also did videos for Nine Inch Nails, contrasts scenes of Cash as he sings in 2003, with scenes of his youth and powerful middle age, and footage from the closed and decrepit “House of Cash” museum*. Cash’s wife, June Carter Cash, hovers in the background, as if she were a concerned, but powerless, guardian angel. It is made all the more poignant by the fact that within nine months both June and Johnny were dead. June’s ethereal presence in the video is eerily evocative of what Johnny later said about her while performing shortly after her death (and shortly before his own):
The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight with the love she had for me and the love I have for her. We connect somewhere between here and heaven. She came down for a short visit, I guess, from heaven to visit with me tonight to give me courage and inspiration like she always has.
“Hurt” was Cash’s last hit before he died: it charted in the UK, and on both country and modern rock charts in the US. The song and the video won numerous awards, including a Grammy and a CMA, and has made many lists of all-time great songs/videos by both rock and country media in the US, Australia, and the UK. Last year the UK’s NME named it the greatest video ever. Upon watching the video, Reznor said he felt “tears welling, silence, goosebumps.”
To finish off my coda to Country Music Week, I want to present something by Emmylou Harris, whom a number of commenters have asked for, and who was one of the favorites of Jerry’s and my late friend and colleague Ken Miyata. (Ken, as many WEIT readers will recall, named a new species of frog for Jerry.) Ken was a great fan of country music. At the time he was finishing his Ph.D. thesis, it just so happened that Emmylou was making an appearance at the Harvard Coop (which had at the time a large music department). Ken went down and got his thesis signed by her, making his Ph.D. thesis one of the few theses signed by a distinguished committee of academic examiners and by a country music star.
In choosing an Emmylou Harris selection, I wanted a piece Ken would have known, and picked “In My Hour of Darkness“, a song she wrote with Gram Parsons in 1973. It’s theme is a natural continuation from “Hurt”. Also, her collaboration with Parsons, a former Byrd, highlights the close historical connection between country and rock, a connection which seems not as widely appreciated as it might be. This is the album version, with backing vocals by Linda Ronstadt.
*The Cash estate has announced plans for a new museum, including many items from the House of Cash, to open in Nashville.
To finish off my coda to Country Music Week, I want to present something by Emmylou Harris…
Thank you!
Jim Marshall is smiling.
Johnny Cash’s cover of Hurt is amazing. Since I grew up in a pop music household in the 80’s, Cash wasn’t really on my radar. Once I heard Hurt? I couldn’t believe what I had been missing. Still not a huge country music fan, but Cash transcends categories.
When I came across Cash’s cover I was very moved. This despite the unfortunate change of lyric from “crown of shit” to “crown of thorns”.
John Prine is worth a look I think if one’s in a reflective mood.
Some Prine advice:- Hello In There
His take on religious patriotism:- Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore
Good John Prine suggestions– the first especially resonates with Cash’s “Hurt”. RE the thorns/shit wording change: Reznor used ‘thorns’ in some versions, and for Cash’s version, I think the use of ‘thorns’ adds depth to the despair bubbling up in Cash, since he was a Christian, thus giving the imagery added meaning for him.
GCM
Reading Greg’s piece and checking out the 2009 tribute to Ken, whose zest for life has stuck with me too, is poignant on this gray winter morning…I’ll bet he would have loved Emmylou Harris’ collaboration with Mark Knopfler, best heard and seen in Real Live Road Running.
Johnny Cash singing Nine Inch Nails is pretty much perfect.
I enjoy some music from just about any genre I’ve heard. The best examples from any genre, whether rap, country, heavy metal, baroque classical, are good music. But I do tend to favor the harder stuff, whatever the genre.
I’ve enjoyed Trent Reznor from his beginnings, and have always respected Johnny Cash. When Cash covered “Hurt” I was predisposed to like it. Was not disappointed. The video still affects me the way Reznor described his reaction to it.
It always makes me laugh because, without fail, every time I hear a radio station play the Reznor version of Hurt, the DJ comes on after the song and says something to the effect of: “Look people, whichever version you think is superior, the Johnny Cash version of this song is the remake, not the original. Trent Reznor did not butcher Johnny Cash’s song, Reznor’s version of this song is the original.”
That said, I’m a fan of Nails; however, I feel Cash’s version of the song is the superior one.
Great selections. I always loved listening to Emmylou Harris, particularly the older Parsons material. And Cash was… Johnny Cash.
I wish Gram Parsons hadn’t died young. I’ll wager there was more great songs that died with him.
Both examples of how a stanch atheist like me can enjoy religion-themed music. As long as it is good music.
You’ve outdone yourself. Great selections.
And thanks for evoking the memory of Ken.
Nick Cave on working with Johnny Cash: Guardian, Uncut.
Thanks for those videos! I have been a fan of Emmylou Harris for years. Saw her live at the Telluride Festival in 2010. If you have time, take a look at this video on youtube: /watch?v=Rr2IY8q687I. Especially the way she looks at Steve Earle at 1:12. That’s something you don’t see everyday!
HUGE nails fan here. Seen them 6 times in concert. And Cash’s cover got me into his music so I’m really grateful for that.
How about Waylon and Willie?
There’s a brilliant scene at the end of season 1 of the Sarah Connor Chronicles. The backing track is Johnny Cash signing ‘The man comes around’.
Cash made Hurt his own. Those recordings he did with Rick Rubin are amazing.
And Prine and Parsons and Emmylou . . .
I’ve always been a fan of Cash. His ‘American’ series is just amazing. Each album was so very different and he managed to carry off pretty much everything.
Glad to see Johnny Cash on your list. I grew up listening to him and other country artists.