It's amazing how Trent Reznor wrote about his struggles as a young man so perfectly. But his song also worked so well with Johnny who was at the end of his life. Love both versions.
oh yeah, both versions definitely have their own unique meaning.. and that makes them both so powerful. I'd only hope this was the original album version.
The thing about Hurt is - it came almost at the end of "The Downward Spiral" - a lot of the previous tracks were outright expressions of anger, frustration and loss, then this comes along.. For me it will always be part of the "story" of The Downward Spiral, it's like the feeling you get when you've cried so much that all the anger and frustration is suddenly gone and you've found peace
@@garyb7575 peace or utter emotional exhaustion m. Reminds me of how i felt when I watched the emotionally raw Once Were Warriors back in 1994 (?) when it first come out at the movies. I was exhausted I couldn’t speak or even contemplate continuing into dinner. I was so depleted
This song has been there for me at some of the toughest points in my life. The death of my childhood friend. The death of my daughter. The death of my girlfriend. Times I nearly joined them. It's been there to share my pain and remind me to live my life. Three of the five times I've seen NIN live they played this song and every time is seared in to my memory forever.
"Hurt" and "And All That Could Have Been" are the only two NIN songs they hit me right in the heart to near tears. They were the soundtrack to one of the darkest times in my life. 💔A time that is thankfully far behind me but the scars are still felt when I hear these songs.
There is an absolute gem of a video on youtube of David Bowie joining Trent to sing Hurt. Just spectacular. Even with how sad the song is, you can tell how happy and excited Reznor is to be joined by a legend he admires.
Have seen NIN live a handful of times and every time this song gets played the audience becomes quiet. Like imagine crowd of 1000s of people settling down, raising lighters and just listen at first and (sometimes) after the buildup join in singing the lyrics. This is sooo powerful and sooo emotional. Each time I end up in tears and so are hundreds more. For many people this song is not 'just' a song, it's so much more, as well as for Trent as you can clearly tell by his performance.
Trent is also one of those musicians that writes pretty much everything himself, all the music and all the lyrics, then has a band that plays with him live.
Don't get me wrong, Johnny Cash did an incredible job covering this song, maybe one of the greatest covers of all time. But to me NIN is the better version, Trent Reznor lived this song and the emotion is unmatched.
Cash brings emotion to the lyrics, but his version doesn't have that epic payoff with the finale that builds up and crescendos during the entirety of the original.
I don’t think the Cash version adds anything, except a faster tempo. Instead they removed the small interesting musical tidbits. And they made it more radio friendly (and almost happy!) I Think the best covers take the song to new teritory - like Marilyn Manson’s cover of Sweet Dreams.
Another sad and very emotional NIN song with raw vocals is "Something I can never have (Still version"). Trent puts is soul into that one too. you would like it
Yea Cash did a whole album of covers including "Rusty Cage" by Chris Cornell. Another great song by NIN is "Something i can Never have." You should check that out sometime.
Song means so much to so many people, even Johnny Cash. It always takes something out of Trent to perform this, because it's true and how he felt and still feels
I love the Johnny Cash cover but the Nine Inch Nails Quiet Version is my personal favorite version of the song, I can't say why that particular version is the one that gets me the most but it does, it's such a relatable song I hadn't heard this Live performance before but I love it
The live version of this with David Bowie is something otherworldly and you should absolutely listen to it. It has a pretty different arrangement. For some background, Trent Reznor has talked about 'how it felt having his greatest musical influence up on stage with him singing a song he wrote in his bedroom'. David Bowie would later help Trent get clean. Hurt is a song about losing yourself to addiction and was deeply personal for Trent, though he has thankfully been in recovery for a long time. After he saw the video that Johnny Cash made, he said now the song belongs to Johnny. I'd like to think that's because Trent is no longer in such a dark place.
I’ve been listening this song since the beginning and didn’t know (or perhaps care). Now I face the same struggles. I could sense this but wasn’t sure. Thank you so much for clarifying
One of the amazing things about Trent reznor and nine inch nails is that you get his all in every live performance. I have heard hurt live 12 different times and every time it’s like it takes a part of his soul it’s so raw and powerful and it’s almost always the last song of the show. Great video, thank you
He is like this every night in concerts for every song. I’ve been a fan since 1990 and have never looked back. I’ve seen him in concert 3 times and I wish it was more. He gives it everything always.
This song is so much more powerful when you realize it is about drug addiction. Trent was pretty badly addicted to Heroin around the time he wrote this song.
No, he wasn't. Why does everyone say this? Trent's drugs of choice were cocaine and alcohol. The only time he ever did heroin was on accident, when he thought china white was coke and almost died because of it.
@@heavenresearch2332 you cant tell me when he first got picked up by his label that touring around with the king before he became the king and as well as others like in his movie walk the line that he didnt use drugs of some sort come on
Trent has said that he leaves to last because singing it takes him back to a not very happy time in his life 😢 and Hurt was a very raw intimate song and all the feelings of despair he had writing it cine flooding back. There’s an episode of Song Exploder with Trent Reznor where he explains the songs background and how he made the ‘white noise’ featured in Hurt (I never noticed it until after I saw that interview) he is still hot AF 🔥
One of the best written songs I've heard. Love NIN from all my heart! I appreciate you reacting to this. I'd recommend sticking to the more raw and emotional songs from NIN for now because I think you'd find more meaning in them than some of the more industrial metal stuff. I'd say next ones could be The Great Below, And All That Could Have Been, Right Where It Belongs and Something I Can Never Have.
He's talked a little about it why it's so draining. The album this is from The Downward Spiral was what he later said was written in a time when he was teetering on the edge of addiction and mental health issues. He wrote Hurt one morning when no one was around and had nothing to distract his thoughts. He later said he didn't intend on the album predicting what would happen to him, but it did. He was very flattered about Johnny Cash's cover which is very well documented, but personally I think he was far more ecstatic when his icon David Bowie invited him to headline a tour with him, and they proceeded to duet Nine Inch Nails and Bowie songs together the whole time - Hurt included, which is on youtube if you want to ever watch that. Bowie also ended up playing an instrumental part in getting Reznor out of his addiction problems by showing him he was allowed to be a famous musician and live to an old age and have a life outside music.
Beautiful analysis. Would love to see you do more Nine Inch Nails reactions! Into the Void and We're In This Together from The Fragile (1999) both have really impressive vocal performances IMO.
I would highly recommend the whole Pretty Hate Machine album. Its one of if not thee best album ever produced. It's similar lyrically writing to this song but not so slow. Every song WILL hit you, like he reads your thoughts and feeling and wrote the songs to express you, the listener.
Trent Rex or is possibly one of the best artists of a generation. When I watch a film I know instantly he has scored it without having to see credits The soundscapes full of emotion tension are just sublime Even the score for Soul which was a little bit more upbeat for him still had you sense more of mystery behind the emotion
There are some songs that come from a place so deep inside us, that they make you relive those moments when you perform them. You can tell HURT is that kind of song for Reznor. When they released a music video for this song when the album came out, it was also a live performance video. Towards the end of the song, you can hear Reznor fighting not to break while singing the final couple lines and it is utterly heartbreaking. All these years later and it still feels like the song tears at him at he performs it. Painful, but beautiful.
NIN was my older brothers favorite band. I remember he picked me up from high school and we went to see Marilyn Manson together and I got to party with his college friends. He let me borrow this awesome Nirvana Bootleg called Outcesticide, before the internet was really going and you can hear everything. Unfortunately, I still have it. He overdosed and I never saw him again.
Trent's songs and emotions make up a part of me whether I like it or not. I lost my dad in 2013 to alcohol and grew up listening to NIN/seeing them live. He gave up and would constantly play their live performances at home towards the end. No matter how hard I tried to help, I couldn't. I really miss him. Anyone who loves their music and can relate, I'm right there with you and you're loved/not alone.
I guess that’s why I’ve always loved and identified so much with NIN. They were singing and talking about things that were going through my head things I was experiencing. It’s made it feel like I wasn’t alone.
Huge Johnny cash fan fun fact Johnny cash has a lot of covers such as I won’t back down by Tom petty I’m so lonesome I could cry by Hank Williams sr and so many more Johnny cash started in officially the 60s and kept singing and writing till he passed away in 2003 when he covered hurt he put it more into the eyes of a elderly person but in my opinion I can relate more to the original version of hurt NIN because I do believe he wrote it about doing drugs I have lost a good amount of people to drugs and this actually happened to them
Also check out David Bowie and Trent Reznor doing this song. In the 90’s Bowie and NiN did a tour together where they performed all their songs together. So Trent is singing Bowie songs together and Bowie is singing NiN songs. It was so beautiful
I love this so much and the Johnny cover. A little detail that always intrigues me, is the guitar melody in the verses, it has this slight off kilter feel to it, it gives the song a nice, subtle edge to complement the lyrics. Great reaction, thanks.
This song is heroin addiction in a nutshell-feeling hopeless and forever stuck in a vicious cycle of abject horror. I'm so lucky and grateful to be alive and clean today. I just want to say to those who are currently stuck aimlessly wandering-please don't ever give up; you can get clean. And to all who were never able to find their way back home, RIP! 💔🤘🏻❤️♾️
I'm absolutely loving the reactions to the songs/band that I "grew up" listening to so far. It's nice seeing someone who'd never heard of NIN before, (I just came from the video of The Hand That Feeds which you said was the first you'd heard of them), appreciate and jam out to them. And I'm absolutely for sure going to be subscribing, cause I've already seen some other songs and bands recommended that I love/grew up listening to that you've reacted to and I gotta check them and the new videos out when they come out. Also, theres a song by NIN you should check out that's one of their most popular and also the most vulgar, called Closer, if you can deal with the subject of the song, it's worth the listen 😂😂.
One of Cash's last recordings was an album of covers. This is on there, there's an amazing Soundgarden cover, and some other great takes as well. I think Rick Rubin pushed him to do it.
This song stil brings a tear to my eye. I've lost many fiends of the course of my 53 years several by their own hand & i think of them & how i couldn't save them every time i hear this.
One of my favorite parts of this song is the background drone/distortion that morphs as the song progresses. They also played with some deep thrumming bass here, which I really felt made it land harder.
its such a personal song. this nin song, among a few, make me cry. listen to the studio version, if you have time. its the feeling of just trying so damn hard, and doing all you can do.... and having the person you tried so hard for just walk away.... its soul wrenching to me. i was mad by cash's cover, until i realized its from two completely different perspectives.... his (cash's), now in my mind also amazing. (also your hair is fucking fire, dont stop)
As Iconic as Cash and his legacy is, this version is expressed extremely raw and personal. As all of Trent Reznor's works are. Cash is my favorite musician ever. His music and attitude inspired every artist and band that I love. Even if they don't know it. Reznor is a production mastermind, his music is revolutionary on another level. What this song is doing is something from the blues that I cant seem to remember the lingo, but it's when you sing and the guitar riffs. Its talk and react or something along those lines. This song is pure blues with a massive injection of industrial rock. Another reason why I consider Reznor a musical genius.
Pls do more NIN. It’s my fav and you do such a good job of lyrical analysis and feeling of the music. I say this as a 30 year fan of NIN. I’ve hated other reactors because they didn’t give bands what they deserved.
Keep up the great reactions to great music and expanding the variety of music you listen to and also learning "new" music from these reactions. It's always nice to see someone not only reacting to overly popular songs but actually willing to react to "older" music and like i said, expanding the variety of music you listen to. Also if you don't mind listening to like really old music, there's a song that I always recommend to people who do reactions (tho 99.999999999% of the time the comment either never gets seen or they just choose to not give the song a chance), but it is a wonderful song I promise and not vulgar at all 😂. The song is called Blue Moon by The Marcells and it's such an amazing old school DooWop love song with a "mix" of doo wop mixed with like sort of "acapella" or maybe it could be considered heterophony really, cause its 4 or 5 different guys all singing in different tones and it's been one of my favorite songs since i was about 6 when my Papaw first started playing me DooWop music he grew up on when we'd take our trips to the home football games we'd go to every weekend back in the day. It would just be so awesome to finally see someone I watch finally react to this amazing song and to be able to see someone I enjoy watchings first time hearing such an amazing song. If you like older 50s love songs and such, you will definitely enjoy Blue Moon 100% guaranteed.
Good music gives me the tingly feeling that people describe feeling from ASMR. NIN has always been able to hit hard. Trent is amazing despite past mistakes and struggle.
johnny cash's last few albums had a ton of good covers on it. nine inch nails has been my favorite band since i was 11 and my uncle played me their cassette in 94. beloveddddddddd
I saw this show in DC and it was fuckin epic… October 17th 2013 I believe and he went all out the lights coordinating with the music just epic is the only word I got
Seeing Nine Inch Nails is something else. I saw them the first night of Woodstock 94, and i was on 4 hits of blower acid, and i seriously thought I was in a post apocalyptic world where everyone fended for themselves. I was tripping BALLS. And with NIN onstage, it really sold that total hallucination I was going through.
I saw them in 94 too. On the Downward Spiral tour. In the height of their power, imo. It was my first concert. I was 15, almost 16. My mind was blown. I went in thinking thru were just gonna go on stage and play music. They had all this cool imagry going on.
I first heard this song in 1994 after I bought the Downward Spiral album. I was shocked to say the least. Well when I first heard NIN 2 years prior when I got their 2nd album Broken I was shocked because the pain and anguish that he is singing about yea I was going through that and I could so identify with Trent Reznor. Their music made me feel like I wasn’t alone when at the time at age 14 or 15 I felt alone in a room full of people. I had found drugs like Trent had. And thank god I did. They kept me from killing myself until I could get some help and get on the good drugs like Prozac.
Johnny Cash did a LOT of covers in his later years, all of the American albums (American Recordings through to American IV: The Man Comes Around) are mostly covers. Highly recommend listening through these works in your own time! That last album is from 2002 and has Hurt on it. It is on my top 5 albums of all time, and Hurt is not even my favourite song on it. The whole thing is a masterpiece of folk tunes.
This song resonates with any depressive issues. Please!!! spot any signs of addiction your loved ones may be experiencing that relates to the NIN version. How fulfilling will it be to save someone close from an early end. Johnny Cash's version is more personally sung, knowing an end is going to hurt both him and his loved ones. Thank you Trent Reznor for a song that is universally applicable! 💯🤘
I will let you down I will make you hurt! I wear this crown of shit upon my liars chair full of broken thoughts I cannot repair. Beneath the stains of time the feelings disappear . You are someone else.. I am still right here.. ugh..... He is basically calling himself what someone made him feel. He is confused by them and wants to die because he should have known better than to trust the other person. It hits home hard for me.
NIN is a good band and the fact that Johnny Cash covered it definitely left a huge statement in music because he is a frickin’ legend. RIP Johnny Cash ❤ Amazing reaction as always ❤
No one comes close to Trent. He’s a genius. With the rawest of emotion. Since listening to him from 1989 until now. So thankful for his tunes. Nothing is better than NIN. Cash covered Soundgarden as well.
Johnny Cash was a legend. He always gravitated to the darker side of music. This song is quite dark. It says a lot about the song if Johnny Cash wanted to cover it. It is a masterpiece. NIN is my favorite version but it is the version I heard first.
Ray, you should check out their Former Guitarist band, *FILTER* Check out their song: *FILTER - WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE* That song will make you feel.... something.... 🖤
Crazy thing too is there is like no studio version of this song. That i can find anyway. They are all Live versions. Im pretty sure even the album version was recorded Live in concert...
It was very common for singers to have other people write their songs and for singers to do cover versions in the era Johnny Cash came from. In the 50s people would record covers of a newly released song that was currently on the radio and there’d be competing versions occasionally. And Johnny didn’t write some of his biggest hits. ‘A Boy Named Sue’ for example, was written by Shel Silverstein (author of Where The Sidewalk Ends).
Here is cool story behind Johnny Cash cover. His producer is Rich Rubin is super famous. Co-founder of Def Jam. Producer of Beastie Boys and Run Dmc also LL Cool J. He call Trent and ask if it cool to do the cover. Trent said after he watch the video. It's not really his anymore. Cause of Johnny's history. Which is pretty cool. If you understand the complicated life Johnny live.
From what I understand Trent Reznor ends every show with Hurt. Ive seen NIN live a few times and he ended with hurt each time. It’s like he’s diving deep into his soul and using every ounce of his emotion and energy. Friggin amazing experience!!
Now that you've gotten into the whole Trent Reznor experience, you have to give his other band with his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, a listen. They go by "How to Destroy Angels" and they are/were awesome. Sadly, they haven't put out anything since 2013, but one can hope that changes someday. I'd recommend "A Drowning" or "Welcome Oblivion" for the full band sound and "Ice Age" for a more beautiful, Mariqueen's voice centered song. But honestly, just about anything of theirs was awesome.
Awesome mannnn I’m Trent obsessed I’ve seen him 12 times now they put on an amazing show I’d say one of the few bands that is better live than in studio…granted he’s alone in the studio I just mean the sound
Johnny Cash was awesome in that he covered a lot of songs from artists newer than him. It showed how open he was to newer music. Unlike other people who stick their nose up at newer songs. Johnny Cash also did a great cover of One by U2 please react to both
Trent said anytime he sings the songs from pre 2000 before sobriety it takes him to a dark place….. he’s hands down my favorite artist of all time no one will surpass him
Johnny Cash's cover is just awesome. The song seemed to represent his whole life and what he was going through at that point. So it was an excellent interpretation. But, it's Trent's lyrics. They are part of his life and you can feel him living them in every performance he does of this song. And that is priceless.
It feels weird to say this, but thank you for choosing to react to this. So many people only react to Cash's cover, which is great cover, don't get me wrong. Many are even aware that it's a cover, but never go listen to the original which is just as powerful in different ways.
its something that always surprised me with johnny cash that he did a cover song. and he literally came out of retirement to do it. it shows how powerful the song is =] i heard the nin version way before johnny cash even released the cover and love nin to the core cant think of a song i dont like by them.
I think it was a last dash for cash since he said he didn’t really like the song at all.. he never acknowledged Trent or even thanked him for giving him the song for free which was hugely successful and he won many awards and made a ton of money $ maybe he was old and we should give him a break buuuut he was nimble enough to get to the Patent Office to copyright his version for future royalties 🤗
You should react to Nirvana Something In The Way. Cobain literally sang the entire song as quiet as he could laying on his back on a couch in the studio. Kinda like this song.
There are interview quotes that speak to Reznor's reaction to the cover. It wasn't until after he saw the video and the broader reaction to the song that ultimately he's even quoted as saying "That song isn't mine anymore." (Obviously just speaking to Cash having found such a profound take on what had been a very intimate song for Reznor.) The video is what really sells it--the timeliness of when it was recorded, with June Carter Cash before both she and Cash passed away not long after. Such an intense video. For me it's not like, say, "All Along the Watchtower" where my opinion is Hendrix's cover is now primary and Dylan's original a clear secondary. Reznor's Hurt and Cash's reinterpretation can coincide.
This is one of THREE versions of this song. The Johnny Cash version. THIS version and then the version with Trent Reznor AND David Bowie. You should check that version out too. It is awesome AS WELL!!!.....
It's amazing how Trent Reznor wrote about his struggles as a young man so perfectly. But his song also worked so well with Johnny who was at the end of his life. Love both versions.
oh yeah, both versions definitely have their own unique meaning.. and that makes them both so powerful. I'd only hope this was the original album version.
Agree!
The thing about Hurt is - it came almost at the end of "The Downward Spiral" - a lot of the previous tracks were outright expressions of anger, frustration and loss, then this comes along.. For me it will always be part of the "story" of The Downward Spiral, it's like the feeling you get when you've cried so much that all the anger and frustration is suddenly gone and you've found peace
It actually was the end, the final track on the album.
in death.
The last three notes are the most powerful notes of any song to me. To me it’s like the release of all the hurt that was ailing me.
@@garyb7575 peace or utter emotional exhaustion m. Reminds me of how i felt when I watched the emotionally raw Once Were Warriors back in 1994 (?) when it first come out at the movies. I was exhausted I couldn’t speak or even contemplate continuing into dinner. I was so depleted
This song has been there for me at some of the toughest points in my life.
The death of my childhood friend.
The death of my daughter.
The death of my girlfriend.
Times I nearly joined them.
It's been there to share my pain and remind me to live my life.
Three of the five times I've seen NIN live they played this song and every time is seared in to my memory forever.
I'm sorry for those losses.
My best friend passed 6 months ago, tomorrow is his birthday. And now I'm crying
@@xhesil8848 *hugs*
You should try to quit killing everyone around you. You don’t have to murder everyone. Have a popsicle instead.😛
I am really sorry for your loss.
But please stop playing this song... it kills people.
(Please take it as a joke, as it is.)
Trent gives those emotions every show. He is a perfectionist. He is one of those once in a lifetime artist. From another planet
When I saw this live it was amazing. NIN was one of the best shows I've ever been to.
"Hurt" and "And All That Could Have Been" are the only two NIN songs they hit me right in the heart to near tears. They were the soundtrack to one of the darkest times in my life. 💔A time that is thankfully far behind me but the scars are still felt when I hear these songs.
There is an absolute gem of a video on youtube of David Bowie joining Trent to sing Hurt. Just spectacular.
Even with how sad the song is, you can tell how happy and excited Reznor is to be joined by a legend he admires.
This. Probably one of my favorite bits of live performance ever.
I saw them together in Toronto in 95 or 96. To this day the best concert I have ever been to.
Bowie and Trent did I'm Afraid of Americans together and it's really good
Have seen NIN live a handful of times and every time this song gets played the audience becomes quiet. Like imagine crowd of 1000s of people settling down, raising lighters and just listen at first and (sometimes) after the buildup join in singing the lyrics. This is sooo powerful and sooo emotional. Each time I end up in tears and so are hundreds more. For many people this song is not 'just' a song, it's so much more, as well as for Trent as you can clearly tell by his performance.
Trent is also one of those musicians that writes pretty much everything himself, all the music and all the lyrics, then has a band that plays with him live.
Don't get me wrong, Johnny Cash did an incredible job covering this song, maybe one of the greatest covers of all time. But to me NIN is the better version, Trent Reznor lived this song and the emotion is unmatched.
I second this!
Cash brings emotion to the lyrics, but his version doesn't have that epic payoff with the finale that builds up and crescendos during the entirety of the original.
hell yeah NIN is the better version :)
I don’t think the Cash version adds anything, except a faster tempo. Instead they removed the small interesting musical tidbits. And they made it more radio friendly (and almost happy!)
I Think the best covers take the song to new teritory - like Marilyn Manson’s cover of Sweet Dreams.
Both are good just come fron different parts of life ... NIN version comes from a place of dispare ... cash is from regret
Another sad and very emotional NIN song with raw vocals is "Something I can never have (Still version"). Trent puts is soul into that one too. you would like it
That is a song that resonates with me so deeply that I can't listen to it anymore.
My favorite song ever!
Yea Cash did a whole album of covers including "Rusty Cage" by Chris Cornell. Another great song by NIN is "Something i can Never have." You should check that out sometime.
Song means so much to so many people, even Johnny Cash. It always takes something out of Trent to perform this, because it's true and how he felt and still feels
I love the Johnny Cash cover but the Nine Inch Nails Quiet Version is my personal favorite version of the song, I can't say why that particular version is the one that gets me the most but it does, it's such a relatable song I hadn't heard this Live performance before but I love it
The live version of this with David Bowie is something otherworldly and you should absolutely listen to it. It has a pretty different arrangement.
For some background, Trent Reznor has talked about 'how it felt having his greatest musical influence up on stage with him singing a song he wrote in his bedroom'. David Bowie would later help Trent get clean. Hurt is a song about losing yourself to addiction and was deeply personal for Trent, though he has thankfully been in recovery for a long time. After he saw the video that Johnny Cash made, he said now the song belongs to Johnny. I'd like to think that's because Trent is no longer in such a dark place.
I’ve been listening this song since the beginning and didn’t know (or perhaps care). Now I face the same struggles. I could sense this but wasn’t sure. Thank you so much for clarifying
One of the amazing things about Trent reznor and nine inch nails is that you get his all in every live performance. I have heard hurt live 12 different times and every time it’s like it takes a part of his soul it’s so raw and powerful and it’s almost always the last song of the show. Great video, thank you
He is like this every night in concerts for every song. I’ve been a fan since 1990 and have never looked back. I’ve seen him in concert 3 times and I wish it was more. He gives it everything always.
Absolutely love this song. Often he ends a show with this song so I'm sure he's exhausted but also this song is meaningful
This song is so much more powerful when you realize it is about drug addiction. Trent was pretty badly addicted to Heroin around the time he wrote this song.
It's not exactly veiled, but yeah.
@krisfrederick5001 it's misconstrued as aging and losing everyone because of Johnny's more popular version
Cash's life experiences fit better with the song and hits harder to people and hes had drug problems himself
No, he wasn't. Why does everyone say this? Trent's drugs of choice were cocaine and alcohol. The only time he ever did heroin was on accident, when he thought china white was coke and almost died because of it.
@@heavenresearch2332 you cant tell me when he first got picked up by his label that touring around with the king before he became the king and as well as others like in his movie walk the line that he didnt use drugs of some sort come on
He usually plays that song last. No encore, just… whatever he has left in the tank gets burned up. Lights turn on, everybody go home now.
Trent has said that he leaves to last because singing it takes him back to a not very happy time in his life 😢 and Hurt was a very raw intimate song and all the feelings of despair he had writing it cine flooding back. There’s an episode of Song Exploder with Trent Reznor where he explains the songs background and how he made the ‘white noise’ featured in Hurt (I never noticed it until after I saw that interview) he is still hot AF 🔥
One of the best written songs I've heard. Love NIN from all my heart! I appreciate you reacting to this.
I'd recommend sticking to the more raw and emotional songs from NIN for now because I think you'd find more meaning in them than some of the more industrial metal stuff. I'd say next ones could be The Great Below, And All That Could Have Been, Right Where It Belongs and Something I Can Never Have.
He's talked a little about it why it's so draining. The album this is from The Downward Spiral was what he later said was written in a time when he was teetering on the edge of addiction and mental health issues. He wrote Hurt one morning when no one was around and had nothing to distract his thoughts. He later said he didn't intend on the album predicting what would happen to him, but it did. He was very flattered about Johnny Cash's cover which is very well documented, but personally I think he was far more ecstatic when his icon David Bowie invited him to headline a tour with him, and they proceeded to duet Nine Inch Nails and Bowie songs together the whole time - Hurt included, which is on youtube if you want to ever watch that.
Bowie also ended up playing an instrumental part in getting Reznor out of his addiction problems by showing him he was allowed to be a famous musician and live to an old age and have a life outside music.
Beautiful analysis. Would love to see you do more Nine Inch Nails reactions! Into the Void and We're In This Together from The Fragile (1999) both have really impressive vocal performances IMO.
I would highly recommend the whole Pretty Hate Machine album. Its one of if not thee best album ever produced. It's similar lyrically writing to this song but not so slow. Every song WILL hit you, like he reads your thoughts and feeling and wrote the songs to express you, the listener.
Yep. Just put that mf on play and let it roll
Pretty Hate Machine is a fantastic album, but the production actually blows and even for its time.
This song has so much meaning for folks. Definately different from those with holes and those without. Reminds me a bit of King of Pain.
Trent Rex or is possibly one of the best artists of a generation.
When I watch a film I know instantly he has scored it without having to see credits
The soundscapes full of emotion tension are just sublime
Even the score for Soul which was a little bit more upbeat for him still had you sense more of mystery behind the emotion
There are some songs that come from a place so deep inside us, that they make you relive those moments when you perform them. You can tell HURT is that kind of song for Reznor. When they released a music video for this song when the album came out, it was also a live performance video. Towards the end of the song, you can hear Reznor fighting not to break while singing the final couple lines and it is utterly heartbreaking. All these years later and it still feels like the song tears at him at he performs it. Painful, but beautiful.
NIN was my older brothers favorite band. I remember he picked me up from high school and we went to see Marilyn Manson together and I got to party with his college friends. He let me borrow this awesome Nirvana Bootleg called Outcesticide, before the internet was really going and you can hear everything. Unfortunately, I still have it. He overdosed and I never saw him again.
Damn
Another great reaction, Rachel. Such a powerful version of an already powerful song. One everyone can relate to.
Trent's songs and emotions make up a part of me whether I like it or not. I lost my dad in 2013 to alcohol and grew up listening to NIN/seeing them live. He gave up and would constantly play their live performances at home towards the end. No matter how hard I tried to help, I couldn't. I really miss him. Anyone who loves their music and can relate, I'm right there with you and you're loved/not alone.
I guess that’s why I’ve always loved and identified so much with NIN. They were singing and talking about things that were going through my head things I was experiencing. It’s made it feel like I wasn’t alone.
After Johnny Cash did that song Trent Reznor said it was Johnny’s song after that.
Huge Johnny cash fan fun fact Johnny cash has a lot of covers such as I won’t back down by Tom petty I’m so lonesome I could cry by Hank Williams sr and so many more Johnny cash started in officially the 60s and kept singing and writing till he passed away in 2003 when he covered hurt he put it more into the eyes of a elderly person but in my opinion I can relate more to the original version of hurt NIN because I do believe he wrote it about doing drugs I have lost a good amount of people to drugs and this actually happened to them
Also check out David Bowie and Trent Reznor doing this song. In the 90’s Bowie and NiN did a tour together where they performed all their songs together. So Trent is singing Bowie songs together and Bowie is singing NiN songs. It was so beautiful
Uh, that breathy vocal. Just stunning. I love Trent Reznor.
I love this so much and the Johnny cover. A little detail that always intrigues me, is the guitar melody in the verses, it has this slight off kilter feel to it, it gives the song a nice, subtle edge to complement the lyrics. Great reaction, thanks.
This song is heroin addiction in a nutshell-feeling hopeless and forever stuck in a vicious cycle of abject horror.
I'm so lucky and grateful to be alive and clean today. I just want to say to those who are currently stuck aimlessly wandering-please don't ever give up; you can get clean. And to all who were never able to find their way back home, RIP! 💔🤘🏻❤️♾️
I'm absolutely loving the reactions to the songs/band that I "grew up" listening to so far. It's nice seeing someone who'd never heard of NIN before, (I just came from the video of The Hand That Feeds which you said was the first you'd heard of them), appreciate and jam out to them.
And I'm absolutely for sure going to be subscribing, cause I've already seen some other songs and bands recommended that I love/grew up listening to that you've reacted to and I gotta check them and the new videos out when they come out.
Also, theres a song by NIN you should check out that's one of their most popular and also the most vulgar, called Closer, if you can deal with the subject of the song, it's worth the listen 😂😂.
One of Cash's last recordings was an album of covers. This is on there, there's an amazing Soundgarden cover, and some other great takes as well. I think Rick Rubin pushed him to do it.
He did indeed and was known for getting famous bands to give him songs for free so his other artists could do covers
so good. The hesitation marks album isn't covered as much but is absolutely outstanding btw.
This song stil brings a tear to my eye. I've lost many fiends of the course of my 53 years several by their own hand & i think of them & how i couldn't save them every time i hear this.
One of my favorite parts of this song is the background drone/distortion that morphs as the song progresses. They also played with some deep thrumming bass here, which I really felt made it land harder.
Saw NiN on that tour in 2013. Still the most awe inspiring audio/visual experience of my life
its such a personal song. this nin song, among a few, make me cry. listen to the studio version, if you have time. its the feeling of just trying so damn hard, and doing all you can do.... and having the person you tried so hard for just walk away.... its soul wrenching to me. i was mad by cash's cover, until i realized its from two completely different perspectives.... his (cash's), now in my mind also amazing. (also your hair is fucking fire, dont stop)
As Iconic as Cash and his legacy is, this version is expressed extremely raw and personal. As all of Trent Reznor's works are. Cash is my favorite musician ever. His music and attitude inspired every artist and band that I love. Even if they don't know it. Reznor is a production mastermind, his music is revolutionary on another level. What this song is doing is something from the blues that I cant seem to remember the lingo, but it's when you sing and the guitar riffs. Its talk and react or something along those lines. This song is pure blues with a massive injection of industrial rock. Another reason why I consider Reznor a musical genius.
Pls do more NIN. It’s my fav and you do such a good job of lyrical analysis and feeling of the music. I say this as a 30 year fan of NIN. I’ve hated other reactors because they didn’t give bands what they deserved.
Keep up the great reactions to great music and expanding the variety of music you listen to and also learning "new" music from these reactions.
It's always nice to see someone not only reacting to overly popular songs but actually willing to react to "older" music and like i said, expanding the variety of music you listen to.
Also if you don't mind listening to like really old music, there's a song that I always recommend to people who do reactions (tho 99.999999999% of the time the comment either never gets seen or they just choose to not give the song a chance), but it is a wonderful song I promise and not vulgar at all 😂. The song is called Blue Moon by The Marcells and it's such an amazing old school DooWop love song with a "mix" of doo wop mixed with like sort of "acapella" or maybe it could be considered heterophony really, cause its 4 or 5 different guys all singing in different tones and it's been one of my favorite songs since i was about 6 when my Papaw first started playing me DooWop music he grew up on when we'd take our trips to the home football games we'd go to every weekend back in the day.
It would just be so awesome to finally see someone I watch finally react to this amazing song and to be able to see someone I enjoy watchings first time hearing such an amazing song.
If you like older 50s love songs and such, you will definitely enjoy Blue Moon 100% guaranteed.
Good music gives me the tingly feeling that people describe feeling from ASMR. NIN has always been able to hit hard. Trent is amazing despite past mistakes and struggle.
With trent you can really feel all the emotions. This is what music is about. True masterpiece.
johnny cash's last few albums had a ton of good covers on it. nine inch nails has been my favorite band since i was 11 and my uncle played me their cassette in 94. beloveddddddddd
The entire music industry is like that. Some artists write their own, some don't. Trent is an extraordinary song writer!
I saw them on the With Teeth tour, this stage setup looks like what I saw. Incredible live sound.
This concert is one of the best live gigs on the internet, I've watched it sooooo many times. ❤
I saw this show in DC and it was fuckin epic… October 17th 2013 I believe and he went all out the lights coordinating with the music just epic is the only word I got
Seeing Nine Inch Nails is something else. I saw them the first night of Woodstock 94, and i was on 4 hits of blower acid, and i seriously thought I was in a post apocalyptic world where everyone fended for themselves. I was tripping BALLS. And with NIN onstage, it really sold that total hallucination I was going through.
I saw them in 94 too. On the Downward Spiral tour. In the height of their power, imo. It was my first concert. I was 15, almost 16. My mind was blown. I went in thinking thru were just gonna go on stage and play music. They had all this cool imagry going on.
I would love for you to get into more NIN.
Memories of my life....dark winter nights in my apartment playing X-Wing and flying an A-Wing to the entirety of The Downward Spiral....
I first heard this song in 1994 after I bought the Downward Spiral album. I was shocked to say the least. Well when I first heard NIN 2 years prior when I got their 2nd album Broken I was shocked because the pain and anguish that he is singing about yea I was going through that and I could so identify with Trent Reznor. Their music made me feel like I wasn’t alone when at the time at age 14 or 15 I felt alone in a room full of people. I had found drugs like Trent had. And thank god I did. They kept me from killing myself until I could get some help and get on the good drugs like Prozac.
nin one of the best bands of all time. You can do closer, and head like a hole.
Johnny Cash did a LOT of covers in his later years, all of the American albums (American Recordings through to American IV: The Man Comes Around) are mostly covers. Highly recommend listening through these works in your own time! That last album is from 2002 and has Hurt on it. It is on my top 5 albums of all time, and Hurt is not even my favourite song on it. The whole thing is a masterpiece of folk tunes.
If you want to have fun with a cover going the other way, Nine Inch Nails covered Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire
After Cash did the cover Trent said it's a Cash song now
This song resonates with any depressive issues.
Please!!! spot any signs of addiction your loved ones may be experiencing that relates to the NIN version. How fulfilling will it be to save someone close from an early end. Johnny Cash's version is more personally sung, knowing an end is going to hurt both him and his loved ones.
Thank you Trent Reznor for a song that is universally applicable! 💯🤘
This was one of the many songs I saw at the first concert I ever saw.
I bawled when I saw this live
I will let you down I will make you hurt! I wear this crown of shit upon my liars chair full of broken thoughts I cannot repair. Beneath the stains of time the feelings disappear . You are someone else.. I am still right here.. ugh..... He is basically calling himself what someone made him feel. He is confused by them and wants to die because he should have known better than to trust the other person. It hits home hard for me.
Greenday good riddance hits different acoustically just like this does ,both timeless and both awesome!
I have heard this song more than a thousand times in both versions. But only the Nine Inch Nails version makes me cry.
NIN is a good band and the fact that Johnny Cash covered it definitely left a huge statement in music because he is a frickin’ legend. RIP Johnny Cash ❤ Amazing reaction as always ❤
No one comes close to Trent. He’s a genius. With the rawest of emotion. Since listening to him from 1989 until now. So thankful for his tunes. Nothing is better than NIN. Cash covered Soundgarden as well.
Johnny Cash was a legend. He always gravitated to the darker side of music. This song is quite dark. It says a lot about the song if Johnny Cash wanted to cover it. It is a masterpiece. NIN is my favorite version but it is the version I heard first.
Ray, you should check out their Former Guitarist band, *FILTER*
Check out their song:
*FILTER - WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE*
That song will make you feel.... something.... 🖤
Crazy thing too is there is like no studio version of this song. That i can find anyway. They are all Live versions. Im pretty sure even the album version was recorded Live in concert...
After so long ive still got chills!!
It was very common for singers to have other people write their songs and for singers to do cover versions in the era Johnny Cash came from. In the 50s people would record covers of a newly released song that was currently on the radio and there’d be competing versions occasionally. And Johnny didn’t write some of his biggest hits. ‘A Boy Named Sue’ for example, was written by Shel Silverstein (author of Where The Sidewalk Ends).
Here is cool story behind Johnny Cash cover. His producer is Rich Rubin is super famous. Co-founder of Def Jam. Producer of Beastie Boys and Run Dmc also LL Cool J. He call Trent and ask if it cool to do the cover. Trent said after he watch the video. It's not really his anymore. Cause of Johnny's history. Which is pretty cool. If you understand the complicated life Johnny live.
You should listen to their album “The Downward Spiral” from front to back. One of the best concept albums of all time.
From what I understand Trent Reznor ends every show with Hurt. Ive seen NIN live a few times and he ended with hurt each time. It’s like he’s diving deep into his soul and using every ounce of his emotion and energy. Friggin amazing experience!!
When A Legend like Johnny Cash Covers Your Song That Saying a lot And well…NIN was A Part of my Childhood..jr High Actually
Now that you've gotten into the whole Trent Reznor experience, you have to give his other band with his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, a listen. They go by "How to Destroy Angels" and they are/were awesome. Sadly, they haven't put out anything since 2013, but one can hope that changes someday. I'd recommend "A Drowning" or "Welcome Oblivion" for the full band sound and "Ice Age" for a more beautiful, Mariqueen's voice centered song. But honestly, just about anything of theirs was awesome.
cash covered a lot of songs, he seemed to enjoy doing gospel, and songs from bands miles younger than him. heart of gold and rusty cage are cool too.
Hurt is mostly last song of the concert :) I saw NIN twice live and everytime it is a blast:)
Awesome mannnn I’m Trent obsessed I’ve seen him 12 times now they put on an amazing show I’d say one of the few bands that is better live than in studio…granted he’s alone in the studio I just mean the sound
Reznor is so good not playing songs too much, which I love. I don't know if he has ever played Perfect Drug live.
This song was a very personal song for Trent Reznor, which is why you can just feel his pain when he sings it.
Johnny Cash was awesome in that he covered a lot of songs from artists newer than him. It showed how open he was to newer music. Unlike other people who stick their nose up at newer songs. Johnny Cash also did a great cover of One by U2 please react to both
is such a powerful song even with jonny cah version..is so much pain im afraid to say i love this song
Trent said anytime he sings the songs from pre 2000 before sobriety it takes him to a dark place….. he’s hands down my favorite artist of all time no one will surpass him
Great great performance! Nice reaction.
Johnny Cash's cover is just awesome. The song seemed to represent his whole life and what he was going through at that point. So it was an excellent interpretation. But, it's Trent's lyrics. They are part of his life and you can feel him living them in every performance he does of this song. And that is priceless.
It feels weird to say this, but thank you for choosing to react to this. So many people only react to Cash's cover, which is great cover, don't get me wrong. Many are even aware that it's a cover, but never go listen to the original which is just as powerful in different ways.
its something that always surprised me with johnny cash that he did a cover song. and he literally came out of retirement to do it. it shows how powerful the song is =] i heard the nin version way before johnny cash even released the cover and love nin to the core cant think of a song i dont like by them.
I think it was a last dash for cash since he said he didn’t really like the song at all.. he never acknowledged Trent or even thanked him for giving him the song for free which was hugely successful and he won many awards and made a ton of money $ maybe he was old and we should give him a break buuuut he was nimble enough to get to the Patent Office to copyright his version for future royalties 🤗
Johnny Cash did a whole album of covers before he died. Its a great album of his interpretation of contemporary music.
You should react to Nirvana Something In The Way. Cobain literally sang the entire song as quiet as he could laying on his back on a couch in the studio. Kinda like this song.
Cash was working with Rick Ruben on his last albums and I believe introduce Johnny Cash to the song.
I heard this song when I was a teenager in the 90's. You get it.
There are interview quotes that speak to Reznor's reaction to the cover. It wasn't until after he saw the video and the broader reaction to the song that ultimately he's even quoted as saying "That song isn't mine anymore." (Obviously just speaking to Cash having found such a profound take on what had been a very intimate song for Reznor.) The video is what really sells it--the timeliness of when it was recorded, with June Carter Cash before both she and Cash passed away not long after. Such an intense video. For me it's not like, say, "All Along the Watchtower" where my opinion is Hendrix's cover is now primary and Dylan's original a clear secondary. Reznor's Hurt and Cash's reinterpretation can coincide.
This is one of THREE versions of this song. The Johnny Cash version. THIS version and then the version with Trent Reznor AND David Bowie. You should check that version out too. It is awesome AS WELL!!!.....
The last three notes are the most powerful notes of any song to me. To me it’s like the release of all the hurt that was ailing me.
loads of johnny cashes songs are covers. ring of fire, boy named sue... loads.
❤❤❤ you should check out the 94 live version , its black & white ' it's like the back ground he had there
Johny cash owned that cover. Made it his own. But there is no bad version of this song. So real, weve all felt this I think
Only because he was old. Cash's version is inferior in every way possible.