The Volokh Conspiracy
[Jonathan Adler, September 2, 2007 at 9:34am] Trackbacks
Sunday Song Lyric:
Today's NYT Magazine profiles noted record producer Rick Rubin who Sony has put in charge of Columbia Records in an effort to reinvigorate their music business. Though for much of his career Rubin produced hard core metal and some rap albums, he has also achieved notice for his work with Tom Petty and the Dixie Chicks (and received several Grammys for the latter). He produced the first Beastie Boys album, and helped create Audioslave (and also produced a well-known criminal procedure fact pattern song).


One of the most interesting aspects of Rubin's career (at least to me) was his work with Johnny Cash. Rubin virtually re-invented Cash, helping reintroduce Cash to a new generation of listeners, with albums that were stark and authentic. Among other things, Rubin encouraged Cash to cover songs by artists outside of his oeuvre. Perhaps the most notable of these was Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt." As with many of the Rubin-produced singles, Cash made the song his own (something that was not lost on NIN's Trent Reznor once he heard the song). A video of the Cash version is here. A taste of the lyrics is below.

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
The original NIN version is here.
Anonymous Jim (mail):
I love both of those versions of "Hurt" but I find something hilarious, moving and troubling about this version.
9.2.2007 10:47am
Just Dropping By (mail):
Cash's cover of "Hurt" is one of those rare instances where the copy completely surpasses the original.
9.2.2007 11:27am
Waldensian (mail):
I cannot find words to describe the Hurt Kermit version.
9.2.2007 12:03pm
Rubber Goose (mail):
I've had American IV for a while now and have listened to the song so many times, but had never seen the video. Powerful, heartbreaking stuff. (Except, perhaps, the Christ imagery is a little over the top.)

The Kermit one I have seen before - brilliant but oh so wrong.
9.2.2007 12:15pm
CEB:
Cash's American Recordings are absolute masterpieces. I've listened to little else the past few years. And if the covers were Rubin's idea, the world owes him a debt of gratitude. Cash took songs that were pretty good and made them perfect. The original "Hurt" was whiny and had the cringeworthy "crown of shit" line; Cash fixed that. "Personal Jesus" was glib and blasphemous; Cash made it sincere. "Thirteen" was typical Danzig kitsch; Cash made it honest and credible. My one complaint about the covers is that he screwed up the lyrics to "The Mercy Seat," leaving out "down here" from the lines "In heaven His throne is made of gold / ... / Down here it's made of wood and wire."
9.2.2007 12:25pm
liberty (mail) (www):
To me, I still hear the NIN in it, it has that monotone, pounding, sucking (and sometimes whining) quality.

I was a big NIN fan in my teens. You can discern their lyrics by their rhyming scheme no matter who sings it and whether or not they emphasize and melo-dramatize.
9.2.2007 12:26pm
Dan Simon (mail) (www):
I cannot find words to describe the Hurt Kermit version.

How about, "one of those rare instances where the parody completely surpasses the original"?
9.2.2007 1:53pm
Groucho Marxism:
Since Rick Rubin's NYT article was what prompted this post, might as well bring this up here, then: Rubin may have been at the forefront of hip hop, but he is totally out of it when it comes to this "subscription" model he's advocating as the savior of the music industry. Who wants to perpetually rent music? How long would it be before subscriptions began to include advertising between songs, making them virtually the same as radio? The music industry is looking at iTunes and saying, "Yeah, they're successful, so let's do the opposite!"

Another thing that bothered me: The Gossip have been around for years (they were called a "new band" in the article), and I can't imagine a riot grrl band fronted by a fat lesbian breaking through to mainstream American success because of a record company push--though weirder things have happened, I guess.
9.2.2007 10:46pm
abu hamza:
the only think worse than johny cash music or nine inch nails music one covering the other. absolutely unlistenable.
9.4.2007 3:37pm
Nony Mouse:
I suppose I'll take listening to Cash over trying to read what you're doing to the English language.
9.5.2007 12:51pm

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