Hurt: Original NIN or Johnny Cash?

Parsley

No fanboys please, only post if you've heard both versions. I personally prefer the original, there's so much more feeling in it, and the piano and drums add so much.

lovell

You can't get more emotion than Cash singing it, dedicating it to his wife. I know its a cover but it's way better IMO.

Nightwish

The emotion in Johnny Cash's version I feel is much more evident, especially when you watch the video.

merlinsmerryman

Have to give it to cash especially has Reznor has said that version is better.

Basq

Cash hands down!

orangerooster

I think Cash does the better version, the video adds to this but Cash's voice just makes it far more emotional.

watsgone

Cash has something in the song that the NIN can't touch. The emotion in Cash's version the NIN is good but doesnt leave you with your hairs standing up.

BaZmO*

The Cash version is a million times better imo.

Pigman II

They're both great but Cash owns that song for all time now.

(*My lawyers have asked me to point out that the estate of Johnny Cash does not own 'Hurt')

John

I used to love Hurt by NIN until I heard Cash's version. Now Trent singing just sounds like a moaning teenager, upset at the world for no reason. Cash was mulling over a life hard lived with a spirit that (as much as I love NIN) Trent just doesn't have. Cash all the way.

Kolodny

I like the original but I think Cash's version is more powerful.

Flipflip

Johnny Cash's

Nine Inch Nails.

Cash was good, but he didnt write the song, he changed very very little about it, it wasnt much different and to me that defeats the point of doing a cover.

fitz

Johnny Cash's

I've seen NIN play Hurt live, and it lamost brought me to tears.
I think Cash's version was great, but in a very different way.
NIN version has more pain in it I think.

PiE

The video is sentimental and cliched tripe, but Cash's version is still miles better.

D-Generate

Its weird, Cash's video makes every guy get emotional but when girls watch it they are just like "So?".
Anyhew I do prefer Cash's version. If he had done the original then who ever covered it would have been seen as doing a poor imitation.

John

Flipflip wrote:

Nine Inch Nails.

Cash was good, but he didnt write the song, he changed very very little about it, it wasnt much different and to me that defeats the point of doing a cover.

He may not have done a thumping dance mix of it but he did do something very different to NIN. He flipped the song completely from its nihilist pit of despair in the mind of a young man into a song about growing old and all the trouble he's gone through without resorting to self-pity.

Atrocity

^^^^^

good post.

johnny cash's version by a mile

Aisling(",)

I prefer cash's version but i think thats just because i've never like nine inch nails

Waltons

Have to say I prefer Cash's version too.

Rantorama

Cash all the way... this video only adds to one of the best covers ever.http://www.losthighwayrecords.com/e/cash11403.html :v:

JC 2K3

Johnny Cash's

I can't seperate the two. Cash's one is more popular, with most people not having a clue that it's a cover, and there's more emotion in a certain way, you could say it's more "powerful", but I dunno, the verse of the NIN one is much quieter and when you're really down it really hits an emotional nerve...

I say NIN do the verse better but Johnny Cash does the chorus better

Oh and Cash changed "shít" to "thorns", grrr....

BaZmO*

JC 2K3 wrote:

with most people not having a clue that it's a cover,

Dunno about that. From experience, I would say that most people know it's a cover.

projectmayhem

Johnny Cash's

JC 2K3 wrote:

Oh and Cash changed "shít" to "thorns", grrr....

trent does that too when he's playing on tv or whatever to be nice for the fcc...

i thought cash totally stole it away from NIN when i first heard it. but i heard hurt again by NIN during the promo tour for with teeth on radio1 with zane lowe and nin totally took the song back as their own.

but that's not to discredit johnny cash's version, which is stunning, but different. it has a different kind of emotion in it. and there couldn't be a better song for a man like that to go out with

weemcd

Johnny cash all the way, true grit and emotion right there, without even considering the video. Renzor sounds like a moany anemic cúnt compared to cash.

brianthebard

Johnny Cash's

I heard cash's version first, so I went out and bought the downward spiral to see how they compare. NIN's version is the better, hands down. Cash just sounds like a tired old man waiting to be handed some money for singing the song and the piano accompiament does nothing compared to seething pain that comes out of the ending of the NIN version.

NIN all the way.

Morrigan

Strange... I just listened to the two versions back to back the other day...
The NIN version feels empty and drained, angry and hate-filled by turns...
Cash's version is sad. Like previous posters have said, Johnny puts a depth of emotion into it that NIN doesn't...
It's like Reznor is looking at the dark place he's at now and seeing it can only lead to a bleak and pointless future, while Cash is looking at where he is now and seeing how his life has passed and accumulated to nothing...
I'm a fan of NIN, but in this case I think Cash's version touches me more, and is therefore I prefer it...

Nimrod's Son

I think both are great. I wouldn't be able to pick one or the other. NIN's version is more haunting while Cash's is more emotional.

Stain Boy

Without question Johnny Cash proves with his version that the adage of 'origonal is best' isn't always accurrate. Cashs version blew me away the first several times I heard it, and its effect on me hasnt dulled much.

Eoin Madsen

Johnny Cash's

I find Trent Reznor's voice a lot more expressive than Johnny Cash's. It's an interesting interpretation of the song, but in itself it never reachs the same emotional height of the original, imo. I think Johnny Cash's death so soon after it probably colours a lot of people's perceptions of it.

Pigman II

Eoin Madsen wrote:

I think Johnny Cash's death so soon after it probably colours a lot of people's perceptions of it.

Perhaps, but not for me personally! I didn't even like what I'd heard of Cash when I first heard that tune but it just blew me away (I think I even started a thread here about it so strong was my reaction to it and trust me I don't start threads about single songs for the hell of it). I didn't even know he was dying either at the time, really knew little about the guy at all tbh.

Speaking of which if anyones interested......

DOCUMENTARY: Johnny Cash
Channel: BBC 1 Northern Ireland
Date: Monday 6th February 2006
Time: 00:00 to 01:00 (starting in 1 day)
Duration: 1 hour.
The Last Great American.
Documentary profiling the life of the legendary country music star Johnny Cash, who died in 2003 shortly after completing the retrospective Unearthed, a 5 CD-set of the acoustic performances with which he resurrected his career in the last decade of his life. Featuring contributions from his daughter Rosanne and son John Carter Cash, manager Lou Robin and fellow musicians including Little Richard, Kris Kristofferson and Elvis Costello.
(Repeat, Subtitles)

Tar.Aldarion

Johnny cash by a mile for me. Exquisite video too. Practically cry when I see it
Good man johnny, always wore black!

starn

Cash

John

Eoin Madsen wrote:

I think Johnny Cash's death so soon after it probably colours a lot of people's perceptions of it.

Well I had the album when it came out and Cash was very much alive, I still think his was better. Although out of that entire American album series there is only one cover that I prefer the original to Cash's and that's The Mercy Seat.

ehraz

I love them both. Johnny Cash's version has a lifetime of experience behind the emotion which is why I love his. Saw NIN do Hurt live and it's so much better live than on the album. It was sung with such feeling behind it that I almost felt like crying.